[Florida Files] The Suitcase Murder: The Trial of Sarah Boone

A woman zips her boyfriend inside a suitcase, films him as he begs for his life, taunts him as he suffocates, and then hands the phone directly to the police. The case of Sarah Boone and George Torres Jr. is one of the most disturbing crime stories in recent memory, and somehow the four-year legal circus that followed was almost as jaw-dropping as the crime itself. Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast. A true crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend, Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much. My kitchen is back in working order for the most part. I don't remember when we talked about that like a month ago. So I don't have to wash dishes outside anymore. So I'm really like looking at the brighter side of things. I still can't believe you were even doing that. I mean, what were the options? It was a lot of paper cups and paper plates, door dash, like literally every option exhausted under the sun. I took advantage of some. I guess we have to order out. I guess it's pizza. It was really best of times and worst of times. So I'm glad to be on the other side of it. And what a beautiful day we're having here in sunny Orlando ish. We are actually. Well, the weather has been very, very Florida winter. I feel like it's been doing the weird thing that it likes to do in February and March where it goes really hot for a few days. And by really hot, I mean we had a few days where it was approaching 90 degrees. And then literally within 48 hours, it was back down to the 30s overnight. So, yeah, we had a little bit of a cold snap. But today is absolutely gorgeous. It's my favorite kind of weather. It's like 60s and sunny and a little breezy. So yeah, after we record, I'm going to try and go outside and maybe take a walk and enjoy the air. I think that's a great idea. Mandy, things are a little different this week. I'm going to do a little intro for you. And what I'm going to do is read you portions of three real ads that I found from all around the world. And at the end, I want you to guess which of these three ads or part of an ad is part of an actual ad that the defendant in this story created to find a lawyer. So, okay. That was a lot of words just to say, pick which one you think has to do with this story. Okay. Ad number one, are you zealous with a side of keen? Show the world who you are with your original creativity, extraordinary expertise, and confident ingenuity. Qualifications must include team orientation and exceptional problem-solving skills. Okay. Adore number two, do you take joy in making people happy? Are you flexible with your terms of employment? Are you open-minded, clean, honest, and a hard worker? Benefits are endless. Background check required. Took a little turn there at the end, didn't it? And ad number three, I value ambition and drive in other people and the desire for self-improvement, but these things aren't requirements. I'm a very positive and outgoing person, and I most enjoy the company of positive, cheerful people. None of this is a requirement, however. Anyone can contact me. So which of those three do you think I took directly from an ad that the focus of this story sent out into the world to try to get an attorney? Let's go with number two. Oh, I'm so glad you chose that one. Number two is actually looking for a person online to feed them marshmallows by hand. And that was not right, which is where I think the background check comes through. Number three is this guy who has a website. It's called Single Guy from Adelaide. And he has made the site his own personal dating page since 2013. And it's still alive and updated as of this month. But are you zealous with a side of Keen? Has to do with the story today. No way. Yes. And Mandy, later I'm going to actually send you the ad to read live on the air. Because I know you know this story, but I purposely did not send you this. So we can hear your real-time giggles and reactions. Okay, I can't wait. All right. So in the world of true crime, there are cases that are tragic, some are really complex. And then there are cases like this one that are just so bizarre, truly so bizarre and so chillingly strange that they feel like something that could only be out of a dark and twisted movie. So the story of Sarah Boone and George Torres Jr. is very firmly in that last category, in my opinion. It is a case that starts with a story about this drunken game of hide and seek, and it ends with a woman somehow filming her boyfriend as he's suffocating to death inside of a closed suitcase, all while she is taunting him on camera, on video. So this is a story where we don't just have a killer leaving a confession. She's actually recording the murder in real time and giving this play-by-play of her crime on her own phone, which she then willingly handed over to the police. Very willingly. Very willingly. But somehow, even with all of that, the legal proceedings that followed managed to be almost as jaw-dropping as the crime itself. On the morning of February 24th, 2020, which is really odd because that was yesterday. That was one year ago yesterday. Today's February 25th, we're recording. Didn't even pay attention to that. Okay, so that was six years ago. So 42-year-old George Torres Jr. was found dead, zipped inside a blue suitcase in the Winter Park, Florida home that he shared with his girlfriend of four years, 47-year-old Sarah Boone. I remember when this case happened. I remember hearing about it. And then because this is extremely local to both of us. We both live within a half an hour of Winter Park, Florida. So we're extremely close to this. And I remember hearing about this strange case of a man being found dead inside of a suitcase. And it being this whole question of how did this