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A woman who stabbed her new boyfriend to death more than 100 times in a “cannabis-induced psychosis” cried as she was found guilty of manslaughter.
Bryn Spejcher, 32, wept openly as the jury read its verdict on Friday, finding her guilty after less than four hours of deliberation for the murder of her partner Chad O’Melia in California in 2018.
He attacked O’Melia after taking two hits from his marijuana ‘bong’ – a smoking device – and, according to an expert witness, went into a violent frenzy in a ‘psychotic episode’ caused by the cannabis.
She testified during her trial last month that she began hearing voices moments after inhaling twice from the pipe and that she stabbed O’Melia to death before also stabbing herself in the face and attacking her dog.
Bryn Spejcher, 32, wept openly as the jury read its verdict on Friday, finding her guilty after less than four hours of deliberation of the murder of her partner Chad O’Melia in California in 2018.
The California woman brutally stabbed her new boyfriend Chad O’Melia (pictured) in 2018 after taking two hits from a ‘bong’, claiming she quickly went into a frenzy because she was suffering from ‘cannabis-induced psychosis’.
Spejcher’s conviction normally carries a sentence of about four years in state prison, however, she will return to court Monday to face hearings on four “enhancements” to her verdict that could cause it to be raised.
The hearings will determine charges of use of a deadly weapon and grand battery, which will be decided by a judge after she waived her right to a jury trial on the additional charges.
She will be free on bond until those hearings and left the courtroom with her family after Ventura County Judge Anthony Sabo denied a prosecutor’s motion to keep her in custody.
His trial focused on the influence marijuana may have had on his actions when he stabbed O’Melia, and he was said to have smoked marijuana only five to 10 times in his life, according to testimony.
On the night of May 27, 2018, she and O’Melia, an accounting student, had asked his girlfriend to come to their apartment he shared with two roommates.
After initially watching television, O’Melia asked him if he would like to try marijuana using his bong, the court heard last month.
O’Melia is said to have been a regular cannabis user, smoking or using a pipe most days.
Spejcher, an inexperienced user who claimed to have never experienced a “high,” took a few puffs and told O’Melia he didn’t feel anything.
This prompted him to respond with a promise to find her “something more intense,” according to local reports, and he filled the pipe with smoke before removing his hand and allowing Spejcher to inhale directly.
Prosecutors said she had an “immediate negative reaction” and was described as going to the bathroom in a panic, suffering blurred vision and feeling like she was dying.
She told investigators she then began hearing nightmarish voices in her head, telling her to start a fight, prompting Spejcher to grab three knives from a kitchen block and throw them at O’Melia.
“She thought she was dead,” prosecutor Nofzinger said. ‘She had an out-of-body experience.
‘He could see his own body and he could hear voices, emergency room doctors doing CPR on him, his family, other voices, unknown voices, telling him that to come back to life he would have to kill Chad O’Melia.’
Spejcher stabbed O’Malia more than 100 times throughout his body, leaving fatal wounds to his heart, lungs and vital arteries in his neck. He also attacked his dog, before using a bread knife to cut his face and neck in a crazy episode.
O’Melia and Spejcher initially bonded over their shared love of dogs and had only seen each other for several weeks before the attack occurred.
Spejcher stabbed him throughout his body, leaving fatal wounds to his heart, lungs and vital arteries in his neck.
Despite describing herself as a “dog lover” and holding up photographs of her dog during the trial, Spejcher later stabbed her dog. It is unclear if the dog survived the attack.
Spejcher also used an eight-inch bread knife to stab herself in the terrifying episode, plunging the blade into her face and neck as she crouched near O’Melia’s body.
Officers entered the scene and were only able to get her to drop the knife by hitting her nine times with their retractable steel baton, the VC Star reports.
While both Spejcher’s defense and the prosecution agreed that the stabbing was the result of marijuana intoxication, the prosecution described her as a party animal hoping to get high, while her defense argued that she was pressured into taking the drug and that It was involuntary.
Under California law, a person is held responsible for his or her actions when under the influence of drugs or alcohol, unless his or her intoxication was involuntary.
Spejcher, who describes herself as a “dog lover,” was seen sobbing while holding a photograph of the dog she brutally stabbed while allegedly suffering a psychotic episode at her trial last month.
The 32-year-old, a former audiologist, was initially charged with second-degree murder, but the charges were reduced to involuntary manslaughter after testimony from an expert witness who claimed the crimes were the result of a “cannabis-induced psychosis.”
While some argued that his actions were completely out of line, with one expert witness stating that it suggests the marijuana he inhaled was much stronger than other forms, O’Melia’s father disagreed.
After Spejcher’s lawyer argued that she did not want to smoke that night but Under pressure from O’Melia, his father Sean said she knew what she was doing and “brutally and prematurely” ended his son’s life.
Following his conviction, Sean O’Melia said he was grateful for the prosecution’s hard work, but would not call the verdict “justice.”
“I just want my son back and that’s not going to happen,” he told reporters outside the courtroom on Friday.
‘Ultimately, there are only people here who have suffered a loss. You can’t win here,” O’Melia said.
‘At the same time, I think the first shock for me and my family was the loss of our son, and the next thing that happened was what we had to go through listening to… all the derogatory comments about someone we had just lost. .’
The grieving father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spejcher in 2020, which has been on hold until his criminal proceedings are concluded.
Police arrived at Chad O’Melia’s apartment in May 2018 and found him with multiple stab wounds and his girlfriend, Bryn Spejcher, repeatedly stabbing herself.
This case echoes previous murders, in which the defendant is known to have used high-potency cannabis.
In 2014, a 50-year-old man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison after shooting his wife in the head at the couple’s home in Denver, Colorado.
Richard Kirk was initially charged with first-degree murder, which is premediated or deliberate, but the charge was dropped after the defense argued that marijuana, which Kirk used for back pain, had seriously impaired his judgment.
They also argued that he had suffered “involuntary intoxication” because he did not know he was at high risk for marijuana psychosis due to schizophrenia in his extended family.
In 2018, a Canadian from Ontario was sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing and beheading his father in front of his friends.
The court heard how Adam Kehl, then 31, was a heavy cannabis user but did not know the drug could trigger psychotic behaviour.
He pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter, which was brought after a psychiatrist said he was suffering from cannabis-induced intoxication.
At sentencing, he said in a statement: “I accept the consequences.” I understand the fact that my marijuana use was a key factor in what happened. I didn’t know that marijuana use could cause such a thing. If I had known, I would never have started.