Florida woman charged with manslaughter, not murder, in fatal shooting
A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting a neighbor after an argument with her children this month will not face charges of murder, a prosecutor said in a carefully worded statement Monday. rack explanation of his reasoning in the divisive case.
The woman, Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was instead charged with one count of manslaughter with a gun and one count of assault, said Bill Gladson, Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit prosecutor. She could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of the charge.
The family of the dead woman, Ajike Owens, 35, a mother of four, had asked for a murder charge, which could carry a life sentence. But Mr. Gladson said there was not enough evidence to prove the crime.
“I am aware of the desire of the family and some members of the community that the defendant be charged with first degree murder,” he said in the statement. “However, I cannot allow a decision to be influenced by public sentiment, angry phone calls or further threats of violence, as I have received in this case.”
The death of Mrs. Owens on June 2 sparked outrage in her community in Ocala, Florida, and across the country over how an everyday dispute Ms. Lorincz to use lethal force.
Ms. Owens’ family was disappointed that no murder charges had been filed against Ms. Lorincz, Anthony Thomas, one of the Owens family’s lawyers, said in an interview Monday.
“The affidavit of the arrest all seemed to amount to a murder charge,” he said. “Even if she gets to 30, there’s a chance the kids will still be alive to see her, which would just be a slap in the face.”
The confrontation on June 2 came after a “neighborhood feud” between Ms. Lorincz and Ms. Owens over the children, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Before the shooting, Ms. Lorincz had become angry with Ms. Owens’ children, who the sheriff’s office said were playing in a field close to her home. She started arguing with them, threw a roller skate at Mrs. Owens’ son’s toe and waved an umbrella at her children, according to the sheriff’s office.
The children told their mother what had happened and she went to Ms Lorincz’s house, knocked on her door and demanded she come out, authorities said. They said Ms. Lorincz fired a shot through the door, hitting Ms. Owens in the upper chest. She was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s office said Ms. Lorincz had claimed she had acted in self-defense and that she believed Ms. Owens was trying to break down her door. But they said detectives were able to determine that her actions were legally unjustifiable.
The attorneys representing Ms. Owens’ family also said in a rack at the time witnesses had heard Ms. Lorincz use racial slurs when she yelled at Ms. Owens’ children before the shooting. Ms. Lorincz, a white woman, admitted to making racist remarks against neighborhood children in the past, according to a statement of arrest. Mrs. Owens was black.
After phone calls from Ms. Owens and civil rights leaders to bring murder charges against Ms. Lorincz, Mr. Gladson, told the prosecutor that he had carefully examined the viability of the charge.
In an interview on Monday, Mr Gladson said he had made a public statement for his decision because he felt it was “important to be transparent” and that it would be “beneficial to explain the law as it applies to this specific set of facts.”
To prove a premeditated murder one must show “beyond and to the exclusion of all reasonable doubt” that the defendant was in a “depraved mind” at the time of the murder, Mr Gladson wrote in the explanatory statement.
“Depraved mind requires evidence of hatred, resentment, ill-will or ill-intention towards the victim,” he added. “Given the facts in this case, pointing a firearm at the door and pulling the trigger is legally insufficient to prove a depraved mind.”
He continued, “The case law has consistently held that extreme recklessness or impulsive overreactions in themselves are insufficient to prove second-degree murder.”
In contrast, Mr Thomas, the lawyer for the Owens family, said there was evidence of a “depraved mind” in the relationship between Ms Owens and Ms Lorinz and the chain of events leading up to the shooting.
Ms Lorincz’s lawyer, Amanda Sizemore, declined to comment on the case on Monday.
Other day-to-day disputes have led to deadly shootings across the United States, protests and widespread outrage, especially after the victims were shot for making innocent mistakes: going to the wrong address, getting into the wrong car, or ringing the wrong doorbell.
Ms. Lorincz has been in the Marion County Jail since her arrest on June 6 by the sheriff’s office on charges of manslaughter with a gun, culpable negligence, battery and assault. The prosecutor’s charges mirror the original charges.
The case has also contributed to controversy over the legal protection of people who say they feared for their safety when they used deadly force.
Florida’s “stand your ground” law received a lot of attention when police cited it as the reason they refused to arrest George Zimmerman in the 2012 Trayvon Martin shooting. He was later charged, but his acquittal the following year sparked nationwide demonstrations .
The sheriff’s office in Ms. Owens’ case said the law required investigators of her death to rule out “whether deadly force was warranted or not before we make an arrest.” The family of Mrs. Owens held a press conference on June 5 calling on authorities to arrest the shooter.