happen? How did he get in there? Lots of hide and go seek questions for me. That was what I remember. For sure. Especially when you're talking about two people who are in their 40s. It's very confusing when you hear there's this hide and seek game gone wrong. You're like, what's going on here? Right. But then we never heard anything about it. And Melissa, you reminded me that COVID pretty much hit right around the same time that this story was happening. And so that's probably why it kind of faded out of the media and out of our memories. until now. And I'm very excited to revisit it because this is a very, very strange case. One of the strangest I think I've ever heard. What Sarah initially tried to sell as a tragic accident from a night of drinking quickly unraveled into a story of unimaginable cruelty, breathtaking manipulation, and a legal circus that captivated the entire country. The videos that she recorded on her phone became the centerpiece of a trial that really showed the toxicity of a relationship and the coldness of this like calculated killer. It's very, very crazy, all of it. But through it all, Sarah never stopped putting on her performances. So let's start with the two people at the center of this story, because who they were, or at least who they were perceived to be, is central to really everything that's happened. So we have George Torres Jr., who was 42 years old at the time of his death, and he was a father to several children from two previous marriages. And by all accounts from his family, he was a devoted and loving father. His ex-wife Anna and his daughters have been incredibly vocal in defending his character, remembering him not just as a father, but as their best friend. They have vehemently denied all the allegations of abuse that would later become the central point in Sarah Boone's defense, insisting that George was the true victim in the relationship and not the perpetrator. They described Sarah as being calculated, devious, and conniving, and they said she systematically isolated George from them in the months leading up to his murder. His ex-wife Anna even testified during the trial that while their own marriage had its problems, George was never physically abusive towards her. She stated that the monster Sarah described in court was completely unrecognizable to the man that they knew and loved. His family argues that Sarah's claims of abuse were a desperate and disgusting attempt to escape responsibility for her actions and to tarnish the memory of a man who could no longer defend himself. And that part is important. Of course, George can't take the stand. He can't tell his side of the story, so his family made it their mission to tell it for him. According to his family, George was a fun-loving person who enjoyed spending time with his children and had a deep passion for music. They painted a picture of a man who was trying to build a life with Sarah, but who was caught in a toxic and inescapable cycle of her doing. His daughter, Destiny, delivered a powerful impact statement at Sarah's sentencing, where she directly stared at Sarah as she talked about the immense pain and loss that her family had endured. She described how Sarah had slowly cut George off from his family, and how they felt helpless as they watched him slip away from them. It was one of the most emotionally charged moments of the case, and Sarah, who was just sitting a few feet away, was kind of nonchalant and even smiling through parts of this. Yeah, and that's something to know about Sarah. She does that a lot. She was a bartender living in the Orlando area. She had been married once before to a man named Brian, and the two had a son. Before meeting George, she had no significant criminal history, which on the surface really makes what happened next even more shocking. Her defense team built their entire case around the idea that she was a classic example of a battered woman trapped in a cycle of abuse that culminated in a tragic but justifiable act of self-preservation. Her attorneys argued that years of physical, mental, and emotional abuse had left her with PTSD and a constant sense of fear, which they claimed explained her actions on the night of George's death. But throughout the four-year legal saga, Sarah exhibited bizarre and often contradictory behavior that captivated and confused trial watchers across the country. She sent numerous rambling handwritten letters to the judge complaining about everything from her attorneys, which, by the way, she did that a lot, as well as the food in jail to her inability to access a law library. She wrote about her legal strategy, her grievances, about the unfairness of the system, all in letters that were filed into the public record and read by anyone who was following the case. And as we spoke before, her courtroom demeanor was often noted by reporters who described her as smiling and laughing at inappropriate times, and she really seemed completely detached from the gravity of the charges against her. This behavior, combined with her constant cycling of attorneys, created the portrait of a difficult and highly manipulative defendant. During a period when she represented herself, which that is another fun fact in this case, she would frequently interrupt and argue with the judge, demonstrating this complete misunderstanding of courtroom procedure while simultaneously claiming to be a victim of the system. And I would add, digging herself into a bigger hole. For sure. And what a nightmare of a person to deal with. Like as a judge or a courtroom, like actual officially official person who knows what they're doing, like that would be the most frustrating situation to ever have to deal with. It's some some person coming in that thinks they are so smart that they can just handle all this and they don't have