A Florida woman accused of suffocating her boyfriend inside a suitcase was found guilty of murder on Friday following a 10-day trial.
Sarah Boone, 46, was arrested and charged in the death of her boyfriend, 42-year-old Jorge Torres, in February 2020 in their Winter Park, Florida, apartment.
After 90 minutes of deliberation, jurors agreed on the verdict against her on Friday evening. She had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say that Boone zipped Torres inside a suitcase during a drunken game of hide-and-seek, hitting him with a baseball bat, and then leaving him overnight until he died of asphyxiation.
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Sarah Boone was found guilty of murdering Jorge Torres Jr. (Orange County Florida Prosecutor)
Graphic cellphone video of Torres struggling in the green suitcase was shown and remained central during the trial, along with the couple’s dysfunctional relationship.
In the video of Torres inside the suitcase, he can be heard saying, “Sarah, I can’t breathe, babe.”
“That’s on you,” she responds.
“Sarah, I can’t breathe,” he said again.
“That’s on you,” Boone responded.
Prosecutor Dave Cacciatore Jr. shows photos in evidence during closing arguments in defendant Sarah Boone’s trial, Friday, at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via AP, Pool)
The 911 call
On Feb. 24, 2020, at 1:01 p.m., Boone called 911 to report that her boyfriend, Torres Jr., was dead inside their apartment.
In the audio, obtained by WOFL, she is heard saying, “My boyfriend is dead.”
She told 911 dispatchers that she and her boyfriend were “playing last night and I put him in a suitcase, and we were playing.”
“A hide-and-seek kinda thing,” she said.
Prosecutor Dave Cacciatore Jr. takes out the suitcase in evidence as he begins the closing arguments in Defendant Sarah Boone’s trial, Friday, in Orlando, Fla. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via AP, Pool)
She said she “passed out” and woke up to find Torres unresponsive and not breathing in the suitcase.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “He had blood coming from his mouth. He’s purple.”
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Boone said that she attempted to give him CPR.
“Nothing happened. He’s purple,” she said.
Defendant Sarah Boone, charged with leaving her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home, talks with defense attorney James Owens before closing arguments in her trial Friday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via AP, Pool)
She is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 2, and faces up to life in prison, the Orange County State Attorney’s office said in a release.
In her defense, Boone took the stand during the trial in her own defense, claiming she had no intention of killing Torres.
She also claimed her actions were in self-defense and alleged Torres previously abused her, and she did not intend to hurt him.
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Prosecutors in Orange County disagreed, writing in a release that her testimony was “contradicted by statements she made and video evidence showing her mocking the victim as he begged to be released from the suitcase.”
Fox News Digital’s Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.
