A Los Angeles judge has rejected efforts by accused killer Fraser Bohm to have statements he made to police excluded from his upcoming murder trial. Bohm, now 24, faces four counts of second-degree murder and four of vehicular manslaughter over a 2023 crash that killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters when his BMW ploughed into parked cars on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway. His lawyers argued his roadside answers to officers amounted to illegal custodial interrogation before he was read his Miranda rights, and were involuntary because he was concussed and disoriented, but Judge Thomas Rubinson ruled he was not in police custody at the time and that his statements were given voluntarily.

Prosecutors say the car's black box showed Bohm accelerated from 93mph to 104mph in the 45mph zone just two and a half seconds before the crash, which killed Niamh Rolston, 20, Asha Weir, 21, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21. Defence attorney Jacqueline Sparagna had told the court Bohm was questioned for hours by an "enormous" number of deputies who were "confrontational and accusatory," was not read his rights for roughly six hours, and was suffering a diagnosed concussion that left him unable to speak coherently for months. Bohm, who has pleaded not guilty, appeared silent in court in a grey suit alongside his parents, with the ruling clearing the way for jurors to hear his police statements at trial.