A jury in central Florida found Sarah Boone guilty of second-degree murder after her boyfriend, Jorge Torres, died while zipped inside a suitcase. This verdict came four years after the incident, with jurors deliberating for about 90 minutes before reaching their decision.
Boone, who pleaded not guilty, initially claimed that they were playing hide-and-seek when Torres entered the suitcase on February 23, 2020.
Boone claimed that after drinking, she decided to go to sleep, believing Torres could escape the suitcase on his own. When she woke up the next morning and remembered he was inside, she found him unresponsive upon unzipping it.
However, detectives charged her with murder after discovering videos on her phone where Torres could be heard pleading for help and saying he couldn’t breathe. During her trial, Boone argued that previous violent incidents made her feel threatened, asserting that she acted in self-defense by keeping him in the suitcase. “Yeah that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone said in one of the cell phone videos from that night, according to the arrest report. “Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.”
An autopsy report said Torres had scratches on his back and neck and contusions to his shoulder, skull and forehead from blunt force trauma, as well as a cut near his busted lip.
Boone’s attorney said they were very disappointed following the verdict, while the family of Torres was emotional and declined to speak with the media. Boone had gone through several attorneys since her arrest, contributing to the delay in her trial, which lasted 10 days.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on December 2 and faces up to life in prison.
