Driving at speeds of up to 104 mph, Fraser Michael Bohm whipped around a section of Pacific Coast Highway known as Dead Man’s Corner, skidded out of control and killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters, prosecutors allege. In September — nearly three years since the fatal accident — he will stand trial for murder.Bohm, 24, is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from the Oct. 17, 2023, crash when he swerved onto the shoulder of the westbound PCH and slammed into three parked cars, killing the women, who were walking nearby.Bohm’s defense team has repeatedly argued that there is inadequate evidence to sustain murder charges against him. They claim that his alleged speeding does not meet the legal standard of implied malice, meaning to act with a conscious disregard for human life. He was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, according to his attorneys. “The data shows fatal collisions are rare” over a 10-year period on the section of PCH where the crash took place, defense attorney Alan Jackson told the court Monday, arguing that Bohm could not have expected that death could result from his alleged speeding.A judge rejected this line of reasoning at a November hearing and did so again Monday, moving to set a Sept. 8 trial date and a Sept. 2 pretrial hearing.Prosecutors with the L.A. County district attorney’s office have argued that Bohm knew there were potentially life-threatening consequences to accelerating over 100 mph in the 45-mph zone of PCH where the accident took place. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson agreed, noting in November that Bohm had told investigators he knew PCH “like the back of his hand” and that two of his best friends had died in high-speed crashes.On Monday, Bohm’s defense attorneys, once again, tried to argue that Bohm was not aware his actions carried a high probability of death and also alleged that the prosecuting team had unfairly withheld evidence relating to Bohm’s cellphone and vehicle speeds.However, Rubinson ruled Monday that the defense team was able to acquire sufficient evidence around traffic safety, collision history and enforcement activity along PCH without having to lobby prosecutors for the data. He said there were no evidentiary violations made by the district attorney’s office. The victims of the crash were Alpha Phi sorority sisters Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21, who all received their degrees posthumously. The tragic accident sparked renewed calls for safety improvements along the 21-mile section of PCH in Malibu, one of the deadliest roads in the state, where 63 people have died since 2010.In July 2024, one person was killed and two injured in a head-on collision along the same stretch of PCH where the Pepperdine students died.Traffic collisions dropped precipitously in the aftermath of the 2025 Palisades fire, when the road was closed for weeks and then reopened with strict speed limits. Nonetheless, as cars returned and speeding increased, accidents resumed. In February, a pedestrian became the latest Malibu fatality along an area of PCH near Point Dume.Times staff writer Richard Winton and City News Service contributed to this report.
