Defendant Sarah Boone’s trial: Prosecutor Dave Cacciatore Jr. takes out the suitcase in evidence as he starts the closing arguments in the trial, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla.
Boone is accused of leaving her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home, Orlando Sentinel/Pool ORLANDO, Fla.
A woman who left her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury in central Florida.
Four years after Sarah Boone was arrested in the death of Jorge Torres, jurors took only about 90 minutes to deliver the verdict against her on Friday evening.
Boone had pleaded not guilty. Boone first said to detectives from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that she and Torres were just hiding on February 23, 2020, inside their Winter Park, Florida home when they thought it would be humorous for Torres to fit into the suitcase.
He had been drinking and she said she went to sleep, believing her boyfriend could climb out of the suitcase by himself, as per the arrest report.
The next morning she woke up and did not see Torres but she then remembered he was in the suitcase. She unzipped the suitcase to find him unresponsive, according to the arrest report.
Police arrested Boone for murder after they discovered videos on her cellular phone showing Torres struggling inside the suitcase saying he could not breathe and calling Boone’s name continuously, according to the police report.
“Yeah that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone said in one of the cellphone videos from that night, the arrest report stated.
“Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.” An autopsy revealed that Torres had scratches on his back and neck and contusions to his shoulder, skull, and forehead and a cut near his busted lip.
Boone had changed several attorneys since her arrest and her trial took 10 days. She is to be sentenced on Dec. 2 and may receive a life imprisonment as the maximum penalty.
