104-mph BMW crash in Malibu killed 4 sorority sisters. Was it murder?

104-mph BMW crash in Malibu killed 4 sorority sisters. Was it murder?

Key points

• Bohm cited a crash in 2020 that killed 20-year-old driver Ezekial Bishop and his passenger, 18-year-old Ryan Breaux, recording artist Frank Ocean's younger brother.
• The crash killed Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams, all seniors at Pepperdine University in Malibu and members of the Alpha Phi sorority.
• Whether Bohm was going 70 or 104 mph – or somewhere in between – Rolston, Stewart, Weir and Williams never stood a chance.
• Bohm was speeding in his BMW on Dead Man's Curve, a notorious stretch of Southern California's Pacific Coast Highway.
• "Everything seems like a murder, " remarked Jonathan Cherney, a former detective who investigated fatal crashes for Southern California's Irvine Police Department.

104-mph BMW crash in Malibu killed 4 sorority sisters. Was it murder? Twenty-two-year-old Fraser Bohm was driving up to 104 mph when he lost control of his BMW and caused a crash that killed four Pepperdine students. Jurors will shortly have to decide if it was murder. Amanda Lee Myers USA TODAY.

Fraser Bohm trial centers on fatal crash off the Pacific Coast Highway.

Senior crime reporter Amanda Lee Myers explains the Fraser Bohm murder trial after four sorority sisters were killed in a California crash.

It was 8: 30 p.m. On a Tuesday night and 22-year-old Fraser Bohm had just accidentally killed four sorority sisters.

Bohm was speeding in his BMW on Dead Man's Curve, a notorious stretch of Southern California's Pacific Coast Highway. Prosecutors say Bohm was driving 104 mph in a 45 mph zone when he lost control and slammed into parked cars. It then barreled into the sorority sisters as they stood on a sidewalk on Oct. 17, 2023.

Notably, the crash killed Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams, all seniors at Pepperdine University in Malibu and members of the Alpha Phi sorority.

"I feel awful, " Bohm informed investigating officers, according to a transcript obtained by USA TODAY. "Trust me, I'm so (expletive) up."

Bohm did not set out to kill the young women that terrible night, but he's being tried on four counts of second-degree murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter. His trial begins Dec. 1. Prosecutors argue Bohm understood that driving so fast could have deadly consequences and did it anyway, showing "a reckless disregard for life."

Bohm's attorneys say a road rage driver clipped him just before the accident and point to his lack of criminal record or traffic violations.

"It was an accident, period, " Bohm's high-profile attorney, Alan Jackson, informed USA TODAY. "There was no malice in Fraser's heart. He meant no harm to anybody. He was reacting to circumstances that were outside his control and an accident occurred." He added: "The DA's office has wildly overcharged this case."

If convicted of the murder charges, Bohm, now 24, could spend the rest of his life in prison. If a jury finds him guilty of only the vehicular manslaughter charges, he could face as little as two years behind bars.

Bohm's trial is being closely watched for the questions it raises regarding what justice means for someone who doesn't intend to kill but whose actions have deadly consequences. The verdict additionally could have implications for similar cases going forward.

Though historically rare, murder or homicide charges in high-speed crashes that don't involve drugs or alcohol are becoming increasingly common, according to experts interviewed by USA TODAY. From Minnesota and Indiana to California and Florida, individuals throughout the nation who killed others while speeding are facing charges that carry life sentences.

"Everything seems like a murder, " remarked Jonathan Cherney, a former detective who investigated fatal crashes for Southern California's Irvine Police Department. He now does accident reconstruction for prosecutors and defense attorneys nationwide as an independent consultant.

"I have so many cases, " Cherney remarked, "I can't even accept new ones."

As Bohm's trial approaches, USA TODAY is looking closer at the crash, what led up to it, and the central question facing jurors: Did Fraser Bohm create a terrible mistake, or did he commit murder?

In practice, the 4 sorority sisters killed in crash: They left a 'legacy of goodness'. How did the crash happen?

At regarding 8: 30 p.m. On Oct. 17, 2023, Fraser Bohm had just picked up an order of tacos and was heading to meet friends, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY. Bohm, a college baseball prosect who lived in a $2.5 million Malibu home with his mother at the time, was driving the 2016 BMW his parents offered him shortly before they filed for divorce in 2017, court records show.

Accounts vary wildly regarding what led up to the crash. Prosecutors have remarked Bohm acted out of "complete and reckless disregard" for the lives of others, his attorneys have always asserted Bohm crashed while fleeing from a road rage driver. The man Bohm identified as the other driver, Victor Calandra, has testified he saw Bohm driving erratically and thought the 22-year-old was texting when he caught up to him at a stoplight.

