A heartbroken father was sentenced to probation this week after a lenient California judge sentenced his son's killer to probation after he stabbed his son 108 times in a marijuana-fuelled rage. He warned that he had established a “license to kill.”
“There's no respect or responsibility for anything anymore,” Sean O'Melia told the Post on Wednesday. “If you can stab someone 108 times and get a suspended sentence, all we'll have is anarchy and chaos.”
Bryn Speccher, now 33, was smoking marijuana from a bong at victim Chad O'Melia's Thousand Oaks apartment in 2018 when she suddenly began attacking him with a knife.
Despite ingesting a mouthful of a standard pot leaf, Speicher became enraged and stabbed the 26-year-old accountant 108 times.
Speicher's lawyer, an audiologist, argued that she was not responsible for the bloody killing because she was intoxicated.
The Ventura County district attorney initially charged Speicher with manslaughter, but a new prosecutor downgraded the rap to manslaughter.
Lower rates are available for terms of up to five years.
However, Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley declined to impose a prison term, opting instead for two years of probation and community service.
O'Melia's father was surprised by the slap on the wrist. O'Melia's father only knew the gunman for a few weeks after his son met him at a local dog park, he said.
“She was given a free pass for murder,” he said. “I say it without hesitation: The judge was biased throughout the case. And he proved it with this sentence.”
Parent said the marijuana was purchased at a local dispensary and there were no other reports of it inducing psychotic episodes in others.
He said he believed Speicher was predisposed to marijuana-induced psychosis, but that he deserved a prison sentence.
The father defeated Mr. Speicher's defense, which shifted the blame to his son, who purchased the marijuana.
“My son didn't do anything to that girl,” he said. “He showed her only her kindness. She asked for it.”
O'Melia recalled getting a knock on her door after the incident and seeing two sheriff's deputies standing in front of her.
The officers told him that his son had died and that the scene was too gruesome to see.
“We are very angry and very disappointed,” he said. “There was no justice here.”
O'Melia said he was also concerned that Speicher or someone else could harm someone in the future, blame mind-altering substances, and face little punishment.
“That judge just gave everyone in this state a license to kill,” he said.
