Schabusiness unfit to stand trial for killing, corpse mutilation, forensic psychologist tells judge
GREEN BAY - Accused killer Taylor Schabusiness began to use drugs when she was in fifth grade, imagined she was in a relationship with mass killer Jeffrey Dahmer and appeared to show signs she has "an active psychotic disorder" a psychologist testified Thursday in Brown County Circuit Court.
Diane Lytton, a forensic psychologist who examined the 25-year-old Green Bay woman at the request of her former defense lawyer, Quinn Jolly, and current defense lawyer, Christopher Froelich, told the court she believes Schabusiness is not fit to stand trial on charges she killed and sexually abused her friend, Shad Thyrion, 24, of Green Bay, after the pair had sex in the basement of the house Thyrion shared with his mother.
"Sometimes she seemed coherent and lucid," Lytton told Judge Tomas Walsh in court for an evidentiary hearing, but "sometimes she would stand up and scream. Sometimes she would hit her head." Lytton said Schabusiness has previously been prescribed anti-psychotic medication, but admitted to an evaluator that she would stop taking it.
Thursday was the first time there had been testimony from a psychologist who found Schabusiness was incapable of assisting in her own defense. A psychologist who had evaluated the woman on behalf of Caleb Saunders, a Brown County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, had concluded in 2022 Schabusiness was fit to stand trial.
Walsh did not rule Thursday on whether Schabusiness can stand trial. He indicated after the hearing that he expects to hear testimony from a prosecution psychologist before he rules whether Schabusiness can go to trial. A jury is scheduled to be selected July 21, with a trial beginning at 8:30 a.m. July 24.
Schabusiness is charged with homicide in the Feb. 23, 2022, killing of Thyrion. She also is charged with two other felonies – mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault. Green Bay police who interviewed Schabusiness after the killing said she admitted to having decapitated Thyrion and leaving his severed head in a bucket.
Email Doug Schneider at DSchneid@Gannett.com, call him at (630) 373-0799 and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Click to see the Green Bay Press Gazette's special offers at greenbaypressgazette.com/subscribe and download our app on the App Store or Google Play.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Psychologist: Schabusiness unfit for trial on homicide, mutilation
