A Canadian man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a flight attendant during an American Airlines flight was sentenced to 6 months in prison

• A man who was charged in connection with groping a flight attendant on an American Airlines flight will serve six months in prison.
• Enio Socorro Zayas pleaded guilty to one count of assault in October.

A Canadian man who pleaded guilty to assault in connection with groping a flight attendant during an American Airlines flight in August was sentenced to six months in prison earlier this week.

Enio Socorro Zayas, 50, was sentenced in Miami federal court on Monday after he pleaded guilty to one count of assault in October, according to court documents reviewed by Insider. Zayas was charged following the August 6 flight from Cancun to Miami International Airport.

According to a criminal complaint, a short while into the flight, the flight attendant in question was walking down the plane's aisle serving passengers snacks. When she came across Zayas, seated in an aisle, she believed him to be asleep and set a packet of snacks in his lap.

As she turned her back to serve another passenger, she told authorities that she felt a hand grab the bottom of her thigh and move up toward her lower buttocks before "rubbing firmly side to side." The flight attendant immediately turned around and said "you can't do that," according to court documents. Zayas then mumbled an intelligible response, prosecutors said.

After the incident, several passengers who witnessed the groping approached the flight attendant to express disbelief and anger, according to court documents. Many told the stewardess that they would be willing to describe what had happened to law enforcement.

Once the plane landed in Miami, the flight attendant spoke to law enforcement. The investigating officer also spoke with another passenger who was sitting in a nearby aisle seat and corroborated the stewardess' account, saying she saw Zayas touch the woman's buttocks inappropriately with a "sick" expression on his face.

Nayib Hassan, an attorney for Zayas told Insider that the final sentencing was a "give-and-take" between his client and the government, saying both sides made concessions.

According to Hassan, the original charge filed against Zayas was sexual assault. The attorney told Insider that he believes the government didn't have enough evidence to prove the more serious charge, so prosecutors lowered the indictment to a misdemeanor assault charge in exchange for the six month prison sentence.

A spokesperson for American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the Justice Department.

The case comes amid a national spike in disruptive and unruly passenger behavior. In October, several flight attendants told Insider's Sarah al-Arshani that they were fed up with the growing number of violent in-flight encounters. Others have said the mounting stress has left them afraid for their safety.