Singer D4vd lost his high-profile private lawyers Monday at a hearing where he entered a new not guilty plea to charges that he killed, sexually abused and dismembered 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

It’s not clear why Blair Berk and her colleagues Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter parted ways with the indie-pop singer whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. They were replaced by a lawyer from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office.

The defence lawyers said in a statement only that the judge granted their request to withdraw after finding that Burke qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.

5:39 Singer D4vd charged with murder of 14-year-old found in trunk, could face death penalty

“We continue to support David and his defence against these serious charges,” the statement said. The lawyers would not answer specific questions about their departure outside the courtroom.

Burke earned at least US$10 million through his music from 2023 through 2025, according to testimony from his money handlers at a previous hearing. It’s not clear how he financially qualifies for a public defender whose job is to defend clients who lack the money for a lawyer.

Without providing details, the Public Defender’s Office said in an email that it had completed a thorough financial evaluation and found he was eligible.

Deputy Public Defender Walid Kandeel took over the defence. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo denied his first request as the singer’s lawyer to delay the arraignment. Olmedo demanded a plea Monday instead, and scheduled a status conference for October. No trial date has been set.

Olmedo ruled after a five-day evidentiary hearing in July that there was enough evidence for Burke to stand trial on charges of murder, continuous lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

A second arraignment and plea, like Burke gave Monday, is standard practice after such a hearing and finding. He is eligible for the death penalty, but District Attorney Nathan Hochman said after Monday’s hearing that his office is still deciding whether to pursue it.

Hochman said the new lawyers will make no difference in how his office pursues the case, though the switch may delay the process. He said regardless of the timing, his office is “ready to prove all three charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Outgoing lawyer Berk has for years been among the go-to lawyers for A-list clients. They’ve included Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Harvey Weinstein and the late Ozzy Osbourne.

New lawyer Kandeel said in a statement that “We recognize the loss of life underlying the allegations and extend our sympathies to those who are grieving. At the same time, David Burke is entitled to a defence that takes his circumstances seriously and carefully examines the evidence.”

Nick Reiner, charged with killing his parents, the director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, recently lost a similarly prominent private lawyer in favour of a public defender because his source of money was cut off. He’s now seeking access to a trust so he can rehire the lawyer, Alan Jackson.

Authorities allege Burke stabbed Rivas Hernandez to death in April of last year after she threatened to expose sexual abuse that began when she was 13 and crater his rising career just days before his debut album dropped.

“i will end ur career and ur life,” she told him in a text message sent the night before her death.

1:35 Decomposed body of missing teen found in singer D4vd’s impounded Tesla

Prosecutors said the following night Burke sent an Uber for her and stabbed her when she entered his house. They presented evidence that her phone went permanently silent at that moment.

Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered and decomposing body was found in the trunk of Burke’s Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while he was on tour.

Prosecutors argued at the July hearing that the “mountains of evidence” they presented were overwhelming. Burke’s lawyers argued that the evidence of murder was insufficient.

D4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, SoundCloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough Romantic Homicide, have more than a billion plays.

In 2024, he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, Withered, two days after authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.

Country icon Dolly Parton was laid to rest in a private funeral service attended by family on Friday, according to Parton’s niece.

Parton died in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday at the age of 80 after a “brief battle with cancer,” according to her representatives.

The Jolene singer’s immediate family gathered at the Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville on Friday morning, the Los Angeles Times reports.

2:14 Dolly Parton’s legacy beyond music

Parton was buried alongside her late husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025 at the age of 82.

Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 Amelia Young shared a photo of Parton’s burial site and the bronze plate mounted at the mausoleum with Parton and Dean’s names engraved.

The cemetery’s obituary said Parton’s “fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media.”

“In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at http://www.imaginationlibrary.com,” the obituary added.

Parton’s niece, Lainey Parton, shared an emotional tribute on Instagram, writing, “This is a really hard post for me to make. I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words.”

Lainey said that Parton “never made my dreams feel too big or made me feel like I couldn’t do something.”

“She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself. Most people can think of at least one bad memory with everyone in their family. I honestly can’t think of one with her,” she added.

“Because she couldn’t have kids of her own, she always made us feel like we were hers. She loved us that way, and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”

2:03 Dolly Parton leaves local legacy through books

Lainey remembered singing with Parton on her 2024 Smoky Mountain DNA album.

“I was a freshman in high school and SO nervous. But she had a way of making me feel like nothing bad could happen. She made me feel safe, confident, and like I belonged right there beside her,” Lainey recalled.

