In January, Jennifer Levi and her 17-year-old son, Braun, lost everything in the Palisades wildfire. Braun, a nationally-ranked high school senior, was planning to leave behind that destruction and attend the University of Virginia this fall to play tennis.
Unfortunately, Braun was killed by a drunk driver with multiple DUIs and a suspended license just four months after the fires.
"Our family is destroyed," Jennifer said in an interview. "Everything just sort of happened to us," she added through tears.
If all of that wasn't bad enough, the alleged drunk driver has yet to be charged in Braun's death, thanks to California's soft-on-DUI laws, and he's out on bail because of overcrowding in the prison system.
In January this family lost their home in the Palisades Fire, a few months later their son was tragically killed by a drunk driver.
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) November 12, 2025
Thanks to the soft on DUI laws in California, the driver had a previous DUI and was driving on a suspended license.
If that weren’t bad enough,… pic.twitter.com/3SFhMWKl57
According to News Nation, "The driver had been previously charged with DUI in 2023 and was driving on a suspended license."
A CalMatters report says the state has some of the softest DUI laws in the nation, where a driver's license is suspended for three years after the third DUI. Other states like New Jersey and Nebraska suspend licenses for much longer (eight and 15 years, respectively), and in Connecticut, a license is permanently revoked after the third DUI.
Jennifer Levi hopes to change that going forward. She started the Live Like Braun Foundation and Braun's Bill, so a DUI with a death is now classified as a violent felony and not an accident.
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"I feel like the state of California has failed us, and we have paid the ultimate price," Levi said. "Because of that, because we've paid the price of a lifetime of devastation and grief, I have no choice but to fight."
"Our family's prepared to be disappointed," she added. "All I know is that the only thing I can do is try to change it for other people, and to honor our son's legacy."
Pat Rillera, regional director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), said, "We have terrible laws in California that need to be fixed. If the governor took a look at California and decided that he wanted California to run differently as it relates to DUIs, I believe he could change that."
"It's not an accident. The person who killed our son made a choice," Levi said. "I want Braun's Bill passed in the state of California so that no one has to feel this pain and justice is served."
According to Newsmax, Governor Newsom's office said sentencing is the purview of the courts, but that "the governor will consider any bill the legislature puts across his desk."
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