Karen Reed<\/a> \u2014 argued that \u201cspeed alone isn\u2019t implied malice\u201d based on rulings by the California Supreme Court, so the murder charges should be dismissed. He said that there was insufficient evidence presented at Bohm\u2019s preliminary hearing to show he knew there was a high probability of death, and that driving at high speed on PCH does not meet that standard.<\/p>\nHe also repeated the narrative that Bohm crashed while being chased by a road rage driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cTragedy doesn\u2019t create murder,\u201d Jackson told the judge, adding the case was an example of \u201cwhy manslaughter exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crash occurred shortly before 9 p.m. in a 45-mph zone when Bohm allegedly swerved onto the north shoulder of westbound PCH and slammed into three parked vehicles. The force of impact sent the parked vehicles plowing into the four Pepperdine students, who were walking along the shoulder after exiting a car.<\/p>\n
The victims were Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21. The Pepperdine seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority subsequently received their degrees posthumously.<\/p>\n
Bohm was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and had no prior driving offenses before the deadly crash in his BMW, his attorney told the judge Monday in seeking to dismiss the murder charges.<\/p>\n
However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson rejected those arguments, saying that given the totality of the evidence, there was enough to put Bohm on trial for murder. According to prosecutors, the airbag-related data from Bohm\u2019s car showed that even as the stability control system kicked in at 93 mph, as he began to skid, he continued to accelerate before reaching 104 mph.<\/p>\n
In court filings, prosecutors said there was no justification for Bohm to be driving that fast and no proof there was a road rage confrontation. The judge agreed Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that this man was driving extremely fast on PCH … close to or even above 100 mph,\u201d Rubinson said. \u201cThere is no evidence of a road rage incident before the crash. The defendant knew how dangerous it was to drive at 100 mph, and his actions had a high degree of probability of causing death.\u201d <\/p>\n
Explaining his ruling, the judge said Bohm knew that speed kills not just from an ad on a bus bench or the side of a bus, as Jackson claimed, but because he revealed to investigators that two of his best friends died in high-speed crashes.<\/p>\n
Rubinson said the coastal roadway, with pedestrians, parked cars and trash bins, is not a remote, broad, open highway. Bohm told sheriff\u2019s deputies that he knew the \u201croad like the back of his hand\u201d and \u201che knows Dead Man\u2019s Curve,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Rubinson said his ruling to uphold the murder charges wasn\u2019t deciding the issue of reasonable doubt, but rather that based on the totality of the circumstances \u2014 not just Bohm\u2019s speed but also the alleged warning from another motorist and his knowledge of PCH with its history of vehicular deaths \u2014 there was enough evidence to continue to trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge declined to dismiss murder charges Monday against a driver accused of fatally hitting four Pepperdine University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31195,283,350,31196,339,31194,31198,16047,48,52,51,47,50,49,6170,1331,18634,596,31197,20897,19930],"class_list":["post-47950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alan-jackson","tag-car","tag-crash","tag-dead-man","tag-death","tag-fraser-bohm","tag-insufficient-evidence","tag-judge","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mph","tag-murder","tag-murder-charge","tag-pch","tag-rubinson","tag-ruling","tag-speed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}