Way of life influencer Summer season Wheaton has constructed a model on Instagram round magnificence product suggestions and faith-based optimistic affirmations.
On Monday, a superior courtroom official ordered her to don an unattractive new accent: an alcohol ankle monitor bracelet. The order was made in connection to the lethal automotive crash Wheaton allegedly brought on when she collided with one other driver on Pacific Coast Freeway on July 4.
Wheaton, 33, who appeared in courtroom carrying grey slacks and a grey high, didn’t converse throughout her courtroom look however her lawyer, Elon Berk, entered a not responsible plea to prices of gross vehicular manslaughter and inflicting nice bodily hurt whereas intoxicated.
Courtroom Commissioner Sarah Ellenberg ordered Wheaton to register for a SCRAM (Safe Steady Distant Alcohol Monitor) ankle bracelet gadget throughout the subsequent two days. Wheaton additionally was ordered to seem in courtroom on the finish of April for a preliminary listening to. She stays out on bail after posting a $230,000 bond.
The costs stem from a Fourth of July occasion at Nobu Malibu final 12 months. Wheaton left the occasion in Malibu and was driving 81 mph when she collided head-on with a automobile pushed by ride-share driver Martin Okeke.
The occasion’s visitor checklist included Wiz Khalifa, Tom Sandoval, Mike Tyson, Lonzo Ball and different celebrities. Wheaton was among the many throngs of individuals on the “Crimson, White and Bootsy” occasion, in keeping with prosecutors and a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Okeke’s household.
Simply earlier than arriving on the occasion, Wheaton posted a photograph of herself and a visitor in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz.
Whereas she arrived with a visitor, Wheaton left alone with a blood alcohol depend of 0.10, in keeping with courtroom information.
Okeke was touring with a teenage passenger in his automobile when Wheaton crossed the middle divider and crashed into his automobile. Okeke died within the crash; his passenger survived.
A civil swimsuit filed by Okeke’s household names as defendants Wheaton, Nobu Malibu, the Hwood Group LLC and DBDJ LLC, the teams who hosted the occasion. Okeke’s household declare that Wheaton was employed to attend the occasion on PCH and was “anticipated to eat intoxicants.”
An lawyer for Nobu denied in December that Wheaton was employed or contracted by the restaurant.
Lower than per week earlier than the occasion, Malibu metropolis officers rescinded the allow for the occasion, citing considerations about site visitors and security. Regardless of the rescinded allow, the Fourth of July occasion went on.
Attorneys for Nobu beforehand advised The Occasions that the town’s determination to rescind the allow was unfounded and that the restaurant abided by the town’s preliminary circumstances for the allow, together with an settlement that friends could be shuttled to the occasion and that there could be no on-site parking.
Wheaton, nonetheless, drove herself to the occasion, in keeping with the lawsuit.
Whereas the crash passed off in the summertime of 2024, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division didn’t current the case to the district lawyer’s workplace till October. Prosecutors requested extra data from sheriff’s investigators and the case was filed Feb. 10.
Wheaton curtailed her postings to social media following the crash, however seven days after she was charged she posted a video the place she mentioned her religion with out immediately mentioning the deadly crash.
“It’s possible you’ll not consider this however your miracle is correct on the opposite facet of your lowest second,” she mentioned in a video posted to Instagram on Feb. 17. “I do know that sounds loopy to say however I’ve skilled it.”
Los Angeles Occasions reporter Clara Harter contributed to this report.
