August 13, 2025 • 55 mins
Young rich kid is the driver that causes a violent crash killing four Pepperdine college students, enters a plea in court. Fraser Bohm, of Malibu, hires Alan Jackson, the high-profile celebrity attorney, recently making top headlines for securing a not-guilty verdict in what turned out to be one of Massachusetts most controversial murder trials.
Fraser Bohm, man accused of crashing a speeding car into four Pepperdine University sorority sisters, who were just walking along Pacific Coast Highway before being mowed down, pleads not guilty in the deaths of all four sorority sisters.
Alan Jackson, making many recent headlines for the acquittal in the very high-profile trial of Karen Read, Jackson also represented actor Kevin Spacey in a sexual assault case, he's a former member of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, where he and his team successfully prosecuted music mogul and Phil Spector for the murder of actress and model Lana Clarkson.
Fraser appears in a Los Angeles County courtroom to hear his charges, alongside Jackson, who's recent defense strategies utilized in his latest murder trial, left a town divided, but did unite thousands to gather in support to free Karen Read and to financially donate to help expose police corruption.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Bridget Thompson - Roommate and Best Friend with Pepperdine Crash Victims
- Coco Crandall - Roommate and Best Friend with Pepperdine Crash Victims
- Brian Claypool -Trial Attorney, Owner and Managing Partner at the Claypool Law Firm, and Author of "Break the Code of Silence: Raising My Voice to Protect Our Kids;" Instagram: @brian.claypool, Facebook: @BrianClaypoolMedia
- Caryn Stark - Forensic Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice
- Joseph Tremblay - Senior Forensic Engineer and Accident reconstructionist, Veritech Consulting Engineering
- Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), NEW Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue" (launching AUGUST 20), and Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)
- Dave Mack - 'Crime Stories' Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A rich bratt mows down
Mo's down four beautiful Pepperdine sorority sisters. In the last hours,
we learned he hires the Karen Reid defense lawyer. I'm
(00:23):
Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Four beautiful young college sorority girls in their early twenties
with bright futures set out for a fun night in Malibu,
but in a shocking turn of events, that evening soon
became a nightmare.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Joining us tonight in addition to an all star panel
are two dear friends of the victims. But first listen
to this, these four.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Females were pronounced dead.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I see the Alpha FI sisters arrived at Sigma Kaye's
party and are waiting outside when a red BMW speeding
down the pch going at least one hundred miles per
hour suddenly swears from the road and slams into parked cars.
Partygoers scream as the parked cars are shoved into Nave, Peyton, Asha,
and Deslin, while bystanders call nine to one one and
(01:13):
attend to two others injured in the crash. The BMW's
driver gets out stumbling away from the mingled cars.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So don't bother telling me he was too out of
it or injured to know what he is doing under
the law that is called flight. I'm sure veteran trial
lawyer Brian Klaypool will argue with me about that. What
you heard earlier was from our friends at Malibu Times.
Four beautiful co eds in the prime of their lives,
standing there, minding their own business, are mowed down at
(01:43):
speeds up one hundred and four mph in a residential area.
Now will a rich brat manage to escape justice having
just hired a controversial defense attorney that helped Karen Read
get an acquittal again with me an all star panel.
(02:06):
But first I want to go to two very special guests.
Bridget Thompson, roommate and bestie with the Pepperdine crash victims,
and Coco Crandall, also roommate and best friend of the
crash victims. You know, to Coco Crandall, I don't call
it an accident because when you put your foot to
(02:30):
the pedal and exceed one hundred and four mph, that's
no accident. This is a crash. Tell me what you know,
Coco about the night of the deadly crash. It stole
your friends from you.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Yeah, I remember getting a call that night saying, you know,
don't freak out, there's been an accident and we think
it was Ash's car. So I immediately drove down there
where I was like, they have no family, all their
families out of state.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
You know, they need someone in.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Bridget met me, and Bridge I met at the scene
or as close to the scene as we could get.
But we just sat on the curb all night, not
really knowing what was going on. But then you know,
news broken once we hadn't heard from them for a
couple hours. Because we were always in contact with our friends,
we knew that something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm just imagining U Coco crandall sitting there on the curb.
And I've got to tell you, I've been to so
many crime sayings and seeing family and loved ones and
best friends like you literally sitting on a curb because
there's nowhere to go, there's nowhere to sit, and you
just sit there, kind of suspended in time and space,
(03:47):
just waiting. It's like everything comes to a standstill, everything
seems to stop, and you're just waiting, waiting to hear something,
to know something, to find out something. Bridget Thompson also
with us roommate and bestie of the crash victims. Bridget,
(04:08):
what do you recall about that night?
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Yeah, for me, I actually was supposed to be with
them that night. I had cheer practice that night and
ended running a little late, so I texted them and
let them know that I'll just meet them there. And
(04:30):
as I was on my way, I got a call
as well, and it was kind of the same, along
the same lines as Coco, and just thought there was
an accident and the girls aren't answering. I tried calling
all of them, but none of them answered, And like
Coco said, I went over to the scene and tried
to do whatever I could, but at that point it
(04:53):
was just such a helpless feeling.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Bridget. When you got to the scene, what did you observe?
Speaker 6 (05:01):
Well, we couldn't get passed, like the police officer that
was blocking us off, so really it was just a
bunch of stopped cars and a police officer standing there.
And then in the distance we saw a bunch of
sirens ambulances, but nothing other than that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Did anyone or could anyone tell you what had happened.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
Not directly, there was things coming out in the news
because there was quite a bit of news coverage on it,
and that's kind of how we found out our information.
We heard there was four dead, six involved, so we
were praying that hopefully we only lost two of our
friends with that math, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Bridget, did you try and question the police or try
and ask anyone any questions?
Speaker 6 (05:59):
We definitely did, but we knew that there wasn't really
information that they could give us.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
What did you do? Who did you try to speak to?
Speaker 6 (06:06):
What time of the night was this the cross recurred
at eight thirty pm. We were trying to speak to
just the police officer standing blocking off the scene, and
then we were calling hospitals all night trying to see
if we could locate them anywhere, because at this point
(06:27):
we didn't know that they had died at the scene
and a hospital just wasn't necessary.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Coco Crandall also joining us in addition to Bridget Thompson. Coco,
were you there sitting on the curb waiting for answers
as well?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, So Bridget and I happen to get there around
the same time. And we both were pleading to the
officer to let us through, to give us any insight
on what was going on. And we're like, we know,
those are our friends in the scene, we can track them.
We see they're not quite at the party, and yeah,
like Bridget said, they couldn't really give us any answers.
(07:04):
So we just sat there for hours, you know, calling
hospitals and asking if they had our friends tracking them
and probably, I mean, like Bridget said, I don't know
if I even fully remember a time, but I think
it was around one pm or one am, And then
we went back to Pepperdine's campus up until you know,
(07:25):
six am the next morning when more information was released.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Who told the girls' parents?
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Originally the school was the one to break it to them,
but the parents, I mean, you know, mothers know when
something's wrong, and so a lot of the parents were
also calling and just saying, hey, you know, what's going on,
where's my do you know where my daughter is?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Whatever?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
But the court it took a while for the coroner
to confirm what had happened, so well couldn't fit, you know,
tell the parents right away because I had to wait
for the officials to confirm it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Bridget, when did you first see or speak with the
girl's parents.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I was in touch with some of them over the
phone the next day. So early in the morning on
October eighteenth, I someone came up to my room and said, news,
parents are downstairs. They want to talk to you. And
(08:32):
I just broke down because that was like a realization
to me.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh my stars, I cannot even imagine going down and
trying to speak to the parents. And the parents were
there in the apartment, the place that you guys shared.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
No, I didn't go back to that immediately, never went
back to that apartment. I briefly said bye, But they
had us in a hotel room on campus.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
When you first saw the parents what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It was hard.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
They were obviously a mess beside themselves. They were unclear
of what had happened exactly. So I tried to give
them all the information that I knew, But it was
a situation that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It was
really really heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
What do you recall, Yeah, I, like Bridget said, remember
the parents coming up.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
They came so fast.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
And I remember when Ash's parents came because they had
flew from the East Coast, and uh, there was just
so much sadness and grief and heaviness all around. And
I just remember walking outside the hotel and meeting her
in the parking lot and we just held each other
(09:57):
and cried, and I remember seeing her brothers and there
was just.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
A lot of tears shed.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
And eventually we got to kind of all sit in
a room together with you know, all the parents and
Bridge and I and some of our close friends as well,
and we tried to just you know, tell their parents
all amazing memories that we've had with them at school
and how wonderful.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They are, and just share, you know, more about.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
The how Malibu was a happy place for them.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's just reminding me so much of when my fiance
was murged. When you're trying to in those first hours
and days after, it doesn't seem real. Your head knows
it's real, but the rest of you doesn't know it's real,
and you're like remembering events together, things you did together.
(10:59):
I don't know that's some sort of comfort or sell
us to your mind as you try to absorb what
has happened. Bridget you stated you did not go back
to the apartment.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
Why oh, I just couldn't. I mean, when I left there,
I could still picture them right now. They were all
sitting on the couch. We were laughing, giggling. I told
them I would see them after cheer practice. And we
had so many amazing memories in that apartment. I mean,
(11:34):
we spent every second together. So I couldn't imagine going
back without them. It was and when I did, just
because I felt like I needed that for my closure.
When I walked in our apartment, it was clear that
they were meant to come back. It was clear they
had their pajamas set out on their bed, their lights
(11:56):
still on. They were meant to come back. I just
it was truly heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Then you are at the crash scene. Girls, did you
see the defendant?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, we did not.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Crime Stores with Nancy Gray joining me. Now, Crime Stories
investigative reporter Dave mac who is the defendant.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
His name is Fraser Boone. He is a twenty three
year old rich kid growing up in privilege in Malibu
and an eight pointy seven million dollar seaside mansion. He
was driving his eighteenth birthday, President of BMW and he
(12:58):
is a former athlete. Was a picture in high school
and pretty privileged young man, Anthony, Why.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Do you say that, I'm looking at a picture of
him and apparently a shirtless selfie. Can we circle back
to that place? And he's got rings on every finger,
he's dripping in silver jewelry. What did you say about
a seven million dollar what.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
An eight point seven million dollar seaside mansion with a
view of the Pacific Ocean a beautiful view of the
Pacific Ocean actually, and by the way, also a seven
hundred thousand dollars vacation place out near Palm Springs.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
In this particular incident, we lost four young people with
a complete life ahead of them, for really no reason
other than complete and reckless this regard for the life
of others. So Neam Rolston, Peyton Store, Thissline Williams, and
(14:02):
I shall where were seniors Pepperdine and there were minding
their own business, just being in the neighborhood where their
school is, and they lost their life unnecessarily.
