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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A woman is accused of leaving her boyfriend for dead after he was killed. zipped into a suitcase in their home was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in central Florida.
Four years after Sarah Boone’s death arrested In Jorge Torres’ death, the jury returned a verdict against her Friday night after deliberating for about 90 minutes. Boone has pleaded not guilty.
Boone initially told Orange County Sheriff’s Office detectives that she and Torres were playing hide and seek on February 23, 2020, at their residence in Winter Park, Florida, when they thought it would be funny for Torres to sneak into a suitcase.
They had been drinking and she decided to go to bed, thinking her boyfriend would be able to climb out of the suitcase on his own, she told detectives, according to the arrest report.
When she woke up the next morning, she did not find Torres, but remembered that he was in the suitcase. She unzipped the suitcase and found him unresponsive, the arrest report states.
Detectives charged Boone with murder after they found videos on her cellphone of Torres screaming from inside a suitcase that she couldn’t breathe and repeatedly screaming Boone’s name, according to the arrest report.
During the trial, Boone testified that past violent incidents between her and Torres made her feel threatened by imminent harm and that she acted in self-defense by keeping him in the suitcase.
“Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone said in one of the cellphone videos taken that night, according to the arrest report. “Oh, this is how I feel when you cheat on me.”
The autopsy report said Torres had scratches on his back and neck, bruises to his shoulder, skull and forehead from blunt force trauma, and a cut near his split lip.
Since her arrest, Boone has had several attorneys, which contributed to the 10-day delay of her trial.
She will be sentenced on December 2 and faces life in prison.
___ Associated Press reporter Michael Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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