Judge rejects motion to dismiss murder charges in Malibu crash that killed 4 Pepperdine students

LOS ANGELES - A judge Monday rejected a defense motion to dismiss murder charges against a young man prosecutors say was speeding when he crashed into three parked vehicles on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in 2023 — killing four Pepperdine University sorority sisters.

What we know:

Fraser Michael Bohm, 24, is charged with four counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from an October 17, 2023, crash on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. in a 45 mph zone when Bohm allegedly swerved onto the north shoulder of the westbound PCH and slammed into three parked vehicles. 

The force of the collision caused the parked vehicles to strike four Pepperdine students who were walking along the shoulder after exiting the vehicle.

The four victims were Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21. They were all seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority, and they subsequently received their degrees posthumously.

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Bohm was initially arrested, then freed from jail and then rearrested. He has been free on bail that was posted shortly after the case was filed against him eight days after the crash.

The ongoing legal case

A new team of attorneys representing Fraser Michael Bohm unsuccessfully argued to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson that there was insufficient evidence presented to support the murder charges at a hearing in April in which another judge found there was enough evidence to allow the case to proceed to trial.

At the hearing in April, Deputy District Attorney Nathan Bartos told Judge Diego Edber that Bohm "lost control of his vehicle" as the women walked along the shoulder area after getting out of a vehicle in the 45 mph zone.

Defense attorneys Alan Jackson, Kelly Quinn and Jacqueline Sparagna wrote in one of their court filings seeking dismissal of the murder charges that the prosecution has "chosen to take the facts of a tragic car accident and charge them as murder."

Bohm's attorney had previously argued that the young man was being "chased in a road-rage incident" when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed in a dangerous area of PCH known as Dead Man’s Curve. His vehicle hit several parked cars on the side of the road where the girls were walking. 

But prosecutors say there is no evidence of road rage, only an exchange with another driver on PCH before the accident. That driver, Victor Calandra, left after court, speaking only through his attorney, claiming he tried to warn Bohm at a red light before the accident.

"He rolled his window down said you are going to kill somebody, slow down," said attorney Robert Helfend. 

Calandra's attorney does admit his client was angry when he drove up to the crash, and confronted Bohm. 

"The defendant, all he could say was I gotta call my mom, OMG I ruined my life. Not once did he say how are the victims? So that’s why he got mad at the guy." 

What they're saying:

"... The People simply hope that this court is so blinded by the tragic nature of this accident that it forgets the People need to prove legal standards. This absence alone should be fatal to the People's case," the defense attorneys wrote.

The prosecutor objected to the defense's motion to dismiss the murder charges, writing in his opposition that "the defendant clearly drove in a reckless and dangerous manner."

"Here, the defendant drove 59 miles per hour over the speed limit on what is essentially a residential street," Bartos wrote. "There is no excuse which can justify the danger he posed at those speeds, certainly not trying to flee possible road rage, a contention for which there was no evidence, nor did the defendant ever mention it to deputies."

Local perspective:

The crash site, a short stretch of the PCH between Las Flores Canyon and Carbon Canyon Roads, is locally known as "dead man's curve" and has reportedly seen the highest number of auto accidents on the overall 21-mile coastal road.

The tragedy prompted numerous calls to address the dangers and minimize speeds in that area.

Following the crash, lawyers for the students' parents said no safeguards were in place for pedestrians, despite the city allegedly having known about the dangers for decades.

What's next:

Bohm faces murder and manslaughter, even though his attorney says this was an accident and that there was no implied malice.

But what the prosecution is saying, and the judge agreed to, is that in these particular circumstances, he should have known speeding would kill someone. Bohm told investigators he knew PCH "like the back of his hand" and that he knew speeding was dangerous because he had lost two best friends to speed-related accidents. 

His next court appearance is January 14th in Van Nuys.