In what has been termed the 'suitcase murder' trial, the courtroom saw the beginning of opening statements against Sarah Boone, who faces second-degree murder charges for the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres, in a bizarre incident from February 2020, as per reports from WFTV. Boone is accused of leaving Torres to die after locking him inside a suitcase during what she initially described as a game of hide-and-seek gone awry.
According to My News 13, Boone, who recorded videos on her phone of the victim begging for help as he was confined inside the suitcase, claimed they had been drinking heavily before the incident, and she passed out, leaving Torres trapped. The videos allegedly display Torres struggling to breathe, asserting, "I can’t f---ing breathe, seriously," to which Boone coldly replies, "Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me," revealing a tumultuous relationship history between the two.
Prosecutor William Jay emphasized Boone's apparent lack of concern for her boyfriend's life, stating, "She did this with a malicious intent to punish him and then she went up to sleep and left him to take his final breaths on this Earth alone." Contrasting with the prosecution's narrative is the defense's claim, reported by My News 13, that Boone was a battered partner acting in self-defense—a claim anchored in a reported history of mutual violence in the couple's past, including a 2018 charge against Boone for battery by strangulation.
