Florida woman found guilty of murder for leaving her boyfriend to die in a suitcase
ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman accused of leaving her boyfriend to die after he passed away zipped into a suitcase in their home was found guilty of manslaughter by a central Florida jury.
Four years after Sarah Boone was arrested in the death of Jorge Torres, jurors handed down the verdict against her on Friday evening after about 90 minutes of deliberation. Boone had pleaded not guilty.
Boone initially told Orange County Sheriff’s Office detectives that she and Torres had been playing hide and seek at their Winter Park, Florida, residence on February 23, 2020, when they thought it would be funny if Torres went to jail. suitcase.
They had been drinking and she decided to go to sleep because she thought her boyfriend could get out of the suitcase on his own, she told detectives, according to an arrest report.
When she woke up the next morning, she didn’t find Torres, but then remembered he was in the suitcase. She unzipped the suitcase and found him unresponsive, the arrest report said.
Detectives charged Boone with murder after finding videos on her cellphone that showed Torres screaming from the trunk that he couldn’t breathe and repeatedly calling Boone’s name, according to the arrest report.
During her trial, Boone testified that past violent incidents between her and Torres caused her to perceive a threat of imminent harm and that she acted in self-defense by keeping him in the suitcase.
“Yes, that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone said in one of the cellphone videos from that night, according to the arrest report. “Oh, that’s how I feel when you cheat on me.”
According to an autopsy report, Torres had scratches on his back and neck and bruises on his shoulder, skull and forehead from blunt force trauma, as well as a cut near his busted lip.
Boone had retained several attorneys since her arrest, contributing to the delay in her trial, which lasted 10 days.
She will be sentenced on December 2 and faces life in prison.
___ Associated Press reporter Michael Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.