Sarah Boone Gets Put in Her Place

What this episode is about

A detailed recount of Sarah Boone’s trial, focusing on the prosecution of a second-degree murder charge, the defense by a private, out-of-town legal team led by James Owens, and the defense strategy centered on battered-spouse claims, culminating in a guilty verdict after a brief jury deliberation.

Key takeaways

• Plea-bargain vs. bravado: a five-alarm misread of risk, reward, and public spotlight.
• Lawyer ego vs. client safety: starry-eyed defense hype may override practical leverage and pleawise counsel.
• One-hour verdict shocker: juries can punish defiance of reasonable pleas even when defense feels heroic.
• Unethical optics: chasing fame can blur duty, turning strategic decisions into egotistical theater.
• Bottom line irony: downplaying the plea’s strategic value cost years—proof that pragmatism beats bravado.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Sarah Boone (Host) · 4 min speaking
• James Owens (Guest) · 3 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Cal Owens, Plea Deal, Harold Boon, Trial
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Cal Owens, Battered Spouse, Harold Boon, Self-defense
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Harold Boon, Plea Deal, George (full name not provided), The Battered Spouse Experts
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Battered Spouse, Harold Boon, Self-defense
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Self-defense, Nikolai Mew
6. 25:00 – 26:50: Harold Boon

Notable quotes from "Sarah Boone Gets Put in Her Place"

• Hey folks welcome back so today we got to talk about the testimony and trial of old Sarah Boon telling me it's been five years coming it finally happened and in a lot of ways it was even dumber and more delusional than I thought it would be.

  about Harold Boon · at 0:05

• And a half ago James Owens did an interview where he said he had been following the Sarah Boon Saga on the internet for years just like all of us he said he saw Sarah's viral…

  about The Sarah Boon Saga · at 1:02

• Been honing my whole career on the biggest stage long after I'm gone there's going to be documentaries about this case there's going to be books written about this case there's…

  about documentaries · at 2:56

• Heard of no joke in my life that they offered her if you plead guilty to manslaughter will do 15 years but she's already done five and so really the deal technically was if you…

  about manslaughter · at 3:41

• Deal consciously or subconsciously CES from James Owens thinking well if we take the deal I'm not going to be able to show off my craft on the biggest stage and I'm probably…

  about Plea Deal · at 4:42

• Filing a motion that until that overt Act is established they don't get to talk about battered spouse or self-defense or assassinate George's character because the only chance…

  about Battered Spouse · at 7:40

• With his own knife he turned his story into a '90s even Seagal movie and just none of that happened so if you're going to go with self-defense it's a major sign that it's not…

  about Self-defense · at 23:25

• Say all of the things again that you said and she's going I don't remember and then it crescendoed to did you do anything to help George out of the predicament that you zipped him up in and she tried to say something real quick.

  about George (full name not provided) · at 24:42

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Harold Boon — Person · Central defendant discussed / core subject · 10 mentions · first at 0:11
  Her testimony, defense strategy, and conviction are the episode’s main focus, including her decision to reject a plea deal and attempt a battered-spouse/self-defense narrative.
• Cal Owens — Person · Referenced defense attorney / lead lawyer · 10 mentions · first at 0:53
  Presented as Sarah Boon’s lead private attorney who assembled the defense team, pushed a battered-spouse/self-defense strategy, and advised (or failed to advise) on a plea deal.
  Lawyers so how Sarah wound up with a full team of out of town private sector lawyers The Story Goes James Owens her lead lawyer that owns the law practice that all of those…
• George (full name not provided) — Person · Referenced victim / subject of character attacks · 2 mentions · first at 7:49
  Discussed as the person Sarah Boon allegedly killed; the defense sought to establish an 'overt act' to introduce battered-spouse/self-defense and to attack his character.
• Nikolai Mew — Person · Referenced comparator defendant · 2 mentions · first at 22:59
  Used as an analogy for how self-defense claims can fail when a defendant embellishes or changes their story to fit a justification narrative.
  Trial for he was trying to go with self-defense he stabbed like a young person in a river but he was try he had to add to the story to try to make it self-defense they stole my…

