A woman who killed her boyfriend by stabbing him 108 times has avoided a jail sentence for the 2018 attack.

Bryn Spejcher, 32, from California, had been facing up to four years in prison following the death of her boyfriend Chad O'Melia, 26, after she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in December last year.

On May 27, 2018, Spejcher stabbed O'Melia approximately 108 times in his apartment in Thousand Oaks, California, after the pair had smoked marijuana together, prosecutors said.

The Ventura County Star reported that Spejcher also stabbed herself multiple times and that police officers who responded to the scene said they found her in a pool of blood holding a knife and reportedly had to use a baton and deploy a Taser to disarm her and take her into custody.

Bryn Spejcher was spared jail. Credit: Ventura County District Attorney’s Office

Spejcher had been facing up to four years behind bars but was spared jail after it was determined that she was suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis at the time of the horrifying attack on O'Melia, who was an accountant.

She was instead handed two years probation and 100 hours of community service at her sentencing hearing on Tuesday.

During the trial, a medical expert testified that Spejcher's behavior was a result of cannabis-induced psychosis, as reported by the LA Times, which is when hallucinations or delusions materialize shortly after taking the drug.

Tests were conducted in an effort to prove she was not exaggerating or faking her behavior that day, which led to prosecutors reducing her charge to involuntary manslaughter with a series of enhancements.

That decision was based on a 37-page report from psychologist Kris Mohandie, a consultant for law enforcement, who examined Spejcher, police body-camera footage from the fateful night, as well as interviews with law enforcement, which concluded that Spejcher had lost touch with reality due to highly potent marijuana she'd consumed from a bong with O'Melia.

The Ventura County Star reported that Spejcher's defense attorneys had claimed that O'Melia had allegedly bullied and intimidated her into smoking the last of the marijuana, leaving her "involuntarily intoxicated".

The pair had reportedly been dating for a few weeks when she went to the apartment, but began "hearing and seeing things that weren't there" shortly after taking a second hit from the bong.

According to the district attorney's office, Spejcher's delusions made her believe she was dead and that she had to stab O'Melia in order to bring herself back to life.

Spejcher had expressed her remorse at Tuesday's sentencing hearing, telling O'Melia's family: "My actions have ripped your family apart. I am broken and aching inside. I hurt that you never see Chad again."

She also told the judge: "I wish I could go back in time and prevent this tragedy from happening. I wish I had known more about the dangers of marijuana. Had I known, I would never have smoked it that night or at all."

The victim's brother, Shane O'Melia, had shared his grief for his brother and anger that Spejcher had been out on bail since the attack in 2018, telling the court, via KTLA: "It’s been five and a half years where she has got to live with her family and we get to live with a box of ashes."

Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley defended his decision to spare Spejcher of any prison time, telling the court: "From that point forward [after having smoked the portion of marijuana], she had no control over her actions."

Spejcher's attorney Michael Goldstein called the sentence a fair and accurate reflection of behavior that was out of his client's control, per the LA Times.

He told the court: "Today, Ventura Superior Court Judge did the right thing and imposed a sentence that was fair and accurately reflected Ms. Spejcher’s conduct and recognized that it was the contents of the marijuana she was given that was the sole cause of her psychotic breakdown.

"It was clear that she had no control of her faculties and never intended to cause any harm. All of the medical experts agreed, including the expert called by the district attorney’s office."

Featured image credit: NRedmond/Getty Images

A woman who stands accused of fatally shooting her husband with the help of her mother is claimed to have uttered some chilling words to him before he died.

Melissa Fay Calumpit, 35, allegedly lured her twice-estranged husband, 37-year-old Travis Haywood Calumpit, to meet her on July 12 under the pretense of rekindling their relationship, an arrest affidavit reveals, cited by the New York Post.

Travis was discovered face down with a gunshot wound to the chest at Martin’s Landing, a 60-acre campsite near the Snake River and the Oregon border, the document states.

Earlier that day, Travis had told his stepfather he planned to meet Melissa at the campgrounds, hoping to reconcile and go camping together over the weekend.

Instead, Melissa reportedly led Travis to a secluded spot and killed him as part of a plan devised by her mother, Rosalie Lynn Morris.

Police became suspicious of Melissa after a phone interview in which she allegedly made several incriminating and inconsistent statements, revealing intimate knowledge of the homicide details not known to the public.

