{"id":99120,"date":"2026-01-13T19:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99120\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:48:29","slug":"woman-accused-in-death-of-loyola-high-tennis-star-in-manhattan-beach-pleads-not-guilty-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99120\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused in death of Loyola High tennis star in Manhattan Beach pleads not guilty \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH<\/p>\n<p>A woman accused of driving drunk and fatally striking an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis star in Manhattan Beach just weeks before he was set to graduate pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 13, in Torrance Superior Court.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/2025\/05\/04\/suspected-dui-driver-arrested-after-pedestrian-struck-in-manhattan-beach\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jenia Resha Belt, 33, was arrested<\/a> shortly after the crash that occurred around 12:45 a.m. on May 4 in the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard, according to jail records.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/2025\/12\/24\/woman-accused-of-driving-drunk-and-killing-high-school-tennis-star-in-manhattan-beach-charged\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Belt was charged with murder, gross vehicular murder while intoxicated, and driving with a suspended license<\/a> in the death of Braun Levi. Belt was in custody in lieu of $2 million bail.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Jenia Resha Belt, second from left, appears before Superior Court Judge Laura Ellison on Tuesday, Jan. 13. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\" width=\"6000\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768333709_679_TDB-L-BELT-0114-DK-05.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"5292656\" \/>Jenia Resha Belt, second from left, appears before Superior Court Judge Laura Ellison on Tuesday, Jan. 13. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)<\/p>\n<p>Levi, whose family had relocated to Manhattan Beach after losing their home in the Palisades fire, was walking with a friend along Sepulveda when he was struck. He died at a hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Levi was nationally ranked in tennis, and his family told reporters he was bound for the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Levi, Braun\u2019s mother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/2025\/12\/29\/mother-of-braun-levi-allegedly-killed-by-dui-driver-in-manhattan-beach-joins-others-to-call-for-tougher-dui-laws\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke at a downtown Los Angeles news conference<\/a> on Dec. 29 with District Attorney Nathan Hochman and other elected officials, saying California needs to be tougher on drunk driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feeling, the sight, the smell of identifying our son\u2019s body will never leave my mind, body or soul,\u201d Levi said. \u201cSo I will not be silent. That\u2019s why I\u2019m committed to advancing a new bill to restructure California DUI sentencing and punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Tennis Association Southern California published an extensive tribute to Levi, saying he \u201chad a way of brightening every room he walked into; he was radiant. His sportsmanship never wavered. And his love \u2014 for tennis, people, and life \u2014 was always evident.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH A woman accused of driving drunk and fatally striking an 18-year-old Loyola High School&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9965,2136,419,303,1016,9966,75,9967,84,83,9,24,12,63,9216,27,45617],"class_list":{"0":"post-99120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-beach-cities","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-county","14":"tag-manhattan","15":"tag-manhattan-beach","16":"tag-manhattan-headlines","17":"tag-manhattan-news","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-south-bay","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-torrance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}