Here is unclose of trunk. I tried pruning some, but did not want to severely prune as I really don't know what I am doing. Thanks for suggestions!

Heres another angle.

free doesn not make a plant valuable ...

personally;. i would get rid of it.. and spend $20 on a quality replacement ...

first.. what your goal??? blocking the site of the house behind... if so ... you are extremely limited on what you can do with it ...

i would plant two other plants.. one each side of it ... and get them growing... so that i could plan on getting rid of this one in 3 to 5 years ...

though in theory.. it might be able to be pruned into some shape.. the issue is how many decades .... and whether you want to look at it for that long ... and that avoids the structural problems ..

as a side note ... i wouldnt be surprised.. if it doesnt get damaged in a wind storm.. now that the other plant is gone ... its not used to being free standing ...

sooo... lets start by identifying the goals you have ... beyond the stated one ...

ken

You can prune Taxus baccata as heavily as you want as it will regrow from old wood. In fact now that you've opened up the light it will probably sprout all over. Take it back to whatever rough shape you want (screening/form) and in few years it will have filled in. The lower foliage in your middle picture will start to accelerate. You already have a mature shape that starting over completely would take as much time to reach the same height so it all depend how much you want thick lower growth or the current higher screening form that can planted below with maybe shrubby golden taxus forms (semperaurea/summergold etc.)