The murder trial of Sarah Boone, accused of suffocating her boyfriend in a suitcase in February 2020, has been delayed until Oct. 14 due to Hurricane Milton.
Jury selection in the trial was scheduled to start Monday, but Judge Michael Kraynick, after consulting with prosecutors and Boone’s defense team, decided to send the prospective jurors home.
All courthouses in the Ninth Circuit Court will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.
It is the latest delay in the case, which is finally coming to trial 4 ½ years after the death of Boone’s boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., in February 2020. The case had been delayed 16 times as of February.
Boone’s lead attorney, James Owens,asked Kraynick to delay the case again after he recently assumed the role of her attorney, but was denied. Owens told the Orlando Sentinel it seems like divine intervention.
“I mean, what are the odds of a hurricane coming to Orlando right in the middle of this trial,” he said, “when the judge had set a fixed date, he was not going to change it, except exceptional circumstances?”