Anthony Young sentenced to 40 years in brutal slaying of fiancé

TARRANT COUNTY (CBSNewsTexas) - A man who murdered his fiancé while high on methamphetamine and crack was sentenced to 40 years in prison. 

Anthony Shaw Young, 45, killed Laurel Schick on Jan. 23, 2021. Hurst police found the 65-year-old's badly beaten body in her apartment at the Arts at Park Place Apartments.

The couple met at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and had lived together for six months. They initially planned to get married the weekend of the murder.

Young's sister told police that the day after the homicide, he showed up at her house and mentioned that "Schick had passed out on the floor," before going to lay down to "sleep it off." She said he was high on drugs and told her he wasn't sure if Schick "was ok or not," according to the affidavit.

Schick's upstairs neighbor told police that she heard yelling on Jan. 23 coming from the victim's apartment. She also heard what sounded like tables and glass being thrown and broken around the apartment. The neighbor said the commotion stopped at 2 p.m. and Young left in Schick's car, not his truck. He also moved his truck before taking Schick's car and driving it to the dumpster, according to the neighbor. He then left in Schick's car.

One detective who responded to the scene described it as, "the aftermath of a very violent physical fight." Furniture was overturned, shattered and broken glass was everywhere as well as blood. Schick's body was underneath a couch; a blanket covering her face. Her throat was cut and she had large lacerations on her head and above her eye.

Violent, blunt force trauma to the head was Schick's cause of death, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner.

After Young's arrest, and during his interrogation, another detective remarked, "He appeared to have no sympathy, care or sadness in the fact that Schick was deceased."

During trial, Sam McElwee, one of Schick's sons, reminded Young of the last last time they spoke, when Young said he wanted to marry Schick. Sam said he only asked two things of him – to keep his mother safe and drug free.

"You lied on both," McElwee said. "You took an old woman and used her... beat the hell out of her."

Thomas McElwee, another son of Schick, told Young: "You stole so much from so many people. What did she do that was so bad that you had to bash her head in and cut her throat?"

A letter from Schick's younger brother, Paul, was read in court. He described his sister as having a "beautiful soul" and said his heart is broken.

"I ache inside that I was unable to protect her," he said.

Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Dylan Morgan and Allenna Bangs prosecuted this case. 

"I am happy to get justice for Laurie and her family," said Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Dylan Morgan. "This was a team effort."