A California woman who stabbed her boyfriend 100 times, killing him, before turning the knife on herself and her dog has been ordered to do just 100 hours of community service.
Bryn Spejcher, 32, received the stunningly light sentence after psychiatrists ruled the tragedy was “100 percent” due to cannabis-induced psychosis she suffered after taking two hits from the victim's bong.
The judge ruled that Spejcher “experienced a psychotic break with reality” and “had no control over her actions” when she killed then-26-year-old Chad O'Melia over Memorial Day weekend in 2018.
She will spend the 100 hours educating others about marijuana-induced psychosis – but has promised to spend the rest of her life debunking the myth that cannabis is harmless.
O'Melia's family cried as the verdict was read in Ventura Superior Court. The victim's father warned that it gives “anyone who smokes marijuana in this state a license to kill.”
Bryn Spejcher, 32, hides her face as she goes into court today where she was given just 100 hours of community service
Bryn Spejcher, a Chicago audiologist, had to undergo emergency surgery after stabbing herself in the face and neck during a weed-induced coma
Spejcher, an audiologist originally from Chicago but living in Thousand Oaks, California, was found guilty of manslaughter in December 2023 after a dramatic and heartbreaking trial.
At the time, Spejcher, who is partially deaf, described how she had taken a hit on a bong but “didn’t want to smoke anymore.”
She said she felt “pressured” by O'Melia, who smoked regularly and whom she had been dating for a month.
Within minutes of inhaling the strong, cannabis-infused vapor for the second time, Spejcher began “hearing and seeing things that weren't there” and believing she was dead and that she had to stab O'Melia to die to bring yourself back to life.
Some of the country's leading forensic psychiatrists concluded that this experience was “100 percent consistent” with previous reports of cannabis-induced psychosis.
“We know pretty clearly that marijuana can cause psychiatric illness,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, faculty director of the Cannabis Research Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles and clinical psychiatrist, told .
In today's sentencing, Judge Worley said: “The task.” [of sentencing] “It becomes even more difficult when you know that the decision will affect good people.”
However, he added that he did not believe further detention was necessary.
The sentencing proceedings included closing statements from close members of the Spejcher and O'Melia families.
Spejcher's brother, mother, father, grandmother and one of her oldest friends spoke of her “life spent helping others” and noted her many paid and volunteer roles caring for deaf and hard of hearing people.
“Helping others was her only career goal,” said her mother, Laurie Pearce.
Meanwhile, her father, Michael, told the courtroom that his daughter spent her time on probation volunteering at her local pet store and learning sign language in the evenings; “Hoping that one day she might be able to help people with hearing impairments again.”
In her closing statement, Spejcher said, “I wish I could go back in time and prevent this tragedy from happening.”
“I wish I had known more about the dangers of marijuana.” If I had known. I would never have smoked it that night or ever.'
She pledged to dedicate her life to spreading information about marijuana and its dangers.
Spejcher reportedly cried during the first half of her three-hour testimony
Also caught in the crossfire was Spejcher's beloved husky Arya, who suffered multiple stab wounds but survived, only to be hit by a car and killed months later
Spejcher trained as an audiologist to help hard of hearing children like herself; She was born partially deaf
On the night in question, the young woman arrived at O'Melia's apartment in Thousand Oaks around 10:30 p.m. after he invited her over.
The couple had met at a local dog park about a month earlier and had been dating for several weeks, according to court documents.
An hour and a half into the meeting, the two went to O'Melia's patio, where he prepared and smoked cannabis from a bong – a device that filters the smoke with water, allowing the user to inhale more without coughing.
Chad O'Melia, an aspiring accountant, was stabbed 108 times. He was said to be a “normal” weed user
Spejcher testified that she asked him for a bong hit. He prepared it for her and she inhaled. All she felt, she told the court, was “burning and coughing.”
About 15 minutes later, when the effects didn't take hold, O'Melia added more cannabis to the device, produced more smoke and, according to Spejcher, said, “Something like, 'Let's make this more intense for you… or even crappier.' '.
In her statement, Spejcher stated that she no longer wanted to smoke but felt pressured to do so.
“He got up from his chair and pointed the bong at my face and threw it right at my face and urged me, 'Hurry up, hurry up, you gotta inhale,'” she said, according to the Ventura County Star statement.
“It all happened so fast. “I felt like I couldn't say no and inhaled from the bong.”
Immediately after the second blow, she began to feel unwell and ran to the bathroom to vomit before lying down on the couch. She then described the onset of a series of troubling psychiatric symptoms.
Spejcher described how she “saw and heard things that weren’t there,” “felt like a dead body,” and saw her corpse “from above.”
She saw her hands, with which she grabbed the bread knife that penetrated O'Melia's stomach, as someone else's, “like in a movie.”
“…and then it went black.”
At this point she continued to stab O'Melia, followed by her beloved dog Arya and then herself in the neck. She only stopped when police arrived at the scene and hit them nine times with a baton.
Spejcher recalled hearing voices during the violent attack saying things like: “Keep going, don't stop, you're almost there, you can do it.”
She claims to remember nothing beyond that point – until she woke up in hospital several hours later after undergoing surgery to repair catastrophic stab wounds to her face and neck.
Dr. Kris Mohandie, forensic psychiatrist and expert witness, told the jury: “[Spejcher’s] In my opinion, the behavior of psychosis is well documented.
“The nature of it, the spontaneous things she said…it was consistent with the delusion and command hallucinations and voices she claimed she heard later.”
He added that her cannabis use had caused “delusions and hallucinations” and she had “lost touch” with reality.
Dr. Mohandie warned against comprehensive legalization of the psychoactive drug.
“It's another drug that people now think is safe because it's legal, and now more and more people are trying it.” [But] it is stronger than ever. And it’s problematic,” said Dr. Mohandie, who has testified in 80 cases, including several involving marijuana.
Spejcher is said to have only been high a few times in her life and claimed she felt “pressured” to take a second hit on the bong on the night of the attack
“So people say, ‘It’s just marijuana,’ and try to make it seem like it’s insignificant, and how could this happen?
“Well, that doesn’t really fit with my work experience.”
A comprehensive review of hospital admissions in Canada in the years since legalization, released in October, found a 40 per cent increase in admissions for cannabis-induced psychosis linked to the drug's recent “commercialization.”
The authors warned of the harm of a “rapid expansion” of the cannabis market.
Other research has shown that regularly smoking cannabis can increase the risk of developing psychosis by five times.
Studies have long shown that cannabis products containing high-potency THC – the psychoactive chemical in cannabis that gets you high – can cause serious mental health problems such as psychosis and schizophrenia.
Experts believe the substance causes an imbalance of hormones in the brain – including the feel-good hormone dopamine, which triggers mental illness.
Although the risks are thought to occur primarily in regular users who have been exposed to the drug over many years, doctors are increasingly seeing mental illness associated with irregular use.
This is believed to be due to the increasing levels of THC in marijuana products available today – which can be up to ten times the amount found naturally in the plant.
Dr. Kris Mohandie, a forensic psychiatrist and expert witness in the Spejcher trial, warned in his testimony that “people with no history of violence can use cannabis, even during a single session, and then proceed to commit physical violence against themselves and others. ” to others'.