At about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2023, Fraser Bohm had just picked up an order of tacos and was heading to meet friends, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY. Bohm, a college baseball prosect who lived in a $2.5 million Malibu home with his mother at the time, was driving the 2016 BMW his parents gave him shortly before they filed for divorce in 2017, court records show.
Accounts vary wildly about what led up to the crash. Prosecutors have said Bohm acted out of "complete and reckless disregard" for the lives of others, his attorneys have always asserted Bohm crashed while fleeing from a road rage driver. The man Bohm identified as the other driver, Victor Calandra, has testified he saw Bohm driving erratically and thought the 22-year-old was texting when he caught up to him at a stoplight.
"Hey, you need to be careful, you're going to hurt yourself," Calandra testified he told Bohm just before the young man floored the gas pedal and crashed seconds later, according to the Pepperdine Graphic, the university newspaper that has been following the case.
Bohm's previous and current attorneys have given varied accounts about whether he was texting just before the crash. Bohm, described as dazed after the crash, told police he "must have been texting" but didn't remember. Bohm's attorney at the time, Michael Kraut, told reporters Bohm was texting a friend at the stoplight "and the guy next to him began to become irate.