Speaker 9 (14:20):
Between two and a half to four and a half
seconds prior to the collision.
Speaker 10 (14:25):
The defendants vehicle was at a sheet of one hundred and.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Four miles an hour KTLA five, loved by all who
knew them.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
The four young women were more than best friends. They
were sisters, bonded through Pepperdine's alpha feet. While they were
planning a glamorous night out, one young Malibu man would
change the course of their night.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Exactly what happened the night that these girls were mowed
down dead by a BMW traveling at rates of that
we know of one hundred and four m. They're standing
on the side of the road. They are not in
the road waiting to enter a college party. Now they're dead.
(15:12):
Four gorgeous, young, innocent, beautiful girls. They're gone. Nime, Peyton
Asha doesn't gone tonight. We're analyzing why, you know what
I'm saying gone. Let me say it correctly, Why they're dead.
(15:36):
They're dead, And don't you know their parents are wondering
the same thing. You just met two of their best
friends that they lived with. It could have been them too.
It didn't matter who was standing there. It didn't matter
how young or innocent, or vivacious, or how scrubbed and
(15:59):
sunshine they were. It didn't matter to the defendant, who
was driving his brand new BMW given to him by
Mommy and Daddy, at least one hundred and four mph.
Speaker 8 (16:14):
On October seventeenth, at around a thirty pm, mister Bond
was allegedly speeding up speeding at the speed of one
hundred and four miles an hour on a forty five
mile an hour zone on PCH when he lost control
of his VMW. He allegedly crashed into a park car
(16:39):
before crashing into four pedestrians standing together on the side
of the roadway. All the young women die at the scene.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
To top it all off, it's a fixed object. Out
of everywhere you could drive your car, you plow into
a fixed and then into four young girls.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And listen to this party host Sigma Kai brothers tackle
the mail driver to the ground and hold him there
until police arrive.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
I just saw some people taking him out of the
car and holding him down on the curb and everything else,
and he was just yelling and screaming.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
From our friends at KTLA five joining me. Veteran trial lawyer,
Defense attorney Brian at Claypool, Managing Partner, Claypool Law Firm,
author of Break the Code of Silence, Raising My Voice
to protect our kids, Brian Claypool. He tried to get away.
That's called flight under the law, So don't tell me
(17:40):
he was out of his mind, or he was depressed,
or he hit his head. He tried to get away, Brian,
that's damning under the law. The guys had to tackle
him and drag him back.
Speaker 11 (17:55):
Look, this is a heartbreaking tragedy. I mean, we all
have kids, but we can't measure how a young man
is going to react to a traumatic situation. It's not
like he hopped in a buddy's car and was driving
to the to the Mexican border.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Are mentioning that, Why are you making that up. It's
not like he hopped in a buddy's car. Maybe he
would have, but he didn't have a buddy's car there.
So he did all he could do, and he took
the patent turner pat the street and turned the corner.
He tried to run. Isn't it true, Claypool, that that
is evidence of guilt flight, It's evidence of guilt when
(18:33):
you try to get away from the crime scene as
fast as you can.
Speaker 11 (18:36):
Right, No, you know you're right. And that's why Alan
Jackson has a tough case ahead too. It's not just
because he won the Karen Reid trial. Remember in that
case there you couldn't even establish the manner of death
in that.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Case, Ryan Claypool, this is not about Karen Reid, Okay,
I'm talking about these four young girls and this guy
trying to get away from the scene. That's what I'm
talking about. So let me try to get the car
back in the middle of the road. Could you address
him trying to leave the scene and I haven't even
gotten to the crash yet.
Speaker 11 (19:08):
Yeah, Nancy, Look, flight is evidence of guilt. It doesn't
matter how rich this kid is. Every defendant in a
criminal case is entitled to to a defense, whether we'd
like that or not. So what he's likely going to
argue in the defense of bomb is the following. Was
there a potential malfunction in his car? They're going to
(19:31):
expect examine the car? How did he go from ninety four?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I'm sorry, I just carved up my hot tea. A
malfunction in the car, like lead foot, like his foot
on the pedal? What possible? Now, you know what, I'm
glad you said that because I happen to have an
accent reconstructions with me every now and one, which I'm
going to follow up with what you're saying, but I
(19:55):
like that. Go ahead, spind me somewhere gold Rumpel steeles
can accident malfunction. Go ahead, I can't write fast enough.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (20:04):
Well, the other argument that his previous lawyer made was
he was involved in a road raid road rage incident.
So that's going to be investigated by Alan Jackson. And
if there was a road range.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Let me make sure I understand what you're talking about.
You're talking about the mystery vehicle, the mystery vehicle that
was chasing him that nobody's been able to find on
any of the road camp that car.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
Yeah, that's the car, right, and that's what they'll look into.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
They're going to have to look really hard, really hard.
It may take a little let me just say, creative
editing to find that mystery car that he's claiming, something
along the lines of he cut somebody off because he
was texting and the guy got mad at him, and
(20:56):
so he boom ran way as fast as he could
so he wouldn't be injured, and then crashed and killed
the four girls. That's one of his arguments, real quick.
Speaker 11 (21:09):
One other armament I think has today anyone look one
of his other arguments. My job is to tell you
what a defense that way, say.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Hold on Dave Mac joining me. I want to follow
up on everything Claypool is saying, because well, I don't
buy any of it. It could be a defense that
they try to raise a trial, and the best thing
the prosecution can do is be ready for that defense
and be prepared to shoot it down when it rears
its ugly head. Dave Mac tell me about the mystery
(21:37):
road rage incident.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
There's a man named Victor Calandra. He's a resident of
Malibu for over thirty five years. He's driving his twenty
sixteen GMC twenty five hundred pickup truck in close prescimity
to Fraser Bomb Boom, and he says that Bomb was
speeding and driving in and out of traffic, and they
actually caught up to one of another right at Sunset
(22:01):
Boulevard towards Tipanga, and that's when Calandra said, he's trying
to get Balm's attention at the light to tell him
to slow down, and Bomb never acknowledges them, and when
the light turns green, Bomb accelerate with extreme I think
is the term, with extreme acceleration up the road. Calandra
couldn't was not he was right there the light with him,
(22:24):
but did not keep up with him as Bom takes off,
and it seconds later when the accident happens, and it
is Calandra who actually was yelling at Bomb at the
crash thene and that's who they're claiming was actually road
rage when in fact he was telling him to slow down.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know, there's going to be footage of that, Dave Mac,
What stretch of the road was the alleged road rage
incident where now we're learning from the other driver he
was trying to motion to Boom to slow the hay down.
But what stress of the road was this.
Speaker 7 (23:01):
Well, we're dealing with stretch on the PCH that is
called dead Man's Curve, which is actually a long stretch there,
but it's an area of PCH that is just beyond
Sunset Boulevard toward Tipanga and the erratic vehicle in this
case being driven by bone with at the Las Flores
(23:23):
Canyon stoplight. That's where they caught up. So it's a
very short area where they actually caught up at the
light where Calandras you know what you used.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You just made me so happy, Mac, which typically does
not happen in a case like this, But you just
made me so happy because to Joseph Tremblay joining me,
Senior forensic engineer Accident Reconstruction with Veritech Consulting Engineering. Tremblay,
that was the music to my ears because I heard
(23:54):
p Pacific Coast Highway and we all know it is
dripping in traffic cams. I heard dead Man's Curve, which,
as I recall, has signs posted the curvy nature like
beware on dead Man's Curve, and also the speed limit
(24:16):
there is greatly greatly reduced because of the curves. Also,
I heard Dave matt from Crime Stories state the intersection
at Los Flores Canyon stoplight. I bet you they have
a traffic cam as well. I mean, I'm hoping they do,
because this could corroborate the witnesses story, it could corroborate
(24:42):
the defendant, but I don't think it is. What does
all this mean to you, Tremblay?
Speaker 10 (24:49):
When I look into a case like this, I start
with the evidence of the scene itself, and in this
particular area, it's a very windy part of the re
oade and those lines in the road require certain steering
inputs which would require a tent of driving essentially.
Speaker 11 (25:12):
And I want to reiterate the fact that in.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
This particular area, there are cautionary signs indicating that a.
Speaker 11 (25:20):
Turn is ahead.
Speaker 10 (25:22):
But the speed limit in that area is forty five
miles per hour. And I'll do the math for you.
He was going fifty nine over the speed limit. That's
more than double.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
The space tremblay. I did a little research last night,
and we found out that in some of those spots
it's actually thirty five. There's also some forty fives, but
in spots where he was, it's actually thirty five mph.
Speaker 10 (25:50):
Yeah, that's an incredible excess of speed.
Speaker 11 (25:54):
I'd like to also.
Speaker 10 (25:55):
Point out that the dynamics of this impact suggests that
contacted three other cars.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Those cars have significant damage.
Speaker 10 (26:06):
There's actually photographs of those vehicles that he contacted, and
to be honest with you, those cars probably diminished the
impact severity that he produced against these four lovely young women.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So does a tremblay and regular people talk. What you're
saying is the cars he crashed into to start with
were a barrier, a buffer to the victims, and they
would have suffered even more had he not crashed into
those cars to start with one hundred and four mph.
Speaker 10 (26:39):
That's correct.
Speaker 11 (26:39):
This is just such a severe impact the poor.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Females were pronounced at I have seen Bi Alpha Fi.
Sisters arrived at Sigma Kaye's party and are waiting outside
when a red BMW speeding down the PCH going at
least one hundred miles per hour, suddenly swears from the
road and slams into parked cars. Partygoer scream as the
parked cars are shoved into Neave, Peyton, Asha, and Deslin,
(27:05):
while bystanders call nine one one and attend to two
others injured in the crash. The BMW's driver gets out,
stumbling away from the mangled cars.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
From Malibu Times.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
In a chilling turn of events, twenty two year old
Fraser Boem tore through the infamous stretch of Pacific Coast
Highway known as dead Man's Curve, doing over one hundred
miles per hour and a forty five mile per hour zone.
He was behind the wheel of his luxurious BMW, allegedly
fleeing from a road rage altercation. When his recklessness would
create a nightmare, no one could have imagined.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
A BMW brand new to him, just gifted to him
by his parents joining me now. In addition to Karen Stark,
renowned forensic psychologist. Doctor Kendall Crown's joining US Chief Medical
Examiner Terrence County. That's Fort Worth STARV brand new hit
podcast Mayhem and the Morgue. He has estamed like Sure
(28:00):
at the Burnette School of Medicine at TCU and has
performed literally thousands, thousands of autopsies accidents, natural causes, suicides,
and homicides, including vehic iculer homicides. Doctor Kendall Crowns, thank
you for being with us. The girls standing there minding
(28:23):
their own business, waiting to go into I believe Bridget
and Coco it was a Sigma Kai party. Was that
where they were headed?
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Yes, it was a mixer. It was like an event
for our sporty. It wasn't a party.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Okay, what's the difference.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
There was no drinking involved.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay. I neither had to be a difference, because when
you put the Sigma COIs and the Alpha Fees together
in one place, it sounds like a party to me.
So my Coco, crandall were they waiting outside to go in.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So they weren't from our understanding, they weren't necessarily waiting.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
They actually had parked their car. If you're familiar with PCH,
you only can park on the street.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
To park their car, got out of their car and
were walking to the house to go to the mixer,
and in the process of walking, that's when they.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Were got it. Got it, So they're walking into a mixer. Wow, okay,
Doctor Kendall Crowns. I just wanted to make sure I
understood what they were doing. You know another reason I
wanted to know, doctor Crowns, because so often, somehow the
victims turn out to be the bad guys in the
media and with the defense no offense. Brian Claypool, I
(29:31):
know you do everything you can to help your client,
but Doctor Kendall Crowns, they were a not drinking. They
would be on the side of the street walking into
the Sigma Chai house for a non alcoholic mixer. I
just want to be very clear, all dressed up and
their party outfits, having all gotten ready together back at
(29:54):
their place they all shared with our guests. I mean,
doctor Kendall crown you know what time it is, right,
I'm looking at colleges right now for the twins and
hearing something like this just pushes me over the edge.
Doctor Keller Crowds, what happened to these girls when they
(30:14):
were hit by a couple of tons of metal at
one hundred and four miles per hour.
Speaker 9 (30:19):
So what happens when a car is going at a
very high rated speed and it hits a pedestrian. Initially,
the bumper comes into contact at about your knee level
and folds your knee in, causing your thigh to strike
the upper portion of the front of the car, and
that pitches the body onto the hood. The head hits
(30:40):
the hood or the windshield, and at that high rate
of speed, the body will flip up over the car
and then fly through the air and land on the ground. Now,
one of the other things when you're having someone drive
at that high rate of speed is you'll get traumatic
amputations where the legs will be severed from the point
of impact and then just kind of spread out all
of the roadway. We also might see, depending on their height,
(31:05):
amputations that the hit area bodies cut in half, and
even potentially from the speed with the head hitting the
windshield decapitations. It will be massive internal injuries, fractures of
all the extremities, ribs, pelvis, and then the organs themselves
will be ruptured or lacerated as well. It's actually high
(31:28):
high speed velocity pedestrians accidents are very gruesome events, Doctor.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Kittle Crowns, how many cases like this have you worked?
Speaker 6 (31:39):
So?
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Pedestrianstruck by vehicles are fairly common, We see them at
least probably once a week, But high speed pedestrians struck
by vehicles are are very rare because mostly most of
the time, pedestrians aren't on the highway and most people
aren't driving their cars at one hundred and four miles
per hour when they hit a pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
That last comment, I'm going to circle back to you,
doctor Kendall Crowns for more of an in depth analysis
of what the victims may have lived through. But Brian
Claypool joining US veteran trial lawyer managing partner Claypool Law
Firm joining US out of California, did you hear what
he said? Very rarely are victims walking on a highway
(32:24):
where high speed crashes normally happened. This was not a
highway and they were walking along the edge of a
pedestrian street where the mph was thirty five.
Speaker 11 (32:37):
Yeah, hey, Nancy, I get that. But I think what
Alan Jackson is going to do in this case is
he's going to go after the County of Los Angeles
and or the city of Maliburn. I think it's likely
the county for failing to adequately maintain that road. What
do I mean by that? Your entire show, you've mentioned
probably four or five times dead Man's Curve. It was
also called Hell's Corner. The County's on notice, this is
(33:00):
a dangerous curve. Why wasn't there better lighting? That's what
he's going to argue, And he's going to argue also
a was there a guardrail here? I don't think there was,
And if there wasn't, there should have been, and that
might have minimized the impact, and this tragedy might have been.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
A verb Well, at least you're going down swinging. You're
going to try and blame bad lighting and no guardrail
and push it all off on the county. Okay, that
sounds more like a civil lawsuit claim where you're trying
to distribute the monetary damages. I'm talking about a criminal
(33:37):
trial for vehicular homicide. I'm sure, Claypool that you are
familiar with the abandoned and malignant heart theory under the law,
which rises too. I would like this to be prosecuted
as murder not vehicular homicide because of the abandoned and
malignant heart theory. Malice murder murder one can be proven
(34:03):
in many different ways. One is, of course, when you
say I'm going to kill you, Claypool, I've had it
and I take a gun, hold it up and shoot
you dead. Okay, That is clear, extrinsic and implicit evidence
of intent to murder. There is another theory called abandon
(34:23):
and malignant heart. What does that mean? Here's an example.
You drive one hundred and four miles an hour through
let's just say, a street festival that's been blocked off
where people are selling food and homemade items and crafts,
and there are two hundred people there on a Sunday afternoon,
drinking lemonade and eating kebabs. And suddenly here you come, Claypool,
(34:47):
one hundred and four mph, plowing through the street festival
and you kill people. That shows an abandoned heart. In
other words, you have a heart which is abandon of
empathy for other people, and you do something so insanely
reckless it equals murder. That would be my argument to
(35:08):
this jury. And you're trying to blame bad lighting. I
respect that.
Speaker 11 (35:13):
Well, look, look I respectfully disagree on that that my
argument applies to a civil case. You know as well
as I do. You've got to prove causation, even in
the murder case here, and what Jackson's going to argue
is there going to be concurrent, concurrent causation. And here's
another point. In order to prove murder in the situation
in California, not to proved causation, what's called implied malice,
(35:36):
not that he intended to drive over these young women.
You've got to prove that he he acted in such
conscious disregard for the lives of other others that he
knew that it was late that these young women would die.
And what Jackson is going to argue is that wasn't
in his frame of mind that he didn't intend on
doing that, didn't intend on trying to embody.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Again, you just made me so happy because you said
he didn't intend it. But isn't the black and white
letter of the law, which will be read to the
jury and jury instructions just after closing arguments that the
law presumes the definant intends the natural consequences of his act.
(36:23):
Isn't that true?
Speaker 11 (36:24):
Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a jury instruction in California,
you could try to make that argument as prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Let me refresh your regulation. It is that you natural
consequence of your act.
Speaker 11 (36:40):
Look, if this case goes to trial, Boem is going
to have to testify to try to refute. Well, let's
assume you're correct, Nancy. Then he's going to have to
testify to tell a jury what was going on in
his mind at the time of this incident. And that's
really what your accident is going to have to do.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Here was in his mind? Why do I care what
he's thinking?
Speaker 11 (37:01):
You should care. The first question Jackson is going to
ask him, did you intend on driving off the side
of the road to kill these young ladies? That is
relevant in this trial to refute your abandon heart theory.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
It is, Nancy, abandoned heart means you at with such
gross negligence, with a malignant heart, that you kill others.
What you're thinking does not go as so life called negligence.
You're not thinking, Hey, I want to kill four girls
all dressed up in their party dresses to go to
the Sigma Kai mixer. You don't have to think that
(37:37):
if I go into the Mall of America with an
oozy and start firing. I don't have to know who
my victims are. I don't have to mean to kill them.
That is an abandon and malignant heart, and that is murder.
But I just looked it up just to make sure
I was right, and guess what I am. The law
(37:58):
presumes you intend the natural consequences of your act, and
it's called in your jurisdiction non target offense liability. You don't,
just like I said, if I take a piece of
thin china so fine you can see through it and
I throw it to the ground, Wow, what did I
(38:20):
intend to do? Break it? When you drive one hundred
and four mph in a residential area where people are
by the road, the natural consequence of your act is
a crash. Let me ask Cocoa Crandall and Bridget Thompson
first to you, Bridget, have you ever been in that
(38:43):
area before? Have you ever seen the Sigma Kai house?
Speaker 6 (38:47):
Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And is it a residential area? What's around it? Are
there homes?
Speaker 6 (38:53):
Yes, it's one hundred percent of residential area. It's lined
on both sides with homes.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Are there other fraternity homes or already homes on that street?
Speaker 6 (39:02):
There is one. But it's not like a Greek row
or anything. But there's definitely residential.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Are they're private residences?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:12):
So good luck with that. Brian Claypool that there needed
to be a guard rail to prevent this horrific, deadly crash.
You're going to blame a guard rail or bad lighting? Oh,
I can't wait.
Speaker 11 (39:27):
Well, one other thing I would do if I'm Jackson
is again I disagree as to the front as a
state of mind of bomb. I think you have to
ask him why did he go from ninety three miles
an hour to one hundred and four miles an hour?
That gets to your defense. I mean, if he has
some rational explanation as to why the car accelerated ten
(39:48):
miles an hour in a short amount of time, he
might be able to get over this.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Advantage technical legal term. He's an a hole? Did they
teach you that at Harvard Law School? An a whole?
