After deliberation on Friday, an Orange County jury found Sarah Boone guilty of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr.
Torres Jr. died from suffocation in February 2020 after a medical examiner says he spent about 11 hours inside a small suitcase Boone zipped him in. The couple had spent the day drinking before Torres Jr. willingly and playfully got into the suitcase before bed, Boone testified on Tuesday.
Boone trapped him inside, and Torres Jr. was dead by the next morning.
Boone's nearly five-hour testimony was a long-awaited moment in the suitcase murder trial, which had been delayed numerous times before jury selection finally began on Oct. 14. Boone was frequently at odds with her lawyers; many of them stepped down or were forced out by the woman herself.
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After Boone represented herself for a short period of time, attorney James Owens took over the case , becoming the ninth person to do so. Throughout the two-week trial, Owens and the defense maintained that Boone suffers from "battered spouse syndrome," which caused her to leave Torres Jr. zipped inside the suitcase because she feared he would kill her if she let him out.
During the initial investigation, Boone told officials she had fallen asleep and forgot to free the man from the luggage, However, detectives say they uncovered videos on Boone's phone of the woman mocking Torres Jr. as he begged for help — which was inconsistent with the statements she gave.
According to an arrest affidavit , Boone can be heard on video saying things like this is "For everything you’ve done to me. [Expletive] you. Stupid.”
When Torres said he couldn't breathe, Boone replied, “That’s on you. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you choke on me,” the affidavit says.
The state maintained that Boone was not in imminent danger when she refused to let Torres Jr. out of the suitcase.
In her testimony, Boone said she was "terrified," and said she thought talking to him while he was in the suitcase would be helpful.
"I wanted him to try to understand how I felt so maybe he could progress and be a better person,” Boone said after a prosecutor asked why she didn't unzip the suitcase after Torres Jr. said he couldn't breathe.
According to the state, Boone killed Torres Jr. not because he was threatening her life at that moment but because she felt he deserved to die for his past actions, including allegedly hitting her with a curtain rod.
"There are two sides to every story," Owens said, maintaining throughout the trial that the abuse Boone suffered triggered her actions that night.
MORE: See day-by-day breakdown of Sarah Boone's trial
Two Orange County deputies were called on Wednesday by the defense, confirming that they responded to domestic calls at the couple's Winter Park home in 2019. Other witnesses called on by the defense include psychologist Dr. Julie Harper, who says she diagnosed Boone with post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
In rebuttal, the state called on the behavioral health expert who conducted a court-ordered evaluation of Boone, Dr. Tonia Werner. According to Werner, the woman did not give her enough information while in jail on Oct. 2 to diagnose her with PTSD, adding that she had a different opinion on Boone's actions.
“The way that she described the incident to me and that they were laughing and having a good time and didn’t play into relaying any kind of triggers or trauma,” Dr. Werner testified.
The closing arguments in the trial wrapped up on Friday. Boone is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 2.