to follow any of the rules or anything. That's wild. And I would be I mean, I just don't have the I don't have the wherewithal. I would never go into a courtroom like without representation. I'm too stupid for any of that. they would even see me if i tried they'd be like actually you're a little too stupid you need an attorney yeah so she filed motions that really went nowhere she made arguments that made no legal sense and she seemed to treat the courtroom like a stage where she was the star of the show and in a way she was just not in the way she wanted And we still have so much more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week sponsors This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar our exclusive snack hydration and coffee sponsor. IQ Bar protein bars, IQ Mix hydration mixes, and IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious, low-sugar, brain and body fuel you need to win your day. If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I'm a bit of a peanut butter connoisseur. So when I tried IQ Bar's peanut butter chip IQ Bar, I was in love. No notes. I keep one in my bag at all times. 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To get your 20% off, text MOMS to 64000. Text MOMS to 64000. That's MOMS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Ah, the Regency era. You might know it as the time when Bridgerton takes place. Or it's the time when Jane Austen wrote her books. The Regency era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. Vulgar History's new season is all about the Regency era, the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal. Listen to Vulgar History Regency era wherever you get podcasts. And now back to the episode. So before the break, we were discussing the case of Sarah Boone and George Torres Jr. and this is the case where Sarah was found to have zipped her boyfriend inside of the suitcase and filmed him as he suffocated to death, all while taunting him. So now let's talk about their relationship itself, because it's really impossible to understand this case without understanding the dynamic between Sarah and George. Public records paint a disturbing picture of a relationship saturated with mutual violence and codependency. In the four years that they were together, the police were called to their residence on multiple occasions. George was arrested four separate times for domestic battery against Sarah, and each time, Sarah alleged that George had been the aggressor. And these arrests became another central part of her defense. On paper, it looks like a clear pattern of abuse. Her defense team pointed to these arrests as clear evidence of her victimhood and argued that she was trapped in a situation that she couldn't escape. However, the prosecution had a powerful rebuttal to that argument. In a pattern that experts identify as common in abusive and codependent relationships, Sarah herself posted George's bail after every single one of those arrests. Pretty much every single time it was Sarah who bailed him out. So according to the prosecution, this complicates her argument of being a helpless victim since she was the one letting him back in. I disagree. Me too. And we've touched a lot on domestic violence in previous episodes of the podcast, even a whole month of it, where we shared a lot of different facts and everything and really learned that things like this, you cannot judge what's really going on in someone's abusive relationship based on something like that whatsoever. It doesn't give you any significant information at all. No, but that was a big deal to the prosecution. And I guess that was part of their whole strategy. So as we're saying, this narrative of Sarah as purely a passive victim is most complicated by this incident that happened in July of 2018, where both she and George were arrested for battery against each other. According to the police report, the fight began at a bar and it escalated when they returned home. Sarah told officers that George had dragged her upstairs and kicked her in the eye. George, though, had a completely different account. He alleged that Sarah had become enraged and wrapped both her hands around his throat, strangling him to the point where he couldn't breathe. He claimed he only kicked her in that moment in self-defense to break her grip. While the felony strangulation charge against Sarah was eventually dropped, the arrest stands as this crucial piece of evidence that the aggression in this relationship wasn't always one-sided. The prosecution used this incident to argue that Sarah was not a helpless victim, but an active and often instigating participant in the violence. And when you pair that with the videos that she recorded on the night of George's death, where she specifically references him choking her and cheating on her as a justification for what she's doing to him, it really paints a picture of someone who was acting more out of revenge and not fear. And they argued that she wasn't trying to survive, she was trying to make George pay. So this all leads us to the night of February 23rd, 2020. According to Sarah's initial statement to police, the night began innocently enough with drinking and games. She claimed that after sharing a bottle of wine and working on a puzzle together, she and George decided to play a game of hide-and-seek. It was during this game that she alleged that they both thought it would be funny for George to climb inside a large blue suitcase. Sarah admitted that she zipped the suitcase up but claimed she left two of his fingers sticking out of the zipper, believing that he could then free himself if he wanted to. And then she went upstairs to her bedroom, where she claimed she passed out from the alcohol. She told investigators she was so drunk that she didn't remember anything until