A Waco man received a 55-year prison sentence Monday in a plea deal in the 2020 murder of his 21-year-old girlfriend whom he had previously abused.
Michael Matthew Howard Jr., 22, was set to go to trial this week on a capital murder charge in the 54th State District Court but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors.
Judge Susan Kelly sentenced Howard for fatally shooting SaKyra Antwanette Young on Aug. 14, 2020, following a car crash in the 3100 block of North 29th Street, court records show.
The arrest affidavit against Howard in Young’s murder states that a witness who knew Howard and Young saw Howard carry his injured girlfriend away from a car wreck near the witness’s home.
The witness helped lower Young to the ground, the affidavit says. The witness told the detective, “(T)he very next thing that happened was for Michael Howard to pull a gun out and say he did not trust this and shot SaKyra Young in the head,” the affidavit says.
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At the time of the shooting, Howard was free on probation in a felony domestic assault case in which he had received deferred adjudication for choking Young.
Prosecutors had upgraded the murder charge to capital murder on the grounds that he killed Young in retaliaton.
Howard’s attorney, Russ Hunt Sr., could not be reached by phone or email Monday afternoon.
Young’s mother, LaToya Wells spoke with the Tribune-Herald on Monday evening a few hours after the sentencing.
“He’s guilty on so many more things than just what he did Aug. 14, (2020), Wells said. “He’s guilty of killing her from the inside out. She was just surviving while they were together.”
Wells said her daughter’s relationship with Howard had been bad from the beginning.
“SaKyra just got wrapped up and she was just so far in, that he (Howard) wasn’t going to let her just break up with him,” Wells said. “He killed her while she was trying to get away.”
Wells said no number of years on a sentence would make her happy or satisfy her.
“I understand that there’s a legal system,” Wells said. “You can’t bring her back. I got the highest that I could in the whole back and forth.”
Wells said the lead prosecutor in the case, with whom she talked about the case for two years, moved to another county just a few days before the trial was set to start.
“I had to decide whether I wanted someone, with just a few days on the case to prosecute, or whether I would make a deal,” Young’s mother said.
Wells said that she and Young’s siblings are “over the hate and the hurt,” but also said she can’t forgive Howard.
“Maybe someday, but not now,” she said.
Howard’s sentence of 55 years for murder will run concurrently with the 10 years he received when Kelly revoked the probation for choking Young and found him guilty in that case on March 11, 2021, court records show.
Wells and others established the Forever Young Scholarship in Young’s name and hope to raise awareness about domestic violence, the Tribune-Herald reported in September 2020.
In March 2021, the Tribune-Herald reported Judge Thomas West of 19th State District Court sentenced Howard’s father, Michael Matthews Howard, Sr., 40, to 12 years in prison after the older Howard pleaded guilty to assault family violence by occlusion with a prior assault family violence conviction. The older Howard also was sentenced to three 10-year prison terms following his guilty pleas to three counts of attempted sexual assault of a child.