By A white Florida woman who shot her Black neighbor through a front door during a dispute over children playing outside received a 25-year prison sentence Monday, in a case that sparked racial tensions in this central Florida community.
Susan Lorincz, 60, convicted of manslaughter in August for killing Ajike “A.J.” Owens, 35, faced Circuit Judge Robert Hodges, who rejected calls for both maximum and minimum sentences. “The shooting was completely unnecessary in this case,” Hodges said. “The shooting, I find, was based more in anger than in fear.”
The fatal confrontation in June 2023 culminated a long-running neighborhood dispute over Owens’ children playing in a shared grassy area near both homes, located about 80 miles northwest of Orlando. Prosecutors said Owens approached Lorincz’s door after her children reported Lorincz had thrown roller skates and an umbrella at them, which Lorincz denied.
Trial testimony revealed Owens, a mother of four, was pounding on Lorincz’s door and yelling when Lorincz fired a single shot from her .380-caliber handgun. While Lorincz claimed self-defense in videotaped police interviews, citing fear for her life and alleged three years of harassment, jurors rejected this defense.
“I so wish I could go back and change things so she was still here,” Lorincz told the court Monday. “I never intended to kill anyone.”
The victim’s mother, Pamela Dias, now caring for her daughter’s four children, described profound family trauma during the sentencing hearing. “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 defense sought a sentence below the 11.5-year minimum guideline, citing mental health issues and claims of extreme duress. Judge Hodges dismissed these arguments, emphasizing the lasting impact on Owens’ children: “They’ll live their whole lives without their mother, which I think is a very significant harm inflicted by Ms. Lorincz.”
The case generated protests in Ocala’s Black community, which comprises about 12% of Marion County’s population, when prosecutors took weeks to file manslaughter charges rather than second-degree murder. An all-white jury ultimately convicted Lorincz of the lesser charge, which carried a maximum 30-year sentence.
Judge Hodges considered Lorincz’s history of childhood abuse and mental health challenges in deciding against the maximum term, though he maintained the sentence must reflect the gravity of taking a mother from her children through what he deemed an anger-driven act.