the next morning. Immediately, I have questions because they shared a bottle of wine. So basically, there's like four glasses of wine in a bottle, right? So between two people, like there's, I do not believe that there was any way she could have been that intoxicated where she was like, I'm so drunk, I have to go up here and pass out on the bed and forget that you're zipped in a suitcase. Yeah, I don't think you have the wherewithal to say, let me make sure two fingers can stick out of here so he can get out. Right. But then you're too drunk to stay awake to make sure he gets out. Right. And it doesn't matter. That was a lie anyway. Right. She was totally lying. For sure. But Sarah told the police that she woke up late the next morning. And then after she didn't find George in their bed, she goes downstairs to look for him. And she claimed that she was aghast when she saw the suitcase and it all came flooding back. She suddenly remembers that George was inside, and so she allegedly frantically unzips it and finds him unresponsive. She said that he was purple and he was making gurgling sounds. Terrible. But her actions following this raised immediate red flags for investigators, because instead of immediately calling 911, phone records confirmed that Sarah's first call was actually to her ex-husband, Brian. And it was only after speaking with him that she did finally dial 911 to report what happened with George. When first responders arrived, George was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was quickly determined to be positional asphyxiation. And I don't know what I was expecting his cause of death to be, but that just sounds so painful in such a horrific way to die. Yeah. But an autopsy later revealed scratches on his back, a contusion on his forehead and a busted lip. And these were injuries that the prosecution argued were inconsistent with simply just being zipped up inside the suitcase. They argued that those injuries were consistent with an actual struggle, like someone was fighting desperately to get out and someone on the outside was making sure that didn't happen. The physical evidence alone told a story that contradicted Sarah's version of events. But the physical evidence was almost secondary because what investigators found on her phone was something else entirely. In her initial interrogation, Sarah was cooperative. She was calmly sticking to her hide-and-seek story. But when Mandy was saying earlier this hide-and-seek story, that's what we heard. And so for the longest time, that's all I thought happened. But then the police asked for her phone and she willingly handed it over to them. And that was a decision that basically sealed her fate. Investigators quickly discovered two videos recorded on the night of George's death that exposed her story as a complete and utter lie. The videos captured the final horrifying moments of George's life, not as a participant in some kind of game, but as a victim of a cruel and deliberate act of torture. So the audio from the clips is deeply disturbing, and it became really the prosecution's most powerful piece of evidence. The first video was recorded at 11.12 p.m. and the second at 11.23 p.m. So in the first video, George can be heard calling Sarah's name from inside the suitcase. And she responds by laughing and taunting him, saying, quote, For everything you've done to me, F you stupid, end quote. And as he begins to tell her that he can't breathe, his voice is strained and desperate, her tone actually becomes even colder. She says, Yeah, that's what you do when you choke me. referencing her version of their past fights. And he again repeats his plea telling her he can't breathe and she mockingly replies, quote, that's on you. That's what I feel like when you cheat on me, end quote. So a second video that was recorded just 11 minutes later shows his suitcase has now been flipped over and moved. And George's pleas are weaker now. His voice is fading, but Sarah continues to taunt him. So in the time between these two videos, She obviously did not call 911. She doesn't unzip the suitcase. She actually flipped it over and kept filming it. And the videos, of course, are the real smoking gun in this case, providing this real-time account of the murder narrated by the killer herself. The prosecution will later argue that those videos showed a clear intent to kill and that Sarah's actions were not the result of fear, but of a cold and calculated rage. And honestly, it would be hard to argue with that because the videos don't lie. And we still have more to get into, including the craziest trial I ever did see after a quick break to your word from this week's sponsors. Next year, I'm honestly a little on the fence about where my son will go to school. He may stay where he is, and that's great. But if we decide he needs something different, I've already decided we'll look at K-12 powered schools because apparently part of parenting is constantly reassessing everything. Yeah, just when you think you've made a decision, your kid grows, changes and keeps you extremely humble. Absolutely. And sometimes it's not that anything is wrong. It's just realizing your kid might thrive with more flexibility or a more personalized approach. K-12 offers tuition-free online accredited public schools for kindergarten through 12th grade, where students learn at their own pace with curriculum tailored to their goals, needs and interests. And it's taught by state-certified teachers trained in online education with interactive technology that keeps learning engaging. K-12 has more than 25 years of experience helping students build real skills for the future, and it's reassuring to know that if your child needs something different, that option is there. 