Prosecutors rest case against neighbor accused of killing ‘AJ’ Owens

Following nearly two days of testimony from 20 people–including neighbors, witnesses and forensic experts–prosecutors on Wednesday rested their case against Susan Lorincz, charged with aggravated manslaughter in the shooting death of her neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens.

Lorincz is accused of shooting Owens to death with a single shot through her apartment front door after Owens sought to confront her for shouting and throwing a roller skate at her children. The June 2, 2023 incident was the culmination of what neighbors and law enforcement described as a long-running feud over where neighborhood children played.

Final arguments are expected Thursday afternoon before Circuit Judge Robert Hodges.

Five neighbors, including minors, were called Tuesday by Assistant State Attorneys Adam Smith and Rich Buxman to testify about how a field adjacent to the quadruplex apartment where Lorincz lived was often used for children to play, much to the aggravation of Lorincz.

The neighbors testified they all knew Owens’ children Israel and Isaac, who lived across the street from Lorincz. Owens, 35, was the mother of four.

Neighbors acknowledged a dispute had been brewing for months between Owens and Lorincz over no trespassing signs on the property line between Lorincz’s apartment and the adjacent empty field the children played in. One neighbor said she saw Owens pull up the no trespassing sign and throw it toward the ground where Lorincz stood, possibly hitting her shin. However, deputies responding to the call said they found no evidence of any injury to Lorincz.

Lorincz’ landlord, Charles Gabbard, testified that “two or three months” before the fatal incident he had put up two signs for trespassing on the property line at the request of Lorincz. He’d also installed a deadbolt on her front door and repaired a broken door jamb that appeared to have been damaged when it was slammed six weeks earlier. The jury would later hear a recorded interview of Lorincz during which she accused Owens broke the door jamb by banging on it.

When Gabbard was asked if he had ever admonished the children to stop playing nearby, he testified that he did not as he had no authority over the adjacent property owned by another landlord.

In a recorded interview with Marion County Sheriff’s Office detectives following the fatal incident, Lorincz said she’d lived in the apartment for three years and had problems with the neighbors for at least two years.

She also told detectives she purchased a Remington 380 handgun at least a year before the fatal shooting “for self-protection,” and then months later bought a .22-caliber handgun so that she could practice at a shooting range using less-expensive bullets.

A ballistics expert from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement testified that the one casing found in Lorincz’ kitchen came from her Remington and confirmed that the bullet retrieved from Owens’ body by a forensic pathologist was shot using the Remington found by Lorincz’ bedside.

The jury heard two 911 call recordings from the night of the incident. In the first call, at 8:54 p.m., Lorincz said children were trespassing and that she was afraid their mother will be angry at her for trespassing her children. She was on that first 911 call for approximately five minutes and was told that deputies were on the way.

About two minutes after hanging up, Lorincz called 911 again, this time saying she had shot Owens through the door because she was afraid for her life.

In recorded interviews with detectives, Lorincz accused Owens of banging on her door, screaming that Lorincz couldn’t talk to her children that way and that she was going to kill Lorincz. None of the neighbors who testified that they overheard the dispute, however, have corroborated Lorincz’ account of Owens verbally threating to kill her.

Neighbors who witnessed the incident said Owens had come to Lorincz’ home and angrily knocked on the front door yelling, “Bitch, come out.”

When Owens was shot, she backed away from the door and collapsed in the field where her children had previously played, with the no trespassing sign staked in the grass nearby.

Multiple videos from Lorincz’ security camera in the hours leading up to the incident showed children playing in a field on the other side of the no trespassing sign at Lorincz’ property line. None of the videos showed Owens or her children approaching Lorincz’ door.

Kids roller skates were introduced into evidence by a crime scene technician with the MCSO. During an excerpt of an interview of Lorincz with the lead Detective Ryan Stith, Lorincz said she threw the skates into the field to get them away from her property.

Deputies pressed Lorincz in the recorded interviews to explain why she was in fear for her life when she admitted to having an extended deadbolt in place and was standing on the other side of a locked door. Lorincz replied she didn’t trust the security of the door because the landlord had rigged a fix to a broken door jamb just months earlier.

MCSO deputies testified that they did not find any damage to the door they could attribute to Owen’s “banging” on it, as alleged by Lorincz.

Lorincz also said in the interview she didn’t mean to shoot Owens, only scare her away from her door.

At the request of MCSO following the June 13, 2023 interview during which they informed her the State Attorney’s Office agreed she should be charged with manslaughter, Lorincz wrote a letter to Owens’ four children. She wrote that she was sorry for the children’s loss, and that she shot their mother only because she was afraid for her life.

Public Defenders Morris Carranza, Amanda Sizemore and Frances Watson attempted throughout cross-examination to support a claim of self-defense for Lorincz.

During cross examination of forensic pathologist Shandelle Nordord, M.D., who performed an autopsy on Owen, Carranza empathized the 5-foot-7 stature of Owens, weighing 293 pounds at the time of her death.

When prosecutors rested their case, Watson argued the state had not met its burden in presenting evidence that rebutted self-defense and asked Hodges to enter an acquittal for Lorincz. The judge denied the motion and the defense spent the rest of the day presenting their first witness.

On Thursday, the defense plans to bring forward three witnesses to strengthen Lorincz’ claim of self-defense. Lorincz has the right to testify before the jury, but may choose not to, which the jury may not hold against her. Hodges gave her the opportunity to take the night to think about it and consult with her attorneys before deciding whether or not to testify. If the defense rests its case early enough on Thursday, Hodges may decide to hear closing arguments from both sides. Otherwise, closing arguments will be heard Friday morning.