The manslaughter trial of a Florida woman who shot her neighbor dead began on Tuesday with opening statements.
Susan Lorincz, 59, admits to fatally shooting 35-year-oldAjike “AJ” Owens on June 2, 2023, in what she and her public defender said was an act of self-defense on Tuesday.
Prosecutors meanwhile countered that claim by stating that Owens was "unarmed" when she was shot dead and that Lorincz fired her gun while standing inside her apartment behind a "locked" door.
On the day of the shooting, a group of neighborhood children had been playing near Lorincz's apartment, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
Lorincz told police she was angry about the noise and was observed arguing and then throwing a skate at the group, according to the affidavit.
Owens, a mother of four, learned about the incident through one of her children and decided to speak with Lorincz, according to the affidavit.
“The death of AJ Owens is a tragedy. There is no doubt about that. But what the evidence will show you is that in her mind, in her soul, in her core, Susan Lorincz felt she had no choice,” Lorincz’s public defender, Morris Carranza, said. “It was either Susan or AJ, and Susan chose to defend herself.”
Carranza said that the "absolute terror" in Lorincz's voice when she called 911 proves she feared for her life and that Owens would "break down" her door that day.
Prosecutors offered up a different version of events that day, withAssistant State Attorney Adam Smith saying in his opening remarks that there is no evidence to suggest that Owens wanted to break down the door of Lorincz's home.
Smith also said that Lorincz had called the police prior to Owens' arrival that day because of her dispute with the children and knew officers were en route when she fatally shot the mother.
She also shot Owens in front of her 9-year-old son, who accompanied her to Lorincz's apartment that day.
“At the end of this case, you’re going to hear that the defendant Susan Lorincz, knowing the police would come, was in her apartment with her door locked and shot through that locked front door and killed Ajike Owens, who was unarmed,” Smith told jurors on Tuesday
Multiple eyewitnesses testified on Tuesday, including a 13-year-old boy from the neighborhood who described hearing a "mad type of bang, banging pretty hard" when Owens arrived at Lorincz's door. Another neighbor testified that the banging wads "very loud" and then said: "It scared me, because the wall was shaking."
That 13-year-old boy also said Owens was "mad" and "cursing" but he did not hear her make a threat to kill Lorincz or see Owens reach to open the door.
Lorincz, who has entered a plea of not guilty, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter.
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