The high-powered lawyers for the out-of-control BMW driver accused of killing four Pepperdine University students are now urging a California judge to toss his murder case – arguing the 23-year-old was “grossly overcharged.”
Fraser Bohm’s defense attorney, Jacqueline Sparanga, filed a 55-page motion on Sept. 30, challenging details from an April hearing and pushing to dismiss the four murder counts leveled against her client, according to court documents obtained by The Post.
Bohm was slapped with murder and vehicular manslaughter charges for fatally mowing down Niamh Rolston, 20, Peyton Stewart, 21, Asha Weir, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21, while doing over 100 mph in Malibu on Oct. 17, 2023.
“We believe that the facts that were presented at the preliminary hearing do not establish murder charges, so we’re asking the court to look at the facts that were presented…and look at the law and make a determination that the facts do not rise to the level of murder,” Sparanga said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“We believe he was very overcharged, grossly overcharged. We don’t believe this is a murder case. This is our first shot at getting the murder charges dismissed.”
Bohm appeared at Van Nuys Courthouse on Wednesday, where Sparanga informed Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson of the motion.
The motion, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims that prosecutors are lacking legally sufficient evidence to back the second-degree murder charges.
The filing also blasts the prosecution for a “muddled presentation” that their theory of “implied malice” is “unsupported by fact and by law.”
Prosecutors said the Malibu resident was allegedly speeding 104 mph on a notoriously dangerous 45 mph stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway when he lost control of his luxury car and slammed into three parked cars, which then collided into the four Alpha Phi Sorority sisters walking nearby.
The victims, seniors at the liberal arts college, all died at the scene.
Two other people were injured in the crash, which Bohm walked away from unscathed.
He was initially arrested and charged with gross vehicular manslaughter — charges that were upgraded to four counts of murder a week later.
He pleaded not guilty in August – and was flanked by hotshot LA defense attorney Alan Jackson, who was fresh off his June victory of getting Karen Read acquitted of murders after she was accused of drunkenly mowing down her Boston cop boyfriend in 2022.
Last month, Jackson – who’s defended the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey – pressed Rubinson to lower Bohm’s bail from $4 million to $2 million, a request that was shot down.
Jackson, whom Bohm’s loved ones hired in June, claimed the family sold their home and “drained all their retirement” to pay for Bohm’s defense.
Bohm is expected to stand trial and faces multiple life sentences, if convicted.
A hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 10.
Read the full article here