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And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries Baby you will laugh You will cry You think about true crime in a whole new way And you also ask yourself who gave these people mics New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday, you can listen to our True Crime Rundown, where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts. And now back to the episode. Before the break, we walk through the night of February 23rd, 2020, when Sarah Boone's story of a drunken hide-and-seek game completely fell apart the moment investigators looked at her phone and found these two videos that she had recorded of her boyfriend George suffocating inside a zipped suitcase. So let's talk about the legal proceedings. This is where the story kind of takes a turn from horrifying to just completely unbelievable. So during the course of her trial, and really where we stand today, Sarah has cycled through a total of 13 different attorneys. Melissa, do you think that's normal? I don't. What was that? Wasn't there a movie called 13 Dresses or something? Or 13 Going on 30? That's actually what Sarah Boone's story is. Well, there was 27 Dresses, I think, too. You're thinking of a couple different movies. I'm just thinking it's so outrageous. It feels like it could be a movie. It should be, yeah. But the constant churn of legal representation caused significant delays, of course, and created a real spectacle in the Orange County court system. So the reason why she went through so many attorneys and why so many of them were like, no, I'm withdrawing from the case, there were various reasons, but there was a consistent theme there. And that theme was that Sarah was just an impossible client and an impossible person to work with. Her lawyers repeatedly cited irreconcilable differences, which I think is so funny because that's what you cite in a divorce. But they're like, we are done here, Sarah. Like, we are divorcing you. We're never, ever getting back together. Right. But they also would cite, you know, they just have an adversarial relationship with their own client. But one attorney, Frank Bankowitz, stated in his motion to withdraw that Sarah had subjected him to constant verbal abuse. She would call him a dud and a buffoon. And she would say that no attorney can satisfy her. which I'm just like, Sarah, think about how this is going to look on paper. This is not a good thing to say. So another one of the attorneys, Patricia Cashman, said that she ended their relationship due to ethical considerations. And she did not really elaborate any further. Each new attorney who came in had to get back up to speed on this case that had a mountain of evidence. And that, of course, takes time and causes more delays. So the case dragged on for over four years and a significant portion of that delay is directly because of Sarah and her shenanigans. She was truly her own worst enemy in the courtroom and seemed to have absolutely just no idea that that was the case. Or maybe she did and she just didn't care. I think the latter. So this pattern of behavior led to a dramatic hearing in June of 2024 where Judge Michael Kranick finally had enough. He ruled that Sarah had forfeited her right to a court-appointed attorney. He said, quote, And so Sarah was forced to represent herself. And during this period, the hearings descended into further chaos. She would frequently argue with the judge mid-hearing. She would interrupt witnesses. She was rambling. She had handwritten motions that made little to no legal sense. And she seemed to genuinely believe that she was doing a better job than any of the attorneys she fired, which tells you everything you need to know about how that was going. And it was during this time that she created her now infamous Inmate Seeks Attorney ad that we mentioned before. And this hand-drawn flyer was sent to the judge. The ad went viral almost immediately. I had a friend that sent it to me immediately and was like, have you seen this? And people could not decide whether to laugh or be mortified. Then, astonishingly, it worked. A Florida attorney named James Owens saw the story on court TV and agreed to take her case, becoming her ninth trial attorney. Which, more power to him. But Mandy, just for funsies, I'd like you to read this ad on the spot, having never prior seen this ad, so we can get your real-life reaction. I'm sending it to you now. Oh my gosh. Okay, let me make this bigger. it looks like oh gosh okay there's lots of words and they're all different sizes yep okay here we go all right inmate seeks attorney looking for a prosperous challenge ready for your close-up on national television are you zealous with a side of keen here it comes in show the world who you are with your original creativity extraordinary expertise confident ingenuity. These are all signified with stars in front of them. Of course. How else would you say that? Of course. Okay. Qualifications must include being trustworthy, honest, passion-driven, open-minded, exceptional problem-solving skills. I bet. I bet. Client inclusion at all times, team orientation, collaboration, extreme efficiency in listening, communicating, understanding, dedication to success, possessing a winning mindset, capability. That's what you want an attorney for sure. Capability of excellence and representation. Committed. Maintaining faith in the client and case with the ability to think differently. Overcome all circumstances. Does this feel impossible? Large font. Epic. Opportunity awaits. yes i yeah that's it and and then it's signed off with her name her inmate number invest in the oppressed believe you know i mean it worked for her so who are we to judge it ended up working it reminds me of like a it's written the way it looks and laid out it reminds me of like the old posters for like come to the carnival yeah oh