Judge will not reduce $2 million bail for Taylor Schabusiness in beheading case
GREEN BAY – A Green Bay woman charged with killing and decapitating a man in February 2022 was in court Tuesday for a hearing to address various motions filed by attorneys in the case, including a request for another competency examination and to reduce bail.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault for the February 2022 death of Shad Thyrion, 24, of Green Bay. She is accused of choking Thyrion to death with a metal chain and cutting off his head with a knife after the pair used methamphetamine and other drugs and had sex, police said.
At Tuesday's motion hearing, Brown County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Walsh ordered a Miranda-Goodchild evidentiary hearing take place June 13 to determine whether statements made in custody will be able to be brought up as evidence at trial.
He also denied the defense's motion to reduce Schabusiness' $2 million bail.
What other decisions were made at Tuesday's motion hearing?
Part of the Tuesday hearing addressed a motion Schabusiness' defense attorney, Christopher Froelich, filed Thursday requesting a court order to obtain records related to an approximately three-week stay Schabusiness spent at the Brown County Community Treatment Center in the spring of 2021.
Froelich said he believes he should be able to receive everything he needs once he sends in a release of information form that Schabusiness has signed off on, but said if the information they receive back from the records request does not contain a civil commitment order and the medication order, he said he would like Walsh to consider entering a court order so he can receive copies of those forms.
"I think she was ordered to take some psychotropic medications, and if she was under an order, I think that would be completely relevant to the issue of competency, mental health issues, and all that," Froelich said.
No decision was made Tuesday on whether Walsh will order another competency examination, because Froelich requested that decision get delayed until he receives the court orders from the Brown County Community Treatment Center.
At the hearing, Walsh went through a variety of motions that have been filed in the case — 18 by the defense and three filed by the prosecution. Some of the motions had already been addressed and some had not. There was some uncertainty around where the motions stood since Schabusiness changed attorneys in March, Walsh said.
What has happened so far in the case?
Schabusiness has had multiple competency hearings since her arrest in February 2022.
In March, Walsh ruled that Schabusiness was competent to stand trial. The decision was based on 2022 psychological examinations from the defense and prosecution.
Schabusiness' former attorney, Quinn Jolly, requested to withdraw from her case Feb. 14 after Schabusiness attacked him in the courtroom.
In April, Walsh rejected a defense motion to move the case out of Brown County because of the volume of media coverage the case has received. He said the case has been "fairly reported," and believes a fair and impartial jury can be selected from Brown County.
What comes next?
Next month's evidentiary hearing is set 8:30 a.m. June 13. He said it will run until the afternoon if necessary. No hearing dates before then have yet been set.
Schabusiness' trial is scheduled for July 17-28.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay judge won't lower bail in Taylor Schabusiness beheading case