Initially, Melissa denied any involvement, claiming she and her mother had been driving in Nevada. However, she changed her story when police presented dashcam footage from Travis's car showing her at the scene, per PEOPLE.

Melissa admitted to killing her husband but initially claimed it was in self-defense after he allegedly raped her at the campsite.

“Her story changed several times. She ultimately said she had the .380 pistol in her pocket, hit Travis in the head with a rock, and shot him when he charged at her,” the affidavit reads.

In one account, Melissa stated Travis took her gun and racked a round into the chamber but did not threaten her with it.

Rosalie attempted to take the blame, suggesting the murder was her idea. According to the affidavit, she hosted a family meeting the day before the incident, attended by two other adults, where they conspired to kill Travis.

“She said she searched for an unregistered firearm to use in the murder and planned to do it herself; however, Melissa wanted to come along,” the affidavit reads. “Rosalie believed Melissa killed Travis so that Rosalie would not get in trouble.”

Rosalie claimed she was hiding in an outhouse when she heard both Melissa and Travis yell, followed by a gunshot.

Melissa reportedly struck Travis with a rock, prompting him to lunge at her before she shot him, according to Rosalie’s account.

“Rosalie described Travis as an abusive, drug addict with mental health issues,” police allege. “Rosalie said she decided she had to kill Travis and compared it to putting a dog down to save livestock.”

The mother-daughter pair then allegedly fled, stopping to dispose of the gun and Travis's cell phone in a reservoir.

Melissa allegedly stayed long enough to hear her dying husband's final words.

The documents read: “Melissa said after she shot Travis he asked her ‘Why?’"

She then allegedly said to her husband: "I'm sorry. I love you."

Melissa and Rosalie each face one count of first-degree murder and destruction of evidence.

Rosalie also faces liability for murder based on an aiding and abetting theory. Both are being held on a $2 million bond.

Two separate GoFundMe pages have been set up since the incident, with one aiming to raise money for Travis' funeral, and the other to support the couple's three children.

Featured image credit: GoFundMe / Canyon County Sheriff's Office

A woman from Washington pleaded guilty to charges of attempted first-degree domestic violence murder this week after allegedly attempting to kill her boyfriend with a samurai sword.

Emily Javier, who is 31, told investigators that she launched the attack on her boyfriend, Alex Lovell, in March last year after finding that he had downloaded Tinder on his phone. "I was trying to kill him for cheating. That was my purpose," she said.

She recalled how she bought the sword with the specific intent to murder Lovell, whom she'd been seeing for two years, and meticulously planned how she would do it. According to her account, she waited until he fell asleep, hid his phone so that he couldn't call for help, then started hacking at him with the sword she'd hidden on her side of the bed. She was also found to have taped two knives together and hidden those, too, presumably to use if the sword wasn't enough.

Javier called 911 after the incident, apparently believing that Lovell was dead.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Twitter/Alex Lovell]]

"Everything happened so fast," Lovell said a week after the attack. "I’ve been piecing everything together laying here in this hospital bed for the past week."

Recalling the attack, Lovell said that his girlfriend accidentally woke him up before she swung the sword at him, so he was able to react quickly and block her using his arms and legs. At one point, he even grabbed hold of her and begged her to stop.

"I told her I loved her, and she was killing me," he said. "She needed to call the police, or I was going to die."

During the frenzy, the victim almost lost two of his fingers, sustained a cut to his right foot, a deep laceration to his left knee, a wound to his head, bruising on his neck, minor cuts on his torso, and injuries to his right wrist that required a cast.

Two of the injuries that he sustained were life-threatening, according to law enforcement.

Lovell was amazingly positive after the ordeal, though, saying: "The road, it’s all smooth sailing from here. I survived and have all the resources necessary to recover fully one day. I should be able to walk in six months, but it’s going to take hard work and dedication to relearn how to use my hands and legs."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Twitter/Alex Lovell]]

Javier received an attempted murder charge, reportedly because it was obvious from her 911 call that she had intended to end Lovell's life during the attack, and had planned it more than a week in advance according to statements she made to police.

"I just stabbed my boyfriend. I think he's dead. You need to hurry," she said to the dispatcher.

According to The Columbian, "The prosecution will recommend a 20-year prison sentence for Emily Javier, 31, while the defense is free to argue for a sentence below the standard range of 15 to 20 years."

She will be sentenced March 11 in Clark County Superior Court.

