California woman Bryn Spejcher, 32, is CONVICTED of killing new boyfriend by stabbing him 100 times in 'cannabis-induced psychosis' after taking two hits from her lover's bong

A woman who stabbed her new boyfriend to death over 100 times in a 'cannabis-induced psychosis' sobbed as she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. 

Bryn Spejcher, 32, openly wept as the jury read its verdict on Friday, finding her guilty after less than four hours of deliberation of killing her partner Chad O'Melia in California in 2018. 

She attacked O'Melia after taking two hits of his marijuana 'bong' - a smoking device - and, according to an expert witness, flew into a violent frenzy in a 'psychotic episode' caused by the cannabis. 

She testified during her trial last month that she began to hear voices moments after taking two inhalations of the bong, and stabbed O'Melia to death before also knifing herself in the face and attacking her dog. 

Spejcher's conviction typically carries a sentence of around four years in state prison, however she is back in court Monday to face hearings over four 'enhancements' to her verdict that could see it raised. 

The hearings will determine charges of use of a deadly weapon and great violence, which will be decided by a judge after she waived her right to a jury trial over the extra charges.  

She will be freed on bail until those hearings, and left the courtroom with her family after Ventura County Judge Anthony Sabo denied a motion from the prosecution to have her remanded in custody. 

Her trial centered around the influence marijuana may have had over her actions when she stabbed O'Melia, and was said to have smoked pot just five to ten times in her life, according to testimony.

On the night of 27 May, 2018, she and O'Melia, an accounting student, had asked his girlfriend to come round to his apartment which he shared with two roommates. 

After initially watching TV, O'Melia asked her whether she would like to try marijuana using his bong, the court heard last month. 

O'Melia is said to have been a regular cannabis user — smoking or using a bong most days. 

Spejcher, an inexperienced user who claimed to have never previously experienced a 'high', took a few puffs and told O'Melia she didn't feel anything. 

This led him to respond with a promise to find her 'something more intense', according to local reports, and filled the bong with smoke before moving his hand away and allowing Spejcher to directly inhale. 

The prosecution said she had an 'immediate negative reaction', and was described as having gone to the bathroom in a panic, suffering blurry vision and feeling like she was dying. 

She told investigators that she then began hearing nightmarish voices in her head, telling her to start a fight, leading Spejcher to grab three knives from a kitchen block and hurl them at O'Melia.

'She thought she was dead,' said prosecutor Ms Nofzinger. 'She had an out-of-body experience.

'She could see her own dead body, and she could hear voices, emergency room doctors doing CPR, her family, other voices, unknown voices, telling her that to bring herself back to life, she would have to kill Chad O'Melia.'

Spejcher stabbed him across his whole body, leaving fatal wounds to his heart, lungs and vital arteries in his neck. 

Despite describing herself as a 'dog lover' and holding pictures of her dog during the trial, Spejcher then stabbed her dog. It is not clear if the dog survived the attack.

Spejcher also used an eight-inch bread knife to stab herself in the terrifying episode, plunging the blade into her own face and neck while crouching near O'Melia's body. 

Officers entered the scene and were only able to get her to drop the knife by striking her nine times with his retractable steel baton, reports the VC Star. 

While both Spejcher's defense and the prosecution agreed the stabbing was the result of marijuana intoxication, the prosecution painted her as a partier who was hoping to get high, while her defense argued she was pressured into taking the drug and it was involuntary. 

Under California law, a person is seen as responsible for their actions when impaired by drugs or alcohol unless their intoxication was involuntary.  

The 32-year-old, a former audiologist, was initially charged with second degree murder, but had the charges reduced to involuntary manslaughter after the testimony from an expert witness who claimed the crimes were the result of 'cannabis-induced psychosis.'

While some argued her actions were entirely out of character, with an expert witness claiming it suggests the marijuana she inhaled was far stronger than other forms, O'Melia's father disagreed.

After Spejcher's attorney argued that she did not want to smoke that night but was pressured by O'Melia, his father Sean said she knew what she was doing and 'viciously and prematurely ended' his son's life. 

Following her conviction, Sean O'Melia said he was grateful to the hard work of the prosecution, but would not call the verdict 'justice.'

'I just want my son back, and that's not going to happen,' he told reporters outside the courtroom on Friday.  

'Ultimately, there are only people that have taken a loss here. There’s no winning here,' O’Melia said. 

'At the same time, I think the first impact to me and my family was the loss of our son, and the next thing that occurred was what we had to go through listening to… all the derogatory remarks about somebody that we had just lost.' 

The grieving father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spejcher in 2020, which has been on hold until her criminal proceedings concluded. 

 This case echoes that of previous killings, in which the accused is known to have used high potency cannabis.

In 2014, a 50-year-old man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in jail after shooting his wife in the head at the couple's home in Denver, Colorado.

Richard Kirk was initially charged with first-degree murder — which is premediated or deliberate — but this was dropped after the defense argued that marijuana, which Kirk was consuming for back pain, had severely impaired his judgement.

They had also argued he had suffered 'involuntary intoxication' because he did not know he was at high risk for marijuana psychosis due to schizophrenia in his extended family.

In 2018, a Canadian man from Ontario was sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing and beheading his father in front of friends.

The court heard how Adam Kehl, then 31, was a heavy cannabis user but was not aware that the drug could trigger psychotic behavior.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, which was filed after a psychiatrist said he was suffering from cannabis-induced intoxication.

At sentencing, he said in a statement: 'I accept the consequences. I understand the fact that my marijuana use was a key factor in what happened. I was not aware marijuana use could do such a thing. Had I known, I never would have started.'