Jury begins deliberations in trial of white Florida woman for fatal shooting of her black neighbor

On Friday, a jury in Florida began deliberations in the manslaughter trial of a white woman accused of killing a black neighbor who was shot to death amid an ongoing dispute over the neighbor's children.

Susan Lorincz, 60, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the June 2023 murder of 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens, a mother of four, in Ocala, Florida. Lorincz claimed she fired her .380-caliber handgun through her locked metal front door in self-defense because Owens was banging on the door and screaming loudly.

Prosecutor Rich Buxman said in his closing argument that there was no evidence that Owens posed an immediate physical threat to Lorincz, but came to the defendants' home after their children complained that Lorincz had allegedly thrown roller skates and an umbrella at them while they were upset about their boisterous outdoor play.

“It's not a crime to bang on someone's door. It's not a crime to scream,” Buxman told jurors. “There was no immediate danger when she fired the gun.”

A lawyer for Lorincz countered that she was frightened by Owens' aggressive behavior and was legally justified in firing her weapon under Florida's “stand your ground” law. An autopsy found that Owens weighed about 300 pounds, making her much larger and younger than Lorincz, and the two had previously clashed.

“She is capable of defending herself,” said Amanda Sizemore, an assistant public defender. “She only had a split second to decide whether or not to fire her weapon.”

Lorincz did not testify in her own defense, but said in an interview with investigators that was played to the jury that she never intended to harm Owens. Still, in a 911 call, Lorincz told a dispatcher, “I'm just sick of these kids.”

“She wasn't afraid. She was angry,” Buxman said.

The six-person jury is all white, and Owens' family has expressed surprise that no black jurors were selected, given the racially sensitive nature of the case. There were protests in the black community when prosecutors took weeks to charge Lorincz with manslaughter, a lesser offense than second-degree murder that carries a possible life sentence.

The county clerk's office said in an email that of the 70 jurors in the original pool, eight were black. That compares with 49 who were white, and 10 were listed as Hispanic, two as Asian and one as “other,” the clerk's office said, citing records from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Ocala is located about 80 miles northwest of Orlando in central Florida. According to the census, the black population in Marion County is about 12%.