A jury in Ocala found 60-year-old Susan Lorincz guilty of manslaughter Friday for shooting through her own locked front door and killing her neighbor.
Following a weeklong trial, the jury of four white women and two white men deliberated for two and a half hours before returning the guilty verdict at 2:35 p.m.
The case raised concerns over racial justice because Lorincz is white and her neighbor, 35-year-old Ajike "AJ" Owens, was a Black mother of four young children -- and because the Marion County Sheriff's Office waited several days before arresting Lorincz.
They were investigating whether the shooting was justified under Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
In closing arguments Friday, both sides focused on whether Lorincz reasonably believed she was in imminent danger when she shot through the door and killed Owens that evening on June 2, 2023.
Owens had come to her apartment door in the Quail Run community near Ocala to confront Lorincz over an altercation with her children. She banged loudly on the door, calling for her to come out.
There had been a long-running neighborhood feud. Lorincz complained repeatedly about the children playing loudly and leaving toys in a field near her home -- and coming onto her property.
Witnesses had told investigators Lorincz had a history of using racial slurs with the children. But that testimony was not used at trial.
Assistant Public Defender Amanda Sizemore argued that, when Owens came over that evening, Lorincz feared for her life and thought Owens was about to break through the door.
"The fact," she said, "that she's in her home, she's alone, it's nighttime, her knowledge of Ajike Owens and her past interaction with her, the noise level with the pounding and the screaming of the profanities, the problems that Susan Lorincz was having physically, all of it -- you have to take into account those circumstances."
Assistant State Attorney Rich Buxman, chief of homicide prosecution with the 5th Judicial Circuit, argued Lorincz was angry, not afraid, and there was no reason to believe Owens was trying to break in.
"The threat -- assuming you can even call somebody banging on a door and yelling a threat -- was a threat that was coming from the opposite side of a closed, locked, deadbolted metal door," Buxman said. "It was not immediate. It was not imminent. It was not about to happen. There was no threat."
Owens' mother, Pamela Dias, spoke with members of the media following the guilty verdict.
Dias said that, though her grandchildren have lost their mom forever, "we've achieved some justice for Ajike. My heart is a little lighter and we're now on the path of true healing."
Anthony Thomas, an attorney representing the family, said their focus now turns to sentencing. He said the family wants Circuit Judge Robert Hodges to impose the maximum.
The conviction carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Lorincz has remained in the Marion County Jail since her arrest last year.
