A California woman who stabbed her date to death while high on marijuana has been sentenced to just community service and probation.
On May 27th of 2018, Thousand Oaks resident Bryn Spejcher, 32, went to the apartment of her date, Chad O’Melia, 26, whom she’d been seeing for about two weeks.
There the two smoked marijuana, at which point Spejcher allegedly suffered a psychotic break known as cannabis-induced psychotic disorder.
“During that psychotic break, she stabbed O’Melia [108] times [with different knives], eventually killing him. She also stabbed herself repeatedly,” according to local station KTLA.
“The next morning, officers arrived at the apartment to find O’Melia in a pool of blood and Spejcher screaming hysterically while still holding a knife in her hands. As officers tried to disarm her, Spejcher plunged the knife into her neck,” the station reported Tuesday.
The officers were then forced to use a taser and batons to disarm her and remove a “long-serrated bread knife” from her hands.
O’Melia was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene, whereas Spejcher has been out on bail since the killing.
“It’s been five and a half years where she has got to live with her family and we get to live with a box of ashes,” O’Melia’s brother, Shane O’Melia, told the station.
That was all expected to change on Tuesday, the day of Spejcher’s sentencing for involuntary manslaughter.
Friends and family of Chad O’Melia—who was stabbed to death May 28, 2018—protest outside the #VenturaCounty Superior Court ahead of tomorrow’s sentencing.
Convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Bryn Spejcher faces up to four years in prison. pic.twitter.com/I2rUQj3VSW
— Makena Huey (@MakenaHuey) January 22, 2024
But though she’d been looking at four years in prison, the judge decided to give her a slap on the wrist, further outraging O’Melia’s family.
“Bryn Spejcher was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and no prison time. … The sentence also includes 100 hours of community service focused on raising awareness about the effects of marijuana-induced psychosis,” according to the Ventura County Star.
“Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley said his decision was based on the lack of culpability, asserting the ‘senseless’ killing early the morning of May 28, 2018, was propelled by the psychotic episode that experts for the prosecution and defense attributed to the bong hits of marijuana Spejcher and O’Melia smoked,” the paper reported.
“From that point forward, she had no control over her actions,” Worley claimed before announcing the paltry sentence.
Following the verdict, O’Melia’s father, Sean, reportedly accused Worley of bias and warned that his ruling set a dangerous precedent.
“He just gave everyone in the state of California who smokes marijuana a license to kill someone,” he rightly noted.
During her sentencing hearing this morning in Ventura Co Superior Court, Bryn Spejcher was sentenced to 2 years probation and no jail time. A jury found Spejcher guilty of involuntary manslaughter last month. @TOAcornNews pic.twitter.com/f8jWjwj6cw
— Michael Coons (@Michael_Coons) January 24, 2024
KTLA legal analyst Alison Triessl seemed to mostly concur.
“Does it set a precedent? I don’t know if does, but it’s certainly a case that defense counsels will cite when asking for probation in a case like this,” she said.
As for why the judge made such an outrageous decision, Triessl attributed it to several factors.
““He took into account her lack of criminal record, her professional standing in the community and that she did in fact suffer from severe psychosis at the time of the killing and really did not know what she was doing,” she said.
Not much is known about O’Melia other than what the Ventura Star reported.
“He was from Santa Clarita and had graduated from Chico State University. He lived in a condo in Thousand Oaks with two roommates and his dog and was working at an accounting firm and studying to be a certified public accountant,” according to the paper.
“He was kind, motivated and everybody’s friend. He owned a laugh that drew people to him, friends and family members said during the sentencing. They talked too about Michelle Larrivee, Chad’s mother who died in a diabetic coma less than two years after her son’s death. Her friends said the death was caused by a broken heart.”
Responding to Spejcher’s paltry sentence, members of the public have been crying foul, with some also disputing the claim that her marijuana smoking had anything to do with the killing.
Look:
Ridiculous, cannabis does not cause this. #reefermadness
— Johnny Zohar (@SexyJC8675309) January 24, 2024
She might have stabbed her date 100 times, but I’m not buying weed had anything to do with it.
Weed is a depressant and really does not affect the mind in that manor.
— CMuirhead (@CMuirhead24) January 24, 2024
This will get over turned.
They can’t have this. Criminals everywhere will get off by claiming they were high
— Richard T Murtagh (@RichardTMurtagh) January 24, 2024
There is absolutely no way in the world unless it was either laced or was the synthetic K2 garbage which actually does induce psychosis in people occasionally. It’s called spiceophrenia. I’ve known someone who was hospitalized 30 days from that. Weed, from the ground? No.
— WildlyNormal (@WildlyNormal) January 23, 2024
Marijuana smokers: pic.twitter.com/9M1Fxy353t
— East Coast Overdose (@ZeppelinSb) January 23, 2024
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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