D4vd Pleads Not Guilty in Teen Murder Case, Switches to Public Defender

His high-profile defense attorneys Blair Berk and Marilyn Bednarski are exiting the case, saying in a statement they "continue to support" the singer

Platinum-selling singer D4vd pleaded not guilty Monday at his rearraignment on charges he sexually abused 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez before killing and dismembering her and concealing her remains in the front trunk of his Tesla. He also switched out his defense team, replacing high-profile lawyers Blair Berk and Marilyn Bednarski with two public defenders.

After the hearing, Bednarski said “there is no conflict,” and that D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, made the decision. She declined to say how he might qualify for a publicly funded defense considering his financial success as a recording artist.

“This morning, the court granted our request to withdraw as counsel and appoint the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, after it was determined David qualified for appointed counsel,” Berk, Bednarski, and third lawyer Regina Peter said in a written statement handed out in the hallway outside the courtroom. “We continue to support David and his defense against these serious charges. We are grateful that the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office had taken over the representation and that David has a highly capable and committed team of attorneys and investigators behind him.”

After the hearing, Burke smiled and shook hands with Berk and Peter. He appeared to look around for Bednarski before deputies led him back into custody.

Burke’s new lawyer, Los Angeles County Public Defender Walid Kandeel, asked to delay Burke’s arraignment following the preliminary hearing so he could review transcripts in the case. Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo denied the request, noting that Burke still faced the same three charges filed against him when he was arrested in April.

“[The new charging document] is three counts, the same three in the complaint. It’s not particularly complicated. I don’t think you need to review,” Olmedo said. Kandeel then entered a not guilty plea on Burke’s behalf. Olmedo set the next hearing for Oct. 19. No trial date has been set.

Monday’s hearing came after Rolling Stone published an investigation into the “Romantic Homicide” singer earlier this month that detailed a pattern of concerning behavior, much of which predated his alleged abuse of the girl.

Burke, 21, is fighting charges he murdered Rivas Hernandez while lying in wait, for financial gain, and to prevent her from reporting the alleged sexual abuse. He also faces charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

A five-day preliminary hearing ended in late July with Judge Olmedo ruling that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to send him to trial. About a dozen witnesses testified, most of them law enforcement officers, though prosecutors also called financial employees from Burke’s management company and his record label, Darkroom/Interscope, part of Universal Music Group.

“It appears to me, for the purposes of preliminary hearing, the people have met their burden of proof on all charges,” Olmedo said. “I order that Mr. Burke be held to answer.”

Prosecutors allege Burke sexually abused Rivas Hernandez for more than a year before killing her on April 23, 2025, after the 14-year-old threatened to expose him. They say he dismembered her body in his garage with a chainsaw, placed her torso and head in a cadaver bag and her limbs in a black laundry bag, then concealed the remains in the Tesla Model X with air fresheners scattered around the vehicle.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman called Burke a “very clever adult” who groomed and “gaslit” Rivas Hernandez. She argued investigators had presented a “mountain of evidence” that easily cleared the relatively low threshold required at a preliminary hearing. “We have a minor who was sexually abused for many, many months,” Silverman told the judge. “She was groomed.”

Silverman said sexually graphic messages between the pair included discussions of contraception, pregnancy, and abortion. Even after Burke ended their relationship in late 2024, she argued, he “continued to use the victim for sex,” contributing to the emotional turmoil reflected in Rivas Hernandez’s messages.

Messages and photographs recovered from Burke’s iCloud account and a phone seized from his residence showed Rivas Hernandez discussing pregnancy and an abortion with him in January 2024, when she was 13, and he was an adult. Messages spanning November 2023 through April 2025 showed she repeatedly expressed fears about becoming pregnant.

Burke told the girl he wanted her to live with him and that they would marry. When she wrote in June 2024 that she feared the abortion had failed and that she might still be pregnant, he mocked her concern. “You would have a baby bump lmao you had hella periods since then. What the fuck you smoke?” he wrote in an exchange presented at the hearing. “Nah first baby gone.”

Burke and Rivas Hernandez “broke up” in November 2024, prosecutors say, but the sexual abuse continued. By March 2025, she appeared increasingly frustrated. “All we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself,” she texted Burke.

On April 22, 2025, the pair argued at length over text messages as Rivas Hernandez expressed jealousy over Burke’s relationship with Aysia Collins, a friend and stylist on his Withered tour. During the exchange, Rivas Hernandez threatened to reveal their relationship and ruin his career. She said she wanted to see Burke, and he agreed to send a car.

