Susan Lorincz Sentenced to 25 Years: The Dark Side of Florida's Stand Your Ground Law

The case of Susan Lorincz has become one of the most scrutinized applications of Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” statute. In November 2024, Lorincz received a 25-year prison sentence for the fatal shooting of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, in a case that ignited national conversations about racial tension, gun violence, and the limits of self-defense laws.

The Neighborhood Conflict

Before the tragedy unfolded in June 2023, tensions had been building in the Ocala, Florida community where Owens lived. When Lorincz moved into a rental property in the neighborhood, she quickly became a source of friction. Over several months, she called police approximately six times to lodge complaints about neighborhood children playing outside, alleging they were creating excessive noise and trespassing.

However, when law enforcement responded to these calls, officers typically found nothing warranting intervention. The children were simply engaged in typical outdoor play. Yet Lorincz’s grievances went beyond noise complaints. Neighbors reported that she frequently shouted at the children, sometimes using racial slurs. Lorincz later admitted to detectives that she had directed the n-word and other derogatory language at the kids during moments of anger.

The Escalation on June 2, 2023

The situation deteriorated dramatically on June 2, 2023. When Owens’s children were playing in a nearby field, one of them left an electronic tablet behind. Lorincz retrieved the device, and when the 10-year-old asked for its return, she threw it to the ground. According to police affidavits, she then hurled roller skates at the child, causing injury, and swung an umbrella at him as well. After this confrontation, a witness saw Lorincz exit her home, make an obscene gesture, and shout a racial epithet at the children.

Inside her house, Lorincz dialed 911, describing the children’s presence as threatening and claiming she feared for her safety. She retrieved a .380-caliber handgun. When Owens arrived at Lorincz’s door to address the incident, demanding that she come outside, Lorincz made a second 911 call—this time alleging that Owens was threatening to kill her.

Two minutes after her first call, with law enforcement already en route, Lorincz fired a single shot through the locked door. The bullet struck Owens in the right chest, a wound that proved fatal. Owens died later that night, leaving four children motherless.

The Legal Battle

Lorincz’s invocation of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law—which permits residents to employ deadly force when they believe it necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm—became central to the case’s controversy. However, Marion County Sheriff Billy Wood stated unequivocally that the law “was not justified” in this instance, calling it “simply a killing.”

Lorincz was arrested four days after the shooting and initially charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. Despite calls from Owens’s family for a second-degree murder charge, prosecutors determined insufficient evidence existed to support that conviction.

Trial and Conviction

When Lorincz’s trial commenced in August 2024, the prosecution presented a straightforward argument: her door was locked, Owens was unarmed, and law enforcement was already responding. The defense countered that Lorincz genuinely feared Owens would cause her harm.

After one week of testimony and two hours of jury deliberation, the verdict came: guilty of manslaughter with a firearm. In November 2024, Judge Robert Hodges delivered the 25-year sentence, emphasizing the crime’s preventability. “She was behind the door. The door was locked. She had already called law enforcement. They were en route,” Hodges stated. “She could have stayed in the room and put another locked door between her and Ms. Owens… but she came back out, put herself in front of the door, and at the time she fired the gun through the door, she was safe.”

Current Status and Aftermath

Susan Lorincz is now incarcerated at Homestead Correctional Institution in South Florida, with an anticipated release date of April 8, 2048. In September 2025, she granted an interview to local media, attempting to reframe the narrative by suggesting that Owens’s children had threatened her life. Florida’s state attorney’s office swiftly responded, defending the children and emphasizing that the focus should remain on the victim and her bereaved family, not on Lorincz’s post-conviction claims.

Owens’s mother, Pamela Dias, rejected her daughter’s killer’s subsequent apology as insincere, noting that Lorincz never demonstrated genuine remorse. “Her remorse that she showed, if any, at best, was for herself,” Dias told reporters.

The case has been extensively documented in Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor, which uses police body camera footage to chronicle the events surrounding Owens’s death. The documentary has reignited debates about the application and limits of stand-your-ground statutes, particularly in cases involving racial animus and disproportionate force.