This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi everybody, welcome back to this episode
of Crimes in Consequences. I am Teleia and I'm here with my lovely co
host Tanya. We are both two attorneys that love true crime and discussing it
and discussing it and food and shocking each other. Yes, so she doesn't
know the story. The story I'm gonna tell today was commended by my parents.
Oh your parents, So a shout out to Mark and Lorraine. Hey,
Mark and Lorraine for recommending it. I'm going to give you a little
teaser. So It's May twenty eighth, twenty eighteen, and about one point
fifteen am in the morning, deputies with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office responded to
a report of a disturbance at a condo in Thousand Oaks, California. When
they arrived, they found twenty six year old Chad o'meila dead and twenty seven
year old Brin Spacer suffering from self inflicted stat boots. And this story is
very controversial, very controversial, and I'm not sure how you guys will feel.
You guys are all going to have mixed feelings about this. Oh boy.
So let me give you a little bit of a background on Chadow Mi.
He was twenty six in twenty eighteen. He was born to Sean o'melia
and Michelle Larry Larvy Larav maybe Laravy. He was a Santa Santa Clarita.
Isn't that word that one show is, Yeah, the Santa Clarita Diet,
Yeah with Drew barrymar Yeah, Yes, Santa Clarita. He graduated from Chico
State University in twenty seventeen. And while he was attending school there, he
was a very good just so you guys know, he was a go getter.
He was motivated wanted to be successful. So while he was there,
he became a member of the Sigma New International fraternity, where he served as
a treasurer. He volunteered at the Chico Wildlife Sanctuary and helped raise money for
breast cancer. And he would even pick up trash on the side of the
road. Oh nice, lu teer. He spent in his childhood. He
went to Heart High School. He played on the a what is the Ayso
soccer team? He did football and he was very athletic. He was in
He did really good in school and even as an adult, he was always
very fit. That's like his thing to stay in shape. He worked for
a accounting firm called Camarillo in September twenty seventeen while studying to get a CPA
license. Prior to that, while he was in college, he knew he
had a job and he made decent money working at mybl accounting Services in Valencia
under his supervisor, Sam Cho. Eventually he moved to these condominiums. I
was in the seventy block of Megan Place in Thousand Oaks, California, and
he had two roommates. And he was a very big fan of boxing.
And again he was outgoing. He was one of those people that would always
help people. He was volunteering. He really wanted to succeed in life,
and he was an avid fan did I say of boxing? Avid fantom boxing.
Now, he met a woman named Brinn Spacer, and I'm gonna tell
you a little bit about Britt. In two thy seventeen, she was twenty
seven. She was born to Mike and Glory Spacier, and she had three
siblings a lot of pets. She grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, which
is a suburb of Chicago. At the age of four, Brinn was diagnosed
with a hearing hearing loss and I've read different things that said between two and
four they discovered she couldn't hear that. While she wasn't completely deaf, but
she couldn't hear that well. So I know by the age of four she
had hearing aids, and she didn't let that stop her. She tried to
fit in with society and go to a normal school. She eventually graduated.
She learned to read lips and again she was very motivated. After she graduated
from high school, she moved to Missouri. She received her doctorate from Washington
University School of Medicine, oh Saint Louis. She was an audiologist. Huh.
Then she got a job. This is twenty seventeen. She gets a
job in Thousand Oaks, California, which for those that don't know where it
is, it's about fifty miles. It's a fifty mile drive north west from
La Okay. And then She worked as an audiologist at Thousand Oaks you see,
Ala Health Center. Pretty impressive, very impressive. According to former classmates.
She didn't do drugs, she didn't do marijuana. She did drink.
