Sarah Boone sentencing: Florida woman convicted of boyfriend's murder inside suitcase to be sentenced

Sarah Boone, the Florida woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend by locking him inside a suitcase, is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.

Boone, who rejected a 15-year plea deal ahead of her trial, now faces the possibility of serving life in prison after a six-person jury convicted her on Oct. 25, 2024, of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres. She is scheduled to be sentenced Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Orange County Court. 

Her trial attorney, James Owens, filed a motion in November requesting a new trial citing various grievances. Judge Michael Kraynick has not ruled on that motion. Owens also said Boone would likely appeal her conviction and that he would not represent her.

Below find a recap of the trial – and some of the biggest moments during the course of the investigation.

Sarah Boone Trial

Prosecutors said during the trial that a drunken game of hide-and-seek in Feb. 2020 between Boone, 47, and Torres, 45, ended as a game when Boone zipped the man inside the suitcase – and then refused to let him out, despite his pleas that he was unable to breathe. 

Videos recorded by Boone found on her cell phone showed Boone taunting Torres, accusing him of choking her and abusing her. She then went to bed, leaving him inside the suitcase, where she found him dead the next day. Torres suffocated inside that suitcase, officials said.

Content warning: The video below is disturbing and graphic, and may be difficult to watch. Viewer discretion advised.

The state argued that Boone wanted to punish Torres over what became a codependant, dysfunctional relationship and that she displayed malicious intent. The defense, however, argued that Boone loved Torres, though suffered from Battered Spouse Syndrome after years of alleged abuse.

Following the 10-day trial, it took a jury less than 90 minutes to reach a verdict. Sarah Boone was "shocked" by the verdict, according to her attorney.

In the four years before trial, Boone went through eight court-appointed lawyers, all of whom withdrew either due to difficulties with Boone or due to conflicts of interest. At one point, Boone was forced to represent herself after Judge Michael Kraynick, who presided over the trial, ruled that Boone had waived her right to additional court-appointed lawyers due to her actions.

Boone represented herself during at least one hearing, and acknowledged that she did not know what she was doing. She filed a couple of motions, and even drew her own "Inmate Seeks Attorney" ad, which is how Owens became her pro bono attorney.

The 911 call: Deadly game of 'hide-and-seek' 

On Feb. 24, 2020, at 1:01 p.m., Sarah Boone called 911 to report that her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., was dead inside their apartment in Winter Park, Florida. She told 911 dispatchers that she and Torres were playing a game of hide-and-seek the night before and during the game, both "jokingly thought it would be funny if Jorge got in the suitcase," the arrest report stated.

Boone said she and Torres were drinking wine. At some point, she went upstairs and "passed out" in her bed, the report said. She said she woke up hours later to her cell phone ringing, went downstairs, and found Torres unresponsive and not breathing in the suitcase, according to the report.

Minutes after that 911 call, the Orange County Fire Department arrived and confirmed that Torres was dead.

The cell phone videos: 'Sarah, I can't breathe, babe'

During the investigation, detectives found two videos on Sarah's iPhone. The videos appear to show Torres zipped inside the suitcase, occasionally moving, and seemingly begging Sarah to let him out. In the video, it seems Boone repeatedly taunts him. 

"Sarah, I can't breathe, babe," Torres said, according to the video.

"That's on you," she responds.

"Sarah, I can't breathe," he said again.

"That's on you," Boone responds, even laughing.

According to investigators, those videos were recorded shortly after 11 p.m., and hours before, Boone eventually called 911. The second video, according to the report, shows the suitcase in a different position – flipped over and now on the left side of the living room. 

According to the arrest report, the autopsy found that Torres had scratches on his back, a large scratch on his neck, bruising on his left shoulder, and bruises on his forehead from "blunt force trauma." He also had a cut on his lip, the report said.

The interrogation: 'It was not intentional'

On Feb. 25, 2022, Sarah Boone drove to the Orange County Sheriff's Office where she spoke with detectives for nearly two hours. During that interrogation, Boone said Torres' injuries were from falling off her son's bike or from falling or running into walls.

When detectives asked her to watch the videos found on her cell phone, Boone watched for a moment and then said she did not want to watch them. She told detectives that she thought Torres could get out of the suitcase alleging that it could be unzipped from the inside.

However, detectives questioned that because in the videos, they did not see Torres' fingers reaching out of the suitcase anywhere.

"In the video, you can't see any holes. There's nowhere in that where the zipper separation you can see a hole. If there's a hole, he's pushing on it begging you to get out. We should probably see that hole," one detective said in the interrogation.

"He essentially would have been able to get out," another detective responds.

"I did not zip it all the way. I did not zip it up all the way. This is horrific, OK? Horrific. Horrific. I don't think I'll ever be right because of this," Boone said, according to the interrogation video.

"It was not intentional. I'll put my hand on the Bible. It was not intentional. I would not do that to him nor anyone else," she later said.

"But you did," a detective responds.

"Not intentional," Boone responds, adding that she thought Torres would get out.

The disputes with lawyers: 'Inmate seeks attorney'

Sarah Boone went through several court-appointed attorneys before her trial, many of whom asked to be withdrawn from the case due to irreconcilable differences with Boone over her defense. Some exited due to conflicts of interest. 

Boone also claimed her various lawyers were not working with her, not being available, not having certain documents or evidence, and outright lying to her. At one of her pre-trial hearings, Boone submitted a 58-page handwritten letter to the judge with a list of questions, complaints, and critiques regarding how her case has allegedly been handled in the court system. 

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