A married woman accused of beheading her lover after choking him during drugged sex attacked her lawyer in court on Tuesday.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, jumped on her attorney, Quinn Jolly, in a courtroom in Greenbay, Wisconsin, around 8:48 a.m. and appeared to elbow Jolly in the head. However, the lawyer did not appear to suffer any injuries.
The altercation apparently came after a witness failed to show up to testify about Schabusiness’s mental state.
She is charged with first-degree manslaughter, mutilation of a corpse and third-degree sexual assault after the victim’s own mother discovered her son’s severed head in a bucket covered with a towel at her home.
According to police, Schabusiness admitted to performing oral sex and using a sex toy on her victim after she was dead. She has pleaded not guilty to a mental illness or defect.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, assaulted her attorney Quinn Jolly in court Tuesday
Schabusiness, pictured in a mugshot last year, is accused of beheading her lover after choking him during drug sex
The outbreak occurred during a trial to determine the suitability of Schabusiness.
Jolly was expected to present testimony from an expert witness in court on Tuesday, but instead told Judge Thomas Walsh the witness had not yet completed his report.
The attorney asked for two more weeks for this testimony.
Walsh reluctantly agreed to postpone the trial, which was originally scheduled for March 6, reports FOX 6, and had proposed a May 15 trial instead.
At this point, Schabusiness was caught on camera attacking Jolly.
Video from the Greenbay courtroom showed Schabusiness jumping out of her seat and attempting to grab Jolly’s arm before apparently hitting him on the head.
A Brown County sheriff’s officer quickly moved into action and took Schabusiness to the ground, struggling to keep her on the ground as she tried to wriggle out of his grasp.
“Stop,” the officer kept saying to Schabusiness as she tried to push free, wrapping her foot around a cord connected to his belt.
About a minute later, reports the Green Bay Press Gazette, a court official asked the hearing to vacate the courtroom, which was about a quarter full of media, other attorneys and a supporter of sha business.
Schabusiness returns to a Brown County courtroom on Tuesday
She sat next to her attorney, Quinn Jolly, during the court hearing before violently assaulting him
Three sheriff’s deputies eventually got Schabusiness to calm down and set her against a door
Meanwhile, two other sheriff’s deputies were seen attacking the 25-year-old and trying to speak to her calmly.
A woman who supports Schabusiness also tried to calm the accused down, according to the Gazette.
Together they can get Schabusiness to calm down and set her up against a door before leading her out.
When the court finally resumed about 10 minutes after the attack, Jolly informed a judge on the case that he intended to petition to be dismissed as a lawyer from Schabusiness.
The question of the legal capacity of Schabusiness was a central topic of their court proceedings
Shad Rock Thryion’s head was severed and left in a bucket for his mother to find
The issue of Schabusiness’s legal capacity has been a central theme of her court case since her arrest last year.
A court-hired expert had testified that she was able to assist in her own defense, but a defense-hired expert expressed doubts. However, he ventured no opinion as to whether it would be fair for Schabusiness to stand trial.
If found competent, the study will proceed as planned. However, if she is found unfit to stand trial, the case will be stayed as she receives additional psychiatric treatment.
Damn the head. I can’t believe I left the head
The alleged murderer Taylor Schabusiness
Schabusiness was arrested last year after Shad Rock Thyrion’s mother found his severed head in a bucket in her basement.
Police records show that 47-year-old Tara Pakanich called authorities to her home on the west side of Green Bay shortly after 3 a.m. on February 23.
She said she was awakened by the slamming of the storm door and the sound of a vehicle driving away. Then she noticed that the cellar light was on and went to see if her son was there, supposing it was Schabusiness – with whom Thyrion had spent the day – that she had heard was leaving.
According to the criminal complaint – which only refers to her by her initials – “TP went into the basement and didn’t see anyone, so she started walking up the stairs and that’s when she noticed a bucket on the bottom of the stairs.
“TP said she removed a blanket that was covering the bucket and discovered the victim’s head,” reads the complaint, seen by .
Thyrion’s mother told police that Schabusiness had picked up her son around 9:30 p.m. on February 21, the last time she saw him alive.
