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Fla. Woman found guilty of murder after boyfriend died in suitcase – NBC New York
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Fla. Woman found guilty of murder after boyfriend died in suitcase – NBC New York

A. Florida woman accused of trapping boyfriend in suitcase and leaving him there to suffocate He was found guilty of murder on Friday, four years after what he initially told authorities was a drunken hide-and-seek incident gone wrong.

Court records show Sarah Boone was found guilty of second-degree murder by an Orange County jury in the February 2020 death of Jorge Torres Jr.

Torres was found dead in their Winter Park apartment after Boone said he trapped her in a suitcase during a game of hide-and-seek, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a report at the time. Boone said he thought it was funny and the couple allegedly drank alcohol.

He said he went upstairs and passed out and when he woke up he realized Torres was still in the bag. When he unzipped himself, Torres was unresponsive.

boone testified at his trialHe told the court the pair had been drinking outside their flat and he assumed they were going to bed when he went inside, but Torres allegedly placed him in a large suitcase.

“In my head I said: ‘Oh man, we obviously won’t be able to sleep anytime soon.’ “So I walked over there and he was trying to flatten himself so I wouldn’t know he was there,” he said.

“I pulled his zipper up a little bit, we thought it was funny and we were joking about him being small enough to fit in the suitcase,” Boone told the court.

Torres said he “moved it around a little bit” while it was still in the bag.

“We were joking and laughing about it,” he said.

Boone said at one point the suitcase fell out and she decided to talk to him about his alleged abusive behavior. He also told the court he took out his mobile phone and started filming it.

In the video clips, Boone allegedly taunts NBC affiliate Torres by pleading for help WESH Daytona Beach reported. “For everything you’ve done to me,” he could be heard telling her in the clips.

When Torres said he couldn’t breathe, Boone said, “It’s your responsibility. Oh, that’s how I feel when you strangle me,” the news station reported.

Boone testified that while Torres was inside the suitcase, “his tone of voice changed” and the two began arguing.

“What he said scared me very much, the way he swore at me and threatened me, frightened me,” he said in court. “He warmed up very quickly.”

Boone said Torres began pushing against the suitcase and she was afraid it would come out. After he managed to get his hand out of the bag, he hit his hand with a baseball bat until he put the bag back inside.

He told the court he went upstairs and fell asleep. When he woke up, he thought Torres had left the apartment and then “saw the suitcase and remembered the night before.”

The state said Boone was not in imminent danger if he refused to unzip the suitcase, according to WESH. Prosecutors said Boone killed her boyfriend because she felt he deserved to die because of his past actions.

He is expected to be sentenced on December 2.

This story first appeared NBCNews.com. More from NBC News: