A 47-year-old Floridian woman was sentenced to life in prison Monday for imprisoning her partner in a suitcase for long hours until his death.
Last October, Sarah Boone was convicted of the second-degree murder of Jorge Torres Jr. Boone even filmed herself the evening of the crime taunting the victim caught inside the suitcase and then leaving her there all night and leaving her to die of asphyxiation, CNN reported Monday.
According to the Crown’s account, the couple, under the influence of alcohol, were playing a game of hide-and-seek when they found the idea of jumping in the luggage “funny”.
The accused told investigators that Torres willingly got into the suitcase, but she made fun of her boyfriend as he begged her to let him out.
“That’s what you get. This is what I feel when you cheat on me,” says the accused.
“I can’t fucking breathe, seriously,” the victim can be heard saying in the video filed as evidence.
Sarah Boone, who abandoned her lover all night to go to bed upstairs, said she believed at the time that Torres could get himself out of the luggage as he had two fingers sticking through the zipper . When she woke up the next day, however, she found her boyfriend unconscious and contacted 911.
According to CNN, the 47-year-old attempted to portray the victim as a violent man during her defense, with her lawyers suggesting she suffered from “battered woman syndrome.”
Again on Monday, during a speech before receiving her sentence, Boone claimed that her partner had, among other things, hit, strangled, stabbed and raped her.
Present in court with other members of the family, the mother of Jorge Torres Jr. for her part gave testimony dotted with tears, affirming that the accused “had not only killed her son, but also a father, a brother and uncle.
Sarah Boone’s representatives immediately requested a new trial, claiming judicial misconduct.
