A judge declined to dismiss murder charges Monday against a driver accused of fatally hitting four Pepperdine University sorority sisters two years ago as they crossed Pacific Coast Highway while he was driving on the roadway at more than 100 mph.
Fraser Bohm, 24, is charged with four counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from the Oct. 17, 2023, crash on a stretch of PCH in Malibu known as “Dead Man’s Curve,” where he plowed into parked cars, killing the women. He is charged with murder based on the concept of implied malice, suggesting a conscious disregard for human life, after allegedly reaching 104 mph before the crash.
Alan Jackson, Bohm’s new high-profile lawyer — who garnered headlines as a defense attorney in the high-profile Massachusetts murder trial of Karen Reed — argued that “speed alone isn’t implied malice” based on rulings by the California Supreme Court, so the murder charges should be dismissed. He said that there was insufficient evidence presented at Bohm’s preliminary hearing to show he knew there was a high probability of death, and that driving at high speed on PCH does not meet that standard.
He also repeated the narrative that Bohm crashed while being chased by a road rage driver.
- “Tragedy doesn’t create murder,” Jackson told the judge, adding the case was an example of “why manslaughter exists.”
The crash occurred shortly before 9 p.m. in a 45-mph zone when Bohm allegedly swerved onto the north shoulder of westbound PCH and slammed into three parked vehicles. The force of impact sent the parked vehicles plowing into the four Pepperdine students, who were walking along the shoulder after exiting a car.
The victims were Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21. The Pepperdine seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority subsequently received their degrees posthumously.
Bohm was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and had no prior driving offenses before the deadly crash in his BMW, his attorney told the judge Monday in seeking to dismiss the murder charges.
However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson rejected those arguments, saying that given the totality of the evidence, there was enough to put Bohm on trial for murder. According to prosecutors, the airbag-related data from Bohm’s car showed that even as the stability control system kicked in at 93 mph, as he began to skid, he continued to accelerate before reaching 104 mph.
In court filings, prosecutors said there was no justification for Bohm to be driving that fast and no proof there was a road rage confrontation. The judge agreed Monday.
“There is no doubt that this man was driving extremely fast on PCH … close to or even above 100 mph,” Rubinson said. “There is no evidence of a road rage incident before the crash. The defendant knew how dangerous it was to drive at 100 mph, and his actions had a high degree of probability of causing death.”
Explaining his ruling, the judge said Bohm knew that speed kills not just from an ad on a bus bench or the side of a bus, as Jackson claimed, but because he revealed to investigators that two of his best friends died in high-speed crashes.
Rubinson said the coastal roadway, with pedestrians, parked cars and trash bins, is not a remote, broad, open highway. Bohm told sheriff’s deputies that he knew the “road like the back of his hand” and “he knows Dead Man’s Curve,” the judge said.
Rubinson said his ruling to uphold the murder charges wasn’t deciding the issue of reasonable doubt, but rather that based on the totality of the circumstances — not just Bohm’s speed but also the alleged warning from another motorist and his knowledge of PCH with its history of vehicular deaths — there was enough evidence to continue to trial.