Speaker 8 (39:59):
The defend the new his actions were dangerous to human
life and deliberately acted with consciousness regard for human life,
committing four counts of imply malice murder in this case.
I can't say this enough. We have to realize that
(40:22):
when we're driving a card. We have the potential of
killing others when we're driving at one hundred plus miles
an hour on a forty five miles per hour zone.
The only reasonable conclusion that kid arrive out of that
(40:43):
behavior is harming others.
Speaker 12 (40:49):
I told her that the greatest stads to her young,
vibrant life and the future goals was a Molti vehicle accident,
which is still the leading cause of death in an
age group at that time. I asked that seems to
(41:09):
have lost the argument.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You were just seeing Deslin's dad, Desmond Williams, speaking, and
that's our friends at Pepperdine University YouTube trying to make
sense of a nonsensical tragedy. He's one of eight parents
(41:32):
devastated tonight while we're on air. They're at home, sitting
in their dims and around their supper tables looking at
an empty spot. Maybe they're sitting in the girl's bedroom.
Maybe they're driving by their apartment thinking about what was
(41:54):
I want to go to two very special guests, but
first to Karen start Joining us forensic psychologist, renowned TV
radio Trump expert. You can find her at Karenstark dot com.
She has dealt with so many survivors trying to make
sense of a new normal. Sharen, please, what is your
(42:20):
advice to these two girls joining us today.
Speaker 13 (42:23):
I think that they need to do exactly what they're doing, Nancy.
They have to keep talking about this. I'm so glad
they're on the show. I'm very sorry that this happened.
But the more they get involved, the more they talk
about what this person did, the dispeting, all of the neglect,
(42:44):
the better they're going to feel. It will never ever
go away, unfortunately.
Speaker 14 (42:48):
Don't we know that.
Speaker 13 (42:50):
I think everyone knows that that hole in the heart
never closes, but over time it will get better. Just
keep spreading the message that this is terot and should
never have happened.
Speaker 14 (43:04):
And remember your friends, girls.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
When I first moved to New York to start off
at Court TV, Karen and I would watch trials together
in a dark studio and we would talk about what
the victims had gone through. Do you remember that, Karen,
all those years, eleven years, had those at dark studios.
And She's right, it won't go away. It changes. You
(43:30):
don't cry every single day, but probably right now that's
still your situation. And Karen, please jump in whenever you
have a suggestion. Bridget and Coco, tell me about what
life was like living with these beautiful girls.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
First to you, Bridget, Yeah, life was nothing short of perfect.
When I met them, my life literally changed. They were
the most amazing people I have ever met, and I
think I will ever meet. They made every day a
better one. They knew how to pick me up when
(44:09):
I was down. They were always a shoulder to cry on.
It was. It was just the best to live with them,
To wake up to their good mornings every morning, to
go to bed hearing their good nights. I just missed
it a lot. You know.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
It struck me, Bridget that when either you or Coke
I went back to the apartment, I believe it was you.
Their pj's were still lying out on the bed where
they replaced them to hop into when they got home.
Speaker 6 (44:44):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Coco, tell me about a typical day that you would
have waking up with these beautiful girls.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
I mean it literally felt like a dream every morning
getting to wake up with them. They are, like Bridget said,
they are the bestest of friends, and I don't think
we'll ever find friends like that again. They're truly I
don't even think most people are lucky enough to have
friends like we did in their whole lifetime. But we
(45:18):
would wake up and we always had a playlist that
we would play mornings, and we would wake up, open
the curtains, let the sunshine in, just sit in our pjs,
make breakfast, play music. We lived, obviously in a great area,
so we'd walk to the beach a lot of time,
(45:38):
either on walks along zoom A Beach or at Point Doom.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Spent a lot of time in the water just swimming around.
Speaker 5 (45:49):
And then I feel like we always would go get
dinner at our favorite Italian place in Malibu, and I
mean it's such a simple day. But any day with them,
whether we were doing nothing or anything and everything was
just such a dream. And I know, well I can
(46:11):
speak for bridget and I like we would give anything
just to have one.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
More day with them.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Do you ever dream about them?
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Absolutely, I mean so after the accident, because I lived
with Doson and Bridgette lived with the rest. Bridget and
I moved in together afterwards into a different apartment and
would be like we both had dreams and it felt
so real that both of us were like, we don't
want to ever wake up because we just want to
keep dreaming.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
And some of them felt so real.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
Some of them were dreams about them coming back and
telling us like, hey, we're okay, we're in we're we're
in a spot, and you know, it happened so fast,
and like I want you guys to know we're okay.
It's a Bridget and I would just wake up and
sometimes just like cry together from our.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Dreams because they felt so real.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
But then we'd wake up and it's just hard to
keep going in life without them, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
I feel like we were just in.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
A really big denial stage for a really really long time.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
But Doctor Kendall Crowns, it wasn't that way. It wasn't
just all so fast they laid there and died. You
talked about severed limbs, You talked about horrific impact at
one hundred and four mph. They didn't just die just
(47:34):
like that.
Speaker 9 (47:35):
Well, that is very true, Nancy. It really all depends
on where they got hit and what was initially damaged. Now,
of course, the initial impact that could several limbs to
cause a person to go flying over the car but
not hit anything else, so their head would be intact
and they would be laying there with the traumaticly amputated
(47:56):
limb bleeding out on the roadway. It really all just
depends on what organ system got hit and at what
point was their head engaged or their neck engaged, or
how quickly they may have died, And it can be
one of those situations in which just the lower extremities
were severed or crushed or whatever, or their pelvist was
(48:18):
crushed and they just laid there slowly bleeding out and
nobody could help them because of the amount of damage
that was done.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Crime Stores with Nancy Grace Joseph Trimlay, Senior forensic engineer,
actor reconstructionist at Veritech Consulting. How do you go into
this scene, knowing what you know, having heard Bridget and
(48:53):
Cocoa and Karen and doctor Crown's how do you go
in and perform a hard, cold evaluation that will hold
up in court to explain to injury what happened? What
do you do or I have to.
Speaker 10 (49:09):
Look at the fax, I have to look at the evidence,
and I think it's fair to say in this situation,
at that excessive speed, this was no longer a car
accident at that rate of speed, and the collision that
occurred would cause severe damage. I mean, he's probably lucky
(49:30):
himself that he didn't have any injuries from this is
so severe. And you know, one of the nice things
we have in this situation is so much evidence and
so much data, in particular the data from the vehicle itself,
which will corroborate his speed, it'll corroborate his pre impact navigation,
(49:54):
and whether or not he attempted any sort of maneuver.
Speaker 11 (49:57):
To avoid this collision.
Speaker 10 (50:00):
So there's a lot of evidence that's going to be
presented at trial, and I think it's going to be
very elucidating for this particular crash.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Tim Blay, what do you mean you're going to get
a lot of evidence from the car itself. I got
a lot of evidence in the Alex Mordag case from
his nav his navigation system, which was awesome. You can't
really argue with the nav system in your own car.
What evidence are you talking about.
Speaker 10 (50:25):
Well, that's a great question, and there is a lot
of evidence from a navigation unit individually. But in addition
to that, modern cars are constantly recording data. Every car
out there, it's a federal mandate that they record data,
and that particular data is tied to the airbag system.
(50:48):
In the event of an airbag deployment, the car decides
whether or not to deploy the airbags based on things
like vehicle speed, steering inputs, breaking inputs, things like that,
and that data is stored on the car that can
be retrieved. In this particular crash, that data was retrieved
by the responding officers, and that is most likely the
(51:12):
way that they determined the impact speed, and then also
the way that they determined the pre impact acceleration that
was done by mister Baum.
Speaker 11 (51:23):
And his.
Speaker 10 (51:26):
Apparently completely absent attempt to avoid this crash.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Timoy, I know that the arriving officer saw skid marks
and smoke. What does that mean?
Speaker 10 (51:38):
Okay, that may actually suggest a small maneuver or breaking
an attempt to potentially mitigate the crash. I'd have to
look into that even more.
Speaker 11 (51:51):
If it was.
Speaker 10 (51:51):
A skid mark, that would suggest potentially maybe a steering
input or a breaking input to decelerate before impact. However,
that also kind of depends on how the crash unfolded itself.
Speaker 11 (52:08):
The data will provide.
Speaker 10 (52:11):
A very solid basis for all of that. And the
nice thing about that data is that It's been admitted
in many different court cases. It's very solid. It's hard
to argue that data. I'm sure mister Jackson will probably
make a very honest attempt to kind of reduce the
credibility of that data. But it's just very solid. It's
(52:34):
been used a lot, and it's a very valuable piece
of evidence.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
Here to Bridget Thompson joining US roommate investie with the
crash victims, do you ever dream about them?
Speaker 6 (52:46):
Yes? I have had many dreams with them, and it
is an amazing feeling to feel like you get to
be with them one more time. But it's hard to
wake up and now it's just not the truth.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
In the dreams. What's happening? What are they saying?
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Sometimes they'll reassure us that they're okay. Sometimes they'll be like,
it's okay, I'm okay now, And I'll try to convince
them to stay and they'll be like, I have to
go back, I have to go back. It's a really
(53:27):
crazy feeling.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Karen Stark, what do these mean? What do these mean?
What's happening in the girl's psychis.
Speaker 13 (53:36):
It's a case of them trying to preserve the friendship
with the girls. And this is actually wonderful because a
lot of people when they lose.
Speaker 14 (53:45):
Someone they want to dream about, then you have a chance.
Speaker 13 (53:49):
To revisit, even to say goodbye, which I'm going to
suggest to both of you that you tell yourself you
want to do that when you have the dream again
to say goodbye to them, and the whole idea of
being with them again. It's all beautiful and very very fortunate.
I'm glad they're having those dreams. I know that when
(54:09):
you wake up and maybe upsetting, but take it like
a message.
Speaker 14 (54:14):
You know that your friends have come and they're visiting
with you.
Speaker 15 (54:17):
Pepperdine University seniors Neve Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Osha Weir, and
Deslin Williams, four Alpha PI sisters, get ready for a
Sigma Chai party at their apartment. The girls are incredibly close.