Lainey said it still “doesn’t feel real that she’s gone.”

“I’m going to miss her voice, her laugh, her hugs, and just knowing she was there. I’m even going to miss those 4 AM calls, and I’d give anything to see her name pop up on my phone again,” she added.

“I feel incredibly lucky that I got to call her my granny. Thank you for always believing in me, loving me, and making me feel like I could do anything,” Lainey’s post concluded.

Elsewhere in Nashville, country singers Carly Pearce and Jelly Roll performed Parton’s 9 to 5 in tribute to the late singer at the Grand Ole Opry on Aug. 29.

“It only feels right that I get to honour the queen tonight. Dolly, we love you,” Pearce told the audience.

“There are artists who make country music. And then there are artists who become part of its very heart. That’s Dolly Parton,” the Opry wrote on Instagram following the concert. “Dolly, thank you for making the Opry, and country music, richer, brighter and unmistakably your own. You will forever be a cherished member of our Opry family.”

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On Monday, Parton’s estate also announced Dollyfest, a two-day festival to be held in Nashville and London in 2027.

According to a press release, the festival was originally scheduled to take place in January 2026 — around her 80th birthday — and was going to feature Parton as a performer and host. Now, it will serve as a celebration of her legacy.

“We had the venue booked and we had the announcement ready to go. And then, in August 2025, Dolly had to take a step back after her initial health challenges. A lot of people always say, WWDD (What Would Dolly Do?), and, well, at this moment, Dollyfest is WDWD (What Dolly Would Do!),” organizer Danny Nozell, founder and CEO of CTK Enterprises, said in a statement.

“We are not discouraging people from celebrating Dolly in the ways they choose. However, as far as a traditional memorial goes, that is not something Dolly wanted. So, instead, it feels more appropriate for us to take a beat, let all the tributes that immediately make sense occur naturally, and then, see through this festival-style concept that was truly dreamed up by Dolly.”

— with files from The Associated Press

Pop star Selena Gomez is asking a federal judge to dismiss fraud claims against her after she was accused in a lawsuit by investors who say she failed to fulfil her duties to build and promote her mental health startup.

Earlier this month, Gomez and her mother, Mandy Teefey, were accused of allegedly deceiving investors of their mental health startup Wondermind to continue funding the company, according to legal documents obtained and viewed by Global News.

In a motion filed Wednesday in Delaware, viewed by NBC News, People and Rolling Stone, Gomez’s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the 34-year-old singer from the lawsuit and said she should have never been dragged into the case in the first place.

4:35 Selena Gomez and her mother sued for fraud

Global News has not independently viewed the filing.

Gomez’s lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, shared a statement with Rolling Stone, calling the claims against her “completely meritless if not frivolous.”

“The notion that Selena engaged in ‘fraud’ or any other wrongdoing is absurd—and in addition to filing our motion we are exploring other avenues of relief for Ms. Gomez including sanctions against plaintiffs for improperly including her,” he added.

Global News has reached out to Rosengart for further comment, but has not received a response.

In the motion, the singer’s lawyers reportedly said that the plaintiffs’ “vague, generalized, and contradictory allegations concerning Selena Gomez demonstrate that Ms. Gomez could not possible have engaged in any ‘fraud’ (she did not), is not liable to Plaintiffs (she is not) and, as a matter of law, must be dismissed from the lawsuit.”

The filing also reportedly states that Gomez “did not communicate with Plaintiffs, was not involved in Wondermind, Inc.’s (the ‘Company’) securities offerings, and was not in a position to control the acts and communications of the Company.”

Wondermind was co-founded by Gomez, Teefey and Daniella Pierson in November 2021 and claims to share “doable ways to put your mental fitness first every day,” according to the website.

The motion says that Teefey and Pierson handled management as Wondermind’s co-CEOs and board members and that Gomez was retained “as a consultant and conferred on her title of Chief Impact Officer,” NBC News reports.

In the motion to dismiss, Gomez’s legal team reportedly said that while the Wizards of Waverly Place actor “agreed to support her mother Mandy Teefey” and invested in Wondermind, she “never agreed to and did not mange” the company.

The lawsuit filed earlier this month accuses Wondermind and the founders of falsely representing the company’s “infrastructure, leadership, and resources necessary for the Company to launch into a profitable, one-of-its-kind mental health and wellness platform.”

