The formerly Golden State is often at the forefront of cultural and ideological controversies.
The area now has a reputation for turning into a criminal’s paradise and the radicals have gotten even more extreme lately.
Now this heinous killer just got a jaw-dropping sentence even for California.
In May 2018, a woman called Bryn Spejcher killed her boyfriend Chad O’Melia with a kitchen knife.
She also killed her dog, and was screaming and stabbing herself when police showed up to arrest her.
The reason she gave strains credibility.
According to her lawyer, the female killer became a victim of a “cannabis-induced psychosis” after smoking marijuana.
The lawyer claimed that Spejcher had no history of using the drug and only did so after feeling pressured by her 26-year-old accountant boyfriend to smoke out of his bong.
Apparently, we are to believe that Spejcher is the world’s only violent and angry pothead.
Never mind the perpetrator, what’s the Judge smoking?
Spejcher was originally charged with second degree murder, but after medical experts talked up the possibility of a psychotic break triggered by the drug, Ventura County prosecutors amended the charge to involuntary manslaughter.
Even with the reduced charge, she still could have faced four years in prison but Judge David Worley issued a sentence of only 100 hours of community service and probation.
This was after the killer stabbed her boyfriend 108 times.
Sean O’Melia is the father of the victim and worries that the ruling could lead other violent criminals to try to duck consequences for their actions by blaming marijuana.
Victim’s father: Judge’s decision sets the precedent that weed makes it okay to kill
O’Melia said, “I think [Judge Worley] set an absolute terrible precedent in the state of California where it’s okay to kill somebody after you smoke marijuana.”
But the outrage was understandably not just limited to family members.
Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Audry Nafziger who tried the case and told the Daily Wire, “The sentence is a terrible miscarriage of justice. I can only hope it is not repeated by other judges. Because involuntary manslaughter and the use of a deadly weapon in California permits judicial discretion… the court was able to set her free with no jail. It is an unheard of sentence in my jurisdiction.”
Nafziger also brought up a good point about the repercussions of using mind altering drugs.
Even stipulating that the judge bought into the idea that the drug caused a deadly psychotic break, it was California lawmakers who legalized it.
That certainly doesn’t absolve the users from facing the consequences of their actions (or at least it shouldn’t).
She added, “We do not let people off the hook for drinking and hurting people. People are convicted of being intoxicated and harming others and they, rightly, go to jail.”
According to Nafziger, Spejcher was “literally sawing her neck off with a 10-inch bread knife when law enforcement burst into the room. Then they tased her numerous times to no effect and then hit her with a metal baton nine times until they broke her hand and arm in several places, forcing her to eventually release the knife.”
In the end, it’s one more California violent criminal that’s back out on the streets.
Here’s to hoping that her neighbors have deadbolt locks on their doors.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.