Murder Charges Stand for Driver Who Killed Pepperdine Students

Four women died in the 2023 crash on PCH.

Holly Bieler · July 27, 2026

The man accused of killing four Pepperdine students in a 2023 crash on PCH will stand trial for murder this fall, after a judge refused to throw out the most serious charges against him.

At a pre-trial hearing in Van Nuys today,[Fraser Bohm's new defense team argued](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/pch-crash-pepperdine-students-trial/3922192/) the April preliminary hearing that sent the case to trial was compromised, and that the deadly crash, didn't meet the legal bar for implied malice murder.

The judge disagreed, denying the motion and keeping all four murder counts intact.

It's at least the second time a dismissal bid has failed, after another judge[rejected a similar motion](https://abc7.com/post/los-angeles-judge-denies-request-dismiss-murder-charges-pch-crash-killed-4-pepperdine-students/18138251/) in November.

Bohm, who was 22 at the time of the crash, is charged with four counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Prosecutors say he was speeding on PCH in Malibu on the night of October 17, 2023, when he lost control and slammed into parked cars, which then struck four young women standing alongside the highway.

The victims — Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21 — were all seniors at Pepperdine's Seaver College and members of the Alpha Phi sorority. They received their degrees posthumously.

Bohm's attorneys have maintained he was fleeing a road rage driver when the crash occurred, a claim expected to feature prominently at trial.

The trial is set to begin September 8, with pretrial motions scheduled for September 2.