After moving in together sophomore year, the women connected freshman
year and became inseparable. The Pepperdine victims are a star athlete,
future vet TikTok intern, and an aspiring writer. Neive, a
(54:41):
twenty year old business student, was an excellent gymnast, cheerleader,
and pole vaulter who competed in the CICH Championship. Deslin
was on a pre veterinary track with deep empathy for animals.
Peyton spent her sophomore year at Pepperdine's London campus, landing
her dream internship with TikTok before returning to camp for
senior year. Asha was studying writing and passionate about the
(55:04):
dynamic landscapes of the fashion and music industries.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
If you have any information, if you were a witness,
if you know anything that happened before, during, or after
the fatal crash, please dial toll free eight hundred two
two two eight four seven seven eight hundred two two
two tips tips eight hundred two two two eight four
(55:33):
seven seven. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace signing
off goodbye friend than
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A rich bratt mows down
Mo's down four beautiful Pepperdine sorority sisters. In the last hours,
we learned he hires the Karen Reid defense lawyer. I'm
(00:23):
Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Four beautiful young college sorority girls in their early twenties
with bright futures set out for a fun night in Malibu,
but in a shocking turn of events, that evening soon
became a nightmare.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Joining us tonight in addition to an all star panel
are two dear friends of the victims. But first listen
to this, these four.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Females were pronounced dead.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I see the Alpha FI sisters arrived at Sigma Kaye's
party and are waiting outside when a red BMW speeding
down the pch going at least one hundred miles per
hour suddenly swears from the road and slams into parked cars.
Partygoers scream as the parked cars are shoved into Nave, Peyton, Asha,
and Deslin, while bystanders call nine to one one and
(01:13):
attend to two others injured in the crash. The BMW's
driver gets out stumbling away from the mingled cars.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So don't bother telling me he was too out of
it or injured to know what he is doing under
the law that is called flight. I'm sure veteran trial
lawyer Brian Klaypool will argue with me about that. What
you heard earlier was from our friends at Malibu Times.
Four beautiful co eds in the prime of their lives,
standing there, minding their own business, are mowed down at
(01:43):
speeds up one hundred and four mph in a residential area.
Now will a rich brat manage to escape justice having
just hired a controversial defense attorney that helped Karen Read
get an acquittal again with me an all star panel.
(02:06):
But first I want to go to two very special guests.
Bridget Thompson, roommate and bestie with the Pepperdine crash victims,
and Coco Crandall, also roommate and best friend of the
crash victims. You know, to Coco Crandall, I don't call
it an accident because when you put your foot to
(02:30):
the pedal and exceed one hundred and four mph, that's
no accident. This is a crash. Tell me what you know,
Coco about the night of the deadly crash. It stole
your friends from you.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Yeah, I remember getting a call that night saying, you know,
don't freak out, there's been an accident and we think
it was Ash's car. So I immediately drove down there
where I was like, they have no family, all their
families out of state.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
You know, they need someone in.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Bridget met me, and Bridge I met at the scene
or as close to the scene as we could get.
But we just sat on the curb all night, not
really knowing what was going on. But then you know,
news broken once we hadn't heard from them for a
couple hours. Because we were always in contact with our friends,
we knew that something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm just imagining U Coco crandall sitting there on the curb.
And I've got to tell you, I've been to so
many crime sayings and seeing family and loved ones and
best friends like you literally sitting on a curb because
there's nowhere to go, there's nowhere to sit, and you
just sit there, kind of suspended in time and space,
(03:47):
just waiting. It's like everything comes to a standstill, everything
seems to stop, and you're just waiting, waiting to hear something,
to know something, to find out something. Bridget Thompson also
with us roommate and bestie of the crash victims. Bridget,
(04:08):
what do you recall about that night?
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Yeah, for me, I actually was supposed to be with
them that night. I had cheer practice that night and
ended running a little late, so I texted them and
let them know that I'll just meet them there. And
(04:30):
as I was on my way, I got a call
as well, and it was kind of the same, along
the same lines as Coco, and just thought there was
an accident and the girls aren't answering. I tried calling
all of them, but none of them answered, And like
Coco said, I went over to the scene and tried
to do whatever I could, but at that point it
(04:53):
was just such a helpless feeling.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Bridget. When you got to the scene, what did you observe?
Speaker 6 (05:01):
Well, we couldn't get passed, like the police officer that
was blocking us off, so really it was just a
bunch of stopped cars and a police officer standing there.
And then in the distance we saw a bunch of
sirens ambulances, but nothing other than that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Did anyone or could anyone tell you what had happened.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
Not directly, there was things coming out in the news
because there was quite a bit of news coverage on it,
and that's kind of how we found out our information.
We heard there was four dead, six involved, so we
were praying that hopefully we only lost two of our
friends with that math, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Bridget, did you try and question the police or try
and ask anyone any questions?
Speaker 6 (05:59):
We definitely did, but we knew that there wasn't really
information that they could give us.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
What did you do? Who did you try to speak to?
Speaker 6 (06:06):
What time of the night was this the cross recurred
at eight thirty pm. We were trying to speak to
just the police officer standing blocking off the scene, and
then we were calling hospitals all night trying to see
if we could locate them anywhere, because at this point
(06:27):
we didn't know that they had died at the scene
and a hospital just wasn't necessary.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Coco Crandall also joining us in addition to Bridget Thompson. Coco,
were you there sitting on the curb waiting for answers
as well?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, So Bridget and I happen to get there around
the same time. And we both were pleading to the
officer to let us through, to give us any insight
on what was going on. And we're like, we know,
those are our friends in the scene, we can track them.
We see they're not quite at the party, and yeah,
like Bridget said, they couldn't really give us any answers.
(07:04):
So we just sat there for hours, you know, calling
hospitals and asking if they had our friends tracking them
and probably, I mean, like Bridget said, I don't know
if I even fully remember a time, but I think
it was around one pm or one am, And then
we went back to Pepperdine's campus up until you know,
(07:25):
six am the next morning when more information was released.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Who told the girls' parents?
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Originally the school was the one to break it to them,
but the parents, I mean, you know, mothers know when
something's wrong, and so a lot of the parents were
also calling and just saying, hey, you know, what's going on,
where's my do you know where my daughter is?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Whatever?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
But the court it took a while for the coroner
to confirm what had happened, so well couldn't fit, you know,
tell the parents right away because I had to wait
for the officials to confirm it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Bridget, when did you first see or speak with the
girl's parents.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I was in touch with some of them over the
phone the next day. So early in the morning on
October eighteenth, I someone came up to my room and said, news,
parents are downstairs. They want to talk to you. And
(08:32):
I just broke down because that was like a realization
to me.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh my stars, I cannot even imagine going down and
trying to speak to the parents. And the parents were
there in the apartment, the place that you guys shared.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
No, I didn't go back to that immediately, never went
back to that apartment. I briefly said bye, But they
had us in a hotel room on campus.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
When you first saw the parents what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It was hard.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
They were obviously a mess beside themselves. They were unclear
of what had happened exactly. So I tried to give
them all the information that I knew, But it was
a situation that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It was
really really heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
What do you recall, Yeah, I, like Bridget said, remember
the parents coming up.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
They came so fast.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
And I remember when Ash's parents came because they had
flew from the East Coast, and uh, there was just
so much sadness and grief and heaviness all around. And
I just remember walking outside the hotel and meeting her
in the parking lot and we just held each other
(09:57):
and cried, and I remember seeing her brothers and there
was just.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
A lot of tears shed.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
And eventually we got to kind of all sit in
a room together with you know, all the parents and
Bridge and I and some of our close friends as well,
and we tried to just you know, tell their parents
all amazing memories that we've had with them at school
and how wonderful.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They are, and just share, you know, more about.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
The how Malibu was a happy place for them.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's just reminding me so much of when my fiance
was murged. When you're trying to in those first hours
and days after, it doesn't seem real. Your head knows
it's real, but the rest of you doesn't know it's real,
and you're like remembering events together, things you did together.
(10:59):
I don't know that's some sort of comfort or sell
us to your mind as you try to absorb what
has happened. Bridget you stated you did not go back
to the apartment.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
Why oh, I just couldn't. I mean, when I left there,
I could still picture them right now. They were all
sitting on the couch. We were laughing, giggling. I told
them I would see them after cheer practice. And we
had so many amazing memories in that apartment. I mean,
(11:34):
we spent every second together. So I couldn't imagine going
back without them. It was and when I did, just
because I felt like I needed that for my closure.
When I walked in our apartment, it was clear that
they were meant to come back. It was clear they
had their pajamas set out on their bed, their lights
(11:56):
still on. They were meant to come back. I just
it was truly heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Then you are at the crash scene. Girls, did you
see the defendant?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, we did not.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Crime Stores with Nancy Gray joining me. Now, Crime Stories
investigative reporter Dave mac who is the defendant.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
His name is Fraser Boone. He is a twenty three
year old rich kid growing up in privilege in Malibu
and an eight pointy seven million dollar seaside mansion. He
was driving his eighteenth birthday, President of BMW and he
(12:58):
is a former athlete. Was a picture in high school
and pretty privileged young man, Anthony, Why.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Do you say that, I'm looking at a picture of
him and apparently a shirtless selfie. Can we circle back
to that place? And he's got rings on every finger,
he's dripping in silver jewelry. What did you say about
a seven million dollar what.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
An eight point seven million dollar seaside mansion with a
view of the Pacific Ocean a beautiful view of the
Pacific Ocean actually, and by the way, also a seven
hundred thousand dollars vacation place out near Palm Springs.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
In this particular incident, we lost four young people with
a complete life ahead of them, for really no reason
other than complete and reckless this regard for the life
of others. So Neam Rolston, Peyton Store, Thissline Williams, and
(14:02):
I shall where were seniors Pepperdine and there were minding
their own business, just being in the neighborhood where their
school is, and they lost their life unnecessarily.
Speaker 9 (14:20):
Between two and a half to four and a half
seconds prior to the collision.
