The white Florida woman who shot and killed her black neighbor, a mother of four young children, over a long-running dispute about the children playing outside her home, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Monday.
That is what Susan Lorincz, 60, said when she shot and killed Ajike “A.J.” Owens, 35, but the judge and the all-white jury in Ocala, Fla., who found her guilty, did not believe her.
In this case, the shooting was not needed at all, Circuit Judge Robert Hodges said at a hearing in the afternoon. “I think the person who shot was more angry than scared,”
In August, Lorincz was found guilty of manslaughter for shooting and killing Owens on June 2, 2023, through her front door. Owens was a single mother.
They had a fight for years because Owens’ kids liked to play in a grassy area close to both of their homes.
Owens was yelling and banging on Lorincz’s door the day of the shooting because her kids said she threw an umbrella and roller skates at them, which Lorincz denied.
Lorincz told police she was afraid for her life after shooting Owens once through the door with her.389-caliber handgun.
But the jury did not agree because there was proof that the neighbors had been fighting for at least three years.
The last time they had a fight, Lorincz called 911 and said, “I am just sick of these kids.” Since January 2021, police had been called to at least 12 calls about the ongoing fight.
Other neighbors said they heard Lorincz being mean to the kids and that she was always mad that they played on the field next to her house.
It only took the jury less than three hours to find Lorincz guilty. She could have spent up to 30 years in prison, but Hodge was lenient because there was evidence that the 60-year-old had mental health problems and had been abused as a child.
In a letter to the judge, Lorincz said she was sorry to Owens’ family, but she stuck to her self-defense story, saying she was “literally terrified” of the mom.
Lovincz said, “I wish I could go back and change things so she was still here.” “I had no plans to hurt anyone.”
Owens’ children are now only being cared for by their grandmother, Pamela Dias. Some of them saw their mother being brutally killed, and Dias said they are all still traumatized.
Dias said, “We are hurting with a pain that will never, ever go away.” “Our hearts will always have a hole in them.” Our family was destroyed by Susan Lorincz.
The judge also talked about how Lorincz’s killings affected the four siblings.
Says Hodges, “They will live their whole lives without their mother, which I think is a very big harm Ms. Lorincz did.”
It took prosecutors weeks to charge Lorincz, which made Black people in Ocala, which is about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, very angry, and they held protests.