GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Taylor Schabusiness’ attorney has asked for next week’s sentencing to be postponed because he hasn’t had a chance to meet with her to review the pre-sentence report in the case and prepare for the hearing.
District Attorney David Lasee says prosecutors will oppose the motion. The state’s formal response has not been filed yet.
Schabusiness, 26, was convicted in late July of three charges for the murder, dismemberment, and sexual assault of Shad Thyrion at a Green Bay home in February 2022.
The first-degree intentional homicide conviction carries a mandatory life prison term, although Judge Thomas Walsh has the option to set a date when she could first ask for parole.
Sentencing is set for Tuesday morning.
Standard procedure in felony cases has the state Department of Corrections prepare what’s known as a “presentence report” which assesses the defendant and offers a sentencing recommendation.
Defense attorney Christopher Froelich filed a motion Friday, asking for the hearing to be postponed.
“I have carefully reviewed the PSI report independently, but I have not been able to review it with my client at the jail because of her status. I can advise the Court that defense counsel made several attempts to visit the defendant at the Brown County Jail and was advised that she is currently on observation and watch. I have not been allowed to meet with her at the jail because of her current status,” he wrote.
Froelich was preparing an alternate PSI, but the author of that report has also been unable to meet with Schabusiness, he said.
It is not known if Judge Walsh will address the motion before Tuesday, or wait for the scheduled hearing. Online court records show the sentencing as the next hearing in the case.
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.
Schabusiness pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease. A jury convicted her, and rejected the so-called insanity plea soon after.
