Lorincz trial prosecutors work to overcome sluggish start

MARION COUNTY, Fla. — In their first – and by all indications, their only – full day of dictating the direction of their trial, prosecutors seeking to have Susan Lorincz convicted of manslaughter for the June 2023 killing of Ajike Owens got a peek at how much work was ahead of them.

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Multiple people in the courtroom jumped when Defense Attorney Morris Carranza pounded on the podium during his passionate and emotional opening statement to demonstrate how hard Owens was banging on Lorincz’s door after the older woman reportedly hurled insults at the neighborhood kids.

“Bang, bang, bang,” Carranza said. “The death of AJ Owens is a tragedy. There is no doubt about that. What the evidence will show -- in her mind, in her soul, in her core -- Susan Lorincz felt she had no choice.”

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Carranza repeated that line – and the pounding, to the later admonishment of the judge worried someone would break the expensive podium. But as the morning wore on, he scored more hits during a time when confident prosecutors usually breeze through the points they want to get the jury to understand.

“My walls started shaking like someone was pounding on the wall. It really scared me,” Yvonne Costa, who lived next to Lorincz, said.

In other cross-examinations, Carranza and his team had neighbors admit Owens was angry and swearing.

The defense didn’t bat 1,000, though, and prosecutors appeared to find their footing as the pieces fell into place.

During the morning testimony, they had neighbors testify to the fact that Owens wasn’t armed during the confrontation and wasn’t making any attempts to enter Lorincz’s apartment. Nor, neighbors said, was she making any death threats.

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A 13-year-old who took the stand even pushed back on Carranza’s attempt to notch a victory over his opponents when the boy objected to the assertion Owens was knocking near Lorincz’s door handle.

Throughout the day, prosecutors began laying the foundation of an effort to show inconsistencies in Lorincz’s behavior and story. A crime scene investigator testified that a shell casing was found on Lorincz’s kitchen counter, but the gun used to shoot Owens was located in a bedroom trash can – underneath a second gun.

A deputy who transported Lorincz for questioning said she appeared to be indifferent to the shooting, as opposed to her hysterical 9-1-1 call made just a few minutes prior that was played in court multiple times Tuesday.

Body camera footage from a different deputy backed that assertion up.

Prosecutors also spent time going over Lorincz’s front door that Owens pounded on before she was shot. An investigator said she observed no damage to it or the deadbolt lock that it was equipped with and no signs Owens attempted to break the door down. In the final testimony of the day, Lorincz’s landlord called the door and the lock structurally sound.

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Prosecutors said they had a handful of witnesses to call Wednesday morning before handing the steering wheel over to the defense and indicated time would be spent on autopsy photos and further examination of the door.

Attorneys for Owens’ family later confirmed prosecutors backed off their plans to call Owens’ 10- and 13-year-old sons to testify, though they could still be called by the defense later in the week.

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