CHILLING video shows the moment suspected killer Sarah Boone’s boyfriend cries “I can’t breathe” after he was allegedly locked inside a suitcase by his lover and left to die.
In the sickening video, Jorge Torres Jr., 42, pleads for help while Boone laughs and taunts him as the suitcase shifts on the floor.
Torres was found dead inside the suitcase at the apartment the couple shared in Winter Park, Florida, three miles north of Orlando on the morning of February 24, 2020.
On Monday, jury selection begins as Boone, now 46, prepares to stand trial for second-degree murder for her boyfriend’s death.
Disturbing video has been released showing Torres’ final moments as he shouted, “I can’t breathe,” after allegedly being shut inside the suitcase during a drunken game of hide-and-seek.
Boone told Orange County Sheriff’s Office that the couple had shared a single bottle of wine before they both thought it would be funny to put him in the suitcase.
Early in the video, Boone says, “For everything you’ve done to me, f**k you.”
She laughs and calls Torres “stupid,” at one point responding flippantly to her cries of “Sarah” by saying, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
Boone continues to film as Torres says weakly, “Sarah, I can’t f**king breathe,” while the suitcase moves.
“Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone responds.
Boone also said, “That’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.”
She also tells him, “That’s on you,” and “You should probably shut the f**k up.”
A second clip shows the suitcase the other way up with a pair of flip-flops beside it.
Boone filmed the disturbing incident on her phone, after which she told investigators she went up to bed and fell asleep, leaving Torres inside the suitcase.
She claimed that Torres willingly got into the suitcase while the couple were playing after a night of drinking.
Boone also said that she didn’t remember recording the two videos.
She said that she woke up hours later to her cellphone ringing, and on unzipping the suitcase, found Torres unresponsive and not breathing.
Boone called her ex-husband to the house before calling the police.
The ex-husband told deputies Boone had a drinking problem and that her and Torres had a troubled relationship.
“My boyfriend is dead,” she said in a 911 call.
“I came downstairs and I’m like, oh he’s in the suitcase still,” she told investigators. “That’s when I found him and took him out.”
Her attorney James Owens is the ninth person to represent her in this case, after Judge Michael Kraynick ruled she had forfeited her right to an attorney.
It follows eight other attorneys withdrawing from the case citing Boone’s behavior as an issue.
SARAH BOONE ON TRIAL
SARAH Boone is standing trial for second-degree murder for the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr. in 2020.
Boone was arrested on February 25, 2020, by police in Orange County, Florida, for allegedly zipping her boyfriend in a suitcase and leaving him to die.
She admitted to zipping him inside the suitcase but told investigators she believed he could free himself.
Boone filmed Torres inside the suitcase pleading to get out.
She is going on trial for second degree murder charges, more than a year after her originally-scheduled trial date.
The trial has had multiple delays due to public defenders withdrawing from representing Boone.
She was initially due to stand trial in April 2023 before that was pushed back to July. This was then pushed back to early 2024 and then to October.
Boone is planning to use the battered spouse syndrome in her defense.
Owens has filed an intent to use battered spouse syndrome as a defense in Boone’s case, citing years of arrests and domestic abuse in her relationship with Torres.
In July 2018, both Boone and Torres were arrested, Boone for battery by strangulation against Torres.
However, that charge was dismissed.
Torres was arrested four times for battery against Boone, but each time Boone bailed him out of jail.
If found guilty, Boone faces life in prison.
On September 20, a judge denied the state’s request to prevent Boone from using battered spouse syndrome in her defense.
The defense will claim that the killing was “a result of the physical and psychological abuse the defendant sustained at the hands of the alleged victim.
In addition, at least six witnesses are named in the defense, including a doctor.
Previously, a defense lawyer told The U.S. Sun how Boone will have to gain sympathy from the jury and take the stand in her trial if she wishes to use the battered spouse defense.
Mark NeJame, a lawyer from NeJame Law with no affiliation to Boone’s case, said that she will “have to be able to show that she was a victim of this ongoing cycle of violence.”
He added, “Since there are not any third-party witnesses to really tell that story, it’s gonna rely on her.”
Nejame said that the fact Boone filmed the alleged murder undoubtedly “hurts” her case.
“If she presents herself as other than sympathetic then it’s entirely possible that that makes that defense all the more difficult,” he said.
NeJame said Boone’s video will be the most crucial piece of evidence in her case.
“Unfortunately for her, she’s got it on tape looking pretty callous about all this,” he said. “So she’s gotta be able to explain it.”
Instead, the defense lawyer said Boone will have to show she was helpless before leaving Torres to die in the suitcase.
Her defense will not only have to show an ongoing cycle of abuse, “but also that she felt helpless and that killing the other person was the only way out,” NeJame said.
Ahead of her trial, a judge denied the defense’s request to exclude recorded statements Boone made while being interviewed at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2020.
The judge rejected the defense’s claim that Boone felt tricked by the detective who had responded to her initial 911 call.
They accused the detective of coercing Boone, and not reading a complete Miranda warning to her.
The judge deemed that the Miranda warning read to Boone was sound, and included an audio transcript of the conversation.
