A judge Thursday postponed a bail review hearing until Monday for the 22-year-old man facing murder and other charges for allegedly speeding on Pacific Coast Highway and causing a crash that killed four Pepperdine University students.
Defense attorney Michael Kraut is asking Judge Eric Harmon to reduce Fraser Michael Bohm’s bail from $4 million to $400,000, contending that his client was a victim of road rage.
Bohm’s bail was initially set at $8 million following his arrest Tuesday, but was cut in half during his arraignment Wednesday in a Van Nuys courtroom.
Bohm is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. The charges stem from the Oct. 17 crash in the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway that killed Niamh Rolston, 20, Peyton Stewart, 21, Asha Weir, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21, who were all seniors at Pepperdine’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts.
Bohm’s attorney contends his client was the victim in a road rage incident and was being chased and then forced off the road, leading to the fatal crash.
District Attorney George Gascón said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference that Bohm was “allegedly speeding at speeds of 104 miles an hour in a 45-mile-per hour zone when he lost control of his BMW,” explaining that the murder charges were filed because of “the speed, the reckless disregard for the safety of others.”
Sheriff’s officials said Bohm swerved onto the north shoulder of westbound PCH and slammed into at least three vehicles parked alongside on the roadway. Those parked vehicles struck the four Pepperdine students who were standing or walking nearby, leaving them dead at the scene, according to the sheriff’s department.
Kraut countered that there was no evidence to support Gascón’s claim that Bohm was driving at 104 mph.
“He used numbers like my client was at 104 miles per hour at the time of the crash. The evidence clearly shows that didn’t happen,” Kraut told reporters outside court Thursday morning.
The defense attorney said the maximum speed at the time of impact was 70 mph based on witness statements, his client’s statement and the black box inside the BMW, and accused sheriff’s investigators of refusing to answer phone calls and emails from the defense and rushing to file the case without properly investigating it. He said it took the defense only a couple of days to obtain a video that corroborated his client’s version of what happened that night.
“Had they done their job, which is to listen to the witnesses and test their credibility before running out and filing murder charges on a 22-year-old with zero record, zero points, no speeding tickets and somebody who’s been totally law-abiding, we wouldn’t be here with murder charges. There’s be somebody else standing here.”
“My client was picking up tacos for a friend. There was no drugs, no alcohol, nothing that he had consumed, no smoking of marijuana,” Kraut told reporters. “He picked up the tacos and was headed north. At the stoplight at Duke’s, he had been stopped and was texting a friend to tell him he was coming there and the guy next to him began to become irate. That person then gave chase to my client. My client continued at a regular speed as the … black box shows. And then the other person came in his lane and started pushing him. That person then made contact with my client’s car.”
Bohm’s attorney said the video shows his client “pulling away from this guy as he pushed him and my client went into the other lane and then begins to stop.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Arens told reporters Wednesday that he had “no evidence” that the crash stemmed from an alleged road rage incident, and he urged anyone with information to contact detectives at the sheriff’s Lost Hills station.
Kraut said the defense would not be providing any additional information to the sheriff’s department, saying he believes that they have an “agenda” to “get a quick arrest, to get a quick murder charge.”
John Harlan with the District Attorney’s Office told reporters Wednesday that Bohm’s attorney emailed the District Attorney’s Office after an arrest warrant had already been issued for the young man.
“It was not with any names of witnesses. It was just a claim,” Harlan said. “That’s been forwarded to the assigned D.A. in the case to follow up on so investigators will then have to go out and interview anyone Mr. Kraut is identifying as additional witnesses.”
Gascón said the defense attorney is alleging that there were “some other intervening causes.”
“We look forward to any additional information. … Clearly, this is an ongoing investigation,” Gascón added. “If there are other witnesses, other information, we will look at it to make sure the case is properly charged.”
Bohm could face potential multiple life prison sentences if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The crash has renewed calls for safety improvements on PCH, particularly in the area of the crash, which some call “Dead Man’s Curve.” The Malibu City Council on Monday heard from dozens of residents calling for action to improve safety and force drivers to slow down on the stretch.
The council called on its staff to prepare a report on conditions on PCH and a possible declaration of a local emergency, which would allow the use of local resources to implement safety measures.
Officials at Pepperdine University have announced that the four students killed in the crash will be posthumously awarded their diplomas.