{"id":368118,"date":"2025-12-24T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T04:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368118\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T04:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T04:34:10","slug":"suspected-drunk-driver-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-high-school-tennis-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368118\/","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\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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=\"nofollow 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":2,"featured_media":368119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,14600,170654,10966,43216,1300,199576,199574,18274,10213,2968,199577,23695,199575,85,747,6620,4899],"class_list":["post-368118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belt","tag-braun","tag-charge","tag-collision","tag-death","tag-drunk-driver","tag-high-school-tennis-star","tag-license","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-murder","tag-nathan-j-hochman","tag-november","tag-pamela-johnson","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-university","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}