ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — Days before jury selection begins in her murder trial, Sarah Boone took the witness stand at a motions hearing as she tried to get key evidence in her case suppressed.
Sarah Boone takes the stand at motions hearing before her trial is set to start on Oct. 7. The defense has filed a motion seeking to suppress the 2-hour interrogation that Boone did, citing an incorrect reading of her Miranda rights. (Court TV)
Boone faces a life sentence if she’s convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr. Torres was found dead, zipped inside a suitcase inside the couple’s apartment after a night of drinking in Feb. 2020.
“I was very confused, very hazy,” Boone said from the witness stand at Wednesday’s hearing. “I didn’t understand the monumental amount of people that were [at the crime scene] and what they were doing. I was worried about my dogs. I was worried about my son. I was in shock. I was traumatized by the situation and trying to focus on everything going on at my home. I was hungover — I believe i was still intoxicated to a degree.”
NEW DETAILS | ‘I forgive you’: Sarah Boone’s letter to judge decries ‘corrupt’ court
Boone took the stand as she and her ninth attorney, James Owens, fought to have a two-hour recorded interrogation that Boone did with detectives at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 25, 2020, suppressed. Owens pointed to Boone’s testimony as evidence that she was coerced by detectives because she felt she had no choice but to speak to them.
A key issue regarding the recording is whether Boone was correctly read her Miranda rights, specifically the ninth question that is a part of the warning: “Having these rights in mind, do you wish to talk to [investigators] now?” Orange County Sheriff’s Detective Chelsey Koepsell testified that she read the warning directly from her card and revealed that the ninth question was never printed on the card she carries.
Sarah Boone is seen speaking to detectives in a recorded interrogation at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. (FL 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office)
Boone, who did not ask for an attorney at any point during the conversation, repeatedly insists to deputies that Torres’ death was an accident that happened while the couple was playing a game of hide-and-seek. At one point in the recording, Boone tells the detectives, “I excel at everything,” as she tries to explain her position.
But those claims run contrary to the defense that Boone’s attorney, James Owens, now says he plans to present at her trial. Owens told Judge Michael Kraynick that he plans to argue that Boone acted in self-defense the night of Torres’ death, in part because she suffers from battered spouse syndrome. Prosecutors warned they plan to file a motion in limine to ask for the defense to be stricken, citing their expert’s examination of Boone at the jail on Wednesday before the hearing.
RELATED | With time running out, chaotic Sarah Boone hearing grinds to a halt
Boone had also requested to be allowed to have professional makeup and hairstyling for her trial. While the judge was initially inclined to allow her legal team to apply makeup after she was already in the courtroom, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office stepped in and told the judge they had security concerns about the makeup, which is considered contraband at the jail. As a result, the motion was denied.
On Friday, Judge Kraynick granted Boone’s motion to appear at the trial without any shackles or restraints but denied the motion to have the interrogation tapes suppressed. In his order, Judge Kraynick said he found several of Boone’s statements regarding the timeline of events lacked credibility, and that the Miranda warning was read in compliance with both Federal and Florida law.
