'HIGHLY EDUCATED BEAUTY' Sucks Bong, Stabs Date 108 TIMES IN 'POT FRENZY,' GETS ZERO JAIL TIME
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chad O'Melia and Bryn Spejcher are hanging out at O'Melia's home when a roommate comes home but goes to take a shower.
He starts hearing noises downstairs and when he hears the sounds of things breaking, he takes a look. The roommate sees furniture toppled, the couch is flipped over and covered in blood, and O'Melia is severely wounded. O'Melia begs for help.
Bryn Spejcher has attacked Chad O'Melia in a pot-induced rage. When police arrive they find Chad O'Melia dead from over 100 stab wounds, and Bryn Spejcher crying and screaming hysterically. The bloody knife is still in her hands. As officers try to disarm her, Spejcher plunges the knife into her own neck. Officers use a Taser and several baton blows before they can disarm Spejcher finally.
Bryn Spejcher is charged with murder with special allegations of using a deadly weapon, a crime involving great violence, violent conduct that indicates a danger to society, and being armed with and using a weapon in the commission of the crime.
Spejcher posts bail and remains out on bail over the next 5-years of delays to allow for hearings and experts to provide studies. Prosecutors reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter after their expert psychologist agreed with defense experts that Spejcher was suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis when she stabbed O’Melia to death.
When the case finally gets to trial there is no argument about whether Bryn Spejcher killed Chad O’Melia or if her psychosis was legitimate. During the trial, the LA Times reports, a medical expert testifies that Spejcher’s behavior is the result of cannabis-induced psychosis
. According to the National Library of Medicine, a diagnosis of the disorder is given when hallucinations or delusions materialize shortly after consuming cannabis. According to the VC Star, Spejcher's defense attorneys claim that their client was "involuntarily intoxicated," and that O'Melia had allegedly bullied and intimidated her into smoking the last bit of marijuana.
A jury finds Bryn Spejcher guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a killing triggered by cannabis psychosis, but Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley announced Spejcher would be sentenced to two years probation and a suspended prison sentence of four years.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Sean O’Melia - Chad O’Melia’s father
- Audry Nafziger- Ventura County Sr. Deputy District Attorney (prosecuted Chad O’Melia’s case); IG: @silvermanta, FB: Audry Nafziger
- Dr. Kris Mohandie - Ph.D., ABPP, Forensic Psychologist; Author: “Evil Thoughts: Wicked Deeds;" Twitter: @Dr.KrisMohandie IG: drkrismohandie
- Robin Dreeke – Behavior Expert & Retired FBI Special Agent / Chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program; Author: “Sizing People Up: A Veteran FBI Agents Manual for Behavior Prediction;” Twitter: @rdreeke
- Dr. Othon Mena – Forensic Pathologist (working as a medical examiner in Southern California)
- Andy Kahan– Director of Victim Services and Advocacy at Crime Stoppers of Houston; Facebook: “Andy Kahan and Crime Stoppers of Houston;” Twitter: @AKahanCrimeSto1; Instagram: AndyVictimAdvocate
- Becca Whitnall - Editor of Thousand Oaks Acorn, Acorn Newspapers; X: @BeccaWhitnall & @TOAcornNews
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Crime stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:07.0 | A young son, a brother, a first generation Irish American. |
| 0:23.0 | Great Grades, athlete, studying his head off to pass the grueling CPA exam. |
| 0:36.0 | This is every parent's dream come true. |
| 0:41.5 | So why was this golden boy? |
| 0:45.0 | Chad Emilia brutally stabbed dead, |
| 0:51.0 | stabbed over 100 times. We think 108 times, but all of you legal eagles know that after |
| 1:00.8 | multiple stabbings it's hard to tell how many times someone was |
| 1:05.2 | stabbed because of overlapping but we can document 108 times and you may think |
| 1:11.4 | like many sage crime fighters do he stabbed a hundred and |
| 1:19.0 | eight times what was he doing wrong? |
| 1:26.0 | Can I tell you? Nothing? |
| 1:31.0 | This truly is the golden boy scrubbed in sunshine. And then we learn the woman who stabs her date |
| 1:40.9 | over 100 times was in a weed-induced frenzy. Now ask yourself, what could be worse than losing your child? Many of you know my fiance was |
| 1:58.0 | murdered shortly before our wedding and I thought I knew it all about grief in mourning, deep depression, until a few years ago when I had the twins and now I know that nothing could be worse |
| 2:17.8 | than losing your child. Except for one thing, losing your child to murder and the murderer gets straight probation. |
| 2:29.8 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on |
| 2:37.6 | Serious XM 111. With me an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, |
| 2:44.3 | including Baca Wittnall at Thousand Oaks Acorn, |
| 2:48.8 | Andy Kahn, Victims' Rights Advocate, |
| 2:51.6 | Dr. Othon-enna, medical examiner, Robin Dreeke, former FBI behavioral |
| 2:58.5 | expert, Dr. Chris Mahandi, forensic psychologist and author, Audrey Nefziger, the special district attorney, |
... |
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