ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A jury has been seated in the murder trial of Sarah Boone, the Orlando woman accused of letting her boyfriend die in a zipped-up suitcase.
The jury of six, with eight alternates, will hear opening statements Friday morning.
Boone, 46, was arrested in 2020 following the death of 42-year-old Jorge Torres Jr., her boyfriend, that February.
Boone, who faces a charge of second-degree murder, is accused of leaving Torres to die of asphyxiation in a zipped suitcase for up to 11 hours as he called out for her. She has pleaded not guilty.
Boone will be represented by her ninth attorney during her trial.
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Earlier this month, records show a judge denied the defense’s request in September to exclude certain evidence, specifically recorded statements that Boone made while being interviewed at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2020. In that request, the defense apparently wished to argue that Boone felt tricked by a detective who had responded to her initial 911 call.
Boone’s attorney had also requested in September to rely on “battered spouse syndrome” for the defense, claiming it was “a result of the physical and psychological abuse the defendant sustained at the hands of the alleged victim” and including the names and addresses of at least six witnesses, one of them a doctor.
A judge on Sept. 20 denied the state’s request to prevent Boone from using battered spouse syndrome in her defense and opening statements and granted a motion for Boone to submit to an examination by an expert of the state’s choosing, referencing Dillbeck v. State (Fla. 1994).
ClickOrlando.com will stream the trial live at the top of this story.
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