I know that she called into work one time because she was hungover, but
she wasn't an alcoholic or anything. I mean, she's young and social,
social drinking pretty much to drink one time, but it wasn't a problem for
her. In late April or early May of two thousand and eighteen, Brinn
and Chad met by coincidence at Bona Joe Freak dog park. They both had
dogs. Okay, so they're there. They're at the dog park, at
the dogs. They're both the same age, they're both successful. They start
talking. Chad asked her like to kind of go out, and she said
no. But they ran into each other a few times, and at one
point he gave her his business card and she texted him she thought she was
he was cute, and they met up again at the dog park and they
had a tiny bottle of Irish whiskey and then they started dating, but it's
casual dating. She eventually went to his condo and he had two roommates.
She got to know the roommates. They would hang out, watch TV.
She had sex. They had sex together three maybe four times, but it
wasn't a serious relationship. They're just getting to know each other. And this
is a quote from Brent. I thought he was very funny. He was
really nice to me. We were always sarcastic with each other. He ended
up being a really nice, funny person. When I got to know,
they hung out some more. They said they had sex, but there's conflicting
information about this. Some say that Brenn didn't feel like a spy there,
but I don't know. I just know it didn't become serious. But some
serious things happened. Yeah, really, we wouldn't be talking about it.
Some really serious things happened. On Monday night, May twenty eighth. This
is a Memorial Day twenty eighteen. Brinn had went out with some friends and
they had a few drinks and it was around ten thirty when she called Chad
and she's asked if she could come over and hang out and he's like sure,
okay, And the two drinks some smirnoff ice. Don't remember that,
seeh I do remember those. And they watched the show The Family guy.
Okay, okay. Now there is the roommate of Chad. His name is
Vinnie, and I'll talk about Vinnie and more and death. He came home,
and when he came home, he saw Brin was there, and he
saw them like watching TV. There was the other roommate. The other roommate
was asleep, and the other roommate would often take a sleeping pill or put
in earplugs to be able to sleep soundly. Chad smoked marijuana daily, that's
just a fact. But he still functioned. He's I mean, he's got
a successful job. He's got a successful job. I read some articles because
I wrote this myself. I read some articles in which it said that he
would get up in the morning and take his dog for a walk and smoke
weed before he took his dog for a walk. So the point being,
I'm not saying he's a druggie. I'm not saying he's a loser. But
he was very experienced with marijuana. Brinn wasn't. She had done it maybe
eight times in her life, and she never really felt an effect from it.
And you know how some people don't because she didn't smoke or anything.
Maybe she didn't inhale. Yeah, maybe she. I know there was a
story of one time she went capping with a boyfriend and she got the giggles,
but she really wasn't very experienced with marijuana. Chad goes outside and he
has a bomb. You know, a bomb. Yes, I've seen them.
So it's not like something rolled up. It's not a gummy that everybody
has now, or mince or whatever. This is a bong. And he's
out on the patio and he's smoking it, and Brinn comes outside and says
she wants to hit. She I don't know if she's trying to fit in
cool, I don't know. So she takes a hit and she says that
she didn't really feel much from it. I have to put on my glasses
because I gotta read a little bit of this. They're on the patio,
she's taking the hit, doesn't feel much, and Chad says to her,
here, let me put some more in and take another hit, and he
warns her, listen, your throat's gonna hurt and you're probably gonna cough a
lot. And Brinn's like, there's conflicting stories. Brinn has her version,
and in her version, she really didn't want a second hit of it.
But and according to her, she said, I told him I didn't want
anymore. He made me take a secon hit. He got up from his
chair, turned the bong to my face, rushed it into my face and
was pressuring me, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. You've got
to inhale. So that's one version. The other version is because again it's
conflicting that she had said I didn't feel anything from it? Can I take
a second hit? Now? He feeled it the second time was something stronger.
It was thirty one percent THHC, which for an unexperienced marijuana user,
it's gonna get joash shades. Fucker. Yeah, I'm gonna get you really
really high. The potency was very strong. It was so powerful that his
roommate, Vinnie I leave his last name is Alavieira, a week earlier,
had taken some of it, some hits from it, and he ended up
hallucinating and he thought he was dead. He took off his clothes and he
called for help. Oh no, she is my idea. No no,
no, don't do that, don't do that right. No, This particular
strain Chad had ordered from an illegal delivery company, because this is twenty eighteen
and now you're in Michigan. We're legal in California at that time. I
don't know, but now you can get it delivered and you can get anything,
but back then you couldn't. And this particular strain had a warning on
it that said high tolerance users only. No, it wasn't long after that
that all hell broke loose in that condo Britain inhaled and she said she couldn't
breathe. She said he had begun to feel funny and she didn't like.
