Sarah Boone was convicted Friday by an Orange County jury of second-degree murder in the death of Jorge Torres Jr. in February 2020, according to court documents. Volume sound icon
A Florida woman accused of stuffing her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him to suffocate inside was convicted of murder on Friday, four years after what she initially described to authorities as a cover-up and drunken, it disappeared badly.
Sarah Boone was convicted by an Orange County jury of second-degree murder in the death of Jorge Torres Jr. in February 2020, according to court documents.
Torres was found dead in her Winter Park apartment after Boone said he stuffed her in a suitcase during a game of hide-and-seek, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a report to the Age. Boone said she thought it was fun and that the couple could have drinks. She said she went upstairs and passed out, and when she woke up, she realized Torres was still in the suitcase. When he opened it, Torres no longer answered.
Boone testified at her trial, telling the court that the two had been drinking outside their apartment and when she went inside, she assumed they were going to sleep, but Torres allegedly moved into a large suitcase.
“In my head, I was like, ‘Oh, man, we’re not going to sleep any time soon.’
Boone told the court: “I just zipped it up a bit and we thought it was funny and joked that it was small enough to fit in a suitcase.”
She said she “moved it a little bit” while Torres was still in the suitcase. “We were joking and laughing,” he said.
Boone said at one point the suitcase fell off and she decided to talk to him about his alleged abusive behavior. He also took out his mobile phone and started filming, he told the court.
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In the video clips, Boone allegedly taunted Torres as she pleaded for help, NBC affiliate WESH in Daytona Beach reported. He could be heard in the clip telling her it’s “for everything you’ve done for me”.
When Torres said he couldn’t breathe, Boone said, “It’s your fault. “Oh, that’s what it feels like when you suffocate me,” said the newspaper.
Boone testified that Torres’ “tone” changed while he was in the suitcase and the two began arguing.
“The things he said scared me a lot, he insulted me and threatened me,” she told the court. “It went down very quickly.”
Boone said Torres started pushing the suitcase and was afraid it was going to fall. After he managed to get a hand out of the suitcase, he hit his hand with a baseball bat until he got it back inside. She told the court she went upstairs and fell asleep. When he woke up, he assumed Torres had left the apartment, then “saw the suitcase and remembered the night before.”
The state said Boone was not in immediate danger when he refused to open the suitcase, according to WESH. Prosecutors said Boone killed her boyfriend because she believed he deserved to die because of his past actions.
She will be sentenced on December 2.
