Sarah Boone is on trial for second-degree murder
Warning: This article contains discussion of domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
A woman allegedly left her boyfriend to die while trapped in a suitcase, despite him repeatedly telling her he ‘couldn’t breathe’.
Back on February 24, 2020, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call made by Sarah Boone who said her boyfriend, Jorge Torres, had been found deceased in a suitcase.
After officers arrived at 4748 Frantz Lane #3 in Winter Park, Florida, Boone told them she had a boozy night with her partner the night before.
At one point they were playing a game of hide-and-seek, with Torres hiding inside a blue suitcase, according to Boone.
She allegedly then went upstairs and fell asleep, before coming downstairs hours later to find Torres dead inside the suitcase.
However, according to the arrest report, the medical examiner’s office found scratches on Torres’ back and neck as well as bruises on his shoulder, skull, and forehead, labeled as ‘blunt force trauma’. His lip was also found to have a cut on it.
Two videos filmed by Boone are at the focal point of this investigation, with the now 47-year-old charged with second-degree murder in February 2020.
In one video, Torres is inside the suitcase repeatedly calling his partner’s name.
“I can’t f****** breathe, seriously,” Torres said, according to the affidavit, before Boone replied: “Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me.”
She then continued: “That’s on you. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.”
Boone’s trial is officially underway in Florida, with prosecutors arguing she had ‘malicious intent to punish him [Torres]’.
William Jay, assistant state attorney of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Court, said: “She did this with the malicious intent to punish him, and then she (went upstairs to sleep) and left him to take his final breaths on this Earth alone. How many breaths there were? We don’t know.
“Jorge Torres is dead because of this defendant’s judgment that he deserved it.”
Meanwhile, Boone has longed claimed the death of Torres was simply an accident.
But her defense changed ahead of the trial, with Boone’s attorney, James Owens, arguing his client suffered from Battered Spouse Syndrome and the death of her boyfriend was the only way out of the relationship.
“Battered woman’s syndrome is the psychological effects of living with intimate partner violence,” psychologist Lenore Walker said of the term in the 1979 book, The Battered Woman.
Speaking of Boone, James added: “She loved her man. She hated the abuse.”
Opening statements for Boone’s trial began on Friday (October 18), with proceedings expected to last three weeks.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence 24 hours a day to the national domestic violence helpline on 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) 24/7. You can find a list of local resources here.
