Inset: Zaria Owens (Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Spartanburg, South Carolina, apartment complex where Owens fatally shot a man (Google Maps).
A South Carolina woman has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison after she shot and killed her boyfriend while her toddler son was present.
Zaria Aiyanna Owens, 25, was convicted Thursday by a Spartanburg County jury of voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with the August 2023 death of 21-year-old Tyquirez Rashad Sims.
The judge ordered Owens to serve 21 years behind bars for the voluntary manslaughter conviction. She also received a five-year sentence on the weapons charge, but that term will run concurrently, meaning it will be served at the same time as the longer sentence.
The fatal shooting happened outside an apartment complex on College Pointe Lane in Spartanburg, a mid-sized city about 30 miles northeast of Greenville.
Authorities said Owens and Sims were arguing shortly before 9 p.m.
Prosecutors told the court the couple had been living together, but Sims was forcing Owens to move out, according to what a friend told investigators, Spartanburg-based CBS affiliate WSPA reported.
As the confrontation escalated, Sims discovered that Owens had taken his gun and cellphone, prompting him to follow her to her car.
Things spiraled outside that night. Owens pointed the man’s own gun at him, so Sims went back inside the apartment, retrieved the defendant’s 3-year-old son, and took the boy over to the mother’s car so she would leave, the state told the jury.
Then, Owens raised her arm toward Sims, another witness told investigators. This was the gun being aimed and fired.
The woman then got her son and fled the scene in her car.
Police found the vehicle at an apartment complex later on. Owens would turn herself in to police the next morning.
During a custodial interview, the defendant initially tried to claim self-defense.
Owens eventually settled on a version of events where she was reaching for her son when she saw Sims push the child toward her, causing the toddler to stumble. Then, Owens admittedly picked up the gun and shot Sims.
First responders found the victim dead at the scene. He had been shot once in the head. Prosecutors said the weapon was fired while Sims was on the curb – several feet away from the shooter.
Authorities also confirmed that the defendant’s child had not been injured in any way from when he allegedly stumbled.
At the time of the incident, Sims had recently fathered a child of his own – a 6-month-old. The slain man’s family was said to be close-knit.
“Tyquirez had a loving family and had become a father several months before his death,” Deputy Solicitor Spenser Smith said. “This is a tragic case of domestic violence that has impacted two families and two young children,” Smith added. “Ms. Owens killed Tyquirez Sims in front of her son and now that child will grow up without his mother.”