Burke’s lawyers argued during the preliminary hearing that prosecutors failed to establish that he killed Rivas Hernandez, much less that he planned her death in advance. Defense lawyer Marilyn Bednarski said Rivas Hernandez invited herself over that night and Burke was still playing a multiplayer virtual-reality game around the time she arrived.

Bednarski also pointed to scores of messages in which Burke expressed affection for Rivas Hernandez, saying they showed “the opposite of homicidal animus.” “Dismemberment is post-mortem conduct. It says nothing about what caused the death, when, where or how,” she argued. “We cannot impute malice from concealment.”

After Olmedo ordered Burke to stand trial, a lawyer for Rivas Hernandez’s parents criticized the defense for suggesting she may have been suicidal or violent toward Burke. “The family was horrified that the defense attorneys brought up evidence to put the blame on a 14-year-old child,” lawyer Patrick Steinfeld said.

Steinfeld also disputed Burke’s claim that Rivas Hernandez initially told him she was 18. He pointed to evidence that sheriff’s deputies contacted Burke in February 2024, after her parents reported her missing, and told him she was 13.

“He knew because he was told in February of 2024 that Celeste was only 13 years old,” Steinfeld said.

The Prince Estate has released Timeless, a 10-track collection of rare and previously unreleased recordings that stretches from 1977 to 2016. Released Friday through The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings, the compilation traces Prince’s career, with material rescued from his famously deep vault.

Timeless moves across almost the entirety of Prince’s recording career. The chronological tracklist begins with early material and travels through recordings from the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s and 2010s, ending with a live performance from 2016, the final year of his life.

The collection includes “Stone,” a previously unreleased track first unveiled in June. Written by Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer and Jules Van Even and recorded in 1995, the song offered an early glimpse of what was waiting inside the Vault.

Some of the other recordings reach much further back. “Tick Tick Bang” dates to 1981, while “Heaven” comes from 1985. The album also includes “The Guilty Ones,” recorded at Paisley Park in 2007 and now accompanied by an official video.

For longtime Prince fans, some of these recordings may sound familiar, as some portions of his expansive archive have circulated among collectors and bootleg traders for years. Timeless finally gives these songs an official release and, in many cases, a new place in the artist’s recorded legacy.

New York-based global IP platform Authentic Brands Group announced Thursday that it has acquired a 51% stake in October's Very Own’s intellectual property, effectively handing the company majority control of the Toronto-founded fashion and lifestyle brand. Superstar Canadian rapper Drake retains 44 percent, while Vince Holding Corp. owns the remaining 5 percent and has acquired OVO’s operating business.

Vince will handle the nuts and bolts of the business, including product development, merchandising, retail and design. The company also becomes OVO’s core apparel licensee, while Drake and his team will remain involved in the brand’s creative direction.

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Founded by Drake, Oliver El-Khatib and Noah “40” Shebib in 2008, OVO grew from a Toronto imprint into a global clothing operation, with 12 flagship stores and an online business serving customers internationally. Authentic says the partnership is intended to expand the brand into new markets, while Vince plans to use its retail and wholesale infrastructure to push OVO further into the U.S.

The transaction also comes with a sizeable paycheck. Transaction documents put the asset purchase price for OVO’s intellectual property at $117.65 million USD ($164 million CAD). The agreement also addresses OVO debt following a lawsuit filed this summer by lender Applied Real Intelligence over alleged loan-payment defaults.

A previous version of this article called Authentic Brands Group an investment company. It has been edited to accurately represent the fact they are an intellectual property platform.

The Linda Lindas are haunted by past conversations and existential advice on their latest single, “Everybody Told Me.” The song arrives with a Victorian-themed music video alongside the group’s third studio album, Gotta Get Out.

“‘Everybody Told Me’ is always so fun and magical to play, and it was also a really collaborative song to write,” the Linda Lindas’ Mila De La Garza said in a statement. “That back-and-forth environment brought out so many different ideas from all of us, which led to the call-and-response in the bridge and our first-ever fade-out ending.”

She added, “We really dove deep into our emo and sad vibes on a few songs on this record, and had a lot of fun with this one in particular. There was also a lot of spooky creative direction with the ghostly, Victorian feel of the music video — something we’ve never done before.”