Companies & orgs

• The Battered Spouse Experts — Organization · Referenced expert witnesses group · 2 mentions · first at 7:19
  They are described as the experts Sarah Boon told her story to, shaping what the prosecution anticipated and prompting a motion to limit battered-spouse/self-defense evidence.
  We think Sarah is going with CU that's what she told The Battered spouse experts for The Battered spouse experts to analyze for when they go up on the stand so we know the…
• Law Practice — Company · Referenced employer/firm of defense team · 2 mentions · first at 0:55
  Identified as the firm owned by James Owens and employing the out-of-town private lawyers who represented Sarah Boon.
  Full team of out of town private sector lawyers The Story Goes James Owens her lead lawyer that owns the law practice that all of those lawyers work at they all work for James…

Concepts & topics

• Plea Deal — Concept · Key decision point / strategic concept · 6 mentions · first at 2:42
  The rejected plea deal is portrayed as a pivotal mistake that dramatically increased sentencing exposure and frames criticism of counsel’s motivations.
• Second Degree Murder — Concept · Conviction / central legal outcome · 2 mentions · first at 4:23
  The jury’s guilty verdict on second-degree murder is presented as the decisive outcome and the benchmark against which the plea deal and defense strategy are judged.
  Where we want him fast forward a quick two week trial later and the jury comes back in less than an hour with a guilty of second degree murder now she's facing a minimum of 22…
• Battered Spouse — Concept · Core defense framing / expert-supported concept · 8 mentions · first at 2:16
  Discussed as the narrative the defense wanted to introduce via experts, requiring an 'overt act' foundation and used to justify character evidence against George.
• Self-defense — Concept · Core legal theory debated · 8 mentions · first at 2:19
  Framed as a central defense theory attempted by Sarah Boon’s team, contingent on establishing an 'overt act' and undermined by inconsistencies and video evidence.
• manslaughter — Concept · Plea deal charge / alternative outcome · 2 mentions · first at 3:45
  Used to illustrate the stakes: the state allegedly offered a manslaughter plea (15 years with time served) that was rejected, leading to a worse outcome.
• The Sarah Boon Saga — Concept · Framing concept / internet-followed case narrative · 2 mentions · first at 1:06
  Used to describe the long-running public/internet attention around the case, including James Owens claiming he followed it for years.

Places & events

• Trial — Event · Core event discussed · 2 mentions · first at 0:25
  The episode recounts the two-week trial, key evidentiary/legal rulings (overt act), Sarah Boon’s testimony, and the jury’s rapid guilty verdict.
  Delusional than I thought it would be you probably saw but last Friday night around 8:50 p.m. after deliberating for less than an hour the jury returned a guilty verdict for the most serious charge available of second degree.

Media & podcasts

• documentaries — Media · Referenced future media coverage · 1 mention · first at 3:02
  Mentioned as a likely outcome of the case’s notoriety and as part of the critique that counsel may have been motivated by fame.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:05 hey folks welcome back so today we got to talk about the testimony and trial of old Sarah Boon telling me it's been five years coming it finally happened and in a lot of ways it was even dumber and more delusional than I thought it would be you probably saw but last Friday night around 8:50 p.m. after deliberating for less than an hour the jury returned a guilty verdict for the most serious charge available of second degree Mur before I get into talking about what Sarah actually set up on the stand and how that all went I want to set things up real quick by talking about her lawyers so how Sarah wound up with a full team of out of town private sector lawyers The Story Goes James Owens her lead lawyer that owns the law practice that all of those lawyers work at they all work for James Owens about a month and a half ago James Owens did an interview where he said he had been following the Sarah Boon Saga on the

1:08 internet for years just like all of us he said he saw Sarah's viral advertisement for a lawyer the one that looks like an invitation to a ball at the mental hospital so he sees this ad and he said something like he saw Sarah sitting alone at the defense table struggling being unprepared and he thought to himself nobody deserves to face a murder charge alone he said it's unheard of and he said something like if the public defenders are unwilling to work with someone then it's the private sector's job to step up and step in heroically and bite the bullet and save the day he said he got in contact with Sarah and he went into the jail to meet with her for the first time and on that first meeting he said he didn't even talk he just let Sarah talk and he listened for four hours straight imagine listening to that monologue Sarah is this about to wrap up anytime soon I got to go to the bathroom

