GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Taylor Schabusiness’ attorney wants a jury from outside Brown County to hear the murder, decapitation, and sexual assault case.
Schabusiness, 25, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault for allegedly attacking Shad Thyrion last year. She has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. She is scheduled to stand trial July 21.
Her attorney, Christopher Froelich, filed a motion with the court saying “a fair and impartial trial cannot be held in Brown County, Green Bay, Wisconsin, due to substantial pre-trial publicity and other factors.”
Froelich listed more than two dozen examples of media coverage of the case, arguing it goes well beyond typical pre-trial coverage.
“The pretrial publicity in this case and editorial comment – its quantity, frequency, prominence, content and details have so prejudiced the defendant’s right to secure a fair and impartial trial so as to require a change” in either the place of trial or jury source, Froelich wrote.
If granted, the court usually consider two options: picking a jury in another county but still holding the trial in Green Bay, or moving the entire trial to another county. The former is typically chosen because it is more convenient for the parties and witnesses, but is not always the option selected.
Prosecutors have not replied to the motion. No hearing date has been set before Judge Thomas Walsh.
