Florida suitcase killer Sarah Boone rolled the dice with the jury instead of taking a "strongly" advised plea deal, her defense attorney claimed days after she was convicted in the killing of her boyfriend.
Boone, 47, was "shocked" when she was found guilty of second-degree murder Friday after just 90 minutes of deliberation, according to NewsNation.
Boone's attorney James Owens said she was confident the jury would convict her of a lesser charge in connection with the death of Jorge Torres, 42, despite his own reservations.
"We talked about it in depth, and I tried not to give my opinion initially... I later suggested she strongly consider the plea," Owens told host Ashleigh Banfield Monday night.
But Boone listened to her gut and put her fate in the hands of the jury, who ultimately agreed with the state that she left Torres to die of asphyxiation in 2020 in a suitcase at her Winter Park, Florida, apartment during an inebriated game of hide-and-seek.
"I zipped him up," Boone testified last week, according to Newsweek. "We thought it was funny, and we're joking about how he was small enough to fit inside of the suitcase."
When she noticed Torres' hand coming out of the suitcase, she admitted she struck it with a baseball bat.
Boone recorded herself teasing her boyfriend when he begged her to unzip the suitcase because he claimed he could not breathe.
He was found dead the next morning, according to investigators.
"Jorge Torres was murdered in this box," prosecutor Dave Cacciatore said during closing arguments, while the defense claimed Boone's actions were a justifiable use of force and that she suffered from battered spouse syndrome, as reported by WKMG-TV.
During the trial, the prosecution hinted toward a history of abuse perpetrated by Boone by unveiling police body cam footage from a call placed sometime before Torres' death, during which he claimed Boone often "snaps out of nowhere."
"She hits me, and I'm the one who gets locked up," Torres told the responding officer, WOFL-TV reported.
Boone will be sentenced in December. She faces up to life in prison.
