Left inset: Alyssa Roman (Omaha Police Department). Right inset: Alan Critser (Meredith – Clark Funeral Home). Background: Alyssa Roman in court for murdering her boyfriend, Alan Critser, at a home in Omaha, Neb., on Dec. 29, 2023 (KETV/YouTube).
A Nebraska woman who almost dismembered her boyfriend with a shotgun while under the influence of LSD in 2023 has been sentenced to over five years in prison.
Alyssa K. Roman, aged 31, received a sentence of six to eight years in prison by a Douglas County judge, after she pleaded no contest last month to killing Alan Critser, 33, at their shared Omaha residence near Hanover Circle and Mormon Bridge Road, based on court documents.
As a result of the plea agreement, Roman’s initial murder charge was reduced to manslaughter. Judge Katie Benson gave her credit for 629 days already served. Manslaughter in Nebraska can result in a maximum sentence of 20 years, the Omaha World-Herald indicates.
Roman admitted to shooting Critser in the upper torso and neck with a shotgun on December 29, 2023, following an LSD trip earlier that day. She was showing “signs of excited delirium” when officers encountered her, court records reveal.
The police responded to the couple’s home after receiving a “home invasion” report involving Roman attempting to enter a different house that night. The report described “a white female with pink hair wearing only a shirt and no pants” who had forced her way in and “had to be forcibly removed,” according to Roman’s arrest affidavit. Roman escaped and was later apprehended at her home, where Critser’s body was discovered.
After transporting Roman to the hospital for a medical evaluation, cops spotted “apparent blood” on the walls of the residence and “suspected skull and brain matter” in the hallway at the top of the main staircase. They found Critser with an apparent gunshot wound in the main upstairs bedroom. His head was “almost off his body,” according to prosecutors.
A shotgun was found in a “separate upstairs bedroom with women’s pants and underwear apparel placed over the top of the shotgun’s barrel,” the affidavit said.
After her release from the hospital, Roman told cops that Critser “did not shoot himself” and that they were the only two individuals present in the home at the time of the shooting. She made “additional incriminating statements” regarding the slaying, along with comments about being on LSD, a powerful hallucinogenic drug.
“When asked if she had taken any drugs, she answered affirmatively — that she had taken LSD around noon that day, and was feeling its effects ‘a little,'” a judge’s order said in December 2024.
“The defendant did not appear to be intoxicated, and was relaxed and comfortable, until she was informed that her fiance was deceased,” the order explained. “Then she became hysterical.”
Roman told police she and Critser were having a conversation about “past trauma” before she blew him away with the shotgun.
“The defendant professed not to remember anything after,” according to the judge’s order. “While the defendant did confess to feeling the effects of LSD a little, she took the drug at about noon, and her interview did not occur until more than 12 hours later.”
When cops first made contact with Roman, the officers thought it was “odd” to be outside in the cold with nothing but a shirt. “There was snow on the ground,” the judge said.
It was later proven through medical tests that Roman was, in fact, under the influence of LSD.
“By the time the defendant arrived at the hospital, the police had located [Critser’s] dead body,” the judge said.