2:09 and after that first 4-Hour long meeting they came to the conclusion of Sarah I think we got a case we can do this we're going to go battered spouse we're going to hit him with self-defense we can do this Sarah and the next time or the first time they appeared together at a pre-trial hearing you could tell they were both on a high I think Sarah was buzzing from Look at me now everybody all of those dud public defenders that didn't have a winning mindset that thought I was crazy for not taking a plea deal and going with battered spouse self-defense well look at me now and I think James Owens was on a high of I'm gonna be a famous or at least Infamous lawyer I think he got stars in his eyes I get to show off my craft that I've been honing my whole career on the biggest stage long after I'm gone there's going to be documentaries about this case there's going to be books written about this case there's going to

3:08 be iconic images of me passionately arguing Sarah's case and all of the papers maybe when I go to the diner people at the booths will recognize me they'll whisper hey there's that famous lawyer yeah the Sarah Boon lawyer the sloppy suitcase one I watched the whole trial that's him though and I think I think James Owens got stars in his eyes and where that can become unethical and possibly even Sinister is right before the trial started the state offered Sarah the greatest plea deal I've ever heard of no joke in my life that they offered her if you plead guilty to manslaughter will do 15 years but she's already done five and so really the deal technically was if you plead guilty to manslaughter you'll probably do another five seven eight years and then you'll be out well James Owens and Sarah Boone riding their High confidently turned it down you can picture them in the back snickering about it of course we're not going to

4:12 take this deal Sarah we got them on the Run they're scared we got him right where we want him fast forward a quick two week trial later and the jury comes back in less than an hour with a guilty of second degree murder now she's facing a minimum of 22 years that's a embarrassing slap in the face to both James Owens and Sarah because if even 1% of the decision not to take that plea deal consciously or subconsciously CES from James Owens thinking well if well if we take the deal I'm not going to be able to show off my craft on the biggest stage and I'm probably not going to become an Infamous historical lawyer and I doubt any one at the diner is going to recognize me I I I think that we should go to trial and Sarah is a delusional she's not going to make the right choice on her own but if James Owens would have convinced her more or in a different way what he should have been saying is Sarah

5:19 you won this is all that we could ever hope for you put out your deranged advertisement I saw it I came in we went to a couple pre-trial hearings and now they're offering BR Us best case scenario if this trial goes unspeakably well for us and for some reason the jury likes you all we could ever hope for is to get it from second deegree murder down to manslaughter that was the only thing we could hope for and now they're offering it to us and you would do seven more years and be out Sarah as your lawyer we have to take this the only job I really have is to try to keep you out of prison for the rest of your life and this is the way to do it we have to do it and if like I said if they didn't make that decision because James Owens has stars in his eyes it gets pretty Sinister quick if you think about it and I also think James Owens thought you know what I've been doing this long enough even if the evidence isn't on on

6:19 our side and the facts aren't on our side I can still put on a professional topnotch defense I've been doing this long enough and we can I can show that my law practice can do it and they did but the story is that they turned down that plea deal it doesn't matter how complete and professional and good the defense you put on if you made the dumbest decision ever right before trial started so it's kind of funny in my opinion that's the big story after the trial is they confidently turned down that plea deal we got him right where I want them and then two weeks later the jury after barely enough time to just get a drink and go to the bathroom they came back sorry second degree murder all right so there's that then the second if you boil this whole trial down it really comes down to 3 days before the trial started the prosecution filed a motion saying your honor the story that Sarah we think Sarah is going with CU that's

7:19 what she told The Battered spouse experts for The Battered spouse experts to analyze for when they go up on the stand so we know the story that Sarah Boon is most likely going with and in that story there's no overt act nothing that George did on that day where it would make it acceptable for Sarah to defend herself and kill him so we are filing a motion that until that overt Act is established they don't get to talk about battered spouse or self-defense or assassinate George's character because the only chance that Sarah and James Owens had in this whole trial was to go nuclear on George's character and so without being able to go into that they would have been beyond screwed I don't know what they would have done and so the states doing their case plugging along and because they have to establish the overt act before they can deliver their case at all it forced them to call Sarah Boon up First

