ORLANDO, Fla. — A forensic psychiatrist called by prosecutors Thursday in the trial of accused suitcase killer Sarah Boone testified she has Battered Spouse Syndrome — the mental health issue central to her defense of the second-degree murder charge in the death of her boyfriend.

However, Dr. Tonia Werner, who interviewed Boone for 2 1/2 hours in earlier this month, said she doesn’t think it’s applicable to the facts of Torres’ death in 2020. Werner’s BSS diagnosis concurred with the defense’s own expert witness, forensic psychologist Julie Harper, who testified Wednesday.

“So you agree she suffered from Battered Spouse Syndrome?” asked Boone’s lead attorney, James Owens. “Yeah,” Werner replied.

But Werner, chief medical officer for Meridian Behavioral Health Care in Gainesville, said unlike Harper she didn’t get enough information to diagnose Boone with PTSD.

Her testimony was part of the prosecution’s rebuttal, which began after the defense rested its case earlier in the morning.

Under questioning by Assistant State Attorney Michael Jay, she said that having Battered Spouse Syndrome doesn’t necessarily mean actions taken against your partner in a relationship are justified.

The issue of the disorder is key to Boone’s defense: How past violent incidents between her and Torres, 42, caused her to perceive a threat of imminent harm differently than others would have when he died the night of Feb. 23, 2020. Defense attorneys argue this caused Boone, 47, to act in self-defense by keeping him in a zipped dark teal soft-sided suitcase and hitting him with a baseball bat to keep him from getting out.

Werner’s testimony that Boone has the syndrome was made outside the presence of jurors during an impromptu in-court deposition that resulted in Owens objecting to some of her testimony. He claimed it showed she’d changed her opinion following her initial deposition.

“I should have been notified there was going to be a change in opinions here today,” he said, “and we had an agreement that I was going to be allowed to retake the deposition and not be ambushed in the middle of the trial with a new opinion.”

Jay disagreed with Owens’ objection.

“I don’t appreciate the implications that they’re making,” he said. “What I would proffer with this witness is we spoke yesterday. I asked her if she had any change in her opinion about any of the diagnoses. She said no.”

Orange County Circuit Court Judge Michael Kraynick ruled that the prosecution’s violation was inadvertent but substantial and allowed Owens to conduct the in-court deposition of Werner. However, Owens declined to strike her earlier testimony.

After court returned from lunch recess, Owens attempted to have the entire case thrown out for prosecutorial misconduct. Kraynick rejected that on the basis it was an extreme measure and the defense already was given opportunities for an adequate remedy — including the in-court deposition.

During questioning by Jay, Werner recounted what Boone told her about the night Torres died. She said Boone told her she became angry at some point after Torres slipped into the suitcase and she zipped it up.

“They were having a good time and laughing and enjoying themselves … and she said she remembered what it felt like when he was choking her and she became angry,” she said. “She said that she shook the suitcase and that she lost control of it and it flipped. Then she said that he stuck two fingers out and her son’s baseball bat was sitting there and she picked the bat up and hit his hand.”

Werner said a history of violence in a relationship does not necessarily mean a person will develop Battered Spouse Syndrome and that everyone experiences trauma differently.

“So one individual may develop the symptoms of BSS and one individual may not under the same exact circumstances just depending on their [biological] makeup and what they’ve experienced in their background …,” she said.

A day earlier Harper, the expert witness for the defense, told jurors that someone suffering from the syndrome 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,” she 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.”

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, of which she said the syndrome is a subset.

“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.

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

The defense Wednesday 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.

Jay questioned Harper 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.

The trial continues Friday in the Orlando courtroom at the Orange County Courthouse.

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