Susan Lorincz, Ocala, Florida woman sentenced to 25 years jail for shooting dead, black neighbor, Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens, through her locked front door after the mom came to complain about her throwing objects at her children following a dispute in a yard they shared. Defendant had sought to claim self-defense, saying she feared for her life.
‘Feared for her life because the victim was black…?’ A white Florida woman who fatally shot her ‘unarmed’ black neighbor through her front door in June of last year was on Monday sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 60, was convicted of manslaughter in August, after she killed Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens, 35, while she stood next to her 12-year-old son on the doorstep in Ocala, Florida.
Black neighbor’s shooting death the culmination of ongoing feud
Lorincz had faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in state prison because a firearm was used.
Prior to learning her fate, the victim’s mother, Pamela Dias gave an impact statement before the court.
Said the weeping mother, ‘Ajike was a beloved mother, daughter, and friend whose life was tragically cut short. It is virtually impossible to convey all of the ways that Susan has devastated our lives….
‘My baby girl, my only daughter, is gone forever. Susan Lorincz took her life at the age of 35 years old. I stand before you mourning not only the loss of my daughter but also the loss of our hopes, dreams and the future that we often spoke of.
‘They all died the night Susan Lorincz killed my daughter.’
Dias also spoke of Owen’s four children struggling to deal with their mother’s death.
‘She destroyed out family. She killed out family,’ Dias added.
The shooting was the culmination of a long-running argument between the two neighbors over Owens’ children playing in a grassy area at both of their houses in Ocala, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
Defendant had sought to use Florida’s Stand Your Ground, Self Defense
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 a ‘stand your ground‘ self-defense in shooting her ‘un-armed’ 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 the black family she lived in the neighborhood.
But jurors did not agree with Lorincz’s self-defense claim.
‘I find that the shooting was completely unnecessary,’ Judge Robert Hodges said. ‘In this case, Ms. Lorincz was behind the door. The door was locked. She had already called law enforcement. They were in route. She knew they were in route. She was in a relatively safe position. For some reason, she went into her room and found a gun. She could have stayed in the room and put another locked door between her and Ms. Owens, but she came back out, put herself in front of the door, and at the time she fired the gun through the door, she was safe.
‘There was no indication that she did not understand what she was doing of that shooting a person was against the law,’ the judge also said.
Lorincz spoke during her sentencing hearing, where she recounted various disputes she had with Owens and her children prior to the shooting and claimed that she was ‘terrified’ of the black woman Owens. She also denied calling Owens’ children racial slurs.
‘I’m so sorry that I took AJ’s life. I never indented to kill her,’ Lorincz said in a statement directed at Owens’ mother and children.
Before the sentencing, psychologist Yenys Castillo spoke on behalf of Lorincz, telling the court that she had been sexually abused by her father from the age of 4 to the age of 20.
Lorincz’s pastor, Shannon Harris, and a couple from her church also spoke in defense of her character.
Owens’ family pushed for the maximum prison sentence after Lorincz was convicted by an all-white jury.
‘While the pain of losing Ajike, we are hopeful that justice will prevail and that the court will give Susan Lorincz the maximum penalty for her actions,’ said Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias.
‘Ajike’s legacy will live on through her children, and we will continue to fight for justice.’
Lorincz’s 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 are 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.
There were protests in the black community in Ocala, with prosecutors taking weeks before finally charging Lorincz with manslaughter, a lesser count than second-degree murder, which carries a potential life prison sentence.
Dias, who previously told ABC News that the guilty verdict brings a ‘sense of peace’ to the family, said in a statement on Wednesday that Lorincz’s sentencing is an opportunity for the family to ‘find some closure.’
