The distraught father of a tragic California man who was fatally stabbed 108 times by his new lover has claimed the judge displayed ‘clear bias’ and said the killer avoided prison because of her ‘gender, education and age’.
On Tuesday, Bryn Spejcher, 33, was given the remarkably low sentence of 100 hours of community service, two years of probation and no prison time for stabbing Chad O’Melia to death in May 2018.
The doctor of audiology saw her charge reduced from murder to involuntary manslaughter in September. This followed expert witness testimony that stated the attack was ‘100 percent’ triggered by cannabis-induced psychosis.
On the night of the attack, in May 2018, Ms Spejcher, who was not a regular smoker, took two tokes of a bong containing high-potency weed supplied by Mr O’Melia then 26, at his Thousand Oaks condo.
Minutes later she began suffering hallucinations telling her to grasp a bread knife and plunge it into Chad’s abdomen. The voices told her to ‘keep going’ with the assault, as it would ‘bring her back from the dead’, according to court reports.
Sean O’Melia, 57, has told of the devastation of losing his 26 year-old son to a brutal weed-induced stabbing
She also stabbed her dog several times as well as her self, in the neck and face, and required emergency surgery to save her life.
Now, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the victim’s father, Sean O’Melia, 57, who oversees construction at UCLA, has passionately rallied against the Ventura county judge’s claim that ‘no custodial time is necessary’ for Ms Spejcher, as she was ‘not in control of her actions’.
‘We have laws. Why should she be given special treatment?’, he said.
‘There are people right now in jail just for possession for marijuana. We can’t apply our laws based on someone’s age, skin color, occupation.
Bryn Spejcher, 33, was convicted of killing Chad O’Melia in a violent stabbing attack, however a judge ruled she’d face no prison time as she was ‘not in control of her actions’.
‘Would it have been the same if it was a young man, perhaps of a different background? Absolutely not.
‘That marijuana is being sold all over Thousand Oaks and you don’t see hundreds of dead people everywhere.
‘There is clearly something unique about that girl’s chemistry that meant that this happened.’
Studies have shown that using high-potency cannabis (with a THC percentage above 10 percent) just once can at least double the risk of psychosis.
Sean O’Melia will continue to campaign for justice for Chad, and has suggested Ms Spejcher may be best placed in a psychiatric hospital
Meanwhile, a major 2019 review published in The Lancet found using this strength of drug regularly can increase the risk five-fold.
Ms Spejcher’s attorneys suggested that the weed she inhaled was likely a high-strength strain called OG Kush, ordered from an illegal dispensary a week prior by Mr O’Melia – which contained 31 percent THC.
However, blood tests could not confirm this, and expert witnesses estimated the strength to be between 12 and 16 percent, according to court reports.
Mr O’Melia highlighted ‘elitist’ statements made by Ms Spejcher’s younger brother in his closing address to the courtroom, in which he said: ‘She’s not the type of person that belongs in jail’.
‘What does that mean? I couldn’t believe it when he said that,’ Mr O’Melia said.
‘The type of person who goes to jail is someone who breaks the law. You cannot have a predetermined understanding of a person who goes to jail. What, she can’t go to prison because she’s educated, female and young?’
Mr O’Melia has since been inundated with kind messages from Chad’s friends, one of which read: ‘He was like everyone’s big brother’.
According to data from the US Department for Justice, the lifetime chances of being sent to prison is highest for black men.
A black man is living in the United States has a one in four chance of jailtime during his lifetime, compared to one in 23 for white men. Around one percent of US women will go to prison at some point.
Research has shown this discrepancy is due to a number of complex factors – one of which is inherent bias among police, juries and judges.
The judge bought the defense’s ‘pathetic victim blaming’ argument, Mr O’Melia added.
‘Their entire case was based on blaming the victim – it was very difficult to sit through,’ he said.
Chad’s mother Michelle (right), who suffered type 2 diabetes, died 18 months after Chad’s death as she stopped adhering to treatment due to a ‘deep depression’
By this, he means the frequent reference to Chad O’Melia’s regular use of cannabis; testimonies from friends seen by DailyMail.com reveal he smoked the drug daily.
‘If Chad was home, he was high,’ said his housemate Vinicius De Oliveira.
Mr O’Melia argues that his son’s marijuana habit was used to imply he had ‘tricked’ Ms Spejcher into smoking from his bong.
‘It’s absurd,’ he said. You can try to say what you want but the facts remain, all that happened is that they both smoked marijuana.’
However, Mr O’Melia revealed that, although he was aware of his son’s drug habit, he was not the greatest fan of it.
‘I hate the stuff, it stinks,’ he said, calling cannabis a ‘de-motivator’. ‘It changes people…he [Chad] didn’t smoke around me and in my house because he knew I didn’t like it.
‘To my understanding, most of the time, he would smoke weed before he went to bed because it would help him sleep.’
He accepts that cannabis was a major contributing factor in the death of his son, adding that widespread legalization of the drug is a ‘disaster’.
‘After Chad’s death I talked to a doctor working in the specialist cannabis research unit at UCLA about what happened. They looked at me as if I was talking about something that’s taboo, but they all know is real.
Shane O’Melia was tearful outside the Ventura courtroom on Tuesday following the sentencing decision of no prison time and 100 hours community service.
‘They said yes it [psychosis] is a real thing that can happen. So why doesn’t everyone know about it? Chad certainly didn’t know about it…’
The O’Melia’s attorney, Audry Nafziger, urged the judge to issue Ms Spejcher the full sentence for her crime – four years in custody and at least a year of community service.
Sean O’Melia also advocated for this, but now, suggests a secure hospital may be a suitable place for the woman who killed his son.
‘At a minimum, she should have been remanded to time in a secure hospital,’ he said.
‘So that people have had the opportunity to understand what is unique about her, her bodily chemistry that meant this event occurred.
‘She hasn’t accepted that she is the missing link here. If medical research could be done then at least something positive would come out of it.’
Mr O’Melia has also detailed the heart-wrenching moment he broke the news of his son’s brutal death to his ex-wife, Chad’s mother, from whom he separated when Chad was five – and who died 18 months after Chad was killed.
When asked about how he learned of the tragedy, he said, through broken voice,: ‘I cannot re-live that moment. It is too painful.’
‘I told the sheriffs that I would tell Michelle [Chad’s mom] myself. I didn’t want her to learn about it the way I did,’ he said.
‘ I asked her to sit down and looked into her eye and I said, “Michelle, Chad has been killed”.
‘She looked at me and it broke her. It literally broke her. I could see it in her eyes.
‘After the funeral she became very depressed. When you lose a child, you think, am I ever allowed to be happy again?
‘There’s this guilt. She wouldn’t let anyone take a picture of her smiling. And this led to her decline.’
Michelle, who suffered type 2 diabetes, ‘stopped looking after herself’ and adhering to her treatment. A year and a half after Chad’s death, she suffered major heart dysfunction, and died shortly afterwards.
‘I was in disbelief… I am still… to think she is gone and my son is gone as well.’
Perhaps the most touching moment of the sentencing hearing was a statement read by Chad O’Melia’s grandmother, Sean O’Melia’s mother, who emigrated to the US from Ireland decades a go.
Holding back tears she said: ‘I want her [Spejcher] to know…I forgive you. If I do not forgive, the lord will not forgive me.’
Remarkably, Mr O’Melia, who is a practicing Christian, echoes a similar sentiment.
‘The bottom line is whether on this side or the next I am going to see you [Chad] again,’ he said.
‘And in order for me to see my son again I must forgive her. I have to forgive her. It’s just that right now, in this moment, it is difficult to live in that place.’