8:20 Once the state rested and it was time okay they decided Sarah Boon you will be most likely on the stand at 10:30 tomorrow tomorrow well it became that day where she was supposed to be up on the stand at 10:30 it became obvious that James Owens and the team of lawyers were really trying to delay and even though that the judge had ruled on it probably five times James Owens every time the jury was out of the room he'd bring it up again your honor I really think that we should be able to bring up battered spouse and self-defense and talk about reputations for George and he'd have a new reason I think this opened the door I think maybe that the fact that someone said that now we can be able to do it and over and over again the judge would say I've already ruled on this pre-trial I've ruled on it over and over again you have to establish that overt act before you can talk about reputation and that day where Sarah was

9:18 supposed to be on the stand at 10:30 10:30 comes and goes and the defense asks for an acquittal that takes a while and then Sarah has to go to the bathroom which takes a while and then James Owens argues again that he wants to be able to talk about reputation before the overact and then everybody's starting to get a little their nerves are frayed and this was a great judge he had so much patience but then when they tried to delay or he did delay again James Owens goes can we take a second I want to have some time to look at the suitcase again with Sarah and the judge goes why didn't you do that for the 45 minutes for the last thing that you were delaying and it became very obvious with everything they had they wanted to delay the testimony until after lunch so they'd have one more hour with Sarah to strategize if they if we don't get to talk about reputation stuff that affects the testimony really more than anything it's

10:16 like if we get to go nuclear on georg's reputation first then we can kind of then just seamlessly head into the suitcase night as if it just was a natural progression of how things were going but without that Sarah looks like a deranged lunatic but finally they made it with all the delays we got to go to the bathroom can we take a look at the evidence one more time I want to argue something that's been ruled on five times and then it was 11 something and the judge is like all right we'll pick up after lunch so lunch happens and here we are Sarah Boon after five years is up on the stand one of the first things or one of the things that I had been wondering about for five years is how is Sarah going to handle the suitcase videos the sadistic torture suitcase videos I don't know how leading up to the trial I don't know how you deal with that that it's just beyond awful and brutal and it says it

11:21 all and the tone of her voice it's beyond depraved the whole thing so how do you explain that up on the stand and this was one of the first first moments I had of many that I thought that's it that's all you got you had five years to think about it and a whole team of private sector out of town lawyers and that's all that you got and so how Sarah up on the stand attempted to normalize the suitcase video is with her lawyer during direct where she's not going to get challenged she said that she put him in there because she wanted to speak to him in a manner that she not was not usually able to all right but then when she got challenged on the same thing in Cross the prosecutor said something like so did you zip him in there to teach him a lesson is that correct and she goes no and he goes all right well correct me then and she said that there was no lesson but she took the video in hopes that he could watch it later to progress

12:28 and be a better person and you could see how with the public defenders it would run into a brick wall because it's like all right Sarah we we're planning our case we need to figure out how we're going to deal with those videos they're really awful and um so let's just practice why did you take that video let's practice this is Court why' you take the video and she goes I took it because I was hoping George would watch it watch it and progress and be a better person the lawyer is like Sarah that's just not going to cut it we got to do a plea deal you don't understand you're going to be convicted of murder so that was the first thing that was also one of the times that just hit me like oh Sarah doesn't have some story change or something upper sleeve she's just delusional enough to think the same old stupid story that she came up 5 years ago is going to work and a jury is just going to see it the way she

13:36 sees it the problem is is Sarah is delusional that sums up the whole thing Sarah thinks she's a Nimble minded high functioning adult that's an that's a good mom and has her so together that she can help George get him to where she is she has no ability to see she's not self-aware she has no ability to analyze a situation that she was a part of because and ultimately that's why they weren't able to successfully assassinate George's character because her lawyer they started way before the suitcase night talking about the trauma that Sarah went through because they knew later the experts were going to testify that she had narcissistic trait so it's like let's talk about the trauma that she went to and then they talked about the night and it was all just I put him in the suitcase cuz I wanted to speak to him in a manner that I was not usually able to and then they got past the night and then they to the court took a break

