A Los Angeles judge has ordered prosecutors to relinquish a cell phone belonging to Fraser Bohm, the 24-year-old charged with the murders of four Pepperdine University students killed in a devastating crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
Judge Thomas Rubinson, presiding at LA Superior Court in Van Nuys on Tuesday, issued a compromise ruling requiring the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to deliver the device in a sealed bag to the laboratory of a defense-appointed technical expert. Prosecutors will be permitted to observe the data extraction to ensure, in the judge’s words, that “nothing nefarious” occurs.
Bohm has pleaded not guilty to four counts of second-degree murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with the 2023 crash that claimed the lives of Niamh Rolston, 20, Asha Weir, 21, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21, on a stretch of road some have called “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Authorities seized the phone after Bohm allegedly declined to provide its passcode following the accident. Prosecutors, who have been unable to access the device’s contents as a result, had opposed returning it, citing concerns that Bohm could “modify, alter or delete” potentially critical data. His defense attorneys countered that information stored on the phone could prove vital to their case.
Judge Rubinson also ordered the District Attorney’s office to hand over thousands of pages of documentation relating to 128 non-fatal crashes recorded at or near the same location in the ten years preceding the incident, along with records of all speeding citations issued on that stretch of highway in the two years prior to the crash.
Deputy District Attorney Nathan Bartos pushed back against the scope of the order, arguing the material was “irrelevant, over-broad and unduly burdensome,” adding, “That’s 128 accidents that have nothing to do with this case.“
Bohm, who is currently out of jail on $4 million bail, appeared in court with his parents on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
Bohm’s next court hearing is scheduled for April 9.