Woman accused of zipping up boyfriend in suitcase and leaving him to suffocate found guilty of murder

A A Florida woman is accused of zipping up her boyfriend in a suitcase and leaving him there to suffocate. was found guilty of murder Friday, four years after what she initially described to authorities as a case of a drunken game of hide-and-seek gone wrong.

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

Torres was found dead in their Winter Park apartment after Boone said she stuffed him into a suitcase during a game of hide and seek, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. Boone said she thought it was funny and that the couple allegedly drank alcohol.

She said she went upstairs and blacked out, and when she woke up, she realized Torres was still in the suitcase. When she unzipped, Torres didn’t respond.

Boone testified at trialtelling the court that the two had been drinking outside their apartment and when she went inside, she assumed they were going to bed, but Torres allegedly settled into a large suitcase.

“In my mind I said, ‘Oh man, we’re clearly not going to sleep anytime soon.’ And I walked over and he was trying to lie down so I couldn’t tell he was there,” she said.

Boon told the court: “I just zipped it up, we thought it was funny and joked that it was small enough to fit in a suitcase.”

She said she “moved it a little bit” while Torres was still in the suitcase.

“We joked and laughed about it,” she said.

Boone said at some point the suitcase fell and she decided to confront him about his alleged abusive behavior. She also pulled out her mobile phone and began filming videos, she told the court.

In the videos, Boone allegedly taunted Torres as he begged for help, the NBC affiliate reported. VES Daytona Beach reports. In the clips, she could be heard telling him: “For everything you did to me.”

When Torres said he couldn’t breathe, Boone said, “It’s your fault. Oh, this is how I feel when you choke me,” the news channel reported.

Boone testified that Torres’ “tone changed” while he was in the suitcase and the two began arguing.

“What he said really scared me, he swore and threatened me,” she told the court. “It heated up very quickly.”

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

She told the court she went upstairs and fell asleep. When she woke up, she assumed Torres had left the apartment and then “saw the suitcase and remembered the previous night.”

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

She is expected to be sentenced on December 2.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.