ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — Days after she was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her boyfriend, Sarah Boone sent a lengthy letter to the judge, offering her forgiveness to everyone involved in the case.
Sarah Boone is sworn in during her trial for killing her boyfriend at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (POOL/Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Boone, 47, was sentenced by Judge Michael Kraynick to life in prison on Dec. 2 after a jury found her guilty of killing Jorge Torres, Jr. by zipping him into a suitcase, beating the suitcase with a bat and leaving him to die overnight.
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A 28-page letter dated Dec. 6 is now part of Boone’s court file after she sent it to Judge Kraynick. In the letter, addressed to “Mr. Michael Kraynick,” Boone says she is enclosing the complete statement she wrote, which she only partially read at her sentencing.
“By my reserving particular parts of this very true and meaningful statement, I was hoping to have been graced with your forgiveness, understanding, and consideration in any level or degree. For me unfortunately, and regardless of whom I had speak on my behalf, or the number of, your ignorant mind was already made up. … I have also added to my statement as a result of your blindness and impartiality, foremost your disgust in me as being an outspoken woman, determined defendant, and proactive client, hoping the next time you put on your listening ears, and do not unfairly oppress the next as you have so blatantly done me.”
The letter moves through different players in the case, offering forgiveness and criticism of each. Boone accused Judge Kraynick of “clear error and full-blown, unfair bias” before turning her attention to the prosecutors. “I forgive your antics, theatricals, ludicrous comments to make sure the world got their money’s worth while watching with ignorant pitchforks and burning torches, hoping for the best for you which is my worst. Instead of ‘dropping the mike,’ Mr. Jay, you dropped the bat.”
This is not the first time Boone has written a letter to the court. In June, she appeared in court with a 58-page handwritten missive that expressed her continuing frustrations with one of her attorneys.
Three of Boone’s former attorneys, Winston Hobson, Frank Bankowitz, and Patricia Cashman, were all granted forgiveness, but Boone questioned why they were given $15,000 in payment for their work on the case. The letter questioned why she was not included “to receive my $15,000 share I worked for when Judge Kraynick forced me to be my own attorney, to represent myself pro se.” Boone briefly represented herself after Judge Kraynick ruled she had forfeited her right to an attorney through her behavior.
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Judge Kraynick denied Boone’s motion for a new trial at her sentencing, but in her letter, Boone said she is “excited” for her appeal, which she says will speak for itself, and to be free from “your corrupt court, and free from your malevolent judicial grip.”
Boone says she continues to think about Torres and speaks to him while she is alone in the rec yard. “I ask his forgiveness and that he looks for me at the gates of Heaven so I can tell him how sorry I am, endlessly and that I never stopped loving him. … Jorge haunts me. He is everywhere.”
>>Read Sarah Boone’s letter to Judge Kraynick<<
Boone remains in the Orange County jail, awaiting her transfer to state prison to serve out her sentence.