14:46 so right after her and her lawyer she's up on the stand right when they get to the like she goes upstairs to go to bed then Court broke and they sent the jury off and then they had to to decide all right was the overt Act established and I guess the way it goes is they're very strict you have to establish the overt act or you can't bring in any of your case but it turns out establishing an overt Act is incredibly easy you basically just have to say anything and the overed Act established and I didn't know that the judge didn't say that like how easy it was so all of a sudden they send the jury out and it's pretty intense moment because it's going if the judge says they didn't they didn't get the overt Act established what are they going to do they they would have had to just sit there and blink at the jury like uh our whole plan to go nuclear on George's character now we can't do what's the

15:48 defense thing can't do self-defense can't do battered spouse but unfortunately the judge just said yes it has been established and you just if anything basically is said what the word is like a cill if there's even a Cilla of a chance that there was an over vert act and they do it and they let the jury decide so then they bring him back in and for like an hour they go nuclear on George's character and Sarah gets to paint this picture where she is a just an innocent battered spouse that just is chained to this D ranged drunk abusive zombie and she's trying to entertain him and she's mentally well and he's a lunatic and I think the second thing I was most surprised about is she just went with the same story like I thought she would come maybe in with even getting rid of the stupid yeah we played hide and go seek and we said tag you're it and we ran out to difference cuz she she had one chance talking to the the experts of

16:59 going from every it was just a horrible hide-and seek accident and then she switched to you know what now I'm an honest battered spouse I got nothing to hide I'm talking to this expert so I thought maybe with the expert with all the time to think about it in her jail cell she would try to clean up the stupid story a little bit but it just was the same old and I think that's what ultimately killed her like they did a pretty good job of assassinating George's character making him sound awful but it comes off as unbelievable because it doesn't match all of the videos that Sarah she can paint herself as this high functioning adult that's always nice or whatever she was trying to do but then the videos it's like well that doesn't match that and then you go oh she is not capable of telling a story that she is involved in accurately cuz she doesn't see herself as delusional and an an example of that is and if there was a Sarah Boon

17:59 movie I think this is how it should start so the picture she painted this may be the story that stuck with me the most the picture that she painted of the morning after the suitcase night so she tortures and murders George between 11 p.m. and midnight and then she walks upstairs goes to bed sleeps for around 12 hours I got a clean conscience and I can barely sleep for 6 seven hour she puts away 12 after she does that to her fiance and she says and she's saying this to the jury and she says she woke up around noon so I think the the first scene of the Sarah Boon movie should be she's laying in bed sleeping peacefully and the Sun is starting to come up through the window and she's still sleeping peacefully and then this it goes from the lighting in the room goes from Morning Sun to afternoon sun and around noon she wakes up feeling refreshed and she then said she laid in bed for a while quote collecting her thoughts and

19:09 while she was laying there collecting her thoughts her ex-husband the father of her child started calling so her phone starts going off over and over again and she said to the jury that she didn't pick up the phone right away because in theory she could be up cleaning or looking for a job or something and it's not fair for her nagging ex-husband who's calling to make sure it's her day to pick up Lucas from school at 300 p.m. but normally she's too drunk at that time so he's calling over and over again to say are you able to pick up it's your day are are you going to pick up Lucas or are you too drunk and she said he's notorious for nagging her and calling a bunch to make sure Lucas is covered think about Sarah telling that story to the jury thinking it comes off as normal or yeah that's right you yeah don't answer him on the first one collect your thoughts it's he's a total nag for making sure that you can pick

20:13 him up and you're not usually too drunk like normal and so it's stories like that that Sarah she thinks she's this Nimble minded like I always know the right thing to say and then she tells a story like that thinking it's going to paint her in the way that she sees herself and it just doesn't all right so let's go over Sarah's worst moments on the stand okay so the story that she went with the final story was they said after having a good day tag you're it she runs up to the Sha shower hangs out in the shower gets cold comes down while she's coming down she sees George slipping into the suitcase she ran over and zipped it up and at that point one of the worst times during the testimony is she going yeah and we were just laughing and we thought it was so funny that he was in the suitcase and we were all just laughing and you could tell she was trying to get some point across that in her head is like no this isn't sounding

