A white woman in Florida was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting her neighbor, a Black mother of four, in a case that sparked outrage and yet another national reckoning over gun violence and racism.
A jury convicted Susan Lorincz, 60, of manslaughter in August for killing Ajike Owens outside of her home in Ocala on June 2, 2023. Owens, who went by the name A.J., was 35. Ocala is a small city located about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
Lorincz faced a maximum sentence of 30 years imprisonment on the charges originally brought against her after the shooting — one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault — Bill Gladson, the state attorney for Florida's fifth judicial district, announced later in June that year. In Florida, the lead prosecutor in each district is called a state attorney.
On Monday, Judge Robert Hodges said Lorincz had ample time to call law enforcement and that there was no real risk that Owens was trying to break into her home. "The shooting was based, I find, more in anger than in fear," Hodges said before the sentencing.
The authorities and prosecutors involved came under scrutiny in the wake of Owens' death, in part because of the choice to charge Lorincz with manslaughter instead of second-degree murder, as well as the fact that Lorincz was not immediately taken into custody after the shooting occurred.
Florida's "stand your ground" law, a controversial doctrine adopted in multiple U.S. states that allows individuals to use force in self-defense scenarios, played a role in those decisions.
"In making the filing decision on this case, my office carefully examined the viability of both second degree murder and manslaughter with a firearm, both first degree felonies," Gladson's office said in a statement once Lorincz's charges were revealed. A second-degree murder charge required "evidence of hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent toward the victim at the time of the killing," which the Marion County sheriff's criminal investigation did not sufficiently find, according to the state attorney.
"As deplorable as the defendant's actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second degree murder," that statement continued. It noted charges for second-degree murder and manslaughter with a firearm are both first-degree felonies.
Lorincz shot Owens during an ongoing dispute between them over children in the neighborhood, including Owens' children, apparently playing in the area around Lorincz's residence, according to trial testimony and the arrest affidavit for Lorincz.
Authorities said Owens approached the door of Lorincz's home the day of the shooting to confront her, after learning the older woman had engaged in an argument with the children outside, shouted, and threw a roller skate at one of them.
Owens' 10-year-old son accompanied her to Lorincz's residence, where she knocked on Lorincz's door and demanded she come outside. Lorincz proceeded to fire a .380-caliber handgun through the door, striking Owens in the upper chest. Owens was unresponsive by the time authorities arrived at the scene and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The door to Lorincz's home was locked when she fired the shot and Owens was unarmed.