Man accused of driving over 100 mph, killing 4 Pepperdine students, to stand trial for murder

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Set us as preferred Driving at speeds of up to 104 mph, Fraser Michael Bohm whipped around a section of Pacific Coast Highway known as Dead Man’s Curve, skidded out of control and killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters, prosecutors allege.In September — nearly three years since the fatal accident — he will stand trial on murder charges.Bohm, 24, is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from the Oct.

17, 2023 crash in which he swerved onto the shoulder of the westbound PCH and slammed into three parked cars and the women, who were walking nearby.Bohm’s defense team repeatedly has argued that there is inadequate evidence to sustain murder charges against him.They claim that his alleged speeding does not meet the legal standard for implied malice, meaning to act with a conscious disregard for human life.

He was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, according to his attorneys.It took the 2023 deaths of four Pepperdine students to force safety improvements along California’s cinematic stretch of highway.“The data shows fatal collisions are rare” over a 10-year period on the section of PCH where the crash took place, defense attorney Alan Jackson told the court Monday, arguing that Bohm could not have expected that death could result from his alleged speeding.A judge rejected this line of reasoning at a November hearing and did so again Monday, moving to set a Sept.

8 trial date and a Sept.2 pretrial hearing.Prosecutors with the L.A.

County district attorney’s office have argued that Bohm knew there were potentially life-threatening consequences to accelerating over 100 mph in the 45-mph zone of PCH where the accident took place.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson agreed, noting in N...