A 34-year-old East Palo Alto man has been sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted last month of two counts of felony child abuse, San Mateo County prosecutors announced May 12.

Michael Junior Guevara shared custody of two children and was taking care of one of them in December 2019 when he allegedly beat the 3-year-old with a belt because he urinated in his pants while playing, according to the District Attorney's Office.

In July 2020, Guevara was dating another woman with a 3-year-old boy and she left the boy with him while she worked, then came back to find multiple bruises, scratch marks and finger marks on his body, prosecutors said.

Guevara denied hitting the child in the first case and denied any discipline other than a finger flick to the head in the second case.

A San Mateo County Superior Court jury on April 13 convicted him of the two counts of felony child abuse, and Judge Jeffrey Finigan on Wednesday sentenced him to the four-year prison term with 468 days credit for time already served, prosecutors said.

Guevara's defense attorney was not immediately available to comment on the case.