NOVEMBER 26, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- A white Florida woman who fatally shot a Black neighbor through her front door during an ongoing dispute over the neighbor’s boisterous children was sentenced Monday (Nov. 25, 2024) to 25 years in prison for her manslaughter conviction.
Susan Lorincz, 60, was convicted in August of killing Ajike “A.J.” Owens, 35, by firing a single shot from her .380-caliber handgun in June 2023. She had faced a maximum of 30 years behind bars. Circuit Judge Robert Hodges opted for a slightly lesser term amid evidence that Lorincz had been abused as a child and had mental health problems.
“The shooting was completely unnecessary in this case,” Hodges said during an afternoon hearing. “The shooting, I find, was based more in anger than in fear.”
The shooting was the culmination of a long-running argument between the two neighbors over Owens’ children playing in a grassy area near both of their houses in Ocala, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Orlando.
Prosecutors said Owens had come to Lorincz’s home after her children complained that she had thrown roller skates and an umbrella at them, which Lorincz denied. Trial testimony showed Owens, a mother of four young children, was pounding on Lorincz’s door and yelling, leading Lorincz to claim self-defense in shooting her neighbor.
Lorincz told detectives in a videotaped interview that she feared for her life. She also said she had been harassed for most of the three years she had lived in the neighborhood. Jurors who heard the trial evidence did not agree that the shooting was in self-defense.
In a statement to the judge, Lorincz apologized to Owens’ family but said she was “literally terrified” of Owens the night of the shooting.
“I so wish I could go back and change things so she was still here,” Lorincz said. “I never intended to kill anyone.”
Owens’ family pushed for the maximum prison sentence after Lorincz was convicted by an all-white jury. Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said in court Monday that she now is the sole caregiver of her daughter’s four children and that they are deeply traumatized by the killing.
“We’re hurting with a pain that will never, never go away,” Dias said. “There’s a hole in our heart that will never mend. Susan destroyed our family.”
Lorincz’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Amanda Sizemore, sought a more lenient sentence, an unspecified term below the 11.5 years in prison that is the lowest for her crime under state guidelines. Sizemore said in court documents that there were several reasons to justify a downward departure, including a mental disorder and claims that Owens was the aggressor and under “extreme duress” during the confrontation.
The judge said such a departure was not warranted, especially considering the impact of their mother’s violent death on her children.
“They’ll live their whole lives without their mother, which I think is a very significant harm inflicted by Ms. Lorincz,” Hodges said.
There were protests in the Black community in Ocala when prosecutors took weeks to charge Lorincz with manslaughter, a lesser count than second-degree murder, which carries a potential life prison sentence. Marion County, which includes Ocala, has a Black population of about 12%, according to census figures.
AUGUST 17, 2024:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida jury has convicted a white woman accused of manslaughter in the shooting death of her Black neighbor amid an ongoing feud over the neighbor’s children. Susan Lorincz, 60, faces up to 30 years in prison in the June 2023 killing of 35-year-old Ajike “A.J.” Owens, a mother of four, in Ocala, Florida. Lorincz claimed she fired her .380-caliber handgun through her front door in self-defense because Owens was pounding on the door and yelling at her. Jurors got the case Friday (Aug. 16, 2024) after closing arguments from attorneys. Circuit Judge Robert W, Hodges did not immediately set a sentencing date but ordered a background report to be done on Lorincz.
JUNE 12, 2023:
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Civil rights leaders and ministers are demanding justice for a Black mother who was fatally shot in front of her son by a white neighbor firing through the door of her central Florida home. The calls for justice came during a memorial service Monday (June 12, 2023) during which Ajike Owens was remembered for her deep faith and devotion to her four children. During a three-hour service at a church in Ocala, Florida, the Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and others connected Owens’ death to the killings of other Black Americans in recent years, such as Trayvon Martin and George Floyd.
JUNE 8, 2023:
Extended version:
JUNE 7, 2023:
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says a Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2½-year feud was arrested Tuesday (June 6, 2023). Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four. Authorities came under pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge the white woman who fired through her front her door and killed a Black neighbor in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight.
A protester, holds a poster of Ajike Owens at the Marion County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Ocala, demanding the arrest of a woman who shot and killed Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, last Friday night, June 2. Authorities came under intense pressure Tuesday to bring charges against a white woman who killed Owens, a Black neighbor, on her front doorstep, as they navigated Florida’s divisive stand your ground law that provides considerable leeway to the suspect in making a claim of self defense. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
JUNE 6, 2023:
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida mother was fatally shot through the front door of her neighbor’s home while her 9-year-old son stood next to her, a violent culmination of what police said was a 2½-year feud.
Ajike Owens, 35, was fatally shot after going to the Ocala apartment of her neighbor, who earlier had yelled at Owens’ children as they played nearby and threw a pair of skates that hit one of them, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said at a news conference Monday (June 5, 2023).
Deputies responding to a trespassing call at the apartment Friday night found Owens suffering from gunshot wounds. The mother of four was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died. Ocala is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Orlando.
“I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands,” Woods said. “I wish Ms. Owens would have called us in the hopes we could have never gotten to the point at which we are here today.”
Since January 2021, Woods said, deputies responded at least a half-dozen times in connection with the feuding between Owens and the woman who shot her. The sheriff’s office hasn’t arrested or identified the shooter.
Woods said detectives are working with the State Attorney’s Office and must investigate possible self-defense claims before they can move forward with any possible criminal charges.
The sheriff pointed out that because of Florida’s “stand your ground” law, he can’t legally make an arrest unless he can prove the shooter did not act in self-defense.
Before the shooting, Owens’ children had been playing in a field near the shooter’s apartment. When Owens later confronted the woman at her apartment, an argument ensued, and the woman shot Owens through the front door, according to police.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Owens’ family, said in a statement that the shooter had been yelling racial slurs at the children before the confrontation with their mother. Owens and her children are Black.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t confirmed there were slurs uttered or said whether race was a factor in the shooting.
Woods also said they haven’t interviewed Owens’ children, who witnessed the shooting, because investigators first want child therapists to work with them. Most of the information the deputies have is coming from the shooter, Woods said.
“There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” Wood said the shooter told investigators. “Whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made. And then at that moment is when Ms. Owens was shot through the door.”
Woods was joined at his news conference by community leaders and a local attorney retained by the family, Anthony Thomas. Their singular message was a call for patience while the sheriff’s office conducted its investigation.
During a vigil with the family later Monday, Thomas said the sheriff had promised him the most professional service that he and his deputies could provide, and Thomas plans to hold the agency to that.
During the same gathering, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said that she was seeking justice for her daughter and her grandchildren.
“My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her,” Dias said. “She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”
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