Bryn Spejcher, convicted of manslaughter in 2023 for killing a man she’d been dating, has lost her appeal to have that conviction overturned.
A three-judge panel of the California Courts of Appeal heard Spejcher’s case and issued its ruling on June 16, upholding the jury’s guilty verdict and the judge’s rulings in her original trial. Two justices joined in the majority opinion and one dissented.
Spejcher stabbed Chad O’Melia to death on May 28, 2018, at O’Melia’s home in Thousand Oaks. They had met at a dog park about a month before and had been dating for a few weeks. She was 27 at the time; he was 26.
Prosecutors originally charged Spejcher with murder, but reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter after medical experts for both the prosecution and defense concluded that Spejcher was in a cannabis-induced psychotic state at the time of the killing.
Spejcher and O’Melia had smoked from O’Melia’s bong shortly before she attacked him. During her trial in 2023, Spejcher testified that she was a novice smoker, and that O’Melia loaded the bong for her and filled it with smoke for her to inhale. She immediately began to panic, hallucinate and hear voices.
She stabbed O’Melia more than 100 times with two kitchen knives and then stabbed herself in the neck. Police, called by O’Melia’s roommate, had to break her arm with a baton before she dropped the knife; multiple shocks with a Taser had no effect.
California criminal law typically holds people responsible for their actions while intoxicated, as long as they voluntarily choose to become intoxicated.
During her trail, Spejcher’s attorneys argued that she should have been acquitted because her intoxication was “involuntary.” They gave three reasons: First, they said O’Melia pressured Spejcher to smoke from the bong; second, they said Spejcher didn’t know exactly what was in it; third, they said Spejcher had no way of knowing weed could cause a psychotic episode.
Spejcher’s appeal was based on the same argument, as well as contentions that the judge gave incorrect jury instructions and left out potentially exculpatory evidence.
The two appeals court justices who wrote the majority opinion, Tari Cody and Hernaldo Baltodano, did not find merit in any of Spejcher’s arguments. They wrote that the jury acted reasonably in finding her guilty and that “her negligence in self-intoxicating to the point of unconsciousness was criminal.”
The third justice on the panel, Kenneth Yegan, wrote in his dissent that Spejcher “should not have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter” because she could not have formed the intent necessary for the crime. Her actions after smoking marijuana demonstrate that she was “poisoned” rather than intoxicated by the substance, he wrote.
Yegan wrote that the facts and circumstances of the case are “sui generis,” a Latin term meaning one of a kind.
“I have never seen a case even remotely similar,” he wrote.
Spejcher, now 35, was not sentenced to any jail or prison time when she was convicted. She was ordered to pay restitution and perform community service – which has included interviews and media appearances about the dangers of cannabis – and was placed on three years probation. Her probation is scheduled to end in January.
Last year, Spejcher’s attorney, Sally Patrone, told The Star that the conviction had “ruined her life.” Spejcher is an audiologist, and Patrone said the felony conviction had made it impossible to find work in her field.
This is likely to be the last appeal for Spejcher. She can ask the Supreme Court of California to review her case, but the state’s highest court accepts only a small fraction of the cases it is asked to take on.
Patrone did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the appeals court decision or whether she would seek state Supreme Court review.
O’Melia’s father, Sean O’Melia, told The Star last year that the appeal has been “painful for our family” and was a waste of time and money. Sean O’Melia also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the appeals decision.
Sean O’Melia filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spejcher in 2020. It has been on hold until all appeals of her criminal case are resolved.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Spejcher loses appeal in cannabis-psychosis killing
Reporting by Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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By Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
