ORLANDO, Fla. — A forensic psychologist who interviewed alleged suitcase killer Sarah Boone nine times testified Wednesday she had Battered Spouse Syndrome — the mental health issue central to her defense of the second-degree murder charge in the 2020 death of her boyfriend.

Julie Harper, an expert witness called by the defense, told jurors that someone suffering from the disorder could react differently to a situation than others would due to a prior pattern of behavior in the relationship between that person and another.

“Over a period of incidents, basically the victim begins to perceive cues that would signal impending danger,” Harper said. “This case could be really subtle, just a change in tone or some small behavior that might not mean much to another person, but it has preceded other violent acts.”

Boone’s attorneys argue that past violent incidents between her and boyfriend Jorge Torres Jr., 42, caused her to perceive a threat of imminent harm differently than other people would have on the night he died. This caused Boone, 47, to act in self-defense by keeping him trapped in a zipped suitcase and hitting him with a baseball bat to prevent him from getting out.

Harper described Boone’s perception that night as a darker, trauma-induced version of the unique understanding of someone present in all close relationships. She also diagnosed Boone with post-traumatic stress disorder, which she said the syndrome is a subset of.

“Any relationship will have its own special pattern that you have, things that only your partner knows about you, or certain looks that you give that means something and you learn that over time,” she testified.

Julie Harper To establish this violent pattern to jurors, the defense has brought up the multiple times Torres was arrested for battery involving Boone.

The defense called Deputy Jessica Ramirez Delgado, with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, who responded to one incident where Boone and Torres were arrested. She recalled Boone asking why she was in trouble and saying: “Why? Because I f***ing fought back?”

Boone previously testified she lied to police after Torres was found dead in their Winter Park residence because she was afraid of being arrested. The defense now appears to be drawing a line between her previous arrest for what she said was self-defense and her later dishonesty to police.

In order to continue establishing Torres as violent, the jury was shown video taken from Boone’s cellphone of him smashing her TV with the same baseball bat she later used to keep him inside the dark teal soft-sided suitcase.

Forensic psychologist Michael Brannon, who has not directly assessed Boone, testified earlier in the day that the syndrome is a psychological change that happens with victims of abuse and trauma in terms of the way they cope and strategize to ensure safety for themselves and loved ones.

Michael Brannon Brannon previously testified in the first-degree murder trial of Marcia Thompson, a South Florida woman acquitted in July of killing her husband using Battered Spouse Syndrome as a defense. She shot him nine times — six in the back — while he lay on the couch in his underwear.

Assistant State Attorney William Jay questioned Harper and Brannon about narcissistic personality disorder — a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance.

Harper said while she didn’t diagnose Boone with it she does meets three of the nine traits used to detect it — of which at least five are required for a diagnosis of it.

Brannon said possessing traits of narcissistic personality disorder should be taken into account when assessing credibility of an individual’s testimony about history of an abusive relationship.

He also said alcohol abuse should be taken into account when Jay asked about it. On Tuesday when Boone took the stand she testified that on the Sunday in February 2020 when Torres ended up in the suitcase they spent most of the afternoon drinking and smoking cigarettes.

Jay asked Brannon if trauma in a relationship had to come from a man toward a woman — to which he said no — and if trauma could be verbal or mental instead of physical — to which he said yes.

He also raised the issue of whether violence could reasonably be expected from a person experiencing mental and verbal trauma.

“I’m not suggesting that it’s legally or morally OK, but when one intimate partner does these hypothetical emotional things — nonphysical violence things — to Partner B,” Jay said, “if Partner B has poor personal skills and coping skills and may have been consuming alcohol, is it unreasonable or unfathomable to hear that Partner B responded with physical violence?”

Jay asked Brannon if someone showing symptoms of Battered Spouse Syndrome before entering into the romantic relationship in question would affect a psychologist’s determination of whether that person suffered from it, to which Brannon said it would.

The trial continues Thursday in the Orlando courtroom before Orange County Circuit Judge Michael Kraynick. The defense is expected to rest its case in the morning, after which prosecutors plan to call their own expert psychological witness.

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