NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Schabusiness, 28, arrived in a Wisconsin courtroom restrained and in a wheelchair surrounded by guards
- These precautions come after two previous incidents during which she attempted to physically attack her lawyer in court
- Schabusiness entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor charge following an attempted attack on a prison employee, and will be back for sentencing in December
Taylor Schabusiness entered a Wisconsin courtroom on Wednesday, Oct. 8, while restrained in handcuffs, shackles and a wheelchair.
This is now the second court hearing where Schabusiness has been subdued in this manner — a precaution that is being taken after she physically attacked her lawyers in court on two separate occasions.
In April, she had only been in court for a few minutes when she began to shout out indecipherable words and charged at her attorney.
Security managed to stop Schabusiness before she caused her lawyer any injury, and were likely already on high alert because she had done the same thing at a pretrial hearing in 2023. During that incident, Schabusiness was able to land a few punches on her lawyer before being taken down.
Schabusiness also had to wear a spit hood at one point during her criminal trial because she kept spitting out water while sitting at the defense table.
Unlike her previous court hearing in June, Schabusiness was not strapped into her chair in addition to being handcuffed and shackled.
Court TV also captured the moment when she flashed a “hang loose” gesture to the cameraman as a guard pushed her out of the courtroom on Wednesday. There were multiple guards around her at all times during the brief hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes.
The convicted murderer appeared before the judge after making a deal with prosecutors that saw her plead no contest to a reduced charge following an incident in which she allegedly assaulted a prison employee at the Taycheedah Correctional Facility.
That is the facility where Schabusiness is serving her life sentence after being convicted of murdering 25-year-old Shad Thyrion during a drug-fueled sexual encounter between the two.
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Schabusiness had been charged with felony battery, but that was reduced by prosecutors to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, according to her case file reviewed by PEOPLE.
The incident occurred in June 2024 while she was receiving treatment at the prison infirmary.
Schabusiness allegedly lunged and swung a metal tray at a prison employee while having a staple removed from her arm, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE. At the time, she said she could not remember what happened because of the pain she experienced while having the staple removed from her arm with a tweezer.
Initially she entered a not guilty plea, but changed that to no contest in court on Wednesday.
Schabusiness was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, rape and mutilation back in 2023.
She confessed to her crimes while speaking with the arresting officers from the Green Bay Police Department, saying that she began choking Thyrion during sexual intercourse which caused him to die.
Schabusiness said that she then proceeded to molest his corpse before decapitating the young man and dismembering his body. She told police she had scattered some of the body parts and had others in the car she had been driving that day.
Thyrion’s mother learned her son was dead when she went looking for him in the basement of her home and found his decapitated head in a cooler, according to the police report.
Despite her confession, Schabusiness entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity during her trial. The jury ultimately rejected that and found she was of sound mind at the time of the murder.
This latest charge, in which she is set to be sentenced in December, will not have much of an impact as Schabusiness was previously sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
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