Sarah Boone expected to take the stand in her own defense in suitcase murder trial

ORLANDO, Florida. — A Florida woman on trial for murder after her boyfriend died in a zipped suitcase during an apparently drunken game of hide-and-seek is expected to take the stand Tuesday in her own defense.

Sarah Boone, 47, faces a second-degree murder charge, accused of letting her boyfriend — Jorge Torres Jr., 42 — die of asphyxiation in a zipped suitcase in 2020 during what she called a drunken game of hide and seek. -seek.

The state will continue its case Tuesday morning, a day after jurors saw video of Boone being questioned by authorities.

“He begs you to let him out and you laugh at first and then you say, ‘No,’” a detective said in the video.

“It wasn’t intentional,” Boone responded. “I will get my hands on the Bible. It was not intentional.

Earlier in the day, the state called Dr. Sara Zydowicz, Orange County medical examiner, to the stand.

Zydowicz performed Torres’ autopsy and said she has only seen a handful of cases like this.

“Keep in mind that when it’s in (the suitcase), every time it exhales it expels carbon dioxide, so the oxygen in there is most likely diminished because it’s in a enclosed space. It doesn’t have to be no oxygen, but it is lower than what we would have in a normal room,” she said.

The state is expected to rest its case Tuesday. Defense attorneys would then present their case and Boone is expected to testify.

Orange County Circuit Judge Michael S. Kraynick was sworn in last week before a six-person jury, with eight alternates, as opening statements were presented and testimony began Friday in the trial for Boone murder.

The jury heard opening statements Friday morning, with the state claiming Boone murdered her boyfriend, while the defense said it was self-defense.

The prosecution’s opening statement was delivered by Assistant State’s Attorney William Jay, who said, “She did this with malicious intent to punish him, and then she fell asleep and made him left to take his last breath alone on this Earth. »

He also talked about Boone’s 911 call the next day.

“What you won’t hear are tears.” … You won’t hear any sorrow,” Jay said.

Prosecutors said Boone showed no respect for Torres’ life, but her lawyers claimed she was a victim of battered spouse syndrome and boxed Torres in because of prior abuse.

The state said Boone never mentioned self-defense when he was first questioned by authorities.

ClickOrlando.com will livestream the trial at the very top of this story.