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WILKES-BARRE — City police arrested a man after a child escaped his home by jumping out a second floor window and reported years of physical abuse.
Elvis Justiniano Novoa, 31, of Woodside Drive, was arraigned Saturday night by District Judge Thomas F. Malloy Sr. in Wilkes-Barre on charges of false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of children, reckless endangerment, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $10,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police said a boy reported Novoa slapped him several times in the arms, legs, back and head with a wooden paint mixer.
The boy told police Novoa began abusing him while they were in the Dominican Republic and continued when they moved to live with his stepmother in New Jersey.
When the relationship ended, Novoa and the boy moved to Woodside Drive in Wilkes-Barre.
Police in the complaint said the boy reported Novoa would physically assault him and locked him in a bedroom for days. The boy thought about escaping but when Novoa struck him with a wooden paint mixer Saturday, the boy escaped by jumping out a second floor window avoiding surveillance cameras Novoa had installed, the complaint says.