Chad got her a bottle of water and he helped kind of talk her through
what she was feeling. She felt like she was going to die. She
can't breathe, like and I don't you know, obviously I have no experience
with the bomb right me either, But when you inhale marijuana and it's you
inhale it hardcore, it'll just burn your I mean I've heard your lungs and
so that's probably why she felt like she couldn't breathe and she felt like she
was going to die. After a few minutes, she got really angry because
she felt like Chad had done this to her and she just was sure she
was going to die and the feeling wouldn't stop. According to Brinn, it
was like she was watching TV. She could see everything, but it wasn't
her life. It was watching something that wasn't real to her. She's on
a bad trip, bad bad, bad trip at some point. And again
there's conflicting versions of this. It's believed she grabbed two knives from a knife
black and threw them at Chat and then I know she grabbed grabbed a bread
knife and just rated knife and then she began stabbing Chat. Wow, they
were Chad's like fighting her and he's h stop her. She's out of control.
Vinnie was upstairs and he heard what he thought was wrestling noises, so
at first it didn't bother him. He's like, I'm one that you know,
what the hell are they doing? What they're doing down there? But
then he heard what seemed like things breaking. Eventually he got out of bed.
He walked down the stairs and he saw Brynn and Chad's dogs because Brynn
brought her dog. Her dog's name was a Rhea and that's a service dog
for hearing for her hearing impairedness or being hearing impaired. The two dogs are
on the landing of the stairs and they looked really scared. He then saw
Brynn holding a bloody knife and Chad was on the floor holding his chest and
he's covered in blood, but he was alive, and he called out to
Vinnie, help me. She's stabbing me. Help me. Vinnie looked at
Brynn and he said she had a blank stare in her eyes. He runs
back upstairs and he tries to wake up his roommate, and his roommate probably
to help get brin, like two people can help more than him, just
trying to get Brynn. True, but the roommate didn't wake up. I
don't know the roommate took a sleeping pill. I bet yeah, probably and
earplugs. Just we're speculating. We have no idea. Uh. Vinnie goes
into his room and he gets his phone and then he runs down the stairs
and he's trying to call nine one one. When he runs down the stairs,
he can see Bryn stabbing Chad still and he runs outside and you know,
he makes the nine to one one call. Now, Chad suffered dozens
of stab wounds, which and some of these were incise wounds incise wounds which
aren't very deep, and later on the medical examiner testified at trial about it.
He had eighteen wounds to his head, two stab wounds to the back
of his head, and then the other incise wounds on his face. He
also had twenty seven incise wounds on his neck, four of which damaged his
trichea, dugular vein and crotted artery. Chad had twenty one incisee wounds and
thirteen stab wounds to the torso, his shoulders, the chest, in the
back. Some of the wounds hid his lungs and two perforated his heart damn.
He was also stabbed on the right knee, and there were injuries to
his hands and arms, which were the defensive wounds. It appeared, based
on the wounds and based on Finney's later testimony, the two had struggled and
they were moving around. In total, Chad was stabbed one hundred and eight
times crazy, one hundred times crazy. Next, Brinn stabbed her beloved Alaskan
husky area. What really, Oh her service stops? She did? Oh
my god, how awful? And she loved that dog. She got that
dog two years earlier. The police show up and when they enter the house,
they can see Chad's body and he's again he's covered in blood and he's
not moving geez, but it is where because Brynn was still like stabbing him.
And Brinna is about one hundred and forty pounds, she's five foot seven
and she's holding this knife and the police are like stop, stop, and
she takes the knife and she starts stabbing herself in the neck over and over
again, screaming, get the fuck out. She stabbed herself forty three times.