21:11 real so she just kept saying and we were laughing and it was funny it was just so funny he was in the suitcase it was just so funny and then her story is after everything just being so funny he's in the suitcase and she had already zipped it up then he said after all the laughing and having such a good time all right Sarah I can't uh I can't breathe and Sarah said him saying I can't breathe triggered her to be enraged for the times that in her head that weren't that day that he did choke her and so from even going with the story of I went from laughing to Split Second to a murderous sadistic rage Sarah that's not painting the a great picture of you to the jury but anyway so she go she goes into the rage and then she had to drastically um she had to drastically downplay the part where she was flipping the suitcase over and most likely pushing it down the stairs and hitting it with the bat and how they did that is

22:22 she goes I was just moving it moved it around a little bit and and then when he I didn't let him I wasn't going to let him get out and then when his hand started coming out she switched it from hitting his hand which was in the pre-trial to just poking so if you're drastically downplaying your story certain things changing things it's probably not a good idea to go with self-defense a true Real Deal self-defense where you're going to go home and not go to prison you don't have to change anything you don't have to embellish anything or down play anything another one of those is Nikolai Mew he was on trial for he was trying to go with self-defense he stabbed like a young person in a river but he was try he had to add to the story to try to make it self-defense they stole my goggles they pulled my pants down and they pulled a knife on me and went to stab me and I grabbed it reversed it and stabbed him

23:25 with his own knife he turned his story into a '90s even Seagal movie and just none of that happened so if you're going to go with self-defense it's a major sign that it's not going to work out if you're having to change and embellish your story and then the same with Sarah is Nikolai Mew Nikolai Mew was worse almost to the point of parody but thinking you're going to be able to go up on the stand and just say I don't remember for all the stuff that's incriminating and then remember perfectly all the stuff that's not that that doesn't work that's not a strategy it over and over I can't believe it they just go up on the stand and think saying I don't remember to all of the key parts and the jury's going to be like damn that's good I believe him I'm all in totally innocent all right and then another horrible moment for Sarah maybe the worst one is as the cross-examination was wrapping up the

24:27 prosecutor said before you went upstairs and go to bed did you tell him again that it's his problem and she goes I I don't remember and he goes did you tell him to sh she goes I don't remember and he was telling he was asking her did you say all of the things again that you said and she's going I don't remember and then it crescendoed to did you do anything to help George out of the predicament that you zipped him up in and she tried to say something real quick had nothing to say paused and then just said no I mean that's a big moment to not have anything to say um let's see yeah and then another one I already talked about but just explaining the video Way by saying that he that she took it and so George could watch it later to be a better person I mean that is just a sadistic deranged murderous thing to say well I think that's all I got I'm sitting here trying to see all right folks kind of something

25:41 funny about my last um Sarah Boon video I had said that she just aged horribly and if you go look at the comments of that video there are a number of comments being like I can't believe you're com you're attacking her a woman's looks and that every time there's a woman defendant everybody cares about her looks and and I'm thinking I called Nicholas alivian fat and ugly for an hour no one cared I called Grant the MTO alien head nobody cared Dylan mcfatridge got it who else no one cares and I say that Sarah Boon aged badly and they form a Sisterhood against me the point I was making is theor Orwell quote something like by 50 everybody has the face they deserve and Sarah is a sadistic delusional murderer and I think it shows on her face and so I'm going to cut it off there I'll see you next time why Sten why sh

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Sarah Boone Gets Put in Her Place"?

Sarah Boone (Host), James Owens (Guest).

What is "Sarah Boone Gets Put in Her Place" about?

A detailed recount of Sarah Boone’s trial, focusing on the prosecution of a second-degree murder charge, the defense by a private, out-of-town legal team led by James Owens, and the defense strategy centered on battered-spouse claims, culminating in a guilty verdict after a brief jury deliberation.

What is mentioned in this TRUE CRIME Loser episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Harold Boon, Trial, Cal Owens, Plea Deal, Second Degree Murder, Battered Spouse. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Sarah Boone Gets Put in Her Place"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 4,523 words in 25 timestamped sections.

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