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A choose declined to dismiss homicide expenses Monday towards a driver accused of fatally hitting 4 Pepperdine College sorority sisters two years in the past as they crossed Pacific Coast Freeway whereas he was driving on the roadway at greater than 100 mph.
Fraser Bohm, 24, is charged with 4 counts of homicide and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from the Oct. 17, 2023, crash on a stretch of PCH in Malibu referred to as “Lifeless Man’s Curve,” the place he plowed into parked vehicles, killing the ladies. He’s charged with homicide based mostly on the idea of implied malice, suggesting a aware disregard for human life, after allegedly reaching 104 mph earlier than the crash.
Alan Jackson, Bohm’s new high-profile lawyer — who garnered headlines as a protection lawyer within the high-profile Massachusetts homicide trial of Karen Reed — argued that “pace alone isn’t implied malice” based mostly on rulings by the California Supreme Court docket, so the homicide expenses ought to be dismissed. He mentioned that there was inadequate proof offered at Bohm’s preliminary listening to to indicate he knew there was a excessive chance of demise, and that driving at excessive pace on PCH doesn’t meet that commonplace.
He additionally repeated the narrative that Bohm crashed whereas being chased by a street rage driver.
- “Tragedy doesn’t create homicide,” Jackson advised the choose, including the case was an instance of “why manslaughter exists.”
The crash occurred shortly earlier than 9 p.m. in a 45-mph zone when Bohm allegedly swerved onto the north shoulder of westbound PCH and slammed into three parked autos. The drive of affect despatched the parked autos plowing into the 4 Pepperdine college students, who have been strolling alongside the shoulder after exiting a automobile.
The victims have been Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21. The Pepperdine seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority subsequently obtained their levels posthumously.
Bohm was not drunk or medication and had no prior driving offenses earlier than the lethal crash in his BMW, his lawyer advised the choose Monday in searching for to dismiss the homicide expenses.
Nevertheless, Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Choose Thomas Rubinson rejected these arguments, saying that given the totality of the proof, there was sufficient to place Bohm on trial for homicide. In keeping with prosecutors, the airbag-related knowledge from Bohm’s automobile confirmed that whilst the steadiness management system kicked in at 93 mph, as he started to skid, he continued to speed up earlier than reaching 104 mph.
In courtroom filings, prosecutors mentioned there was no justification for Bohm to be driving that quick and no proof there was a street rage confrontation. The choose agreed Monday.
“There isn’t any doubt that this man was driving extraordinarily quick on PCH … near and even above 100 mph,” Rubinson mentioned. “There isn’t any proof of a street rage incident earlier than the crash. The defendant knew how harmful it was to drive at 100 mph, and his actions had a excessive diploma of chance of inflicting demise.”
Explaining his ruling, the choose mentioned Bohm knew that pace kills not simply from an advert on a bus bench or the aspect of a bus, as Jackson claimed, however as a result of he revealed to investigators that two of his finest mates died in high-speed crashes.
Rubinson mentioned the coastal roadway, with pedestrians, parked vehicles and trash bins, is just not a distant, broad, open freeway. Bohm advised sheriff’s deputies that he knew the “street just like the again of his hand” and “he is aware of Lifeless Man’s Curve,” the choose mentioned.
Rubinson mentioned his ruling to uphold the homicide expenses wasn’t deciding the difficulty of cheap doubt, however somewhat that based mostly on the totality of the circumstances — not simply Bohm’s pace but in addition the alleged warning from one other motorist and his information of PCH with its historical past of vehicular deaths — there was sufficient proof to proceed to trial.
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