Hurricane Milton Delays Sarah Boone ‘Suitcase’ Trial in Florida

The murder trial for Sarah Boone, accused of killing her boyfriend by trapping him in a suitcase, has been delayed yet again—this time due to Hurricane Milton.
Boone, 46, is facing a second-degree murder charge related to the 2020 death of her boyfriend Jorge Torres Jr., 42. She is accused of convincing Torres to get inside a suitcase at a home in Florida, zipping it shut and refusing to let him out. When she opened the suitcase the next morning, he was dead.
The case has been delayed 16 times since Boone’s arrest in February of 2020. Boone has been represented by nine different lawyers during that time, with several resigning due to “irreconcilable differences.”
Seven of those lawyers were public defenders, which led to Orange County Circuit Judge Michael S. Kraynick revoking Boone’s right to court-appointed legal counsel in June.
The trial was scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday, but Kraynick sent prospective jurors home after consulting with the prosecution and defense. Jury selection is scheduled to resume on October 14.
Boone’s ninth and current attorney, James Owens, had previously requested a delay in the trial but was denied. He told the Orlando Sentinel that the hurricane seems like divine intervention.
“I mean, what are the odds of a hurricane coming to Orlando right in the middle of this trial when the judge had set a fixed date, he was not going to change it, except exceptional circumstances?” Owens said.
Kraynick previously stated that the trial will not be delayed “for any reason, except by extraordinarily good cause and such extraordinarily good cause shall not include retention of counsel by the defendant.”
All courthouses in the Ninth Circuit Court will be closed Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the storm.
Boone rejected a plea deal from prosecutors that would have reduced her potential sentence to 15 years if she pleaded guilty to manslaughter. If Boone is convicted of murder, the minimum sentence is 22-and-a-half years.
Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm on Monday, with sustained winds of 175 mph. The storm is expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday.
Owens made his first appearance as Boone’s lawyer in September. He responded to a handwritten flyer for a new lawyer made by Boone from the Orange County Jail.
“Sarah Boone needed a lawyer. I mean, I can’t imagine our system, the case is an aberration,” Owens told reporters after his first appearance.
Prior to that, Boone represented herself at several hearings. She said she was “thoroughly confused” at one of the proceedings.
“If I’m pro se and my own attorney, shouldn’t I be included in all of this, so I know what’s going on and not a surprise hearing like it is again for the second time?” Boone said at the hearing.
Kraynick argued that Boone had placed herself in this situation.
“Ma’am, again, this is why there were benefits to being represented by counsel,” he said. “The court has already identified in its 16-page order the reasons for why you no longer have those benefits. It makes things exceptionally more difficult, as I explained to you in communicating with the court and communicating with the State Attorney’s Office.”
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