The singer D4vd has dropped his high-powered legal team and will now be represented by the Los Angeles County public defender’s office on charges that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a teenage fan before killing her and dismembering her corpse to cover up the sex abuse.
David Anthony Burke, 21, asked to have the public defender’s office replace his defense team of Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter ahead of a Monday morning hearing, Berk said in court. She did not say why he sought the switch, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo granted his request.
Olmedo held a hearing in chambers on the reason for the change in legal representation, but sealed the transcript of the hearing. A spokeswoman for the L.A. County Public Defender’s Office said she was “not at liberty to disclose financial information” but a thorough evaluation of Burke’s finances confirmed he was eligible for the services of the public defender’s office.
“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 defense that takes his circumstances seriously and carefully examines the evidence. We are committed to providing him with that defense,” L.A. County Deputy Public Defender Walid Kandeel said in a statement.
Burke’s now former legal team declined to discuss the reason for the switch 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 has taken over the representation and that David has a highly capable and committed team of attorneys and investigators behind him,” the attorneys said in a written statement.
Burke was signed to a multimillion-dollar recording deal at the time of Hernandez’s death. While Interscope dropped Burke from their label late last year, he had already raked in millions from the contract, according to evidence presented at a preliminary hearing earlier this year.
Burke split from attorneys Bednarski and Berk — who have represented a number of high-profile clients including Harvey Weinstein and L.A. labor union leader David Huerta — following a decision to rush into a preliminary hearing earlier this year, just months after Burke was arrested and charged with Hernandez’s murder.
It can sometimes take years for a murder trial to reach a preliminary hearing, the first milestone in a case where prosecutors must present enough evidence to convince a judge the case can proceed to trial.
Burke’s team demanded an immediate preliminary hearing. In July, prosecutors put forth a week’s worth of evidence against Burke, including years of text messages that laid out Burke and Hernandez’s illegal sexual relationship in explicit detail, receipts showing online orders for a number of tools that could be used for body disposal, and forensic analyses that showed evidence of blood in his garage.
Prosecutors have long suspected Burke used a chainsaw to sever Hernandez’s limbs in his garage last April and tried to collect the blood in a kiddie pool. He also allegedly amputated two of his victim’s fingers to hide evidence of a pair of matching tattoos they received.
The text messages also showed Burke impregnated the teenage girl and convinced her to get an abortion. The night before police believe Hernandez was killed, the evidence showed, she and Burke got into an argument. She told Burke she would “end ur career and ur life I will damage anything,” according to texts demonstrated in court.
Prosecutors have argued Burke killed Hernandez to protect his ascendant music career.
Monday’s court appearance was a post-preliminary hearing in which Burke pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The next hearing is set for Oct. 19.
If convicted as charged, Burke would face either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said Monday that he has yet to decide whether he will seek capital punishment in the case, and did not provide a timeline on when he made that decision.
Burke’s decision to change attorneys will have no impact on the prosecution’s handling of the case, according to Hochman, who said his office stands “ready to proceed to prove all three charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Although they faced an uphill battle, Bednarski and Berk did highlight some issues with the prosecution’s case during the preliminary hearing. Los Angeles police investigators never recovered any of the tools Burke allegedly used to dismember Hernandez, and there are no witnesses who actually saw the murder. On cross-examination, the defense team got a medical examiner to admit they could not absolutely rule out that Hernandez was holding the weapon or attempted to harm herself the night of the killing.
The switch marks the second time this year the public defender has subbed in for a high-powered attorney in an L.A. celebrity murder trial. Earlier this year, former L.A. County prosecutor Alan Jackson dropped out as Nick Reiner’s attorney on charges he murdered his parents, beloved Hollywood icons Rob and Michele Reiner.
No one has explained the switch, but court records show Nick Reiner has struggled to access his family trust fund, suggesting he ran out of money to pay Jackson, one of the city’s most visible defense attorneys.