A California woman convicted of stabbing her boyfriend 108 times in a “marijuana-induced psychosis” received a slap on the wrist Tuesday for the brutal murder.
Bryn Speccher, 33, was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service after being found guilty of murdering her new boyfriend, Chad O'Melia, according to reports. ventura county star.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley said Speicher was mentally unstable and “out of control of his actions” when he stabbed O'Melia, 26, 108 times in their Thousand Oaks apartment on May 28, 2018. It was ruled that there was no such thing.
Both prosecution and defense experts found that the marijuana bong given to Ms. Speicher sent the woman into a fatal state of insanity.
“From that point on, she had no control over her actions,” Worley said, according to the newspaper.
Specher and O'Melia had been seeing each other for several weeks when she brutally murdered the 26-year-old accountant.
After Specher killed O'Melia, law enforcement found the woman bloodied and crying hysterically next to her boyfriend's body, still clutching the knife.
She then held a knife to her throat as police tried to disarm her.
Speicher, who turned 33 last Thursday, also allegedly stabbed his dog during the rampage. Exit.
O'Melia was pronounced dead at the scene.
Speicher's lawyers said their client, an inexperienced pot smoker, was “unconsciously inebriated” at the time of the killing because O'Melia didn't get high on the first shot and pressured him to take another bong. ” he claimed to have done. The outlet reported in December.
She suffered immediate side effects from the second attack and had to panic and go to the bathroom before carrying out the murder.
Under California law, if a person is impaired by drugs or alcohol, they are considered responsible for their actions unless they are involuntarily intoxicated.
Jurors took less than four hours to find Speicher guilty of manslaughter.
During Tuesday's sentencing, Specher sobbed in court and apologized to the victim's father, Sean O'Melia.
“My actions tore your family apart,” she reportedly said. Exit. “I'm hurt and hurting inside. I'm sorry you'll never see Chad again.”
Speicher, portrayed by prosecutors as a party girl who just wanted to get high the night she killed O'Melia, was portrayed in a different light by her father at her sentencing hearing.
“She worked all her life to help others,” said Mike Specher, who also wrote notes about her daughter's hearing loss and her work as a certified audiologist before she was killed.
Chad O'Melia's father, Sean, accused Walley of bias and argued that the judge had set a dangerous precedent with his sentence.
“He just gave everyone who smokes marijuana in California a license to kill people,” the grieving father said.
“There are no winners in this tragedy,” said Brendan O'Melia, the victim's uncle. “But there may be accountability.”
Mr. Specher's attorney, Bob Schwartz, called Judge Worley's sentence for his client “just and courageous.”