yeah it was like a person seeking person. Like it's very seeks. Yeah, it's like a personal ad. It's just very silly. And it's like not it's so unserious, I guess you would say. I don't think we had chat GPT at the time. So I think those were her words. I think whatever keen and something. She did that. She really did that. Yeah, she did. So before the trial actually began, prosecutors offered Sarah a plea deal. If she would plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, she would receive a 15 year prison sentence. Sarah rejected that offer and chose to take her chances with a jury. And knowing that they had those videos, text messages, the autopsy, probably that was not the best choice for her to make. But her trial began in October of 2024, with her defense team being led by James Owens, arguing that she was the victim of battered spouse syndrome. And they presented a psychologist, Dr. Julie Harper, who testified that Sarah did fit the profile. She said that her history with George, the documented arrests, the cycle of violence and reconciliation, all pointed to a woman who had been conditioned to live in a state of fear. The defense's argument was essentially that, yes, she had left him in the suitcase, but she did it because she was terrified of what he would do if she let him out. The prosecution, which was led by Assistant State Attorney William Jay, came in with a very different narrative. They argued that the videos told the whole story, and that those text messages told the whole story. They said the injuries on George's body told the whole story. And they argued that this wasn't a woman acting out of fear at all. This was a woman acting out of complete revenge. They also had the receipts to prove it. The prosecution presented text messages that Sarah had sent months before George's death, where she wrote, Hide and seek, I shall. I'll get rid of him. And the defense tried to argue that that was taken out of context, but prosecutors were pretty straightforward. They said she told you what she was going to do, and then she did it. So let's talk about what the trial actually looked like day to day, because it was really a spectacle in its own right. The courtroom, as you can imagine, was absolutely packed, and Court TV was broadcasting it live. By the way, if you guys are watching the Corey Richens trial, let us know, because I am in deep. I'm still in yesterday's a little bit, but I'm just listening, and it is real, real wild. And Sarah Boone, for her part, seemed acutely aware that she had an audience. Remember, she even asked the attorney if they're ready for their national television debut. So her demeanor shifted depending on who was watching and what was being said. When witnesses testified about Georgia's character, she would sometimes roll her eyes or shake her head slightly. When her own defense witnesses were on the stand, she would nod along, leaning forward, and she was engaged. When the prosecution was presenting evidence, she would often look away or stare at the ceiling or just smile. That smile kept showing up and it kept unnerving people. And one of the more striking moments of the trial came when the prosecution had Sarah physically demonstrate how she had zipped George into the suitcase. So she stood up in the courtroom and showed the jury step by step how it happened. And this was super surreal to watch because she's on trial for murder and she's calmly demonstrating the mechanics of how she confined her boyfriend to this space where he would eventually suffocate. But her demeanor during this demonstration was completely matter of fact. There's no visible emotion, no hesitation. She just showed them like she was explaining how to fold a fitted sheep. And then Sarah took the stand. She was once again her own worst enemy and did absolutely nothing to help her case. She did testify about the years of alleged abuse that she endured at George's hands and described incidents of physical violence, emotional manipulation, and infidelity. She claimed that on the night of the murder, she was terrified that George would end her if he got out of the suitcase. And it was clear that she wanted the jury to see her as somebody who had been pushed to her absolute limit. But during her testimony, Sarah made several shocking admissions that completely undermined her defense. She admitted to zipping George in the suitcase and ignoring his pleas for help and admitted to grabbing her son's baseball bat and hitting George's hand when he tried to get out. so remember she's saying that he has two fingers worth of room to get out or whatever but did he really or i mean maybe even if he did she was still hitting his hand with a baseball bat trying to stop him from getting out and she claimed that she did this out of fear but her demeanor on the stand was actually described by reporters as being really emotionless and detached there were no tears she wasn't in any distress she really just talked about that night kind of in the same flat, you know, matter-of-fact tone that she was showing how she zipped him in the suitcase. Just really blasé. Yeah, just blasé. Like, you would talk just how you would tell any kind of a story. But the prosecution's cross-examination of Sarah was relentless. Assistant State Attorney William Jay forced Sarah to walk through the timeline of the night step by step. He pressed her on the videos, on what she said, on what she heard, on what she did and didn't do. He pressed her on those text messages. He pressed her on the fact that she called her ex-husband before she called 911. He pressed her on every single detail that didn't add up, and there were a lot of them. Sarah held her ground, but really the damage was done. Her own words, her own actions, and her own admissions had done more damage to her defense than anything