04-05-2025
Summer Wheaton blames dead driver for 'drunken' head-on car crash
Influencer Summer Wheaton, charged with killing a man after driving drunk following a star-studded Malibu party, has claimed that the fatal crash was the victim's fault, not hers.
In court documents seen by she accuses the family of the dead man Martin Okeke, 44, of fraud for filing a wrongful death civil lawsuit against her.
Wheaton, 33, also said Kelechi Okeke had not 'sustained any injury, damages or loss' due to her actions, despite her husband being killed on July 4 last year.
She has also asked a judge to award cash damages and legal fees to her, and not the victim's widow and child.
Wheaton pleaded not guilty in March to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and two other charges.
They resulted from the accident in which the Mercedes she was driving after a party at an upscale Nobu, crossed the center median of Pacific Coast Highway and collided head-on with ride-share driver Martin Okeke's Cadillac.
His widow, Kelechi, and other family members filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking unspecified cash damages from Wheaton, Nobu and the party's organizer, Hollywood Group.
She claims Wheaton was 'severely intoxicated and impaired' at the time of the accident.
The influencer has filed a response at LA Superior Court, denying 'each, every and all of the allegations' against her.
She claims Martin Okeke, 44, acted 'carelessly, recklessly and negligently'.
Wheaton's reply went on, 'the injuries and damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff, if any, were solely and proximately caused and contributed to by the intentional conduct or omission or refusal to act by plaintiffs.
'Plaintiff failed to exercise reasonable care in protecting his own interests as alleged in the complaint.'
Wheaton goes on to allege that the Okeke family's claim for damages, 'is barred due to fraud, intentional and/or negligent concealment of material facts by plaintiff.'
And she ends her seven-page court filing by asking the court to award Okeke's family 'nothing' in damages and instead award her 'judgment…and attorney fees'.
In the July 4 pile-up, police say Okeke died from his injuries after Wheaton's White Mercedes, speeding at 81mph in a 45mph limit, crossed the central reservation and veered into his Cadillac traveling in the opposite direction on Pacific Coast Highway at around 10.30pm.
Wheaton had earlier attended the Red, White & Bootsy party at Nobu, where celebrities including Mike Tyson and Blake Griffin were guests. Jamie Foxx, Tyga, and Wiz Khalifa provided entertainment.
Okeke's family says Wheaton drove herself to the Nobu party and valet parked there.
And in their wrongful death lawsuit, they also named Nobu and the party planner Hollywood Group because, they say, both 'knew that Wheaton was intoxicated, impaired and unsafe to drive her vehicle but still provided Wheaton with her keys and car.'
At her arraignment in March, Wheaton - who is currently free on $230,000 bail - was ordered to refrain from drinking and to wear an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet.
Her attorney Elon Berk objected to his client being subjected to the ankle bracelet, telling the court that Wheaton had no previous alcohol-related convictions or charges.
But Commissioner Sarah Ellenberg overruled him 'in the interest of public safety' because 'the charges against Wheaton are very serious.'
In addition to her alcohol ban, the commissioner also cautioned Wheaton not to take non-prescription drugs.
She has another criminal court hearing scheduled for June 11.
But despite posting bail, the former real estate agent has come under fire for turning the tragedy into a money-spinning venture.
Despite initially suspending her social media account, she has since taken to Instagram again to post a self-serving video where she talked about her 'hard' times in recent months.
During the clip hawking $35 'faith-based' Template to Life organizational planners, Wheaton reassures her followers that, 'beautiful things can bloom out of despair'.
'You know that feeling when life feels like it's falling apart but somehow it's the start of something really beautiful?' she says over a video montage of her on hikes and at the beach.
'I went through moments where I truly did not know how I pulled through,' she gushes in the video which was captioned: 'Things are not always as they seem'.
Okeke's death and the subsequent charges against Wheaton came amid an ongoing campaign by Malibu residents for lower speed limits and stricter safety regulations on the notorious Pacific Coast Highway following the deaths of four Pepperdine University co-eds there in an October 2023 crash.
Sixty people have died on PCH since 2010.
