The Malibu driver accused of killing four sorority sisters when his BMW slammed into them has hired the attorney who secured Karen Read’s acquittal in a high-profile murder case.
Pepperdine University students Niamh Rolston, 20, Peyton Stewart, 21, Asha Weir, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21, died in October 2023 after 23-year-old Fraser Bohm allegedly crashed into them at high speed as they walked on the Pacific Coast Highway after getting out of their vehicle.
Bohm was arraigned Wednesday on murder and vehicular manslaughter charges in connection with their deaths. The young women, who attended Pepperdine’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts, were members of the Alpha Phi Sorority.
At a short hearing, Bohm’s attorney Alan Jackson entered not-guilty pleas to four counts of each of the charges on his client’s behalf.
Jackson, a prominent criminal defense attorney, recently represented Read in a murder trial in Massachusetts over the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe. The jury acquitted her after a dramatic eight-week trial.
The lawyer has also represented Kevin Spacey in a sexual assault case and prosecuted music producer Phil Spector for murder.
At the courthouse in Van Nuys, California, Judge Thomas Rubinson granted the defense’s request to postpone proceedings until September 5.
Rolston, Stewart, Weir and Williams were killed on October 17, 2023, along a section of highway locally referred to as “Dead Man’s Curve” because of its notoriety for fatal crashes.
The women got out of their car in the parking lane when Bohm’s BMW allegedly came tearing down the road at over 100mph, crashing into them and three parked cars. The college seniors died at the scene. Bohm was not injured.
The prosecution alleges the four students were killed “because of the driving of the defendant,” Deputy District Attorney Nathan Bartos said at a hearing in April.
Data retrieved from Bohm’s BMW allegedly showed that he accelerated from 93mph to 104mph just seconds before crashing into the four students.
“He consciously decided to get that vehicle up to the speed of 104 miles an hour,” Bartos said. “And he lost control of his vehicle…This was not an accident.”
Bohm’s previous defense attorney, Michael Kraut, argued his client was “being chased in a road-rage incident.” But LA sheriff’s investigators said there was “no evidence of an alleged road-rage incident.”
The accused was being held on $8 million bail, reduced to $4 million. Jackson said he intended to seek a further reduction in Bohm’s bail package, he told the Daily Mail.
Pepperdine University paid tribute to the “four remarkable women” in a social media post after their deaths. “We deeply grieve the unfulfilled hopes and aspirations of these bright young women,” the university said.
Rolston, Stewart, Weir and Williams were due to graduate in 2024 and were honored with posthumous degrees last year.
Locals have long campaigned for something to be done about the dangerous stretch of highway where the students were killed.