the prosecution could have said. The jury also heard testimony about the 911 call itself. Investigators noted that when Sarah finally called 911, her demeanor on the call was calm, strikingly calm for someone who claimed to have discovered her boyfriend dead in a suitcase. I still don't put in a whole lot into 911 calls because I kind of feel like that who she was as a person not really hysterical in the way that we would expect on something like this But the prosecution argued that in this context given the videos given the timeline given the fact she called her ex-husband first, this calm was not the calm of shock. This was the calm of someone who knew exactly what happened and had already decided what story she was going to tell. So the defense, for their part, did everything that they could. James Owens hammered on the history of domestic violence. He emphasized the documented arrests and argued that the prosecution was just cherry picking evidence and ignoring the full picture of what Sarah had been through. He pointed out that their relationship was genuinely violent and genuinely toxic. And that was true. The public records do support that. But the prosecution's position was that even if everything the defense said about the relationship was accurate, it still didn't explain those videos. It didn't explain her taunting him or those 11 minutes between those two recordings where she said she allegedly did nothing but flip the suitcase over. And then, of course, there's the matter of that baseball bat. And when Sarah admitted on the stand that she had grabbed her son's baseball bat and hit George's hand with it when he tried to get out of the suitcase, the whole courtroom had really went quiet because it's kind of hard to frame something like that as self-defense. If you're genuinely terrified of someone, you're not going to hit their hand and keep them trapped in a suitcase. I mean, they're trapped in a suitcase. If you're terrified, you're going to run, leave and call for help. So the prosecution made sure that the jury understood fully what that detail meant. It meant that George was begging, pleading and trying to save his own life. And Sarah was actually taking steps to stop him from doing that. After a 10-day trial that was broadcast live on court TV, the jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict for second-degree murder. And really, for a case that has been going on for this long, the jury only taking 90 minutes to deliberate, obviously they felt that it was pretty clear, you know, what Sarah's intentions were. And they didn't really need to deliberate for very long. They heard everything. And we still have more to get into about what happened since Sarah's conviction after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. And now back to the episode. So before the break, Sarah's at trial. Sarah has been convicted. And now for what happens next. So at her sentencing hearing in December of 2024, Sarah was given the opportunity to address the court and George's family. And if you were expecting remorse, you were watching the wrong person. Instead, she delivered a rambling 45-minute statement that was both a plea for forgiveness and a final defiant attempt to cast herself as the victim. She submitted a 28-page letter to the court as if the judge needed a full document to understand her perspective. She began with this bizarre metaphor about kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, the idea of like taking something broken and using gold to put it back together. before launching into a long list of the abuses that she claimed to have suffered. The metaphor, as best as anyone could tell, was obviously meant to say that she was a broken person who had been put back together, but the gold that she was using to fill these cracks was apparently someone else's life. The most widely quoted line from her statement was when she declared, I forgive myself for falling in love with a monster. She said it with a kind of conviction that suggested she had just been workshopping this line for months. And she also took the opportunity to blame George's family, as well as the justice system and even social media, for her predicament. She talked about the media coverage of the case, about the way she had been portrayed, about how unfair the whole thing was. She also talked about herself. A lot. But what she did not do in any meaningful way was acknowledge what she had done to George Torres Jr. And George's family was in the courtroom for all of it. They sat there and listened to a 45-minute monologue from the woman who had killed their father, their son, their friend. And his daughter, Destiny, had already delivered her impact statement, where she was actually looking directly at Sarah as she spoke. Other family members spoke as well, describing the grief, the rage, and the helplessness of watching someone try to rewrite the story of the person they loved. And through parts of it, Sarah, again, was smiling. And at her own sentencing hearing, even, while George's family spoke about the hole in their lives that has been left due to not having him, Sarah is once again just sitting there with absolutely no emotion. Before handing down the sentence, Judge Kranick denied a motion for a new trial. He then addressed Sarah directly, noting the extreme cruelty of the crime and the complete lack of remorse that she had shown throughout these proceedings. Sarah Boone was sentenced to the maximum penalty, which was life in prison without the possibility of parole. There is no parole board or second chances for her and no future hearing for her to make her case. This is just it. And I feel like she definitely got what she deserved. Yeah. So as she was let out of the courtroom, Sarah continued to smile. And it was that same smile that unnerved