A 47-year-old Florida woman was on Monday, Dec. 2, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2020 murder of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr, who she sealed in a suitcase overnight until he suffocated and died while she mocked him.
Sarah Boone smiled in an Orlando courtroom after Circuit Judge Michael Kraynick sentenced the convicted killer who was found guilty of second-degree murder in October for the death of her boyfriend.
Boone had trapped Torres, 42, in a suitcase overnight and recorded a video of herself taunting him before leaving him to die.
A jury took only 90 minutes to find her guilty after a 10-day trial in which Boone claimed her boyfriend abused her.
Torres’ family packed the courtroom Monday and several relatives spoke about the impact of his death before the sentencing, pouring out their grief over his torturous demise.
“Sometimes when I look out the window, I’m waiting for him to come and say, ‘Mom, I love you,’” his mother Blanca Torres said.
One of Torres Jr.’s daughters, Anna Victoria Torres, detailed the mental health issues she has suffered since her father’s death, including chronic depression and anxiety.
She said that for the first year, she would wake up screaming and “wishing I was having a nightmare, only to wake up and remember all over again that my father is gone.”
Boone took the stand before her sentencing in a last-ditch effort to sway favor her way. She had proven to be a difficult client throughout her trial and cycled through a whopping nine attorneys, as reported by WESH.
Boone and her defense team had spent the trial arguing that Torres had been abusive and that she only killed him because she was suffering “battered spouse syndrome,” WESH reported.
“I forgive myself for falling in love with a monster. And no matter how grotesque he may become, I still loved him, hoped and forgave,” Boone said.
She alleged that Torres Jr. had “kicked, punched, spit on, r@ped, stabbed, [and] ch0ked” her throughout their relationship. Despite her accusations against him, she asked for forgiveness for his death.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. Forgive me Jorge,” she pleaded. “Forgive me Torres family.”
The February 2020 murder started during a night of drinking and a game of hide-and-seek, according to a news release from State Attorney Andrew Bain. Torres Jr. had hidden in the suitcase as part of the game. Boone then zipped the suitcase up, recorded herself taunting him as he pleaded to be released, and went to bed.
“In the videos she recorded, the victim could be heard telling the defendant he could not breathe and asking to be let out of the suitcase. Boone responded with, ‘That’s what you get,’ ‘That’s what I feel like when you cheat on me’ and other taunts,” the news release read.
Torres was dead by the following morning, having suffocated at some point in the night. Boone claimed she thought he would be able to get himself out because two of his fingers were poking out of the suitcase, according to an arrest affidavit from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
She originally pleaded not guilty to the charges and later rejected a plea offer of a 15-year sentence.
