ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — As Sarah Boone awaits sentencing for murder, her attorney is fighting to get her a new trial by arguing the judge erred in his rulings and prosecutorial misconduct.
Sarah Boone describes Jorge Torres Jr.’s hand coming out of the suitcase during her trial at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (POOL/Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
A jury convicted Boone of second-degree murder for the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., who was found zipped up in a suitcase in the couple’s apartment after a night of drinking. Boone testified at her trial that she had acted in self-defense and that she suffers from battered spouse syndrome, while prosecutors emphasized that she had left the victim to suffocate after additionally beating the suitcase with a baseball bat.
At trial, Boone was represented by a robust defense team led by James Owens. While Torres died in Feb. 2020, Boone’s case did not go to trial for four years, in part due to delays caused by a constantly changing defense team. Eight attorneys represented Boone before Judge Michael Kraynick ruled that she had forfeited her right to an attorney and had to represent herself. In the motion for a new trial, Owens argued that the ruling violated Boone’s Sixth Amendment right to representation. Owens wrote that Boone’s behavior did not rise to the level of misconduct required to sustain the ruling and that Judge Kraynick failed to warn her that repeated “misbehavior” would result in losing her right to an attorney.