Holy shit, this is crazy, right, Yes, forty three times
she stabbed herself all around here the police. Now I read some different articles.
I know she was tasered at least twice, damn up to four times,
and she wouldn't stop stabbing herself. I have never been tased, have
never, but I think it would take one just one time probably, So
that tells you how out of control she had to be that being tazed up
to four times didn't stop her. So eventually they had to get in order
for her to stop stabbing herself. They had to take a baton and they
had to just hit her over and over again, nine times in the arm
to get her to drop the knife. What the hell? This is unbelievable,
right, She later recalled. I saw my own body laying there on
the porch with the paramedics. Then I heard my mom weeping over my corpse.
Next a funeral where people were crying. As the screaming was more intense,
the visions started lighting up and I came back to life. I saw
my hand grab a knife, this is what she's recalling, knife and point
it toward my throat. Then it went black. I felt like a hundred
bullets going through my throat and the heart, and the harder that was happening,
the more the light would show. I was about to come back alive.
Because she thought she was dying, Brynn was rushed to the Lost Robuls
Regional Medical Center for immediate surgery, and of course Chad was dead. She
was placed on life support. Wow, she would have done a leader and
everything. When eventually she recovered and when she woke up, one of the
first things she asked is where's Chad? Is Chad okay? She was very
confused. She asked, it was I raped? Why am I here?
Then she asked, who's taking care of Area? Her dog? She had
no recollection of what had happened. On May twenty eighth, she spent four
days in the hospital. On June one of twenty eighteen, Brynn was discharged
the hospital and arrested for homicide by the Ventura Sheriff's Department. A week later,
she was released on a five hundred and ten thousand dollars bond. Taxicology
reports on Britnn showed high concentrations of THHC, but nothing else in her system
at all. Brinn hired a defense team, with the primary attorney being somebody
named Robert Schwartz of the Los Angeles based firm Schwartz and I don't know Wine
reeb. While awaiting trial, Brynn met with psychiatrists and psychologists obviously, right,
you're going to do that. Yeah, And again she's just so everybody
can follow this. She's been charged with murder. Yeah, but that changes.
This is very interesting. The defense team hired either a psychologist or psychiatry,
and it came back that Brinn was in that one hundred percent suffered from
cannabis induced psychosis. I've never heard of that. Well, you know there's
alcohol induced psychosis. Yes, I've never heard you about someone I know that
thought he was a werewall. Yeah, this is cannabis induced and it does
happen. I read some stories. Oh, I believe it's a real condition.
I've never heard of it. A mother of that, well, it's
not usually a good defense for the record. Yeah, but there was a
mother that kills her four year old well, and she was acquitted for cannabis
induced psychosis. Anyway, this is what's really interesting is the DA the prosecutor
for it. They hired their own specialist to examine her, and those specialists
said one percent she was in a cannabis induced psychosis. Wow. Even the
prosecutions expert said that right, Wow, Wow, you have no case,
right right. The pis as a result in September of twenty nineteen, the
prosecutor basically they had no choice, the DA, they District Attorney's office,
had no choice. They had to reduce it to involuntary manslaughter. Wow.
And they offered her a plea. I think it was four years and she
said no. She said no to the police said no. Okay. They
id a lot of people upset. I never rolled the dice with a jury.
If I was never, I'm sorry, but I don't know I mean,
I guess, you know, I would expert. But think about it.
If I did stay up some one hundred and eight times and I wasn't
in a cannabis induced psychosis, I might just feel right and be like,
okay, rights, right, that's fine, I'll be out in two right,
right. But she didn't. She's fought it. Wow. Yeah,
I mean she doesn't have the experts behind her. I guess, but is
she going to be acquitted? But a lot I don't know. We're saying
that doesn't like, wouldn't you be remorseful you did stab somebody one hundred eight
times? Right? Wouldn't you want to just slightly punish yourself? Or I
guess not, I don't know, don't I don't know. Piss a lot
of people off, Yeah, pissed off Chad's family, especially as dad sean
that it got reduced to involuntary manslaughter. So Brinn took the stand. She
testified she had mentioned that on two occasions Chad had during sex choked her without
her consent. I don't know, I don't know, it's not yeah.
