The California woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend over 100 times while suffering from “cannabis-induced” psychosis was sentenced last month to probation, CBS News reported.
Bryn Spejcher, 32, of Thousand Oaks, was convicted in December of involuntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her boyfriend Chad O’Melia on May 27, 2018.
In a statement announcing her conviction, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said Spejcher had been smoking marijuana with O’Melia in his apartment when she suffered an “adverse reaction” that led to a psychotic episode in which she repeatedly stabbed both herself and O’Melia.
Police officers responding to the scene found O’Melia’s body lying in a pool of blood with Spejcher holding a long, serrated knife in her hands and “screaming hysterically.” Before officers could disarm Spejcher, she plunged the knife into her neck. The officers were forced to use a stun gun and their batons on Spejcher to subdue her long enough to disarm her.
In a January 23 sentencing hearing, Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley spared Spejcher from prison, sentencing her instead to two years probation.
The Ventura County Star reported that Spejcher reacted to the sentence with tears of relief.
However, the sentence prompted a rebuke from the victim’s father Sean O’Melia who accused the judge of setting a dangerous precedent, arguing that Judge Worley had given every pot smoker in California “a license to kill someone,” the Ventura County Star reported.
On the day before sentencing, friends and family of Chad O’Melia turned up outside the county government center where the hearing was to take place, holding signs calling on Judge Worley to “do the right thing.” One sign read, “108 Stab Wounds is a Serious Crime.”
Spejcher’s defense attorney Bob Schwartz told reporters that they were pleased with the sentence. Schwartz said the judge had done “the right and courageous thing.”
