The trial of a Georgia man accused of killing his neighbors in 2021 began Monday in Cobb County. Matthew Scott Lanz is charged with murdering Timothy Justin Hicks, a Cherokee County firefighter, and his wife Amber Hicks inside their home, leaving the couple’s toddler alive but alone for roughly 12 hours.
Prosecutors presented surveillance footage they say shows Lanz leaving the Hickses’ home and driving back to his apartment in Athens. The next morning, police responded to a 911 call from a family member and discovered the couple’s 2-year-old hiding in the house, covered in blood.
Lanz was arrested on November 19, 2021, in Fulton County—one day after the killings—after authorities say he stabbed a Sandy Springs police officer who was investigating a burglary call. According to investigators, Lanz repeatedly stabbed the officer in the back and neck before officers shot him twice, injuring him.
The Acworth man faces charges including malice murder and 12 additional counts, among them child cruelty. His trial was delayed for years due to disputes over his mental competency. A judge ruled in October that proceedings could move forward, noting that Lanz appeared capable of rational decision-making despite a few minor outbursts.
During opening statements, Lanz’s defense team argued that he believes he was “set up by either the FBI, CIA, or some government agency.”
A history of violence within the family
Months before the killings, Lanz’s brother, Austin William Lanz, fatally stabbed a Pentagon police officer before shooting himself with the officer’s gun.
Austin Lanz had previously been arrested in April 2021 after breaking into a home that shared a backyard fence with his own. That home, the scene of what the owner described as a long campaign of harassment, was sold later that year to the Hicks family.
