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In a significant development on Tuesday, a judge mandated that prosecutors hand over a cell phone belonging to Fraser Bohm, the driver of a BMW implicated in a tragic crash that claimed the lives of four Pepperdine University students on Malibu’s infamous Pacific Coast Highway.
The phone was confiscated after Bohm, 24, declined to provide the passcode, following the 2023 incident that resulted in the deaths of Niamh Rolston, 20, Asha Weir, 21, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21.
Bohm faces charges including four counts of second-degree murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, related to the crash on a perilous stretch known to locals as Dead Man’s Curve. His defense team insisted that access to the cell phone is essential for obtaining potentially crucial information that could aid in his defense.
However, prosecutors were reluctant to return the phone, citing concerns that Bohm might alter or erase the data, as they have been unable to unlock the phone without the passcode.
In a session at LA Superior Court in Van Nuys, California, Judge Thomas Rubinson reached a compromise. He ordered the LA Sheriff’s Department to securely transfer the phone to a defense-appointed technical expert’s lab. There, the data will be extracted under the watchful eyes of prosecutors to ensure the integrity of the process.
The judge also ordered LA’s District Attorney to turn over to the defense many thousands of pages of accident reports, witness statements and other information on 128 non-fatal crashes that happened on or near the scene of Bohm’s crash in the 10 years prior and details of all speeding tickets handed out on that stretch for two years before.
Prosecutors argued that such a mountain of material was ‘irrelevant, over-broad and unduly burdensome’.
‘That’s 128 accidents that have nothing to do with this case,’ protested Deputy District Attorney Nathan Bartos Tuesday.
A judge on Tuesday ordered prosecutors to hand over Fraser Bohm’s cell phone, despite warnings he could ‘modify, alter or delete’ hidden data investigators have been unable to access without the passcode he refused to give police
Bohm, 24, arriving at Van Nuys Superior Court on Tuesday. He is facing four counts of second-degree murder and four of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the deaths of four Pepperdine students
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
But Judge Rubinson agreed with defense lawyers that the information could help disprove the prosecution’s theory of ‘implied malice’ – that Bohm knew speeding on that stretch of PCH could kill – which is needed to prove murder.
The four young women died on October 17, 2023, when Bohm, driving a red BMW he had been given on his 18th birthday smashed into three stationary vehicles in the parking lane on PCH next to where the girls were walking. The speed limit there is 45mph.
Prosecutors slapped Bohm with murder charges after retrieving the ‘black box’ from the car, which showed that he accelerated from 93mph to 104mph just two and a half seconds before the crash.
Bohm’s defense team has argued that the deaths were the result of a tragic accident which happened when he was being chased in a ‘road rage’ incident, a scenario the DA insists there is no evidence to support.
Instead, said DDA Bartos at an earlier hearing, the four victims were killed ‘because of the defendant’s wanton disregard for the high probability of death caused by driving at over 100mph.’
In a 76-page new written motion to the court Tuesday, Bohm’s attorneys took aim at the prosecution’s accusations and asked Judge Rubinson to compel cops to give back the cell phone, ‘so that the defense may conduct an independent extraction using his passcode.’
Insisting that Bohm was within his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights to refuse to give cops his passcode, the motion added: ‘Mr. Bohm’s alleged speed is central to the people’s theory of murder and remains sharply disputed.’
‘The cell phone contains embedded data – including accelerometer data, motion data and detailed geolocation information. his data may independently corroborate or refute the prosecution’s claims regarding Mr. Bohm’s speed immediately before and at the time of the collision.’
The crash killed four Pepperdine University students, including Deslyn Williams, 21, (left) and Niamh Rolston, 20, who were sorority sisters and close friends
Peyton Stewart, 21, (left) and Asha Weir, 21, were members of Alpha Phi at Pepperdine University – and were pronounced dead alongside their two friends at the scene
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
Bohm’s attorney Jacqueline Sparagna, spurned as ‘unfounded’ the contention from prosecutors that ‘if the phone is removed from the Sheriff’s Department, it might receive external signals and the data in the phone could be altered, modified or deleted’.
She added that the DA’s refusal to hand over the phone ‘is not rooted in evidence preservation, but in the obstruction of the defense’s access to critical evidence’.
And she pointed out that the crash was ‘the only fatal collision’ in five years.
‘This data directly undermines the prosecution’s claim that speeding in this location constitutes conduct whose natural and probable consequence involve a high degree of probability of death,’ said Sparagna.
‘Statistically, the data shows the opposite given that drivers frequently speed in that area and no other fatal accidents have occurred.’
Citing Bohm’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, defense attorney Jacqueline Sparagna rejected prosecutors’ warnings that the phone could receive external signals and have its data altered, modified or deleted if returned
Bohm wore a white shirt and blue tie as he entered court with his mother Brooke for Tuesday’s hearing
Bohm’s father Chris, showed up in court in Van Nuys, California, for Tuesday’s hearing
In their new motion, defense attorneys argued that if the prosecution’s view that Bohm’s alleged speed is sufficient to establish murder, his defense should be able to show how often drivers travel at high speed without causing fatal collisions.
Judge Rubinson declared that the request for five years of traffic tickets was ‘very excessive’ and ruled instead that Bohm’s defense could only have two years of speeding tickets.
But he warned Sparagna, ‘You’re playing with fire here. A lot of these speeding tickets were for people who were only going say 60mph, not 90 or 100 (the speeds Bohm is alleged to have reached). How is that going to help your case?’
Looking grim-faced as he sat next to his defense team, Bohm – who was 22 and living in Malibu at the time off the crash – wore a gray suit, white shirt and blue tie at Tuesday’s hearing.
He will remain free on $4million bail until another court appearance on April 9 where the judge is expected to set a date for trial – which Bohm’s lead attorney Alan Jackson estimated would start in late June.
Meanwhile the grieving 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, alleging 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.