A Florida woman accused of killing her boyfriend by leaving him in a zipped suitcase has written a rambling 58-page letter to a judge claiming she is ‘not the problem’ after ripping through eight defense attorneys.
Sarah Boone, 46, slammed her latest attorney, Patricia Cashman, in the unhinged letter for allegedly withholding information from her, noting she lost faith in Cashman – but insisting she did not want to have her lawyer replaced.
Boone also noted that she knows her case has gained national attention after she admitted to zipping her boyfriend Jorge Torres Jr, 42, inside a suitcase and leaving him there for hours until he died in what she has described as a game of hide-and-seek gone wrong.
She has maintained that Torres’ death was an accident after a night of drinking.
Sarah Boone, 46, wrote a 58-page letter to the judge in her case criticizing her latest attorney
Boone has admitted to zipping Jorge Torres Jr., 42, inside the suitcase in what she has described as a game of hide-and-seek
Since her arrest in February 2020, Boone burned through a series of defense attorneys – and when she appeared in court on June 7, she handed the judge the long-winded note to justify why the eighth lawyer wasn’t up to standard.
‘I’ve never experienced anyone like Ms. Cashman,’ Boone told the judge in court as she handed over the letter.
‘She will change her disposition and her attitude towards me, and it doesn’t matter how dumbed-down I am to myself to try to co-exist with her.
‘I’ve even come up with the solution to have a pretend judge in interactions with her so she would try hopefully to treat me appropriately and professionally, which she does not do.’
In her letter obtained by Court TV, Boone doubled down on these claims – insisting: ‘I AM NOT THE PROBLEM EXCEPT THAT I WANT TO, AND SHOULD BE TREATED FAIRLY WITH RESPECT, ACTING MORE PROFESSIONAL THAN THE PAID ‘I’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 40 YEARS’ PROFESSIONAL.
‘After so long in all the experience, common courtesy, customer service and listening skills should have been acquired.’
She argued that Cashman is not including her in discussions about the case, and asked ‘how much more of my case and self is being added hourly (especially after this letter gets loose) to the internet increasing the mass infection and destruction of my hopes to have a fair trial, anything fair, my side foremost, and wondering now if my attorney “drank the punch like everyone else.”‘
Boone claimed that her latest attorney, Patricia Cashman, is not including in discussions about the case
Boone then went on to admit she has walked out of meetings with Cashman ‘due to her unwarranted, uninformative, unprofessional, snotty attitude and her untruthful answers to my questions and beyond.’
She added: ‘How she treats me is extremely prejudiced, hostile and unconcerned.’
Still, Boone said her intention was not to have her attorney replaced like the others, writing: ‘I should feel secure, highly confident, proud in her “representing” my life.
‘I do not, and have said to her many times regarding her monumental disbelief in me and my case, which I believe contributes greatly to her inimical attitudes towards me.
‘I am hoping by this letter she will pick up the sword of injustice and fight alongside, not against me as so many unmotivated, overwhelmed, weak attorneys who bowed out ungracefully and crept away from the battlefield unsuccessful.’
Just four days after Boone submitted the letter, Cashman filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case and cited irreconcilable differences ‘including, but not limited to, ethical considerations,’ according to Court TV, sharing a much different version of events that the defendant portrayed.
She claimed that she had spent hours with Boone accepted collect calls, but Boone has refused to cooperate.
‘I’ve spent over 20 hours going through her questions, going through her lists,’ the attorney told the court.
‘When I try to update her with regard to the depositions that I took recently, she opted to exit the jail conference.
‘When I tried to review some things with regard to discovery as to things I wanted to make sure she was aware of, she walked out.’
She added: ‘I can’t spend all my time defending what I’m doing and at the same time be effectively preparing a case for trial.’
Boone was arrested in February 2020 after calling deputies to her home, saying Torres had died while the two were playing hide-and-seek after a night of drinking.
Cops later found videos on her phone showing the woman filming Torres pleading to be released from the suitcase
Boone was arrested in February 2020 after calling deputies to her home, saying Torres had died while the two were playing hide-and-seek after a night of drinking.
During her initial interview with a detective, Boone said she and Torres were painting pictures, completing a puzzle and drinking Woodbridge Chardonnay when they decided to play hide-and-seek.
Boone said she hid upstairs in the shower, but Torres never went up to look for her.
When she came downstairs, she says she found Torres in the living room and together they decided to have her zip up Torres in the blue suitcase, leaving two of his fingers sticking out of the zipper.
‘Sarah and Jorge were both laughing that she zipped him into the suitcase,’ the affidavit stated.
At 12.30am, Boone said she decided to go upstairs while Torres was still stuck in the suitcase, thinking that he could get himself out.
Boone got in bed and fell asleep half an hour later. She claimed neither she nor her boyfriend were drunk from the wine.
She told the detective she assumed Torres was going to get out of the bag and join her in bed, the affidavit stated.
Boone woke up the next morning and stayed in a bed for while. She said she assumed Torres was already downstairs ‘on the laptop looking for employment.’
She finally went downstairs at around 11am and could not find her boyfriend anywhere.
‘Sarah freaked out and remembered the last time she saw Jorge was when she zipped him in the suitcase,’ according to the arrest document.
She then unzipped the luggage and found Torres unresponsive inside.
Deputies who responded to the residence in the 4700 block of Frantz Lane found Torres’ lifeless body laying on the floor next to a blue suitcase.
The victim had a cut on his lip, bruising around his eye, forehead and shoulder, and nail scratches on his back and neck, according to the document.
Deputies found Torres laying on the floor next to the suitcase, with bruising around his eye, forehead and shoulder, and nail scratches on his back and neck
During the ensuing investigation, Boone gave verbal and written consent to the detective to search her phone, leading to the discovery of two videos.
The first recording, the victim is heard yelling at Boone from inside the suitcase and telling her he cannot breathe, prompting the woman to laugh at him in response.
‘Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me,’ Boone tells her boyfriend in the video, according to the affidavit.
Torres continued pleading and pushing against the fabric of the suitcase in a desperate bid to get out, telling his girlfriend he could not breathe.
‘That’s on you. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me,’ Boone told him, according to the document, adding he ‘should probably shut the f*** up.’
A second video found on Boone’s phone shows the luggage in a different position. On that recording, Torres is heard yelling Boone’s name and saying, ‘I can’t f***ing breathe.’
Boone would later say she did not remember recording the videos, which she conceded ‘looked “bad.”‘
She also reportedly contradicted her original statement to the police, blaming what happened on her and Torres’ alcohol consumption.
The case has since gained national attention, Boone admitted in her letter to the judge earlier this month – including a world map and a map of the United States, annotated to indicate the locations from which she received messages and mail.
Boone claimed the letter was necessary to provide the public with ‘insight to my continued disadvantages, hindrances, impediments I am still experiencing on top of the news, spurring my intentions to write.
‘The race to the pulpit is unfair and it is important to me that “you” are aware and understand what transpires when the news cameras are off, and we are all in between my “status” hearings,’ she wrote.
A hearing for Cashman’s motion to be removed from the case has not yet been scheduled, but Boone’s trial is set to begin on October 7.