Sarah Boone47, received a life sentence in Orlando, Florida, on Monday for the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres42. Circuit Judge Michael Kraynick delivered the sentence after a jury found Boone guilty of second-degree murder on October 25 following a 10-day trial. The jury reached their verdict after only 90 minutes of deliberation.
Boone zipped Torres into a suitcase, leaving him to suffocate. The incident occurred on February 23, 2020, at their Winter Park residence, a suburb of Orlando. Boone initially told investigators they had been drinking and playing hide-and-seek. She claimed she thought Torres, who weighed about 47 kilograms, could exit the suitcase independently and fell asleep. She said she found him unresponsive the next morning.
However, cellphone videos discovered by investigators contradicted Boone’s account. The videos recorded Torres’s pleas for help from inside the suitcase, saying he couldn’t breathe and repeatedly calling Boone’s name.
Prosecutor William Jay said in a court filing: “She decided to keep (Torres) in the suitcase when he said he could not breathe in it to terrorize him. She then struck him with a baseball bat.”
“Yeah that’s what you do when you choke me. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me,” Boone said in one of the cellphone videos from that night.
Torres’s family expressed their grief during the sentencing hearing. His sister, Victoria Torres, said, “Sarah deserves to rot in jail. Sarah has caused a lifetime of pain.” Boone claimed she was a victim of domestic violence and rejected a plea deal for a 15-year sentence. During the hearing, Boone described years of alleged abuse by Torres, criticised her trial’s handling and media coverage, and asked for forgiveness. She said: “I forgive myself for falling in love with a monster. I tried breaking the spell … I never stopped loving him. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Forgive me Jorge. Forgive me Torres family.” Boone has been jailed for 58 months.
