California woman gets probation, community service for stabbing man to death 100+ times

VENTURA, CA— Bryn Spejcher, 32, of Thousand Oaks, CA was sentenced to community service and two years of probation after she stabbed her date, 26-year-old Chad O’Melia, to death in his apartment before stabbing herself.

Reports indicate that Spejcher and O'Melia had been seeing each other for about two weeks before the two smoked marijuana together at his apartment on May 27, 2018. Shortly after, Spejcher would attack O'Melia and stab him some 108 times with various blades before repeatedly stabbing herself. 

According to KTLA, the court determined that Spejcher suffered an adverse effect from the marijuana after taking several bong-hits and allegedly suffering from "Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Disorder," according to the authorities. Officials said that in the grip of a psychotic break, she repeatedly stabbed O'Melia before stabbing herself. O'Melia died at the scene.

The next morning (hours after her initial attack), police were summoned to the apartment and found the young man dead in a pool of his own blood. They were also confronted with Spejcher bleeding from her own wounds and still brandishing a knife screaming incoherently. When officers approached to disarm the woman, she turned the knife on herself driving it into her neck.

Police told reporters, "Officers used a taser and several baton blows before they were able to finally disarm Spejcher. A long-serrated bread knife was taken from her hands."

Since her arrest, Spejcher was released on bail pending her trial which concluded in December. Shane O’Melia, the victim's brother, observed, "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."

Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Audry Nafziger said the facts of the case are "things everyone agrees on." She added, "What we don’t agree on is that she should have walked free today after doing what she did."

As reported by The Ventura Star, Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley said that his ruling, reducing Spejchers sentence from four years to parole and community service, was based upon a lack of culpability. He asserted that the "senseless" killing of O'Melia was the result of a psychotic episode brought on by marijuana use. “From that point forward, she had no control over her actions,” Worley said.

Spejcher’s legal team claimed that she was "involuntarily intoxicated," and claimed that he victim had pressured and intimidated her into taking the last bong hit before she attacked him. As observed by the Star, "Under California criminal law, people are responsible for their actions when impaired by alcohol or drugs unless their intoxication was involuntary."

The jury took only four hours to deliberate before rejecting this defense out of hand, finding her guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The victims' father Sean O’Melia told the outlet that Worley had set a dangerous precedent. "He just gave everyone in the state of California who smokes marijuana a license to kill someone,” he said.