The California woman who was convicted of killing her boyfriend by stabbing him 108 times during a “cannabis-induced psychosis” received a slap on the wrist Tuesday.
Bryn Spejcher, 33, was sentenced to two years’ probation and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service after being found guilty of killing her new boyfriend, Chad O’Melia, according to the Ventura County Star.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley ruled that Spejcher “had no control over her actions” when she entered into a psychotic episode and stabbed O’Melia, 26, repeatedly in his Thousand Oaks apartment on May 28, 2018.
Experts for the prosecution and defense both found that the marijuana bong hit given to Spejcher threw the woman into the deadly psychotic episode.
“From that point forward, she had no control over her actions,” Worley said, according to the outlet.
Spejcher and O’Melia had been seeing each other for a few weeks before she brutally murdered the 26-year-old accountant.
After Spejcher had killed O’Melia, law enforcement found the woman covered in blood, hysterically crying next to her boyfriend’s body, still gripping the knife.
She then plunged the knife into her throat when police attempted to disarm her.
Spejcher, who turned 33 last Thursday, also stabbed her dog during the rampage, according to the outlet.
O’Melia was pronounced dead at the scene.
Spejcher’s lawyers had argued that their client — who was an inexperienced pot smoker — became “involuntarily intoxicated” at the time of the killing after O’Melia had pressed her to take another bong hit after not getting high off the first hit, the outlet reported in December.
She had an immediate adverse reaction to the second hit and had to go to the bathroom in a panic before carrying out the killing.
Under California law, a person is seen as responsible for their actions when impaired by drugs or alcohol unless their intoxication is involuntary.
Jurors took less than four hours to find Spejcher guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
During Tuesday’s sentencing, Spejcher sobbed in court as she apologized to the father of the victim, Sean O’Melia.
“My actions have ripped your family apart,” she said, according to the outlet. “I am broken and aching inside. I hurt that you never see Chad again.”
Spejcher, who was painted by the prosecution as a party girl who just wanted to get high the night she killed O’Melia, was portrayed in a different light by her father during the sentencing hearing.
“She has worked her whole life helping others,” said Mike Spejcher, who also made a note of his daughter’s hearing impairment and her work as a licensed audiologist before the killing.
Chad O’Melia’s father, Sean, accused Worley of being biased and claimed following his ruling that the judge set a dangerous precedent.
“He just gave everyone in the state of California who smokes marijuana a license to kill someone,” the grieving father said.
“There is no winner in this tragedy,” said Brendan O’Melia, the victim’s uncle. “There can be, however, accountability.”
Spejcher’s lawyer, Bob Schwartz, called Worley’s ruling against his client the “right and courageous thing.”