3:18 Does Selena Gomez have a foot fetish? Pop icon raises eyebrows with viral podcast moment

The suit also claims that the defendants told the plaintiff’s three things, including that Gomez would be “actively building the Company as its head of marketing,” that Pierson was “a $200 million executive whose prior businesses generated $40 million a year and who had already secured institutional employer partnerships with JPMorgan and Fidelity,” and that a “full slate of revenue-generating initiatives, including advertising deals, celebrity cover stories, and a groundbreaking app, were already underway.”

“Gomez purported to sign a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it. The partnerships did not exist. The initiatives never materialized. The app was never built,” the legal documents allege.

It also claims that while Wondermind “quietly collapsed,” the founders allegedly did not say “a word to the investors whose money was funding the collapse.”

The investors allegedly learned about the news from an online article published in September 2025 by The Cut, titled “What Happened at Wondermind?”

The investors claim they put US$1.2 million into Wondermind and are now accusing the company of securities fraud, common law fraud and breach of contract.

The lawsuit also shares allegations of investors being given updates that they claim were misleading or false.

The investors are seeking rescission of their investments in Wondermind, damages, costs and lawyers’ fees.

Two weeks after his brother Nick Reiner was indicted on charges of murdering his parents with the special circumstance of lying in wait, Jake, 35,  spoke with KABC-TV Los Angeles’ Marc Cota Robles for a nearly 10-minute interview about life without his parents and the phone call he received from his sister Romy Reiner the day of his parents’ death.

“Nobody really understands what it’s like to go through something like that until you’re living it,” Jake said. “It’s been eight months. It feels like eight years at the same time. And it also feels like eight minutes because every moment that I wake up, I’m reminded of my reality.”

3:22 Nick Reiner could face death penalty in alleged murder of his parents Rob and Michele 

On the afternoon of Dec. 14, Jake was at a celebration of life for one of his best friends — who died in October — when he received the news of his parents’ deaths.

“Romy called me, and I screened it, because I thought at the time, I’m in the middle of something, you know, I’ll call her back,” Jake said, “and then, she called immediately again, and I knew at that point that something was wrong.”

“Romy told me our dad was dead, and then she said, ‘I can’t find mom,'” he said. “I immediately went into shock.”

Jake, who worked as a local news reporter, said nothing could have prepared him for arriving at his parents’ home after receiving the phone call from Romy.

“As a reporter, I did it for 10 years, I came up on crime scenes all the time,” Jake said, “but when it’s your crime scene, a crime scene at your childhood home, it’s like the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen.”

That same night, Jake also learned that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was looking at his brother, Nick, as the suspect.

When Jake was asked if he was surprised about the LAPD naming Nick as the prime suspect, he did not want to answer the questions, KABC-TV reported.

“He’s in jail. It’s like, I physically lost my parents, and then Nick was arrested. Now it’s just me and Romy, and we have to navigate this by ourselves essentially,” Jake said.

“For me, it manifests into anger. It manifests into rage, into how unfair this was, how I didn’t get a say in what happened. I didn’t get to stop it from happening. I had no choice in the matter,” he continued. “I just have to accept the reality of it. And to me, that is just one of the most infuriating parts of all of this.”

Jake said he knew how his parents felt about Nick and said they “never stopped helping” his brother through his reported struggles with addiction.

“My parents had unconditional love for all three of us,” Jake told the outlet. “I can tell you they never stopped wanting to help him. They never stopped helping him.”

0:33 Nick Reiner indicted on murder charges in deaths of parents Rob and Michele Reiner

During the interview, Jake also spoke about carrying on his filmmaker father’s legacy, saying, “I don’t necessarily know that I have this weight on my shoulders to carry on their legacy, but I do feel responsible for making sure people know them and they remember them.”

“I know they loved me. I know that they are proud of me, and I knew that,” he added.

Jake told the outlet that he still has a hard time trying to understand the deaths of his parents.

“I’ll never understand. I don’t care how it’s explained to me,” he said. “I don’t care what facts come out. I will never understand why this happened.”

Earlier this month, Jake’s brother Nick pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait after the indictment was unsealed, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said.

He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife.

He was arrested on Dec. 15 after his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother were found dead with stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14, 2025.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said.

“The indictment unsealed today also adds a special circumstance allegation that the defendant committed the murders by means of lying in wait. We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case, it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice,” Hochman added.

4:34 Nick Reiner demands access to his $1.5 million trust fund from jail

The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.

Nick’s next court appearance will be held on Sept. 15.

If convicted as charged, he faces death or life in state prison without the possibility of parole. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office added.

—With files from The Associated Press