Trial set for woman who says cannabis-induced psychosis led her to kill
Jury selection is underway and opening arguments are scheduled next week in the trial of Bryn Spejcher, who is charged with manslaughter in the 2018 stabbing death of Chad O'Melia of Thousand Oaks.
Spejcher was originally charged with first-degree murder, but in September, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office filed a charge of involuntary manslaughter instead. Prosecutors decided on the lesser charge after their medical expert examined Spejcher and agreed with the defense team's experts that she was suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis at the time of the killing.
A murder charge requires the prosecution to prove the killer acted with malice, or intent to do harm. Involuntary manslaughter, under the California Penal Code, refers to "the unlawful killing of a human being without malice," but with criminal negligence.
The typical sentence in California for involuntary manslaughter is up to four years in prison. If Spejcher is convicted, her sentence could be longer because she has been charged with enhancements including using a deadly weapon and exhibiting "great violence."
Spejcher has pleaded not guilty. She is now 32 and has been free on bail since 2018.
She was an audiologist at UCLA Health in Thousand Oaks and had been dating O'Melia for about a month when he was killed. He was 26 and was studying to become a certified public accountant.
On the night of May 27, 2018, they were together at his home in Thousand Oaks. Spejcher would tell police they smoked marijuana from his glass bong. She told O'Melia she didn't feel anything from it, so he said he would give her something stronger.
After a bong hit of the purportedly stronger marijuana, Spejcher became "acutely psychotic," according to a court filing by the prosecution that summarized the opinion of its expert psychologist. She heard voices, saw visions and had delusions that she was dying, the psychologist concluded.
Sometime after midnight, Spejcher attacked O'Melia with what investigators said were two different kitchen knives; he suffered more than 100 sharp-force injuries, including dozens of major stab wounds. She also injured her dog and stabbed herself repeatedly and required surgery for one of her self-inflicted injuries.
Because the prosecution and defense agree on these facts, "the issues in this case are legally narrow," Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley said during a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday.
Spejcher's attorneys have acknowledged that she killed O'Melia, and prosecutors have accepted the defense's contention that she was "unconscious" when she did so due to cannabis intoxication.
"Unconscious" is a legal term in this context, Worley said, and does not mean Spejcher blacked out or lost consciousness. Instead, it means "she was unable to understand reality and unable to understand that she was killing Mr. O'Melia as that occurred," Worley said.
One of the issues at trial will be whether Spejcher was "voluntarily" intoxicated. Generally, California criminal law holds someone responsible for their actions if they are intoxicated from something they voluntarily consumed.
Like "unconscious," though, "voluntary" has a specific legal meaning. Spejcher's attorneys told the judge they will argue that her intoxication was not voluntary, because O'Melia "prepared" a bigger, stronger dose of marijuana for her, and she could not have "reasonably foreseen" that it would trigger a psychotic break.
Prosecutors maintain that she was voluntarily intoxicated because she chose to smoke the marijuana that O'Melia gave her and have asked the judge to only give the jury instructions that cover voluntary intoxication.
Worley hasn't issued a ruling on the matter yet, but he said Tuesday his "present inclination" is to put both options to the jury and let them decide whether Spejcher's intoxication was voluntary or involuntary.
The judge and the attorneys in the case have begun interviewing prospective jurors. Worley said he plans to have a jury selected by Wednesday, so that opening statements can begin either Wednesday or Thursday.
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: Manslaughter trial set in case of cannabis-induced psychosis
