Thursday, December 18, 2008
Martial arts fighter was to be in court day he was found dead
Justin Levens was under suspension from MMA fighting because he had misused powerful painkiller, officials say.
By VIK JOLLY, ALEJANDRA MOLINA, CHRIS CAESAR, and LOIS EVEZICH
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA NIGUEL The mixed martial arts fighter and his wife who were found shot to death Wednesday in their Laguna Niguel condo were scheduled to appear earlier that day in court, where they faced charges of aggravated assault, authorities said.
The deaths of Justin Levens, 28, and his wife, Sara McLean-Levens, 25, are being investigated as a possible murder-suicide.
The couple was found in their bedroom with gunshot wounds and authorities found a handgun near Levens, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Levens was found with a gunshot wound to his head and his wife, a gunshot wound to her chest.
When discovered by a relative who went to do a welfare check, the couple was believed to have been dead for "a couple of days," he said.
Levens was under suspension from mixed martial arts fighting because it had been determined that he had misused medication, Amormino said.
The couple, who had pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor aggravated assault charge on Aug. 27, in Orange County Superior Court, were represented by their attorney at the court hearing Wednesday at which a pretrial date was set for Jan. 21, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
In 2003, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of corporal injury in a domestic violence case, according to court records.
The misdemeanor charge stems from a Dec. 13, 2007, incident in which the couple is accused of picking up a 27-year-old man identified in a criminal complaint as Matthew David G. from a friend’s house in South Orange County after midnight, said Farrah Emami, a District Attorney spokeswoman.
Sara McLean-Levens asked the man for $200 he owed her and he gave her $80, Emami said. When she asked for the rest of the money, he said he didn’t have it and at that point she pulled over, nodding to her husband, Emami said. Justin Levens then got the victim out of the back seat and throwing him to the ground, punched and kicked him until his wife told him it was enough and the couple drove off, Emami said.
The man was treated for cuts and bruises on his face and later filed a police report, she said.
The couple’s Laguna Hills attorney Gary Pohlson says Justin Levens was not even in town at the time of the alleged incident, the details of which he disputed. Further, he said, that the couple was not worried about the outcome of this case, in which a settlement probably would have been worked out and the couple at worst faced a fine or community service.
The deaths stunned Pohlson.
“I was completely shocked when my partner told me this morning. The one time I saw them they were together and they seemed very happy,” he said.
Pohlson said he met Justin Levens only once but had spoken with Sara McLean-Levens about half a dozen times and did not know the couple very well. He had been retained by McLean-Levens, a bartender, who was referred to him by a friend.
“She seemed like a very nice girl,” he said.
Justin Levens was in Big Bear area training for an upcoming bout at the time of the alleged aggravated assault, Pohlson said. The money in question was stolen, he said, from McLean-Levens and on the night of the incident, she got a telephone call from Matthew David G. saying he was going to pay her back, Pohlson said, adding that the man got beaten later by someone else and tried to pin it on the couple.
“They weren’t particularly distressed about the case,” he said. “The case was never going to be a big deal at all.”
Levens’ suspension from fighting had been the subject of a Mixed Martial Arts online story. According to mmaweekly.com, Levens tested positive for oxymorphone, a painkiller given by injection, when he underwent drug testing for a July 2008 fight that was eventually scrapped.
He was subsequently fined and suspended for six months, which would have run through Jan. 15.
Laguna Niguel resident Kimbo Luzano, a close friend of Levens, said he believed Levens was also going through depression - not being able to fight and having marital and money issues.
Luzano said that Levens wasn’t the same after MMA fighter Jeremy Williams, a close friend of Levens, died last year of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot on May 5, 2007.
Levens and his wife had only been married a little over a year, Luzano said, adding that Levens did not have any family in Orange County. His parents live in Colorado, he said.
“He was a tough fighter but inside he was lovable,” Luzano said. “He would do anything for his friends...really sincere and genuine sweet guy.”
“I still can’t believe what happened,” Luzano added.
The couple were found dead Wednesday after McLean-Levens' mother called 911 about 2:30 p.m. to report her discovery.
Homicide investigators were at the couple's condo throughout much of Wednesday night, said sheriff's Lt. Val Wilson.
According to a biography written about Levens on his MySpace page, Levens had a tough childhood and was always picked on and had to use his fighting skills to protect himself from other kids.
In the biography, Levens said that even though he turned professional, he was a laid-back guy.
"I've been in one street fight (since turning pro)," he said in the blog posted last October. "It's not me picking on them; I'm a pretty quiet guy when I go out. I don't say much and I really just talk to my friends. I don't why, but people seem to pick on me. I'm pretty quiet, but sometimes it happens. This one guy: I was just standing there and he just threw water on me and pushed me. From there, it just kind of turned into a fight. A fast one, but it was a fight."
Born in Philadelphia, Levens, who was nicknamed “The Executioner,” moved to Newport Beach to pursue a career in fighting. Levens was a black belt trained by Marco Ruas in a style of fighting known as Vale Tudo.
In a biography posted on the Ultimate Fighting Championship Web site, Levens said fighting in the UFC was “a childhood dream come true.”Levens also previously served in the U.S. Navy, according to the UFC Web site.At 5-foot-11 and 205 pounds, Levens had a 9-8 record fighting in various mixed martial arts federations.
Another MMA fighter recently alleged to have beeb using pain killers is James Irvin, a light heavyweight who tested positive for the non-approved analgesic painkillers methadone and oxymorphone, according to sherdog.com, a Web site dedicated to the sport of MMA.
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