A judge has rejected accused killer Fraser Bohm’s attempt to suppress statements he gave police in the hours after the devastating crash that killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters.
Bohm’s attorneys argued that his responses to officers’ questions — including questions about his speed, possible alcohol or drug use, and whether he had been texting or speaking on his phone before the fatal collision — should not be allowed at trial. They claimed the questioning amounted to an unlawful “custodial interrogation” conducted before he was advised of his Miranda rights.
His defense team also filed a separate motion contending that Bohm’s answers were involuntary because he had suffered a concussion and head injury in the crash, making the statements inadmissible.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson denied both requests on Tuesday. The judge found that Bohm was “not in Miranda custody” when officers questioned him and ruled that the statements he made at the scene along Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway were voluntary.
Bohm, now 24 and 22 at the time of the accident, did not speak during the hearing in Van Nuys, near Los Angeles. He wore a light gray suit, white shirt and blue check tie.
He attended the hearing with his divorced parents, Christopher and Brooke. His mother reportedly purchased the BMW involved in the collision as an 18th birthday gift for her son.
The former high school baseball star has pleaded not guilty to four counts of second-degree murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. The charges stem from the deaths of Pepperdine University sorority sisters Niamh Rolston, 20, Asha Weir, 21, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21.
The four women were killed when Bohm allegedly lost control of the BMW and crashed into stationary vehicles in the parking lane on Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway, beside the area where they had been walking.
Fraser Bohm, 24, was seen arriving at court last week before a key hearing on whether jurors will hear statements he made to police in the hours following the fatal Malibu crash.
Bohm, pictured with his mother last week, faces four counts of second-degree murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with the 2023 crash that killed four Pepperdine students.
The speed limit there is 45mph and prosecutors charged Bohm with quadruple murder after retrieving the ‘black box’ from his car which showed that he accelerated from 93mph to 104mph just two and a half seconds before the crash.
During the latest motion hearing, defense attorney Jacqueline Sparagna argued that Bohm was detained for several hours at the scene of the crash, that deputies who questioned him were ‘confrontational and accusatory’ and that he was told he would be arrested if he didn’t co-operate.
Describing the large number of deputies who showed up to the crash scene, as ‘enormous,’ she added that Bohm was ‘under police restraint.’
Sparagna said the deputies’ questioning of Bohm, who was not read his Miranda rights till some six hours after the accident, was ‘custodial interrogation,’ that her client was treated as a ‘suspect’ and the questions he was asked were ‘intended to elicit an incriminating response.’
According to his lawyer, Bohm suffered head injuries in the crash and was suffering from a concussion at the time cops were questioning him.
‘He was disoriented, he was in shock… he was completely out of it,’ Sparagna told the court.
She argued that a psychiatrist and neurologist who examined Bohm in the days after the accident diagnosed him as having a concussion.
‘He was not able to speak coherently for months afterward,’ she said.
The crash killed four Pepperdine University students, including Deslyn Williams (left) and Niamh Rolston who were sorority sisters and close friends
Peyton Stewart (left) and Asha Weir were members of Alpha Phi at Pepperdine University – and were pronounced dead alongside their two friends at the scene
Prosecutor Polene Ghazanian countered saying the reason there was such a large police presence at the crash scene was ‘the gravity of the situation… there were four fatalities.’
She told the court that while Bohm was questioned at the scene for several hours, he was ‘not under arrest’ at the time and ‘this does not constitute Miranda custody.’
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Ghazanian maintained that from video shot by deputies’ body cameras, Bohm’s statements were voluntary and he was not subjected to interrogation.
As to defense claims that Bohm had a concussion, she added that cops and paramedics at the scene concluded that he understood everything that was happening and he was not concussed.
In denying the defense motions, Judge Rubinson referred to the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ of the horrific accident and deputies called to the scene were ‘entitled’ to ask Bohm how fast he was driving and other questions.
‘He was detained – but he was not in custody for purposes of Miranda. He was not arrested. He was never handcuffed at the scene.
While he conceded that Bohm may have later been diagnosed as having a concussion, the judge rejected defense arguments that he was concussed when answering police questions immediately after the crash.
Footage obtained by KTLA from the night of the crash show the mangled remains of his red BMW which he received as an 18th birthday present as part of his wealthy parents’ divorce settlement
The four young women were struck and killed along the Pacific Coast Highway in an area known locally as ‘Dead Man’s Curve’ on October 17, 2023
‘He was able to understand what was being asked,’ he said. ‘He knew where he was. He knew where he came from and were he was going.’
Bohm’s jury trial was originally scheduled to start last week.
But Judge Rubinson agreed to postpone it till December 1 after hearing from the Malibu native’s lead attorney, Alan Jackson, that he needed more time to mount a defense against prosecutors’ explosive ‘new theory’ that Bohm had a ‘giant canister of nitrous oxide’ – best known as laughing gas – in his lap just before the crash.
Jackson complained in earlier court filings that the LA District Attorney’s announcement ‘on the eve of trial’ that the 10-12 pound canister of nitrous, with nozzle, found inside Bohm’s car would be central to the case, ‘implied’ that Bohm was inhaling the gas at the time of the crash.
But Deputy DA Nathan Bartos assured the court that he did not intend to argue that Bohm actually inhaled the nitrous – which can produce a short, euphoric high when inhaled – only that he ‘possessed’ the canister ‘and that possession distracted his driving.’
Judge Rubinson told the court that he would ‘hold prosecutors to that’ and he would not allow any suggestion to the jury at trial that Bohm was actually inhaling nitrous at the time of the accident, ‘not even a nod, nod, wink wink.’
According to Sparagna, Bohm had been seeing several therapists for anxiety, depression and other mental issues for years before the October 2023 fatal crash in Malibu.
She sought to admit into evidence testimony from one therapist who described a 2019 session with Bohm when he arrived ‘scared and shaking,’ from a road-rage incident which happened that day on his way to therapy.
Bohm’s lead defense attorney Alan Jackson had argued that his client was effectively in police custody for hours before investigators finally read him his Miranda rights
Over objections from prosecutors, Judge Rubinson declared that testimony would be admissible, ruling that it was relevant because Bohm is claiming that the Malibu accident happened because of another instance
The heartbroken parents of the four victims have all brought wrongful death civil lawsuits against Bohm and are also suing the State of California, LA County, the City of Malibu and the California Coastal Commission, claiming dangerous road design on PCH and lack of safety standards.
All of the dead girls were seniors at Pepperdine’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts where they were members of the Alpha Phi Sorority.
They were due to graduate with the class of 2024 and later were awarded their Pepperdine degrees posthumously.