Speaker 10 (14:25):
The defendants vehicle was at a sheet of one hundred and.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Four miles an hour KTLA five, loved by all who
knew them.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
The four young women were more than best friends. They
were sisters, bonded through Pepperdine's alpha feet. While they were
planning a glamorous night out, one young Malibu man would
change the course of their night.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Exactly what happened the night that these girls were mowed
down dead by a BMW traveling at rates of that
we know of one hundred and four m. They're standing
on the side of the road. They are not in
the road waiting to enter a college party. Now they're dead.
(15:12):
Four gorgeous, young, innocent, beautiful girls. They're gone. Nime, Peyton
Asha doesn't gone tonight. We're analyzing why, you know what
I'm saying gone. Let me say it correctly, Why they're dead.
(15:36):
They're dead, And don't you know their parents are wondering
the same thing. You just met two of their best
friends that they lived with. It could have been them too.
It didn't matter who was standing there. It didn't matter
how young or innocent, or vivacious, or how scrubbed and
(15:59):
sunshine they were. It didn't matter to the defendant, who
was driving his brand new BMW given to him by
Mommy and Daddy, at least one hundred and four mph.
Speaker 8 (16:14):
On October seventeenth, at around a thirty pm, mister Bond
was allegedly speeding up speeding at the speed of one
hundred and four miles an hour on a forty five
mile an hour zone on PCH when he lost control
of his VMW. He allegedly crashed into a park car
(16:39):
before crashing into four pedestrians standing together on the side
of the roadway. All the young women die at the scene.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
To top it all off, it's a fixed object. Out
of everywhere you could drive your car, you plow into
a fixed and then into four young girls.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And listen to this party host Sigma Kai brothers tackle
the mail driver to the ground and hold him there
until police arrive.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
I just saw some people taking him out of the
car and holding him down on the curb and everything else,
and he was just yelling and screaming.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
From our friends at KTLA five joining me. Veteran trial lawyer,
Defense attorney Brian at Claypool, Managing Partner, Claypool Law Firm,
author of Break the Code of Silence, Raising My Voice
to protect our kids, Brian Claypool. He tried to get away.
That's called flight under the law, So don't tell me
(17:40):
he was out of his mind, or he was depressed,
or he hit his head. He tried to get away, Brian,
that's damning under the law. The guys had to tackle
him and drag him back.
Speaker 11 (17:55):
Look, this is a heartbreaking tragedy. I mean, we all
have kids, but we can't measure how a young man
is going to react to a traumatic situation. It's not
like he hopped in a buddy's car and was driving
to the to the Mexican border.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Are mentioning that, Why are you making that up. It's
not like he hopped in a buddy's car. Maybe he
would have, but he didn't have a buddy's car there.
So he did all he could do, and he took
the patent turner pat the street and turned the corner.
He tried to run. Isn't it true, Claypool, that that
is evidence of guilt flight, It's evidence of guilt when
(18:33):
you try to get away from the crime scene as
fast as you can.
Speaker 11 (18:36):
Right, No, you know you're right. And that's why Alan
Jackson has a tough case ahead too. It's not just
because he won the Karen Reid trial. Remember in that
case there you couldn't even establish the manner of death
in that.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Case, Ryan Claypool, this is not about Karen Reid, Okay,
I'm talking about these four young girls and this guy
trying to get away from the scene. That's what I'm
talking about. So let me try to get the car
back in the middle of the road. Could you address
him trying to leave the scene and I haven't even
gotten to the crash yet.
Speaker 11 (19:08):
Yeah, Nancy, Look, flight is evidence of guilt. It doesn't
matter how rich this kid is. Every defendant in a
criminal case is entitled to to a defense, whether we'd
like that or not. So what he's likely going to
argue in the defense of bomb is the following. Was
there a potential malfunction in his car? They're going to
(19:31):
expect examine the car? How did he go from ninety four?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I'm sorry, I just carved up my hot tea. A
malfunction in the car, like lead foot, like his foot
on the pedal? What possible? Now, you know what, I'm
glad you said that because I happen to have an
accent reconstructions with me every now and one, which I'm
going to follow up with what you're saying, but I
(19:55):
like that. Go ahead, spind me somewhere gold Rumpel steeles
can accident malfunction. Go ahead, I can't write fast enough.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (20:04):
Well, the other argument that his previous lawyer made was
he was involved in a road raid road rage incident.
So that's going to be investigated by Alan Jackson. And
if there was a road range.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Let me make sure I understand what you're talking about.
You're talking about the mystery vehicle, the mystery vehicle that
was chasing him that nobody's been able to find on
any of the road camp that car.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
Yeah, that's the car, right, and that's what they'll look into.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
They're going to have to look really hard, really hard.
It may take a little let me just say, creative
editing to find that mystery car that he's claiming, something
along the lines of he cut somebody off because he
was texting and the guy got mad at him, and
(20:56):
so he boom ran way as fast as he could
so he wouldn't be injured, and then crashed and killed
the four girls. That's one of his arguments, real quick.
Speaker 11 (21:09):
One other armament I think has today anyone look one
of his other arguments. My job is to tell you
what a defense that way, say.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Hold on Dave Mac joining me. I want to follow
up on everything Claypool is saying, because well, I don't
buy any of it. It could be a defense that
they try to raise a trial, and the best thing
the prosecution can do is be ready for that defense
and be prepared to shoot it down when it rears
its ugly head. Dave Mac tell me about the mystery
(21:37):
road rage incident.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
There's a man named Victor Calandra. He's a resident of
Malibu for over thirty five years. He's driving his twenty
sixteen GMC twenty five hundred pickup truck in close prescimity
to Fraser Bomb Boom, and he says that Bomb was
speeding and driving in and out of traffic, and they
actually caught up to one of another right at Sunset
(22:01):
Boulevard towards Tipanga, and that's when Calandra said, he's trying
to get Balm's attention at the light to tell him
to slow down, and Bomb never acknowledges them, and when
the light turns green, Bomb accelerate with extreme I think
is the term, with extreme acceleration up the road. Calandra
couldn't was not he was right there the light with him,
(22:24):
but did not keep up with him as Bom takes off,
and it seconds later when the accident happens, and it
is Calandra who actually was yelling at Bomb at the
crash thene and that's who they're claiming was actually road
rage when in fact he was telling him to slow down.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know, there's going to be footage of that, Dave Mac,
What stretch of the road was the alleged road rage
incident where now we're learning from the other driver he
was trying to motion to Boom to slow the hay down.
But what stress of the road was this.
Speaker 7 (23:01):
Well, we're dealing with stretch on the PCH that is
called dead Man's Curve, which is actually a long stretch there,
but it's an area of PCH that is just beyond
Sunset Boulevard toward Tipanga and the erratic vehicle in this
case being driven by bone with at the Las Flores
(23:23):
Canyon stoplight. That's where they caught up. So it's a
very short area where they actually caught up at the
light where Calandras you know what you used.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You just made me so happy, Mac, which typically does
not happen in a case like this, But you just
made me so happy because to Joseph Tremblay joining me,
Senior forensic engineer Accident Reconstruction with Veritech Consulting Engineering. Tremblay,
that was the music to my ears because I heard
(23:54):
p Pacific Coast Highway and we all know it is
dripping in traffic cams. I heard dead Man's Curve, which,
as I recall, has signs posted the curvy nature like
beware on dead Man's Curve, and also the speed limit
(24:16):
there is greatly greatly reduced because of the curves. Also,
I heard Dave matt from Crime Stories state the intersection
at Los Flores Canyon stoplight. I bet you they have
a traffic cam as well. I mean, I'm hoping they do,
because this could corroborate the witnesses story, it could corroborate
(24:42):
the defendant, but I don't think it is. What does
all this mean to you, Tremblay?
Speaker 10 (24:49):
When I look into a case like this, I start
with the evidence of the scene itself, and in this
particular area, it's a very windy part of the re
oade and those lines in the road require certain steering
inputs which would require a tent of driving essentially.
Speaker 11 (25:12):
And I want to reiterate the fact that in.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
This particular area, there are cautionary signs indicating that a.
Speaker 11 (25:20):
Turn is ahead.
Speaker 10 (25:22):
But the speed limit in that area is forty five
miles per hour. And I'll do the math for you.
He was going fifty nine over the speed limit. That's
more than double.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
The space tremblay. I did a little research last night,
and we found out that in some of those spots
it's actually thirty five. There's also some forty fives, but
in spots where he was, it's actually thirty five mph.
Speaker 10 (25:50):
Yeah, that's an incredible excess of speed.
Speaker 11 (25:54):
I'd like to also.
Speaker 10 (25:55):
Point out that the dynamics of this impact suggests that
contacted three other cars.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Those cars have significant damage.
Speaker 10 (26:06):
There's actually photographs of those vehicles that he contacted, and
to be honest with you, those cars probably diminished the
impact severity that he produced against these four lovely young women.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So does a tremblay and regular people talk. What you're
saying is the cars he crashed into to start with
were a barrier, a buffer to the victims, and they
would have suffered even more had he not crashed into
those cars to start with one hundred and four mph.
Speaker 10 (26:39):
That's correct.
Speaker 11 (26:39):
This is just such a severe impact the poor.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Females were pronounced at I have seen Bi Alpha Fi.
Sisters arrived at Sigma Kaye's party and are waiting outside
when a red BMW speeding down the PCH going at
least one hundred miles per hour, suddenly swears from the
road and slams into parked cars. Partygoer scream as the
parked cars are shoved into Neave, Peyton, Asha, and Deslin,
(27:05):
while bystanders call nine one one and attend to two
others injured in the crash. The BMW's driver gets out,
stumbling away from the mangled cars.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
From Malibu Times.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
In a chilling turn of events, twenty two year old
Fraser Boem tore through the infamous stretch of Pacific Coast
Highway known as dead Man's Curve, doing over one hundred
miles per hour and a forty five mile per hour zone.