Four years on from their debut album, appropriately titled Growing Up, the Linda Lindas have done just that. Their skills as musicians sharpened and expanded with each release, but it’s their songwriting that has transformed the most throughout their evolution. “We have felt very inspired at a time when routine and habits are easy to fall into,” the band told Line of Best Fit. “It was necessary to be inspired and try new things and reinvent and feel hope and all the joy in all those things – making art – in order not to feel crushed every day.”

The band’s live shows are only getting better, too. The Linda Lindas plan on spending the rest of their year on the road headlining a tour with support from the Rat Utopia Experiment, VIAL, Deux Visages, Adan Diaz, and Grace Bowers. They will also join Bleachers on a few of the band’s upcoming dates in September.

Elton John

Turnstile have released their all-star “reimagined” version of Never Enough, including Elton John’s take on the band’s “Seein’ Stars.”

The new version combines Turnstile’s uncharacteristically poppy single with John’s trademark piano twinkling, with singer Brendan Yates and John trading verses before their voices come together on the chorus:

In addition to John, Never Enough: Versions features new takes on the band’s Grammy-winning 2025 LP from artists like Hayley Williams (“Ceiling”), Slayyyter and Dying Fetus (both recorded their own spin on “Birds”), Four Tet (“Look Out for Me”), Faye Webster (“I Care”) and Panda Bear and Alex G, who each take on Never Enough’s closer “Magic Man.”

Also on the guest list are Oklou, Shabaka, fellow Baltimore native Dan Deacon, Porches, Floating Points, Brandon Woody, Chanel Beads, Angel Du$t, Nourished By Time, Rod Lee, Kettama, and Mustafa.

“Thank you to all these incredible artists and friends who helped make this so special,” the band wrote on social media upon the album’s release.

Some of the Never Enough: Versions contributing artists — Angel Du$t, Nourished by Time, Slayyyter, and Porches — will also take part in Turnstile’s Never Enough Tour Pt. 2, which brings a mini-festival to amphitheaters nationwide this September and October. The trek kicks off September 9 in Milwaukee and concludes a month later in Santa Ana, California on October 18.

Hear Turnstile’s original take on “Seein’ Stars” below:

Duane Davis at his Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 26, 2026

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former gang leader charged with the 1996 drive-by shooting murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, called just three witnesses before resting his defense at his Las Vegas trial in less than two hours on Thursday. Closing arguments in the closely watched case are set for Monday.

Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, centered the defense on testimony from three former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers in an effort to raise reasonable doubt. Former LVMPD Sgt. Stan Hyt and former Lt. Charlie Mangrum testified they were working overtime the night Shakur was shot, keeping an eye on the Las Vegas home of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, who was expected to host a party after boxer Mike Tyson won a bout at the MGM Grand.

Hyt and Mangrum said they saw a light-colored Cadillac arrive at the house and later leave as part of a convoy that included Knight driving Shakur in his BMW, according to a trial livestream from Law&Crime. Sanft apparently highlighted the testimony because witnesses later told police that it was a light-colored Cadillac that pulled alongside Knight’s BMW less than an hour later, when someone in the back seat opened fire, fatally wounding Shakur.

According to prosecutors, Davis, a leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was riding in the front passenger seat of the rented white Cadillac involved in the shooting. They allege he was the “shot-caller” that night and allowed his nephew, Orlando Anderson, to open fire on the BMW in retaliation for an attack by Shakur and his entourage on Anderson inside the MGM Grand about two hours earlier.

Suggesting that Knight had a light-colored Cadillac in his convoy could introduce more uncertainty. Sanft didn’t connect the dots, but other tips and theories about different alleged shooters have floated around for decades. On the second day of trial testimony, for instance, jurors heard about an alternate conspiracy theory that Knight’s security chief, Reggie Wright Jr., was involved in Shakur’s killing. Prosecutors raised the theory while questioning James McDonald, a former associate of Knight and member of the Mob Piru Bloods, who testified under a court order Aug. 18. McDonald, also known as “Mob James,” rejected the idea that Wright wanted Shakur dead as part of a power grab.

“It’s not true,” he testified. “If Reggie killed Tupac, then Death Row was over with. Tupac was the money source. Tupac was that guy at Death Row.”

Under cross-examination by Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo on Thursday, Mangrum said his report from that night included the license plate numbers of all the vehicles that entered Knight’s property. Asked whether homicide detectives in 1996 would have followed up on that information, he said yes.