reporters throughout the trial. The one that was showing up at weird moments and the smile that was basically like, I'm not going to give you the reaction that you want. But even life in prison hasn't stopped the chaos. Sarah Boone is currently appealing her conviction, and the process has been just as chaotic as her trial. She's already gone through four different appellate attorneys, which is how we end up with 13 in total. Her 10th attorney withdrew days after being appointed without explanation. The 11th one withdrew after he stopped practicing appellate work, which I kind of think he might have stopped practicing because of this case. Her 12th one withdrew after accepting a new job. I think he filed for a new job, and that's why he got out. But each change has caused further delays, pushing back the deadline for her initial brief. The pattern is exactly the same as it was during the trial. A revolving door of attorneys, each one unable to work with her, each departure just adding more time to a process that should already be moving forward. She continues to send letters from jail throughout the proceedings and even into the appeal. Some were addressed to the judge, some to the media, some were addressed to people who have been following her case online. And she seems to have this compulsion to communicate and to put her version of events into the world to make sure that anyone who was paying attention heard her side of the story. She was basically managing her own PR from a jail cell, and she was doing it poorly. Her supporters were active on social media throughout the trial and beyond. There were people who believed in her account of the abuse, who felt that the prosecution was being unfair and thought the battered woman defense deserved more weight. And of course, as we know, it's not unreasonable at all to take domestic violence seriously. Those arrests did happen and the documented history of violence was truly there. But the videos that she took were also real. And at some point, Sarah could have let George out of the suitcase or called the police and she chose not to. and she taunted him while she was doing that. The prosecution argued that the videos were the most honest thing Sarah ever produced, more honest than her statement to the police, more honest than her testimony on the stand and more honest than her 28-page letter to the court. In those videos, she just wasn't performing for anyone. She was genuinely in the moment. She had picked up her phone, pointed it at the suitcase and pressed record. And honestly, that is truly one of the hardest things to even wrap your head around, not just that she did what she did, but that she videoed it. I mean, it's truly just horrifying, though, to think about things like this happening in like our little area. I know. I know. Yeah, man, this case is really, really weird. I did have a thought, though, while we were talking about this one, when we were saying how George died from positional asphyxiation. That's not one that I feel like we hear about very often, but it did remind me of, Maybe you heard of this case. Really, really tragic case. I think it was a teenager, an older teenager. And his cause of death ended up being, I believe, positional asphyxiation. He was in a car and had leaned over the back seat and it like flipped and trapped him in a way that he could not get out. And like it was compressing his like diaphragm. And so he eventually it was like positional asphyxiation. But and nobody knew that he was stuck back there. But that's the only other time I've really ever even heard of that. But just thinking of George in that moment and that whole suitcase situation, like that is truly terrifying, especially for him if he thought that they were just having a good night and playing a game. And I mean, I know it sounds strange to say, like, why would somebody get inside of a suitcase and do it? I would do that. Like, I am literally the silliest person. Honestly, I would be like, I wonder if I can fit in the suitcase. Let's see if I can get in here and zip me up inside. But then if you didn't let me out, like, that turns scary really quickly. So I'm like, that is you. But you would never think that it would turn out that way. Those of us that are like six foot tall, I've never thought of getting into a suitcase. I'd never fit into one. But he wasn't he was very much a slight guy. He was like a little over 100, maybe 130 pounds, I think. He wasn't big. So it's not like this huge guy trying to get into it. He could fit into there. and they probably had done that before. What makes me sad is I definitely think there was abuse. There was a cycle of abuse in this. And she, you know, there are times, I don't know, once she got him in there, she could have left. She could have called the police. She could have done whatever. At that point, especially with the video showing what she was doing, you can't excuse that. Like there's just no excuse. But the whole thing is just sad. And I wish they would have broken up a long time ago and we were never here. Yes, absolutely. All right, guys. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We will be back next week. Same time, same place, new story. Have a great week. Bye. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotic's detective agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying, action-packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale. Which is good, because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? All will be revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog presents The Chaotix Case Files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. When the chaotix are on the case. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll, of course, have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.