He was behind the wheel of his luxurious BMW, allegedly
fleeing from a road rage altercation. When his recklessness would
create a nightmare, no one could have imagined.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
A BMW brand new to him, just gifted to him
by his parents joining me now. In addition to Karen Stark,
renowned forensic psychologist. Doctor Kendall Crown's joining US Chief Medical
Examiner Terrence County. That's Fort Worth STARV brand new hit
podcast Mayhem and the Morgue. He has estamed like Sure
(28:00):
at the Burnette School of Medicine at TCU and has
performed literally thousands, thousands of autopsies accidents, natural causes, suicides,
and homicides, including vehic iculer homicides. Doctor Kendall Crowns, thank
you for being with us. The girls standing there minding
(28:23):
their own business, waiting to go into I believe Bridget
and Coco it was a Sigma Kai party. Was that
where they were headed?
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Yes, it was a mixer. It was like an event
for our sporty. It wasn't a party.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Okay, what's the difference.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
There was no drinking involved.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay. I neither had to be a difference, because when
you put the Sigma COIs and the Alpha Fees together
in one place, it sounds like a party to me.
So my Coco, crandall were they waiting outside to go in.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So they weren't from our understanding, they weren't necessarily waiting.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
They actually had parked their car. If you're familiar with PCH,
you only can park on the street.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
To park their car, got out of their car and
were walking to the house to go to the mixer,
and in the process of walking, that's when they.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Were got it. Got it, So they're walking into a mixer. Wow, okay,
Doctor Kendall Crowns. I just wanted to make sure I
understood what they were doing. You know another reason I
wanted to know, doctor Crowns, because so often, somehow the
victims turn out to be the bad guys in the
media and with the defense no offense. Brian Claypool, I
(29:31):
know you do everything you can to help your client,
but Doctor Kendall Crowns, they were a not drinking. They
would be on the side of the street walking into
the Sigma Chai house for a non alcoholic mixer. I
just want to be very clear, all dressed up and
their party outfits, having all gotten ready together back at
(29:54):
their place they all shared with our guests. I mean,
doctor Kendall crown you know what time it is, right,
I'm looking at colleges right now for the twins and
hearing something like this just pushes me over the edge.
Doctor Keller Crowds, what happened to these girls when they
(30:14):
were hit by a couple of tons of metal at
one hundred and four miles per hour.
Speaker 9 (30:19):
So what happens when a car is going at a
very high rated speed and it hits a pedestrian. Initially,
the bumper comes into contact at about your knee level
and folds your knee in, causing your thigh to strike
the upper portion of the front of the car, and
that pitches the body onto the hood. The head hits
(30:40):
the hood or the windshield, and at that high rate
of speed, the body will flip up over the car
and then fly through the air and land on the ground. Now,
one of the other things when you're having someone drive
at that high rate of speed is you'll get traumatic
amputations where the legs will be severed from the point
of impact and then just kind of spread out all
of the roadway. We also might see, depending on their height,
(31:05):
amputations that the hit area bodies cut in half, and
even potentially from the speed with the head hitting the
windshield decapitations. It will be massive internal injuries, fractures of
all the extremities, ribs, pelvis, and then the organs themselves
will be ruptured or lacerated as well. It's actually high
(31:28):
high speed velocity pedestrians accidents are very gruesome events, Doctor.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Kittle Crowns, how many cases like this have you worked?
Speaker 6 (31:39):
So?
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Pedestrianstruck by vehicles are fairly common, We see them at
least probably once a week, But high speed pedestrians struck
by vehicles are are very rare because mostly most of
the time, pedestrians aren't on the highway and most people
aren't driving their cars at one hundred and four miles
per hour when they hit a pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
That last comment, I'm going to circle back to you,
doctor Kendall Crowns for more of an in depth analysis
of what the victims may have lived through. But Brian
Claypool joining US veteran trial lawyer managing partner Claypool Law
Firm joining US out of California, did you hear what
he said? Very rarely are victims walking on a highway
(32:24):
where high speed crashes normally happened. This was not a
highway and they were walking along the edge of a
pedestrian street where the mph was thirty five.
Speaker 11 (32:37):
Yeah, hey, Nancy, I get that. But I think what
Alan Jackson is going to do in this case is
he's going to go after the County of Los Angeles
and or the city of Maliburn. I think it's likely
the county for failing to adequately maintain that road. What
do I mean by that? Your entire show, you've mentioned
probably four or five times dead Man's Curve. It was
also called Hell's Corner. The County's on notice, this is
(33:00):
a dangerous curve. Why wasn't there better lighting? That's what
he's going to argue, And he's going to argue also
a was there a guardrail here? I don't think there was,
And if there wasn't, there should have been, and that
might have minimized the impact, and this tragedy might have been.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
A verb Well, at least you're going down swinging. You're
going to try and blame bad lighting and no guardrail
and push it all off on the county. Okay, that
sounds more like a civil lawsuit claim where you're trying
to distribute the monetary damages. I'm talking about a criminal
(33:37):
trial for vehicular homicide. I'm sure, Claypool that you are
familiar with the abandoned and malignant heart theory under the law,
which rises too. I would like this to be prosecuted
as murder not vehicular homicide because of the abandoned and
malignant heart theory. Malice murder murder one can be proven
(34:03):
in many different ways. One is, of course, when you
say I'm going to kill you, Claypool, I've had it
and I take a gun, hold it up and shoot
you dead. Okay, That is clear, extrinsic and implicit evidence
of intent to murder. There is another theory called abandon
(34:23):
and malignant heart. What does that mean? Here's an example.
You drive one hundred and four miles an hour through
let's just say, a street festival that's been blocked off
where people are selling food and homemade items and crafts,
and there are two hundred people there on a Sunday afternoon,
drinking lemonade and eating kebabs. And suddenly here you come, Claypool,
(34:47):
one hundred and four mph, plowing through the street festival
and you kill people. That shows an abandoned heart. In
other words, you have a heart which is abandon of
empathy for other people, and you do something so insanely
reckless it equals murder. That would be my argument to
(35:08):
this jury. And you're trying to blame bad lighting. I
respect that.
Speaker 11 (35:13):
Well, look, look I respectfully disagree on that that my
argument applies to a civil case. You know as well
as I do. You've got to prove causation, even in
the murder case here, and what Jackson's going to argue
is there going to be concurrent, concurrent causation. And here's
another point. In order to prove murder in the situation
in California, not to proved causation, what's called implied malice,
(35:36):
not that he intended to drive over these young women.
You've got to prove that he he acted in such
conscious disregard for the lives of other others that he
knew that it was late that these young women would die.
And what Jackson is going to argue is that wasn't
in his frame of mind that he didn't intend on
doing that, didn't intend on trying to embody.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Again, you just made me so happy because you said
he didn't intend it. But isn't the black and white
letter of the law, which will be read to the
jury and jury instructions just after closing arguments that the
law presumes the definant intends the natural consequences of his act.
(36:23):
Isn't that true?
Speaker 11 (36:24):
Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a jury instruction in California,
you could try to make that argument as prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Let me refresh your regulation. It is that you natural
consequence of your act.
Speaker 11 (36:40):
Look, if this case goes to trial, Boem is going
to have to testify to try to refute. Well, let's
assume you're correct, Nancy. Then he's going to have to
testify to tell a jury what was going on in
his mind at the time of this incident. And that's
really what your accident is going to have to do.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Here was in his mind? Why do I care what
he's thinking?
Speaker 11 (37:01):
You should care. The first question Jackson is going to
ask him, did you intend on driving off the side
of the road to kill these young ladies? That is
relevant in this trial to refute your abandon heart theory.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
It is, Nancy, abandoned heart means you at with such
gross negligence, with a malignant heart, that you kill others.
What you're thinking does not go as so life called negligence.
You're not thinking, Hey, I want to kill four girls
all dressed up in their party dresses to go to
the Sigma Kai mixer. You don't have to think that
(37:37):
if I go into the Mall of America with an
oozy and start firing. I don't have to know who
my victims are. I don't have to mean to kill them.
That is an abandon and malignant heart, and that is murder.
But I just looked it up just to make sure
I was right, and guess what I am. The law
(37:58):
presumes you intend the natural consequences of your act, and
it's called in your jurisdiction non target offense liability. You don't,
just like I said, if I take a piece of
thin china so fine you can see through it and
I throw it to the ground, Wow, what did I
(38:20):
intend to do? Break it? When you drive one hundred
and four mph in a residential area where people are
by the road, the natural consequence of your act is
a crash. Let me ask Cocoa Crandall and Bridget Thompson
first to you, Bridget, have you ever been in that
(38:43):
area before? Have you ever seen the Sigma Kai house?
Speaker 6 (38:47):
Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And is it a residential area? What's around it? Are
there homes?
Speaker 6 (38:53):
Yes, it's one hundred percent of residential area. It's lined
on both sides with homes.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Are there other fraternity homes or already homes on that street?
Speaker 6 (39:02):
There is one. But it's not like a Greek row
or anything. But there's definitely residential.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Are they're private residences?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:12):
So good luck with that. Brian Claypool that there needed
to be a guard rail to prevent this horrific, deadly crash.
You're going to blame a guard rail or bad lighting? Oh,
I can't wait.
Speaker 11 (39:27):
Well, one other thing I would do if I'm Jackson
is again I disagree as to the front as a
state of mind of bomb. I think you have to
ask him why did he go from ninety three miles
an hour to one hundred and four miles an hour?
That gets to your defense. I mean, if he has
some rational explanation as to why the car accelerated ten
(39:48):
miles an hour in a short amount of time, he
might be able to get over this.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Advantage technical legal term. He's an a hole? Did they
teach you that at Harvard Law School? An a whole?
Speaker 8 (39:59):
The defend the new his actions were dangerous to human
life and deliberately acted with consciousness regard for human life,
committing four counts of imply malice murder in this case.
I can't say this enough. We have to realize that
(40:22):
when we're driving a card. We have the potential of
killing others when we're driving at one hundred plus miles
an hour on a forty five miles per hour zone.
The only reasonable conclusion that kid arrive out of that
(40:43):
behavior is harming others.
Speaker 12 (40:49):
I told her that the greatest stads to her young,
vibrant life and the future goals was a Molti vehicle accident,
which is still the leading cause of death in an
age group at that time. I asked that seems to
(41:09):
have lost the argument.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You were just seeing Deslin's dad, Desmond Williams, speaking, and
that's our friends at Pepperdine University YouTube trying to make
sense of a nonsensical tragedy. He's one of eight parents
(41:32):
devastated tonight while we're on air. They're at home, sitting
in their dims and around their supper tables looking at
an empty spot. Maybe they're sitting in the girl's bedroom.
