NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Schabusiness fired her appellate attorney Gregory Petit and has missed the deadline to file her formal appeal after her 2023 murder conviction
- Two previous public defenders asked to withdraw as counsel to Schabusiness after she physically attacked them in court during pre-trial hearings
- The Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender now says they will no longer provide Schabusiness with legal counsel in an appellate filing obtained by PEOPLE
Taylor Schabusiness is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Shad Thyrion, whom she garroted and beheaded before dismembering his body and scattering his remains.
She is currently appealing that case while also facing criminal charges in a separate case after she allegedly attacked a prison nurse with a metal tray.
Her recent decision, however, to request the removal of the public defender representing her in one of these cases has left her without any representation in those proceedings after the Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender said they will no longer provide her with legal counsel, according to an appellate filing obtained by PEOPLE.
Schabusiness’ appellate attorney now becomes the fourth public defender to withdraw from one of her three cases.
Quinn Jolly, who initially represented Schabusiness during her murder trial, withdrew as her attorney after she attacked him in the courtroom during a pretrial hearing.
Curtis Julka, who initially represented Schabusiness during her current criminal trial involving allegations she attacked a prison nurse, withdrew as her attorney after she attacked him in the courtroom during a pretrial hearing.
And Christopher Froelich, who replaced Jolly after he stepped down, withdrew a few months after Schabusiness’ murder conviction and was replaced by Gregory Petit.
Schabusiness then fired Petit as her appellate attorney after he filed a no merit report, which said that his client’s conviction came after a fair investigation and trial, and that as a result there are no grounds on which they could launch a successful challenge to the ruling.
Petit maintains that Schabusiness both saw and approved of his decision to file the no merit report with the court.
As for her current criminal case involving the prison nurse, Froelich is working with Schabusiness once again after agreeing to replace Julka when he withdrew from the case.
Schabusiness will be back in court on June 6 for a sentencing hearing in that case after agreeing to a plea deal, according to court records.
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Petit first notified the court in March that he would be withdrawing as Schabusiness’ lawyer in the appellate case.
He wrote in his motion that he was withdrawing at the request of Schabusiness while also asking that the appeals court give her an extension of time to file the paperwork necessary to appeal her conviction while she retained new counsel.
The court granted that extension, and on May 14, Petit formally submitted a consent to withdraw filing signed by himself and Schabusiness which stated that he would no longer be representing the convicted murderer.
That filing also stated that the Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender would not be providing Schabusiness with any more lawyers.
“The defendant-appellant has been informed that the State Public Defender’s office will not be appointing successor counsel pursuant to their rules and that her options are, if the Court allows the withdrawal of counsel, to proceed on her own or to retain counsel of her own choosing,” Petit wrote in the filing.
Schabusiness did not retain counsel, however, or meet the extended May 14 filing deadline in the case, which likely means she can no longer appeal her murder conviction.
A jury convicted Schabusiness of murder, rape and mutilating a corpse in connection with the death of Thyrion in 2022.
The married mother-of-one told investigators with the Green Bay Police Department the two engaged in sexual intercourse after taking methamphetamine and she suddenly became violent and started to choke her lover.
Once he was dead, Schabusiness decapitated Thyrion, sexually assaulted his corpse and then dismembered his body with a “bread knife,” per the criminal complaint against her. His mother later found his head and genitalia in a bucket, according to the complaint.
Schabusiness never denied the allegations against her and did not take the stand in her defense, though she did enter a plea of “not guilty” by mental disease or defect.
The jury ultimately found that Schabusiness was of sound mind and sentenced her to life in prison.
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