Driver ordered to stand trial in PCH crash that killed 4 Pepperdine students
VAN NUYS, Calif. (CNS) -- A 22-year-old man on Wednesday was ordered to stand trial on murder and vehicular manslaughter charges for allegedly speeding when he crashed into three parked vehicles on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in 2023 -- killing four Pepperdine University sorority sisters.
Superior Court Judge Diego H. Edber ordered Fraser Michael Bohm, of Malibu, to return to the Van Nuys courthouse July 1 for arraignment on four counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the Oct. 17, 2023, nighttime crash that killed Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21.
All four women were seniors at Pepperdine's Seaver College of Liberal Arts and members of the Alpha Phi sorority. They were set to graduate with Pepperdine's class of 2024, and subsequently received their degrees posthumously.
The four were struck as they walked along the shoulder area after getting out of a vehicle in the 45 mph zone, Deputy District Attorney Nathan Bartos told the judge.
"They were killed because of the driving of the defendant," the prosecutor said, noting that data retrieved from a device in Bohm's BMW indicated that the vehicle accelerated from 93 mph to 104 mph just 2 1/2 seconds before the first of three impacts were detected.
Defense attorney Michael Kraut has questioned the accuracy of the speed figures, arguing that the data from the so-called "black box" is "not accurate" and noting that there are warnings that such data could be inaccurate.
Bohm's attorney -- who objected to the murder charges -- told the judge that the young man was being "chased in a road-rage incident" and "accelerated" before the deadly crash.
He called his client -- who was 20 at the time of the crash -- "a kid" and said there was "no evidence of a past history of any driving violations or a parking violation."
The defense lawyer questioned why the prosecution filed a case against Bohm four days after the crash, noting that investigations into deadly crashes typically take eight months to a year.
Bohm, who was initially arrested, then freed from jail and then re-arrested, has been out on bail that was posted shortly after the case was filed against him.
In arguments following two days of testimony, the prosecutor told the judge that witnesses who estimated that Bohm was traveling about 70 mph had "lost sight of him" as he "continued to accelerate."
"He consciously decided to get that vehicle up to the speed of 104 miles per hour ... He made that decision," the deputy district attorney said, telling the judge that Bohm "lost control of his vehicle."
He noted that Bohm called the crash "an accident" when he spoke early the next morning with Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators. But the prosecutor said, "This was not an accident."
Bohm's attorney said he was in court to seek justice, not to have his client freed from any responsibility for the crash.
In a videotaped interview with sheriff's investigators that was played in court Tuesday, Bohm can be heard saying that "it was an accident" and that he felt "awful."
Bohm said he had to swerve after "some guy" in a white car swerved into his lane and struck his driver's side mirror, resulting in him slamming into the first of the three parked vehicles.
The prosecutor told the judge that the female driver of a white Honda Civic who reported that she saw a car "going really fast" indicated that she never made contact with the BMW before seeing it hit the first parked vehicle. Photos of the Civic showed no apparent damage to it.
The defense attorney countered that a road-rage incident "does not have to be a high-speed chase," referring to another motorist whom he called "aggressive" in attempting to confront Bohm about his driving while they were at a traffic light before the crash.
That driver, Victor Calandra, testified Monday that he saw a vehicle driving erratically, moving from lane to lane and swerving, before he and Bohm wound up next to each other at a traffic light.
