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A Florida woman has been convicted of second-degree murder following a 2020 incident in which she zipped her boyfriend into a suitcase causing his death. The jury reached the verdict on October 25 after a trial revealed the circumstances surrounding the case.
Sarah Boone, now 47, said her boyfriend, 42-year-old Jorge Torres Jr, was trapped in the suitcase during a hide-and-seek game. The couple had been drinking wine and working on puzzles in their apartment. According to an arrest affidavit from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the couple believed it would be “funny” to fit inside the suitcase as part of their game, reported CNN.
When Boone zipped Torres into the blue suitcase, she noticed two of his fingers protruding from the opening and assumed he would free himself. After zipping him inside, she went to bed, expecting him to join her.
Upon waking, Boone found Torres unresponsive inside the suitcase and immediately called 911. When deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrived, they discovered Torres lying near the front door of the residence, next to the blue suitcase. Boone initially said she did not believe he was trapped inside when she left him there.
A release from the attorney’s office said, “Evidence presented during the trial included videos found on Boone’s phone where Torres could be heard frantically pleading to be released while Boone laughed and rebuffed him several times. In the videos she recorded, the victim could be heard telling the defendant he could not breathe and asking to be let out of the suitcase. Boone responded with, ‘That’s what you get. ‘That’s what I feel like when you cheat on me,’ and other taunts.”
During the trial, Boone took the stand in her own defence, saying she had no intention of killing Torres. She claimed her actions were in self-defence, alleging Torres previously abused her and insisting she did not mean to cause him harm. But her testimony was undermined by her earlier statements and video evidence that showed her mocking the victim as he pleaded to be freed from the suitcase.
After a 10-day trial, the jury found Boone guilty of second-degree murder.
Describing her reaction, Boone’s attorney told WESH, an affiliate of CNN, “Just shock. She’s shocked, you know. She felt like, you know, she had a defence, as you know. We’re obviously very disappointed.”
For Torres’s family members, the verdict provided some sense of closure, said state attorneys. “I think they were finally just happy to see this case go to trial and be able to put this one in the books,” said an attorney.
Boone is set to receive her sentence on December 2, according to the statement from the attorney’s office.
