ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The trial of Sarah Boone continued Friday. She allegedly zipped up her boyfriend in a suitcase and left him to suffocate in February 2020 at their Winter Park apartment. 

Boone is facing second-degree murder charges in the death of Jorge Torres Jr.

The jury heard witness testimony from Torres' brother, as well as Boone's ex-husband, who said that the defendant called him before she called 911 the evening of Torres' death.

According to a 2020 arrest affidavit, Boone told Orange County deputies that Torres got into the suitcase when they were playing hide-and-seek. She said they both had consumed a lot of alcohol, and she fell asleep. She said she later found Torres unresponsive and called 911.

During opening statements this week, prosecutors argued Boone had a conscious disregard for whether Torres lived or died, citing videos Boone had recorded on her phone of Torres begging for her to open the suitcase.

The initial investigation revealed two videos on Boone’s phone that depict Torres telling Boone he can’t breathe and pleading for her to let him out of the suitcase.

“I can’t f---ing breathe, seriously,” Torres says, according to the affidavit. “Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me,” Boone replies.

Later, as Torres continues to tell her he can’t breathe, Boone says, “That’s on you. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me,” the affidavit reads.

Investigators say one video shows Torres pushing on the suitcase in an attempt to get out.

“This defendant zipped Jorge Torres shut in a suitcase. She was able to do this because at the time of his death, he weighed 103 pounds. She did this with a malicious intent to punish him and then she went up to sleep and left him to take his final breaths on this Earth alone,” Prosecutor William Jay said.

Sarah Boone sitting next to her attorneys in court on Friday, Oct. 18, during opening statements in her murder trial. (Spectrum News/Benjamin Boocker)

Despite the video evidence, the defense claims Boone acted in self-defense, calling it battered spouse syndrome, and saying Torres physically abused her.

“There’s no higher calling than to right a wrong, and we’re gonna ask you to right this wrong and find Sarah Boone not guilty because she was justified in the force that she used to defend herself,” Defense Attorney James Owens said.

Officials say both had a history of violence with each other. However, Boone was also charged in 2018 with battery by strangulation (dating violence), according to the 2018 affidavit.

Boone is expected to testify in the trial.