Pakanich and her boyfriend were out for most of the following day and she did not hear her son and Schabusiness return, but she thought they had spent the day in the basement when she heard Schabusiness’s voice.
Arriving at the scene, Green Bay Police Officer Alex Wanish reported how he “observed the plastic bucket on the ground…[with] a shower/beach towel over the bucket.” The officer “raised the towel and observed a human head in the bucket.”
He also noted “what appeared to be dried blood on a nearby mattress.”
It wasn’t long before the police caught up with Schabusiness. They found her with her sweatshirt and sweatpants still bloody, scratches on her arms, a cut on her left thumb and what appeared to be blood on her hands.
Police were called to the home on Stony Brook Lane in Green Bay around 3:25 a.m. on February 23 after the victim’s mother tripped over the bucket in her basement
Officers found the knives Schabusiness allegedly used in bags containing her victim’s organs
Schabusiness, who has a husband, Warren, and recently gave birth to a son, Mateo, admitted she knew Thyrion. The couple were also Facebook friends.
She claimed they had been on drugs earlier in the day – including smoking methamphetamine. She said she also shot herself and Thyrion with Trazadone, a powerful tranquilizer.
Police recovered evidence of drug use at the scene, including a glass pipe and a bag of light-colored powder.
When detectives learned that police had found Thyrion’s head in a bucket, Schabusiness replied, “That sucks.” And when asked what happened in the basement, she replied, “That’s a good question,” initially claiming that to have passed out.
Schabusiness, who has a husband, Warren (pictured together), and recently gave birth to son Mateo, admitted she knew Thyrion
She allegedly went on to tell police that she and Thyrion wanted to have sex and that he produced two metal chains, one for him and one for her. She said he put his chain around his own neck as they previously strangled during intercourse.
According to the ad, Schabusiness suddenly burst out: “Damn head. However, I can’t believe I left the head “before telling officers they’d have fun finding all the organs since she had dismembered the body”.
She told them most body parts were in the basement, but that “there should be a foot or a leg” in their minivan.
Schabusiness remained calm, allegedly telling detectives that after Thyrion put the chain around his neck – which she compared to a dog collar – she simply went “insane” and strangled him.
She said she felt his heart beating, “so she kept pulling and choking him harder,” and claimed that he wasn’t going to die as he was just “putting back into muscle.”
The woman then recounted how she sat on top of him, choking him as he lay face down on the bed and watching him cough up blood and “waiting for him to die”.
Eventually, she admitted, she knew he was dead as his face was purple and blood was coming out of his mouth. Still, she told detectives she was “ready to go” so she didn’t stop.
At one point, the lawsuit states, Schabusiness recalled, in a lower voice, “Yes, I liked it,” when discussing choking her victim.
When asked what she did when she realized he was dead, Schabusiness explained that she was “playing” with Thyrion’s body.
According to the complaint, “Schabusiness stated that she sucked on the victim’s penis, that she had a dildo that she put in the victim’s mouth and then into the victim’s penis.”
She said Thyrion fought back as she strangled him and went on to tell detectives that she decapitated and dismembered him with knives from Thyrion’s mother’s kitchen.
She told them they would find the knives she had used in the same black bags she had put the body parts in. Ultimately, she said, she preferred a bread knife because the serrated edge made it more effective for the grizzly task.
A criminal complaint says the mother-of-one has admitted to decapitating and dismembering the grizzly
Thyrion’s penis was found in the same bucket as his head, while other body parts were found in a variety of bags in the basement, including plastic grocery bags
Thyrion’s penis was found in the same bucket as his head, while other body parts were found in a variety of bags in the basement, including plastic grocery bags. His torso was found in a storage bag along with a carving knife and several internal organs.
His legs and other body parts were found in a crockpot box on top of a laundry basket of clothes in the rear passenger seat of their minivan.
Schabusiness told detectives that she had planned to take all of the body parts with her when she left in her minivan, but that she had “gone lazy” and ill-prepared because the murder was accidental and unplanned.
When asked if she believed what she did was the right thing to do, Schabusiness replied that she “did it anyway.”
Schabusiness remains in detention while hearings on her trial capacity continue. If convicted, she faces a life sentence.