Singer on murder charge loses lawyers

Singer D4vd lost his high-profile private lawyers on 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 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 attorneys said in a statement that the judge granted their request to withdraw after finding that D4vd qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.

“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. D4vd 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 the singer 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 D4vd 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”.

The authorities allege that D4vd stabbed Rivas Hernandez to death in April 2025 after she threatened to expose sexual abuse that began when she was 13, and wreck 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 that was sent the night before her death.

Prosecutors said the following night, D4vd 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 the singer’s Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while he was on tour.