Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor through a door pleads not guilty

By Rebekah Riess, CNN

(CNN) — Susan Lorincz, the Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor through a closed door last month during a dispute over children playing outside, waived her arraignment and entered a written plea of not guilty, court officials said.

Lorincz, a 58-year-old White woman, is charged with manslaughter with a firearm and assault related to the June 2 shooting of her Black neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens, who had been knocking on Lorincz’s door, investigators in Marion County said.

Lorincz became angry prior to the shooting because several neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, were playing near her home, investigators have said.

The Owens family previously told CNN Lorincz harassed Owens and her children and used racial slurs toward them prior to the killing.

Lorincz’s next court date “will most likely be sometime in September,” according to Rhaiza Robles, a spokesperson with Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit Court.

She has not posted the $154,000 bond set for her, Rich Buxman, with State Attorney Bill Gladson’s Office, said Tuesday. Lorincz’s public defender, Amanda Sizemore, said she had no comment on the plea.

Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, Gladson said in an earlier statement.

Owens’ family said last month they were disappointed Lorincz wasn’t charged with murder.

“(Lorincz) deserves all 30 years of that 30-year maximum sentence,” family attorney Anthony Thomas said during a news conference.

The state attorney’s office considered a second-degree murder charge, but that would require the state to prove Lorincz had a “depraved mind” at the time of the shooting, Gladson said in his statement.

“As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder,” Gladson’s statement read. “While some may not agree with that decision, I can assure you that the decision was thoughtful and made without consideration of any factors other than the specific facts of this terrible crime.”

Lorincz told police she did not mean to shoot Owens and was frightened for her own life, according to an arrest affidavit. She admitted using racial slurs against neighborhood children in the past, the affidavit says.

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CNN’s Shawn Nottingham and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.