A married American woman accused of strangling her lover during sex before beheading him and molesting his corpse attacked her lawyer yesterday, with the moment captured on cameras in a Wisconsin courtroom.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, lunged at her lawyer, Quinn Jolly, at around 8.48am on Tuesday morning during a hearing to determine whether she has the mental capacity to stand trial.
The defendant’s violent outburst occurred after it was announced to the court by her lawyer that the expert who had been assigned to assess her psychological state would need more time to complete his report.
VIDEO: Taylor Schabusiness attacks her attorney during a court hearing on her murder and dismemberment case. https://t.co/arjLC8qZoe pic.twitter.com/AY063QKsV7
— WLUK-TV FOX 11 (@fox11news) February 14, 2023
Jolly asked for a two-week adjournment for the expert’s testimony and the judge agreed, suggesting that the date of the new hearing be moved from March to May.
That’s when Schabusiness jumped out of her chair and attacked her lawyer, first trying to grab his arm before punching him in the head.
The guards’ intervention was immediate.
They managed to immobilise the 25-year-old, who was struggling to escape from them, and gradually persuaded her to calm down.
When they succeeded, she was taken out of the courtroom.
Ten minutes after the attack, when the hearing resumed, Jolly informed the court of his decision to resign from defending Schabusiness.
The question of whether Schabusiness is mentally competent to stand trial has occupied Wisconsin legal authorities since her arrest last year.
An expert hired by the court to evaluate her testified that she has the capacity to defend herself at trial, but the expert hired by the defense side expressed doubts and called for further testing.
Schabusiness is charged with first-degree murder, dismemberment of a corpse and third-degree sexual assault.
The chronicle of the horrific crime
The 25-year-old was arrested last year, hours after the mother of Shad Rock Thyrion – Schabusiness’ lover – discovered her son’s severed head in a bucket in her basement.
The gruesome discovery was made at 3 a.m. on Feb. 23. When the victim’s devastated mother spoke to authorities, she informed them that the last person she had seen her son alive with was Schabusiness.
Police quickly located the married woman, who was having an extramarital affair with young Thyrion, and her picture was revealing: her sweatshirt and pants were still stained with blood, her hands were covered in scratches and her left thumb had a deep cut.
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She reportedly admitted to police officers that she choked her lover with a chain that they used during sex to suffocate each other during the act.
She claimed to police officers that she “lost it” while having sex with Thyrion and got the urge to strangle him. After trying for a long time to end his life, she finally achieved her goal.
The abuse didn’t stop there, however, as the woman molested her victim after his death, putting his genitals in her mouth and inserting sex toys into his body.
Authorities then believe she decapitated and dismembered the body with knives taken from Thyrion’s mother’s kitchen.
“I enjoyed it,” the 25-year-old woman, who remains uncertain whether or not she will ultimately be deemed mentally competent to stand trial for her horrific crime, allegedly told police at the time.
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