{"id":468379,"date":"2025-12-24T06:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468379\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T06:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:55:19","slug":"suspected-drunk-driver-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-high-school-tennis-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468379\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspected drunk driver charged with murder in death of high school tennis star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An allegedly intoxicated driver who hit and killed high school tennis star <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-05-04\/braun-levi-tennis-star-killed-in-crash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Braun Levi<\/a> in Manhattan Beach was charged with murder Tuesday, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Jenia Resha Belt, 33, of Los Angeles also faces charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license, said Pamela Johnson, a spokesperson for the L.A. County district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Around 12:46 a.m. on May 4, Belt struck Braun, who was walking near Sepulveda Boulevard  and 2nd Street, authorities said. <\/p>\n<p>Belt, who was arrested at the scene, had a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit and was driving on a suspended license from a prior DUI arrest, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-11-18\/loyola-high-tennis-braun-levi-parents-sue-alleged-drunk-driver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to court records. <\/a>Four passengers inside the car fled the area after the collision. <\/p>\n<p>Belt was released in June and then apprehended again months later.<\/p>\n<p>Braun\u2019s parents, who lost their home in the Palisades fire and relocated to the South Bay, filed a $200-million wrongful death lawsuit against Belt in November. <\/p>\n<p>Their son was a standout at Loyola High School and had been slated to play tennis at the University of Virginia. The Levis started the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/livelikebraunfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Live Like Braun Foundation<\/a> in his memory.<\/p>\n<p>Belt is in custody on $2 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan  Hochman and Jennifer Levi, Braun\u2019s mother,  plan to discuss the charges at a news conference Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An allegedly intoxicated driver who hit and killed high school tennis star Braun Levi in Manhattan Beach was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[62035,212949,1582,276,29418,11769,4446,48515,212950,2961,20506,224,2444,5337,9620,212952,16361,212951,4280,906],"class_list":{"0":"post-468379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-belt","9":"tag-braun","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-charge","13":"tag-collision","14":"tag-death","15":"tag-drunk-driver","16":"tag-high-school-tennis-star","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-license","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-murder","23":"tag-nathan-j-hochman","24":"tag-november","25":"tag-pamela-johnson","26":"tag-university","27":"tag-virginia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115773238455820289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}