During the trial, Bryn said, quote, I saw the knife in my
left hand penetrate Chad's abdomen area, and then it went black. I remember
hearing voices saying, keep going, don't stop, You're almost there. You
can do this. And then she said she saw Chad on the floor bleeding
and heard someone y'all, Brynn, what are you doing? And that was
Vinnie. On January twenty third, twenty twenty four, Oh, this just
happened, Brynn was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. It took the jury. The
trial lasted less than a week. It took the jury four hours to convict
her. Do you know what she got for her sons? Did she get
probation? Yes? No? Oh? No? Really yeah? Do you
know? I don't know. I was thinking what the least amount of punishment
she could get? Probation? Two years probation and one hundred hours of community
service. During that one hundred hours, she had to educate the public on
the dangers of THHC consumption. Okay, but that was January twenty third.
On March thirteenth of that year, a third year of probation was given to
her because of Section six point one of California Family State Code based on abuse
perpetrated on a person during a dating relationship. She's got three years okay probation
since that time, well, since the killing. This is really sad.
Twenty one months after Chad's murder, his mother, Michelle, she died on
March seventeenth of twenty twenty at the age of fifty three. She had diabetes.
She had type two diabetes and she quote stopped looking after herself, oh
and taking care of her diabetes. That's really sad. Yeah, So she
died and then unfortunately Aria, who survived being stabbed. Wow, the dogs
arrived. The dogs survived being stabbed. That's another thing. She wondered.
She was saying that she could see a brown dog and a handstabbing it,
but didn't realize it was hers. Area got hit by a car. Oh
no, and died. Oh poor Area, Aria, Aria Area Aria.
Like the music like an Aria. I think I heard it pronounced different ways.
That's terrible. So this was really controversial, as you can imagine.
I don't even know what to think. I know this thoughts have been going
through my head. I don't know how to feel about this one. I
mean, I feel so bad for Chad obviously, and his whole family.
His dad is so I mean, he was so such an advocate for Chad,
and he had signs that said one hundred and eight stab wounds is serious,
like he was. He's been all over the news about it, and
he really feels like she got away with murder. And I feel bad because
he's just yeah, I mean I can understand that feeling if it was my
child. You know, somebody stabs my child one hundred night times. And
but then if you think about it, she had no criminal record, no
mental illness, wasn't a drug addict, and stabbed herself right, let me
not forget herself and her beloved dog. So there's something really really, yeah,
really wrong going on, right, Yeah, I don't know what to
think. It's bad, like, I don't know. I feel terrible for
Chad's family, his dad. I mean, I can understand you want some
kind of justice and you know, someone to pay for killing your child,
because I mean, she did do it. You know, nobody's disputing that.
But if she's in the psychosis and she doesn't realize what she's doing,
it's kind of like when someone is, you know, truly when they plead
insanity defense and they truly are you know, mentally ill, Like can you
really can you really hold them accountable, Like, can you really hold her
accountable for this? It's a little bit of time, Yeah, a little
bit probably, I don't know. Is it insulting? I don't know.
If she had gotten two years? What does dad I've been like, Okay,
no time. I don't know, teach people a lesson about smoking weed?
Smoking weed? I don't know. Yeah, so what is she going
to go to schools and stuff and be like, yeah, this is what
happened when I smoked too much off a bong. I mean, I'd be
horrible, right, And I've never smoked weed. If somebody came into my
school and I said that, I know what I know. Anyway, I
don't know what to think that this is just a terrible story. There is
no just and I mean Brent, I mean yeah, I was going to
say her life is probably ruined too. I mean, so she is going
to pay for that Colinie. I mean, I don't know, but she
has a life and Chad does it. That's true. That's true. So
I mean, well, thanks t Lea, Thank you guys for taking the
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