5 Reasons Why Sarah Boone Wanted a New Trial After Her Murder Conviction

Sarah Boone’s attorney After being convicted of murdering her boyfriend, she is requesting a new trial, alleging improper judgment by the judge and misconduct by prosecutors.

Boone, 46was sentenced second degree murder inside death of boyfriend 2020Jorge Torres Jr., 42, on Oct. 25. found guilty convincing her boyfriend to crawl into a suitcase at a house in Florida, then zipping it up and refusing to take it out. When he opened the suitcase the next morning, the man was dead.

Boone faces at least 22 one and a half years in prison and possible life imprisonment. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 2.

Boone’s attorney, James Owens, filed a motion for a new trial Monday. He identified five reasons why Boone “is entitled” to a new trial.

He said the court “erred” in ruling that Boone lost his right to court-appointed counsel. Boone met with eight lawyers Before Owens took up the case, many of them resigned due to “irreconcilable differences.”

Multiple attorneys representing Boone were public defenders, prompting Orange County Circuit Judge Michael Kraynick to rule in June that he had lost the right to court-appointed counsel.

In the decision, Kraynick said, “The court has made it clear that the defendant will not allow himself to be represented by anyone.”

Owens argued that the decision violated Boone’s sixth amendment rights.

“If the court finds that the defendant is not entitled to the benefit of court-appointed counsel because of the defendant’s misconduct, the court must follow a process that protects the individual’s right to a fair trial as well as the defendant’s right to receive counsel,” Owens wrote.

Owens said the court also mistakenly rejected multiple attempts to delay the case. He attended the case 45 days before the hearing began and sought to postpone the hearing to a later date to give himself more time to prepare.

“The attorney, for whatever reason, closed his law firm to prepare for the hearing, but due to the short time frame, even with the assistance of other attorneys, he was not able to be as logistically prepared for the hearing as he would have liked, and as Ms. Boone was entitled to do,” Owens said.

The motion also mentioned the emotional outburst experienced by one of Torres’ family members during the hearing. Owens requested a mistrial after the family member vocally reacted to a video taken by Boone while Torres was trapped inside the suitcase. Kraynick denied the request.

“The court did not provide any remedial instructions or address as to whether the explosion would have adversely affected the jury’s deliberations,” Owens said.

Owens also argued that the court should not have allowed a witness to testify because the state failed to disclose that it had formed a new opinion.

He was presented to the defense by prosecutors and the rebuttal expert called by the state, Dr. Tonia said Werner did not advise Boone to change his view of whether he “perceived an imminent threat at the time of the crime.”

Finally, Owens claimed that the prosecution’s rebuttal of the defense’s closing argument was “essentially” a second closing argument for the state.

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