A Florida woman who was sentenced to life in prison, four years after her boyfriend was found dead after being abandoned in a suitcase following a drunken game of hide-and-seek, has described the experience of her time in jail to a court.
Sarah Boone, 47, was convicted in October on charges of second-degree murder for the death of her 42-year-old boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., in 2020.
Judge Michael Kraynick, a Florida Circuit Court judge in Orlando, sentenced Boone to life in prison at a hearing on Monday. She previously rejected a plea deal that would have seen her serve a 15-year sentence on reduced charges of manslaughter.
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But moments before her sentence was handed down, Boone reflected on the more than four years she has spent in jail since her arrest. “Everyone supposes that this is one of the worst experiences of my life, and it’s actually been one of my greatest,” Boone told the court. “If I were not beaten to death, I was going to work myself to death on the outside, and I never had time to get back into my Bible and to pray and to be with the Lord.”
According to State’s Attorney Andrew A. Bain’s office, Boone and Torres spent the night drinking together before his death. Torres climbed into the suitcase on his own accord, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, but Boone zipped the valise shut.
Boone woke up to find Torres unresponsive in the suitcase and called 911. In an initial police report, Boone said she went to bed after leaving her boyfriend in the suitcase, thinking he could escape on his own.
However, investigators later found videos recorded on Boone’s cellphone taunting him while stuck inside the suitcase. In the disturbing footage, Torres can be heard crying “help” and insisting he couldn’t breathe, while Boone laughed and hurled insults at her boyfriend—comparing his suffocation to how she felt when he choked her.
Investigators also identified other injuries on Torres not related to his suffocation inside the suitcase. Boone later testified that she had beat Torres with a baseball bat while he was still inside the suitcase, fearing he would escape.
In a written statement given before the court, Boone asked for forgiveness from her now-deceased partner, his family, and the judge—but also detailed physical abuse and threats she endured from Torres.
Boone previously testified that her actions were in self-defense, claiming she was the victim of previous domestic violence from her boyfriend. However, the jury took only 90 minutes to return a guilty verdict, the Associated Press reported.
But Boone also insisted she still loved the partner she was found guilty of killing. “I think of him every day and still speak to him when alone on the rec yard,” she said. “I ask his forgiveness and that he looks for me at gates of heaven so I can tell him how sorry I am, endlessly, and that I never stopped loving him.”
