Friends of victim infuriated by California judge's decision to give probation for fatal stabbing
Robin Bianchi and Lu Madison, friends of the O'Melia family, criticized a sentencing that left Bryn Spejcher with probation and community service after stabbing her boyfriend 108 times.
Two friends of a grieving California family say they're outraged after a 33-year-old woman received no jail time for fatally stabbing a man she was dating in his Los Angeles apartment.
The Ventura County judge presiding over the case ruled audiologist Bryn Spejcher had fallen into a marijuana-fueled psychosis and had no control over her actions when she stabbed 26-year-old Chad O'Melia 108 times.
"We are absolutely outraged and disgusted with the sentencing judge," said Lu Madison, a friend of Chad's late mother who died less than two years after her son's death.
"From the beginning, [he] was biased. He showed preferential treatment until the end. It's unimaginable what's happened here. It is setting a precedent, and we just can't believe it. It's absolutely unacceptable."
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Jurors found Spejcher guilty of involuntary manslaughter in December, but the court ultimately sentenced her to two years on probation and 100 hours of community service for the 2018 crime, a sentence that prompted protests and rage from those who say it doesn't even begin to compare to the crime she committed.
"100 hours of community service isn't even one hour per stab that she inflicted on Chad, so it's just unbelievable," Madison told "Fox & Friends First" on Thursday.
She accused Spejcher of emotionally manipulating the court to gain sympathy and speculated the effort might have influenced the judge's leniency. Spejcher's lack of criminal history could have been another factor.
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"Regardless, she committed a vicious crime… Yes, it was [a psychotic break]. That's not being disputed here. She did have a psychotic break. She didn't mean to do this, but she did it. She took the hit of marijuana. She asked for it, and she asked for the second hit. This is nothing that was coerced, tricked, forced upon her. She took it. She needs to take responsibility, and we needed the judge to make that ruling that, 'No, you have to be responsible, and there's consequences to your actions.' That's what he did not do," she said.
Robin Bianchi shared details about her 50-year friendship with O'Melia's mother, Michelle. She and Madison watched Chad grow up and described him as a "sweet, funny, athletic [and] kind-hearted" person.
"If he walked in a room and saw that anyone was sitting by themselves or felt uncomfortable, he would go over and make friends with them. He would go and make sure that they felt comfortable," she told host Carley Shimkus.
"He loved his family. He loved his dog. He would never have hurt anyone. He never would have. He had lifelong dreams to become an accountant. He graduated from college. He was a good man."
Chad's mother, Michelle, tormented by grief, passed away less than two years later.
His father, Sean O'Melia, who advocated for the case to be tried for murder, said the court's sentence sets a dangerous precedent, according to the New York Post.
"That judge just gave everyone in this state the license to kill," he said.
Spejcher was smoking marijuana with O'Melia at his Thousand Oaks apartment before she attacked him.
"Both took several hits from a bong loaded with marijuana," the Ventura County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. "Spejcher had an adverse reaction to the marijuana and suffered from what experts call ‘cannabis-induced psychotic disorder.’"
The state's mental health expert reportedly determined that as a result she was "unconscious" while she stabbed O'Melia dozens of times. She also stabbed her dog and turned the knife on herself when police arrived.