"Hey, you need to be careful, you're going to hurt yourself, " Calandra testified he informed Bohm just before the young man floored the gas pedal and crashed seconds afterwards, according to the Pepperdine Graphic, the university newspaper that has been after the case.

Bohm's previous and current attorneys have given varied accounts regarding whether he was texting just before the crash. Bohm, described as dazed after the crash, informed police he "must have been texting" but didn't remember. Bohm's attorney at the time, Michael Kraut, remarked to journalists Bohm was texting a friend at the stoplight "and the guy next to him began to become irate."

"That person then gave chase to my client, " Kraut remarked in 2023, according to CBS News. "My client continued at a regular speed. And then the other person came in his lane and began pushing him. That person then created contact with my client's car."

Kraut remarked Bohm wasn't going any faster than 70 mph and had accelerated only as he was "being chased." Bohm's current attorneys deny he was texting, citing an independent cellphone analysis.

Seconds after the crash, Bohm informed police Calandra pulled him out of his BMW by the neck and "pretty much threatened to kill me, " according to court records obtained by USA TODAY.

"He was like, 'You don't understand what you just did. Like, you crashed into all these individuals, '" Bohm informed police.

Bohm informed police Calandra drove into his lane, causing him to swerve. He didn't mention road rage or being afraid during the interview but remarked he additionally didn't remember exactly what happened.

"I had to swerve. And then I was already – I was going fast and then I slammed in front of. It was two other cars, " he remarked. "I believe it was additionally just a blur as my airbags had went off. So I didn't see anything. I really wish I could hone down and understand what had happened."

Whether Bohm was going 70 or 104 mph – or somewhere in between – Rolston, Stewart, Weir and Williams never stood a chance. The young women, who were all 20 and 21, were killed instantly. Their deaths shattered their loved ones and the close-knit community at Pepperdine, a Christian school with regarding 9, 000 students whose picturesque campus overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

Police initially booked Bohm on manslaughter charges but arrested him a week afterwards on the murder counts. Bohm has been out awaiting trial after his family posted $4 million bail. Matter at heart of case: Implied malice.

For the prosecutors in Bohm's trial to obtain a murder conviction, they don't have to prove he intended to kill anyone. They have to show he had "implied malice, " meaning that even though he knew driving so fast could kill individuals, he did it anyway, according to California law.

Prosecutors could draw on Bohm's own words to sway jurors. At the scene of the crash, police asked Bohm whether he was familiar with the phrase "speed kills." Bohm replied that he was and that the phrase meant a lot to him since two of his friends died in a high-speed crash, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by USA TODAY.

Bohm cited a crash in 2020 that killed 20-year-old driver Ezekial Bishop and his passenger, 18-year-old Ryan Breaux, recording artist Frank Ocean's younger brother. Bishop was driving drunk at speeds of 138 mph in his Tesla when he lost control of the car and hit a tree in the suburban Los Angeles city of Thousand Oaks, according to a police report obtained by USA TODAY.

"They were going way, way, way too fast, " Bohm informed police after his own crash. "Those are my two best friends. I know all regarding that stuff. I never obtained closure for what happened with them."

Prosecutors additionally argue that as Bohm lived in the area and drove there all the time, he knew just how dangerous it was to drive so fast. Along plenty of stretches of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the roadway is lined with homes and businesses. Speed limits are 45 mph.

"The defendant knew it is not the Autobahn, " prosecutors argue in court records. "Specifically, that stretch of PCH is where individuals live, drive, walk to restaurants, turn in and out of their driveways, parallel park. That area is teeming with human life. The defendant knew that."

Bohm's new, high-profile defense team. It replaced Kraut last year, will have to prove to jurors that Bohm did not know his behavior was probable to result in death.

In practice, the team is led by attorney Alan Jackson. This person represented Nick Reiner in the murder case involving his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. He additionally has represented actor Kevin Spacey and producer Harvey Weinstein, and he spent concerning two years in Massachusetts representing the since-acquitted Karen Read in a murder case that gripped the nation.

Jackson informed USA TODAY everyone should be troubled by Bohm's case if the prosecution's strongest piece of evidence is that his client acknowledged being familiar with the phrase "speed kills."

"That phrase is a desperate attempt to hang something around Fraser's neck that doesn't exist, " Jackson remarked. "There is no person in the last 30 years who has a driver's license in this country who hasn't heard the phrase 'speed kills.'".

If that's the predicate for a murder charge these days, he remarked, then every crash involving speed and a fatality could be charged as murder.

For now, 104-mph BMW crash in Malibu killed 4 sorority sisters. Was it murder? Remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.