Jury selection was underway Monday in Ocala in the trial of a woman who shot her neighbor through her own locked and bolted front door last year.
Sixty-year-old Susan Lorincz is charged with manslaughter with a firearm and has pleaded not guilty.
Lorincz is white. The neighbor, Ajike "AJ" Owens was a Black, single mother of four children. They are now 4 through 13 years old.
Two of her boys saw their mother get killed.
Investigators learned that Lorincz had been feuding with the family for months because the children liked to play in an open area near her Ocala-area apartment. That day -- June 2, 2023 -- she swung an umbrella at the kids and threw a roller skate at one of them.
Owens, their 35-year-old mother, went over to confront Lorincz and banged on the door. That’s when Lorincz shot her through the solid door, striking her once in the chest. She stumbled backward and collapsed.
Lorincz told investigators she had feared for her life. And the Sheriff's Office didn’t arrest her for several days while they investigated whether the shooting was justified under Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
That delay -- and the uncertainty over her arrest -- was shocking to many in the community. In the end, Lorincz was arrested -- and is still being held in the Marion County Jail.
Owens' family wanted her to face the stiffer charge of second-degree murder, but prosecutors said manslaughter is what they can prove.
Excluded evidence
Witnesses told investigators that Lorincz would sometimes use racial slurs with the children -- using the N-word, for instance, and calling them slaves.
But because that evidence isn't an element of the crime and is considered prejudicial, attorneys agreed that alleged history of slurs should be excluded. Jurors likely won’t hear about that.
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, doesn’t agree with that decision.
"It really doesn't make sense to me. Racism is key and paramount to me in this case," she said during an interview Saturday. "There was a long history of racial slurs, and that's how this whole ordeal started."
Without that evidence, she thinks the jury won’t see the full picture.
The children
The school year started Monday for all the children.
Prosecutors do not plan to call them to testify, though they said it all depends on how the trial unfolds.
Dias said she's been told the defense may call the oldest boy but she hopes he doesn't have to take the stand and relive that evening.
Dias said a conviction will be important for closure and healing. She said the children are afraid Lorincz could get out.
"The children have always been anxious and questioned whether Susan was still locked up, had she been released?" Dias said. "So I think at this point they will have a sense of relief."
Dias said it has been a tough year but they are resilient -- though, they aren’t the carefree, happy children they once were.
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