Davis’ third and final witness was former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police homicide Det. Dan Long, who led the Shakur murder investigation from 2002 to 2017. Sanft questioned Long about other tips in the case and the history of the department’s investigative file, seeking to cast doubt on the thoroughness of the police work.

Long testified that the paper case file had to be “locked down” at one point because “curious” department employees were accessing it to read about the investigation. He also said some of his reports were later lost when the department switched electronic storage systems.

Sanft focused heavily on a 2009 interview Long conducted with Davis in Los Angeles, about a year after Davis gave a secret interview to a joint LAPD and federal task force investigating the 1997 killing of Christopher Wallace, the New York rapper known as The Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls, in Los Angeles.

Investigators had initially scrutinized Davis in the Wallace case because he attended the party at the Petersen Automotive Museum that Wallace was leaving when he was fatally shot in a drive-by attack. Authorities believed the gunman was in a Chevrolet Impala, and Davis was known to drive an Impala.

LAPD detectives Greg Kading and Daryn Dupree approached Davis at his Corona, California, home in 2008 while investigating drug trafficking allegations that could have exposed him to a lengthy prison sentence. Dupree testified on the third day of Davis’ trial, telling jurors that when the detectives asked whether Davis was involved in Wallace’s killing, he replied, “We did the other one.”

That remark led to the secret Dec. 18, 2008, proffer interview, commonly known as a “queen for a day” session, in which Davis received limited protections over statements he made to investigators. In the recording played for jurors, Davis said he was riding in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac involved in Shakur’s shooting and handed a loaded .40-caliber Glock to the men in the back seat. He said Anderson took the gun and opened fire before the group fled.

Prosecutors say the agreement did not grant Davis blanket immunity and that he later forfeited protections surrounding his statement by publicly repeating key details, including in a BET docuseries and his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. Sanft argued in his opening statement that Davis invented the story to gain leverage in the drug investigation and later repeated it for money. He also accused investigators of failing to corroborate Davis’ account.

“It’s because they knew he was full of crap,” Sanft told jurors.

On Thursday, Sanft questioned Long about his separate, recorded interview with Davis in 2009. Long testified that he did not know at the time about the earlier proffer agreement. After hearing Davis’ account and returning to Las Vegas, Long said he was eager to type up a warrant to “have Mr. Davis arrested for murder.”

Long testified that he was later told to “stand down,” apparently because of Davis’ proffer agreement. Sanft ostensibly sought the testimony to reinforce two defense themes: that authorities had effectively promised Davis protection for his statements, and that high-level prosecutors ultimately did not consider his account sufficiently credible to warrant further scrutiny.

Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon and has been jailed since his September 2023 arrest. In his opening statement on Aug. 17, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors the shooting amounted to an “act of revenge” amid simmering gang tensions between the South Side Compton Crips and the Mob Piru Bloods, with which Shakur and Knight had affiliation.

“Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But what he did do was plan the retaliation for the beating of his nephew. You will learn that Duane Davis got the gun. You will learn that he got into a white Cadillac. You will learn when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters are armed and ready to execute their revenge. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself,” Palal said, referring to the 2008 proffer interview.

Before he left the witness stand Thursday, Det. Long answered a question from the jury. The question asked whether Long ever interviewed Knight about the shooting that killed Shakur. Long said he tried. He recalled asking a fellow cop who played football with Knight to set something up. “Suge hung up on him,” Long said.

In testimony on Aug. 25, Malcolm Greenidge, a close friend of Shakur’s who performed as E.D.I. Mean in the rapper’s group Outlawz, gave his account of the night of the shooting. He said he was riding in a Lexus “right behind” the BMW in a caravan headed to Knight’s nightclub. Greenidge recalled seeing silhouettes of several people inside a light-colored Cadillac that pulled up alongside the BMW, separate from the convoy. He recalled seeing an arm extending from a rear window just before the gunfire began. He could see the gun and the arm holding it, he said, but not the shooter’s face.

Greenidge testified that Knight made a U-turn and sped away after the shooting, and that he personally followed the BMW and rushed to Shakur’s side after it stopped. Police arrived moments later, he said, and an officer pointed a shotgun at him and ordered him to the ground. Greenidge said Shakur then warned him, in what would be among his final words: “Get on the ground, they’re going to shoot you.”

Justine Gatus, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department homicide detective, took the stand after Greenidge and walked jurors through items seized from Davis’ residence in 2023, including a stack of newspaper and magazine clippings related to the shooting and its aftermath.