William Schmaus, a 51-year-old White male, spent the afternoon of November 15, 2016 doing what he always did—working with his hands at an auto dealership and repair shop off East 74th Avenue near Old Seward Highway in Anchorage. Just after 3 p.m., a man who knew the shop's owner walked in. In a moment that witnesses later struggled to explain, the visitor raised a handgun and shot the mechanic where he stood. First responders could not save him; the 51-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooter fled on foot into the neighborhood grid, but patrol units converged quickly. Within minutes, officers found a suspect roughly two blocks from the shop and took him into custody. He declined to make a statement, and detectives began piecing together how a routine workday had curdled into a killing with no immediate, obvious motive. Early accounts identified the suspect as 26-year-old Trevon Allridge, described by witnesses as an acquaintance who had visited the garage many times before. He was booked without bail on counts of first- and second-degree murder.
In the days that followed, a grand jury indicted Allridge on murder and theft charges; prosecutors said the theft count stemmed from his possession of a stolen handgun used in the shooting. One witness told investigators he heard the gunshot, saw the 51-year-old mechanic collapse, and then saw the gun being tucked away as the assailant left. Court officials set bail at $1 million, underscoring the gravity of the case that had jolted South Anchorage.
Years later, the criminal case reached its conclusion in an Anchorage courtroom. In August 2020, Allridge pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. On April 12, 2021, Superior Court Judge Kevin M. Saxby imposed a composite sentence that will keep him imprisoned for decades: 45 years to serve for the murder, with additional suspended time and probation, plus consecutive time for unrelated 2016 offenses. In explaining the punishment, the judge characterized the 2016 killing of the 51-year-old mechanic as “akin to an execution,” a stark coda to a crime that began in a familiar workplace and ended with a swift arrest and, ultimately, a long sentence.
