Inset: Zaria Owens (Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office). Background: The apartment complex where Owens shot and killed a man in Spartanburg, S.C. (Google Maps).
A South Carolina woman will spend over two decades behind bars for shooting and killing her boyfriend in front of her toddler son.
On Thursday, Zaria Aiyanna Owens, 25, was found guilty by a jury of her peers in Spartanburg County on counts of voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime over the August 2023 death of 21-year-old Tyquirez Rashad Sims.
In turn, the defendant was sentenced to 21 years in prison on the voluntary manslaughter charge. She was also sentenced to five years in prison for the weapon possession charge, which the court assessed to run concurrently, or at the same time.
The underlying incident occurred outside an apartment complex on College Pointe Lane in Spartanburg – a medium-sized city located roughly 30 miles northeast of Greenville.
Just before 9 p.m., Owens and Sims were arguing.
Prosecutors said the couple had been living together but the man was making the woman move out, a friend told investigators, according to a courtroom report by Spartanburg-based CBS affiliate WSPA.
As the argument progressed, Sims realized Owens had taken his gun and phone, so the man followed the woman 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."