Taylor Schabusiness, left, looks at her attorney, Christopher Froelich, as he requests a new competency evaluation for Schabusiness and delay of her trial July 6, 2023, in Brown County court. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Murder and dismemberment suspect Taylor Schabusiness will get a new mental competency evaluation, but her trial will not be delayed — at least, not yet.
Judge Thomas Walsh on Thursday granted a defense motion for a new competency evaluation. Earlier this week, defense attorney Christopher Froelich filed a psychologist’s report saying Schabusiness was not competent to proceed to trial. Since all previous evaluators had ruled Schabusiness competent, Walsh granted the request for a new evaluation. He said the Wisconsin Forensic Unit told his office that a report could be prepared before the trial is set to begin July 21, so Walsh denied the request to delay the trial — as long as Schabusiness is ruled competent.
He had this warning for attorneys:
You may find out hours before jury selection is to start that you’re going forward. So I need to advise everybody: I’m not going to hear a motion that ‘I need an adjournment because I thought you were going to find her incompetent and I didn’t prepare for trial.’ That’s going to be an unacceptable basis for an adjournment.
Walsh scheduled a hearing for next Thursday for the defense’s psychologist to testify. She will also be allowed to give rebuttal testimony to the state’s evaluation.
Schabusiness, 25, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault for allegedly attacking Shad Thyrion last year.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a residence on Stony Brook Lane early in the morning of Feb. 23, 2022. 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.
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