A California judge ruled this week that a 32-year-old Ventura County woman will not serve prison time, following an involuntary manslaughter conviction.
According to Fox News Digital, Bryn Spejcher was convicted in December of involuntary manslaughter, but due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley ruled Spejcher to serve two years on probation.
The incident occurred in May 2018 when Spejcher fell into a reported drug-induced psychosis after smoking marijuana. During this episode, she stabbed her boyfriend, identified as 26-year-old Chad O’Melia, 108 times. The stabbing unfolded overnight at O’Melia’s apartment in Thousand Oaks.
Despite protests from the victim’s family, a murder charge was downgraded to involuntary manslaughter after the court learned that the defendant had a “cannabis-induced psychotic disorder” when the killing occurred.
In a statement last month, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said that responding officers found “O’Melia in a pool of blood and Spejcher screaming hysterically with a knife still in her hands.”
“Before law enforcement could disarm her, Spejcher plunged the knife into her own neck. Officers used a taser and several baton blows before they were able to finally disarm Spejcher.”
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In a 37-page report submitted to the court, Kris Mohandie, the state-appointed forensic psychologist, wrote that Spejcher displayed a demeanor described as “possessed,” evidenced in police bodycam footage. Mohandie noted that Spejcher’s act of stabbing her dog, despite lacking any prior evidence of animal cruelty, was inconsistent with her known love for animals.
Spejcher then slashed her own neck using a serrated bread knife, ultimately cutting her jugular vein. While drenched in blood, police said she persisted in cutting herself while kneeling over O’Melia, who was bleeding out.
Footage presented during the trial indicated that she continued to cut herself after being repeatedly shocked by police with a stun gun. It stopped after the ninth strike from a police officer’s steel baton, bodycam footage showed.
Meanwhile, O’Melia’s family members expressed concern and frustration over the judge’s decision, calling it a mistake.
“He just gave everyone in the state of California who smokes marijuana a license to kill someone,” the victim’s father, Sean O’Melia, said, VC Star reports.
Spejcher spoke during the sentencing hearing and through tears, noted that she had been accused of showing a lack of remorse. Subsequently, she apologized repeatedly to the victim and his family.
“My actions have ripped your family apart,” she said. “I am broken and aching inside. I hurt that you never see Chad again.”
Spejcher served as an audiologist at the House Children’s Hearing Center at UCLA. She specialized in Otolaryngology, with UCLA Health’s Head and Neck Surgery Department, according to SCV News.
Originally from Santa Clarita, O’Melia was a Chico State University graduate who worked at an accounting firm while concurrently pursuing his goal of becoming a certified public accountant.
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[Feature Photo: Spejcher/Police Handout; O’Melia/Family Handout]
