Taylor Schabusiness to go on trial July 24 in homicide, beheading of Green Bay man
GREEN BAY - After delays because of a change in defense attorneys and a wait for the results of a psychological evaluation, the woman accused of killing and beheading a Green Bay man was ruled to be competent to stand trial.
Taylor D. Schabusiness, 25, of Green Bay is scheduled to go on trial July 24 in the Feb. 23, 2022, killing of Shad Thyrion, 24. Schabusiness is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault.
In Brown County Circuit Court on Friday, Matthew Siepel, a Milwaukee-based psychologist who evaluated Schabusiness for more than an hour in November and found her fit to stand trial, said he had not been asked to do further evaluation of her. Asked by Assistant District Attorney Caleb Saunders if he had learned anything about Schabusiness to change his belief that she was fit to stand trial, Siepel said he had not.
Defense lawyer Christopher Froelich then argued in support of a motion he filed Thursday asking Judge Thomas Walsh to allow a new or supplemental competency evaluation of Schabusiness, saying that Siepel's initial evaluation of the woman was months old.
Froelich also said the original evaluation was "stale" because it didn't take into account the "serious emotional outburst" Schabusiness had Feb. 14 when she attacked then-defense attorney Quinn Jolley in the courtroom before a sheriff's deputy tackled her and pinned her to the ground. The attack prompted Jolly to withdraw from the case, leading to the hiring of Froelich. Three deputies were stationed in the courtroom Friday.
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Walsh denied the request for a second evaluation.
"It is the view of this court that I'm not going to order another evaluation," he said. "I found the defendant competent (at a 2022 hearing), and I'm going to schedule a trial date."
The judge scheduled jury selection for the afternoon of July 21, and told attorneys to be in court at 8:15 a.m. July 24 prepared to begin the trial.
The two sides have until May 24 to file further motions in the case.
Green Bay police detectives have said that Schabusiness admitted that she and Thyrion smoked methamphetamine and shared the prescription anti-depressant trazodone before having sex in the basement of the home of a member of Thyrion's family. Detectives said in a criminal complaint that Schabusiness fatally strangled Thyrion with a chain Thyrion owned.
Email Doug Schneider at DSchneid@Gannett.com, call him at (920) 265-2070 and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Taylor Schabusiness to go on trial July 24 in homicide, beheading