They say that you can never truly know a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes, but you would think that spending 10 years in a relationship with them would be equivalent to that, at least. After all those shared meals, detailed conversations, and intimate moments, you'd expect to at least have a basic idea about somebody's character. However, it transpires that this is not always the case. Holly Eudy, a South Carolina resident, was shocked to find out last year that the man she'd been with for a decade was actually a serial killer. Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate broker, had managed to keep his horrific crimes a secret from Eudy (and everybody else) until one of his victims was discovered alive in a shipping container in 2016. Now, nearly six months after his conviction, she's spoken out about their relationship. In an interview with Inside Edition, Eudy said: "I knew there was something that didn’t sit right with me about him, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it." She described his murderous actions as "disgusting" and "sickening", but explained that she maintained a 10-year relationship with him because he gave her "a lot of attention," and made her feel "important". In the time that they were together, Kohlhepp killed three people - Johnny and Megan Coxie, a married couple in their twenties, and Charlie Carver, whose girlfriend Kala Brown survived the ordeal and eventually led to Kohlhepp arrest. In both instances, Kohlhepp had attacked the couples and buried their bodies on his 95-acre property. In the case of Carver and Brown, though, Kohlhepp had killed the man instantly after the couple went to his property to do some cleaning work. Brown, however, was kept alive in a shipping container by the murderer, who visited regularly to feed and rape her. Fortunately, she was discovered three months later by police officers who were visiting the site on an unrelated incident. Since then, the 30-year-old has spoken publicly with Dr. Phil about her ordeal. Details that Kohlhepp disclosed to Brown, such as "how many people he had killed, and how good he was at it", eventually led to his conviction. Even before Eudy and Kohlhepp were together, the real estate broker had murdered four people in a motorcycle shop in 2003: a crime that went unsolved until the gruesome discoveries made last year. He shot dead the victims, aged between 26 and 52, after the manager of the store "made him angry". As if that wasn't chilling enough, it appears that Kohlhepp was also intent on murdering Eudy at some point, as footage of Brown's rescue shows her saying, "Some girl named Holly, he’s supposedly planning to kill." Apparently, their ten years together meant absolutely nothing to sociopath, and Eudy was just another victim to him. Astoundingly, Kohlhepp avoided the death penalty in May 2017 after pleading guilty to the murders of seven people, as well as sexual assault against Kala Brown. Instead, he was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 60 years without the chance of parole.

A woman in Mexico who killed a man as he raped her has had the murder case against her dropped.

The incident occurred around the time the woman - who was identified as Roxana Ruiz - was working selling fries in Nezahualcoyotl, an area of Mexico State that has previously reported high rates of femicide and forced disappearances of women.

It was then that Ruiz had a drink with a friend - a man she knew from her neighborhood - who later offered to walk her home and then asked to stay over as it was so late.

The man slept on a separate bed, but he ended up attacking and raping her, with Ruiz fighting back and killing the man in self-defense as she struggled, the New Zealand Herald detailed.

In court, the prosecution detailed how the man was hit on the head and then knocked unconscious, which they claimed would have been enough for Ruiz to defend herself. It was revealed that Ruiz put the man's body in a bag during a panic, and dragged it out onto the street where passing police apprehended her.

While Ruiz informed the police that she had been raped, authorities never conducted a forensic exam - which is a vital step in prosecuting sexual assault cases, Ruiz's lawyer Ángel Carrera said.

Carrera then told the court that officers instead responded that Ruiz probably wanted to have sex with the man and then changed her mind later.

Last week, the Mexican court ruled that, while Ruiz was raped in 2021, she was still guilty of homicide as they believed she had used "excessive use of legitimate defense". The court also ordered Ruiz to pay over $16,000 to the man's family, per The New York Post.

Protests erupted following the shock ruling, which saw Ruiz - an Indigenous woman and single mother of a four-year-old son - being told that she was set to serve six years in prison.

The 23-year-old explained to reporters after the ruling that she was worried for her child's life, especially given that she had received increasing amounts of death threats. "My son, I hope to see him again. I hope to stay with him, to be the one who watches him grow up," she said.

Then, on Saturday evening (May 20), the state Prosecutor's Office sent out a press release that said it had looked into the case and found that she was "exempt from guilt" and had acted in self-defense, the Post reported.

While he stated he had not been formally notified of the charges being dropped, Ruiz's lawyer stated: "It means that they're recognizing her innocence. It's a recognition that she simply defended herself."

Featured image credit: Björn Wylezich / Alamy