8 is enough: Winter Park suitcase murder suspect must represent herself after yet another attorney quits
A judge has ruled a Winter Park woman accused of suffocating her boyfriend in a zipped suitcase must represent herself during her murder trial after her eighth attorney quit.
“Although defendant’s words seemingly reveal a desire to go to trial, however, as set forth herein, her actions and inability to work with court-appointed counsel, are repeated over and over,” Circuit Court Judge Michael Kraynick wrote in his Friday ruling.
The ruling stated the court saw the repeated actions of Sarah Boone, 46, as a deliberate effort to postpone her trial.
“Allowing defendant to her eighth court-appointed attorney (ninth attorney overall) will only serve to delay the case further and encourage Defendant to persist in efforts to prevent the resolution of the case on its merits,” Kraynick continued.
Boone was arrested in February 2020 after Jorge Torres Jr. died inside a suitcase during what she told police was a game of hide-and-seek gone awry.
Police found video on Boone’s cellphone showing her taunting Torres while he repeatedly yelled that he couldn’t breathe from inside the suitcase, according to her arrest report.
She’s awaited trial on one count of second-degree murder for four years and three months. As of February, the case has been delayed 16 times, according to court records.
In granting the request Friday for withdrawal by Patricia Cashman, her latest attorney, Kraynick ruled Boone had forfeited her right to counsel and must now represent herself. He specifically cited Boone’s antagonism and hostility along with professional and personal attacks on her attorneys.
Prosecutors first raised concerns this was an intentional strategy by Boone in May 2022, when her second attorney filed a motion to quit, according to the ruling motion.
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Cashman, appointed to represent Boone in February, filed in June to withdraw — just four days after Boone sent Kraynick a handwritten 58-page letter blasting her performance.
“I want to make it known I walked out on my attorney in our last meeting due to her unwarranted, uninformative, unprofessional, snotty attitude and her untruthful answers to my questions and beyond,” Boone wrote.
The letter stated she invented a “pretend judge” during their interactions to make Cashman “calm down and ease up on her condescension, offensive demeanor and obvious pre-judgement.”
“She seems, like everyone else, not to remember I am innocent until adjudged otherwise,” Boone added.
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Boone wrote a letter to Kraynick dated June 25 — two weeks after Cashman’s motion to withdraw —stating she hadn’t been informed and was concerned about how she would recover case materials. She wrote that this apparent lack of care from Cashman had been exhibited by previous attorneys, as well.
“No one knows where my case items are, who has what, or cares to research and return now that I am no longer under their representation,” she wrote. “Shrugged shoulders, avoidance, and lies of where anything may be is all I have received when requesting from former unwilling, disingenuous attorneys.”
The court order includes arrangements for Cashman to send records from two witness depositions she oversaw to Boone at the Orange County Jail. The court ordered Cashman to provide the clerk with two boxes of discovery so they could be provided to Boone.
After her seventh attorney quit, leading to Cashman’s appointment, the court twice warned Boone another court-appointed attorney might not be provided and she would have to represent herself.
Three of her attorneys withdrew from the case citing a conflict, while one withdrew after Boone hired a different attorney. The other four, including Cashman, cited “irreconcilable differences.”
Her second attorney, Mauricio Padilla, cited an adversarial relationship with Boone. Her sixth attorney, Frank Bankowitz, said she berated him and insulted him — including calling him a buffoon. The seventh attorney, Winston Hobson, said she was taking nonviable legal positions and being unreasonable.
The trial is scheduled for Oct. 7. Kraynick has ruled it cannot be delayed further except for extraordinary circumstances which do not include hiring a new attorney, according to court records.
