FORT WORTH, Texas — A 45-year-old North Texas man was sentenced 40 years after he pleaded guilty last month to murdering his 65-year-old girlfriend in 2021.
Officials said Anthony Shaw Young and Laurel Schick met through Narcotics Anonymous and had been engaged before calling off the wedding. According to the Tarrant County District Attorney, Schick was running out of money after the two used much of what she had to buy illegal drugs.
The weekend they initially planned to marry turned violent, officials said. Neighbors at their Hurst apartment complex said they heard yelling and the sound of glass and tables being broken.
Police responded to the apartment complex on Jan. 25, 2021 for a welfare check, where officers found broken furniture and glass, as well as Schick's bruised and bloody body under a couch.
Sam McElwee, one of Schick's sons, said the last time he spoke to Young, he asked only two things of Young:
- To keep his mother safe
- To keep her drug-free
"You lied on both," McElwee said. "You took an old woman and used her ... beat the hell out of her."
Another one of Schick's sons, Thomas McElwee, 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. In the letter, he described his sister as a "beautiful soul" and said his heart is broken.
"I ache inside that I was unable to protect her," Paul said.
The county district attorney thanked the Hurst Police Department and Detective K. Meador for their work on the case.
“I am happy to get justice for Laurie and her family,” ACDA Dylan Morgan said. “This was a team effort.”
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