The driver of the BMW that crashed into a crowd of Pepperdine students, killing four of them, was arraigned Wednesday on four counts of vehicular homicide. Malibu police said the driver was speeding at over 100 mph at the time of the crash. At a news conference Wednesday, George Gascón, the district attorney for Los Angeles County, said Fraser Michael Bohm has been accused of driving his car at 104 mph on Pacific Coast Highway, which is below the posted speed limit of 45 mph. Gascón said Bohm entered a not-guilty plea to all eight of the charges.
According to the defendant’s attorney Michael Kraut, the crash happened while Bohm was texting at a stoplight when someone in another car started yelling at him and following him. Kraut said Bohm passed all the sobriety tests after the crash and doesn’t have a criminal record or a traffic ticket. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sergeant Jim Arens said investigators don’t have any proof that the crash was caused by road rage.
Driver in Malibu Crash
Bohm was originally arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide after the crash on October 17 but was released the next day while investigators looked into it further, according to a sheriff’s department statement. Bohm’s bail was initially set at $8 million but was later reduced to $4 million. The district attorney’s office said Pepperdine identified the victims as Niamh Rothston, Peyton Stewart, and Asha Weir, all seniors in the Seaver College of Liberal Arts. The four sisters were walking on the road at around 8:30 p.m. near the campus. The driver lost control and hit at least three parked cars before colliding with them and two other people, police said. The four women were pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Weir was originally from Philadelphia and was studying English, while both Rolston and Stewart were from New York and studying business, CBS Los Angeles reported. Williams was originally from Atlanta and was thinking about becoming a veterinarian. “They were bright lights with lots of potential and dreams,” Provint Jay Brewster said during a campus prayer service. The crash has brought renewed attention to safety on a stretch of highway west of LA known as “Dead Man’s Curve.” Bohm, who was 22 the day before, was a high school athlete. A 2017 article in the L.A. Times said he was a “highly regarded” pitcher at Chaminade Preparatory. If convicted, Bohm could be facing multiple life sentences, according to the county prosecutor’s office.
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