Schabusiness adds insanity plea in killing, dismemberment
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WLUK) -- Taylor Schabusiness added a plea Thursday of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect for allegedly killing, dismembering, and sexually assaulting Shad Thyrion. Her trial was postponed indefinitely.
She is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault. Schabusiness had been scheduled to stand trial Oct. 24, but that was canceled Thursday.
“We don’t believe the trial date is realistic,” said defense attorney Quinn Jolly.
With the addition of the so-called insanity plea, Judge Thomas Walsh ordered a psychiatric exam to determine if there is support for the mental disease plea.
The parties will return to court Oct. 3 to review the psychiatric issues. No trial date has been scheduled.
If the case goes to trial, a jury would first be asked to determine if Schabusiness is guilty of the crimes charged. If she is convicted, the same jury would hear a second phase of the trial to determine if she should be held responsible for the crime based on her mental condition. If the jury holds her culpable, she would be sentenced to prison. If it determines she suffers from a mental disease or defect which rendered her unable to tell right from wrong, she would be committed to a secure mental health facility.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a residence on Stony Brook Lane early in the morning of Feb. 23. There, police found a severed head inside a bucket in the basement.
Schabusiness said she and the victim were using drugs, including meth, and engaging in sexual play, when the man was strangled. She then sexually abused him, dismembered the body, and placed body parts in various locations in the home and a vehicle, the criminal complaint states.
"Schabusiness made the comment that at one point, she did get paranoid and lazy and that she thought it was the 'dope' that was making her paranoid," the complaint states.
Police say they took Schabusiness into custody later on Feb. 23 at an Eastman Avenue residence.
Schabusiness removed an electronic monitoring bracelet hours before the murder, according to the sheriff's department. A warrant was issued for her arrest, but she was not located before allegedly killing Thyrion.
She is being held on a $2 million cash bond.