Maybe they're driving by their apartment thinking about what was
(41:54):
I want to go to two very special guests, but
first to Karen start Joining us forensic psychologist, renowned TV
radio Trump expert. You can find her at Karenstark dot com.
She has dealt with so many survivors trying to make
sense of a new normal. Sharen, please, what is your
(42:20):
advice to these two girls joining us today.
Speaker 13 (42:23):
I think that they need to do exactly what they're doing, Nancy.
They have to keep talking about this. I'm so glad
they're on the show. I'm very sorry that this happened.
But the more they get involved, the more they talk
about what this person did, the dispeting, all of the neglect,
(42:44):
the better they're going to feel. It will never ever
go away, unfortunately.
Speaker 14 (42:48):
Don't we know that.
Speaker 13 (42:50):
I think everyone knows that that hole in the heart
never closes, but over time it will get better. Just
keep spreading the message that this is terot and should
never have happened.
Speaker 14 (43:04):
And remember your friends, girls.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
When I first moved to New York to start off
at Court TV, Karen and I would watch trials together
in a dark studio and we would talk about what
the victims had gone through. Do you remember that, Karen,
all those years, eleven years, had those at dark studios.
And She's right, it won't go away. It changes. You
(43:30):
don't cry every single day, but probably right now that's
still your situation. And Karen, please jump in whenever you
have a suggestion. Bridget and Coco, tell me about what
life was like living with these beautiful girls.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
First to you, Bridget, Yeah, life was nothing short of perfect.
When I met them, my life literally changed. They were
the most amazing people I have ever met, and I
think I will ever meet. They made every day a
better one. They knew how to pick me up when
(44:09):
I was down. They were always a shoulder to cry on.
It was. It was just the best to live with them,
To wake up to their good mornings every morning, to
go to bed hearing their good nights. I just missed
it a lot. You know.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
It struck me, Bridget that when either you or Coke
I went back to the apartment, I believe it was you.
Their pj's were still lying out on the bed where
they replaced them to hop into when they got home.
Speaker 6 (44:44):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Coco, tell me about a typical day that you would
have waking up with these beautiful girls.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
I mean it literally felt like a dream every morning
getting to wake up with them. They are, like Bridget said,
they are the bestest of friends, and I don't think
we'll ever find friends like that again. They're truly I
don't even think most people are lucky enough to have
friends like we did in their whole lifetime. But we
(45:18):
would wake up and we always had a playlist that
we would play mornings, and we would wake up, open
the curtains, let the sunshine in, just sit in our pjs,
make breakfast, play music. We lived, obviously in a great area,
so we'd walk to the beach a lot of time,
(45:38):
either on walks along zoom A Beach or at Point Doom.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Spent a lot of time in the water just swimming around.
Speaker 5 (45:49):
And then I feel like we always would go get
dinner at our favorite Italian place in Malibu, and I
mean it's such a simple day. But any day with them,
whether we were doing nothing or anything and everything was
just such a dream. And I know, well I can
(46:11):
speak for bridget and I like we would give anything
just to have one.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
More day with them.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Do you ever dream about them?
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Absolutely, I mean so after the accident, because I lived
with Doson and Bridgette lived with the rest. Bridget and
I moved in together afterwards into a different apartment and
would be like we both had dreams and it felt
so real that both of us were like, we don't
want to ever wake up because we just want to
keep dreaming.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
And some of them felt so real.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
Some of them were dreams about them coming back and
telling us like, hey, we're okay, we're in we're we're
in a spot, and you know, it happened so fast,
and like I want you guys to know we're okay.
It's a Bridget and I would just wake up and
sometimes just like cry together from our.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Dreams because they felt so real.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
But then we'd wake up and it's just hard to
keep going in life without them, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
I feel like we were just in.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
A really big denial stage for a really really long time.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
But Doctor Kendall Crowns, it wasn't that way. It wasn't
just all so fast they laid there and died. You
talked about severed limbs, You talked about horrific impact at
one hundred and four mph. They didn't just die just
(47:34):
like that.
Speaker 9 (47:35):
Well, that is very true, Nancy. It really all depends
on where they got hit and what was initially damaged. Now,
of course, the initial impact that could several limbs to
cause a person to go flying over the car but
not hit anything else, so their head would be intact
and they would be laying there with the traumaticly amputated
(47:56):
limb bleeding out on the roadway. It really all just
depends on what organ system got hit and at what
point was their head engaged or their neck engaged, or
how quickly they may have died, And it can be
one of those situations in which just the lower extremities
were severed or crushed or whatever, or their pelvist was
(48:18):
crushed and they just laid there slowly bleeding out and
nobody could help them because of the amount of damage
that was done.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Crime Stores with Nancy Grace Joseph Trimlay, Senior forensic engineer,
actor reconstructionist at Veritech Consulting. How do you go into
this scene, knowing what you know, having heard Bridget and
(48:53):
Cocoa and Karen and doctor Crown's how do you go
in and perform a hard, cold evaluation that will hold
up in court to explain to injury what happened? What
do you do or I have to.
Speaker 10 (49:09):
Look at the fax, I have to look at the evidence,
and I think it's fair to say in this situation,
at that excessive speed, this was no longer a car
accident at that rate of speed, and the collision that
occurred would cause severe damage. I mean, he's probably lucky
(49:30):
himself that he didn't have any injuries from this is
so severe. And you know, one of the nice things
we have in this situation is so much evidence and
so much data, in particular the data from the vehicle itself,
which will corroborate his speed, it'll corroborate his pre impact navigation,
(49:54):
and whether or not he attempted any sort of maneuver.
Speaker 11 (49:57):
To avoid this collision.
Speaker 10 (50:00):
So there's a lot of evidence that's going to be
presented at trial, and I think it's going to be
very elucidating for this particular crash.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Tim Blay, what do you mean you're going to get
a lot of evidence from the car itself. I got
a lot of evidence in the Alex Mordag case from
his nav his navigation system, which was awesome. You can't
really argue with the nav system in your own car.
What evidence are you talking about.
Speaker 10 (50:25):
Well, that's a great question, and there is a lot
of evidence from a navigation unit individually. But in addition
to that, modern cars are constantly recording data. Every car
out there, it's a federal mandate that they record data,
and that particular data is tied to the airbag system.
(50:48):
In the event of an airbag deployment, the car decides
whether or not to deploy the airbags based on things
like vehicle speed, steering inputs, breaking inputs, things like that,
and that data is stored on the car that can
be retrieved. In this particular crash, that data was retrieved
by the responding officers, and that is most likely the
(51:12):
way that they determined the impact speed, and then also
the way that they determined the pre impact acceleration that
was done by mister Baum.
Speaker 11 (51:23):
And his.
Speaker 10 (51:26):
Apparently completely absent attempt to avoid this crash.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Timoy, I know that the arriving officer saw skid marks
and smoke. What does that mean?
Speaker 10 (51:38):
Okay, that may actually suggest a small maneuver or breaking
an attempt to potentially mitigate the crash. I'd have to
look into that even more.
Speaker 11 (51:51):
If it was.
Speaker 10 (51:51):
A skid mark, that would suggest potentially maybe a steering
input or a breaking input to decelerate before impact. However,
that also kind of depends on how the crash unfolded itself.
Speaker 11 (52:08):
The data will provide.
Speaker 10 (52:11):
A very solid basis for all of that. And the
nice thing about that data is that It's been admitted
in many different court cases. It's very solid. It's hard
to argue that data. I'm sure mister Jackson will probably
make a very honest attempt to kind of reduce the
credibility of that data. But it's just very solid. It's
(52:34):
been used a lot, and it's a very valuable piece
of evidence.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
Here to Bridget Thompson joining US roommate investie with the
crash victims, do you ever dream about them?
Speaker 6 (52:46):
Yes? I have had many dreams with them, and it
is an amazing feeling to feel like you get to
be with them one more time. But it's hard to
wake up and now it's just not the truth.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
In the dreams. What's happening? What are they saying?
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Sometimes they'll reassure us that they're okay. Sometimes they'll be like,
it's okay, I'm okay now, And I'll try to convince
them to stay and they'll be like, I have to
go back, I have to go back. It's a really
(53:27):
crazy feeling.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Karen Stark, what do these mean? What do these mean?
What's happening in the girl's psychis.
Speaker 13 (53:36):
It's a case of them trying to preserve the friendship
with the girls. And this is actually wonderful because a
lot of people when they lose.
Speaker 14 (53:45):
Someone they want to dream about, then you have a chance.
Speaker 13 (53:49):
To revisit, even to say goodbye, which I'm going to
suggest to both of you that you tell yourself you
want to do that when you have the dream again
to say goodbye to them, and the whole idea of
being with them again. It's all beautiful and very very fortunate.
I'm glad they're having those dreams. I know that when
(54:09):
you wake up and maybe upsetting, but take it like
a message.
Speaker 14 (54:14):
You know that your friends have come and they're visiting
with you.
Speaker 15 (54:17):
Pepperdine University seniors Neve Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Osha Weir, and
Deslin Williams, four Alpha PI sisters, get ready for a
Sigma Chai party at their apartment. The girls are incredibly close.
After moving in together sophomore year, the women connected freshman
year and became inseparable. The Pepperdine victims are a star athlete,
future vet TikTok intern, and an aspiring writer. Neive, a
(54:41):
twenty year old business student, was an excellent gymnast, cheerleader,
and pole vaulter who competed in the CICH Championship. Deslin
was on a pre veterinary track with deep empathy for animals.
Peyton spent her sophomore year at Pepperdine's London campus, landing
her dream internship with TikTok before returning to camp for
senior year. Asha was studying writing and passionate about the
(55:04):
dynamic landscapes of the fashion and music industries.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
If you have any information, if you were a witness,
if you know anything that happened before, during, or after
the fatal crash, please dial toll free eight hundred two
two two eight four seven seven eight hundred two two
two tips tips eight hundred two two two eight four
(55:33):
seven seven. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace signing
off goodbye friend than
Host
Nancy Grace
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