brother

FABIAN EDWARDS sensationally replicated brother Leon’s famous head kick knockout – almost three years to the day.

Leon won the UFC welterweight title against Kamaru Usman in the dying embers on August 20, 2022.

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A left high kick KO’d Usman with just seconds to go – crowning Leon champion in one of the greatest come-from-behind victories in UFC history.

Fast forward three years and his younger brother Fabian challenged American Dalton Rosta in the Professional Fighters League middleweight final.

In round three – in what proved to be a remarkable dejavu moment – Edwards connected with the exact same left kick to the head.

Edwards – joined by his brother Leon in the cage – collapsed in celebration as he was crowned the 2025 PFL winner.

He also collected the $500,000 cash prize – having won the three-stage tournament with prior wins over Impa Kasanganay and Josh Silveira.

Flanked by ex-UFC champ brother Leon in the cage, Edwards, 32, said: “That is team head shot dead. That is crazy. God’s got a funny way of working.

“I’m so grateful. Last October, I lost a championship fight to Johnny (Eblen) less than 12 months on I’m PFL champ. It’s crazy.”

Rosta, 29, had built up a lead in the opening two rounds after a succession of takedowns.

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But the American tired heading into the third – allowing Edwards to land the trademark kick they had practised.

He said: “I said to my brother, he likes to paw, so I said to him I’m gonna try that shot.

“I do that shot good in the gym and look, it worked beautifully.”

Edwards’ mum Denise has a Caribbean restaurant called Sweet’s Kitchen in Birmingham town centre – where the family moved to from Jamaica.

And the newly-crowned champ plans to celebrate with a feast when he returns back on home soil.

SACRAMENTO — Erik Menendez will not be released, the California Parole board decided in a highly-anticipated and lengthy hearing Thursday, curtailing for now the contentious push by he and his older sibling to be freed after the 1989 killing of their parents in their Beverly Hills home.

The hearing came after years of legal efforts by Menendez and his brother to be set free despite being convicted of life without the possibility of parole in 1995. Their jury trial, and accounts of an abusive upbringing in the upscale Beverly Hills home, inspired several documentaries and television series that drew renewed attention to their case and allegations of sexual abuse against their father.

The hearing — the first time Erik Menendez, 54, has faced the California Parole Board — offered a never-before seen glimpse into his life behind bars over more than three decades. A separate hearing for Lyle, 57, is set for Friday.

The hearing, Erik Menendez noted, was 36 years and a day after his family realized his parents were dead. The killing occurred on Aug. 20, 1989.

“Today is the day all of my victims learned my parents were dead,” he said. “So today is the anniversary of their trauma journey.”

After a nearly 10-hour hearing, the board decided to deny parole to Menendez for three years. He could petition for an earlier hearing.

“This is a tragic case,” said Robert Barton, parole commissioner, after issuing the decision. “I agree that not only two, but four people, were lost in this family.”

Relatives, friends, and advocates have described the Menendez brothers as “model inmates,” but during the hearing Thursday members of the Parole Board raised concerns about drug and alcohol use, fights with other inmates, instances in which Erik Menendez was found with a contraband cell phone, and allegations that he helped a prison gang in a tax fraud scam in 2013.

More than a dozen relatives testified in favor of release for Menendez, with many of them saying they had forgiven him and his brother for the killing. Although amazed by the famiy’s support, Barton said Menendez should not be released on parole.

“Two things can be true,” Barton said. “they can love and forgive you and you can still be found unsuitable for parole.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for relatives of the two siblings said they were disappointed.

“Our belief in Erik remains unwavering and we know he will take the Board’s recommendation in stride,” the family said in a statement. “His remorse, growth, and the positive impact he’s had on others speak for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and hold to the hope he is able to return home soon.”

They said they remained “cautiously optimistic” for Lyle Menendez, whose hearing was set for Friday.

Menendez testified he obtained cell phones despite risking discipline because he didn’t believe there was a chance of him ever being released. He took the gamble, he said, because the “connection with the outside world was far greater than the consequences of me getting caught with the phone.”

He also associated with a gang, he said, for protection.

That all changed in 2024, he said, when he realized there was a chance be paroled at some point.

“In November of 2024, now the consequences mattered,” he told the board. “Now the consequences meant I was destroying my life.”

The crime that put Menendez and his brother in prison began when the siblings drove to San Diego, bought shotguns with cash using someone else’s identification, then returned home and opened fire in the family living room while their parents were watching television.

Investigators have said the gruesome crime scene looked like the site of a gangland execution. Jose Menendez was shot five times, including once in the back of the head, and evidence showed Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor, wounded, before the brothers reloaded and fired a final, fatal blast.

The brothers called 911, with Lyle screaming that “someone killed my parents,” according to court records. But while they appeared as grieving orphans, Erik and Lyle also began spending large sums of money in the months following the killings. Lyle bought a Porsche and a restaurant while Erik purchased a Jeep and retained a private tennis instructor with the intentions of turning pro. The two were infamously seen sitting courtside at an NBA game between the murders and their capture.

Prosecutors argued the brothers killed their parents out of greed to get access to their multi-million dollar inheritance. Jose was planning to disinherit the brothers since he considered them failures, according to court filings. The brutality of the crimes and the juxtaposition of such violence against the family’s Beverly Hills image turned the case into an international media circus, only rivaled at the time by the O.J. Simpson trial.

While mobs of reporters also circled the brothers resentencing hearings in Van Nuys earlier this year, Thursday’s parole hearing was a much more solemn and quiet affair. With the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tightly controlling media access, a Times journalist was the only member of the public allowed to view the hearing on a projector screen in a room inside the agency’s headquarters just outside Sacramento.

The parole hearing is not meant to re-litigate details of the case or the brothers’ roles in the killings, but members of the board questioned Menendez Thursday on details of the grisly murders, which the brothers and supporters in their family were committed because they had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father.

“In my mind, leaving meant death,” Menendez told the board Thursday when asked why he didn’t leave the house, or go to police. “My absolute belief that I could not get away. Maybe it sounds completely irrational and unreasonable today.”

Menendez said he and his brother purchased the shotguns because they believed their parents might try to kill them, or that his father would go to his room to rape him.

“That was going to happen,” he said. “One way or another. If he was alive, that was going to happen.”

Asked why the two killed their mother as well, Erik Menendez said the decision was made after learning she was aware of the abuse, and the siblings saw no daylight between the two.

“Step by step, my mom had shown she was united with my dad,” he said at the hearing. “On that night I saw them as one person. Had she not been in the room, maybe it would have been different.”

He said the moment he found out his mother was aware of the alleged abuse was “devastating.”

“When mom told me…that she had known all of those years. It was the most devastating moment in my entire life,” he said. “It changed everything for me. I had been protecting her by not telling her.”

Asked if he believed his mother was also a victim to his father’s abuse, Erik Menendez said, “definitely.”

“He was beating her because I failed,” he said.

After denying parole, Barton pointed to their decision to kill their mother, calling it a decision “devoid of human compassion.”

“The killing of your mother especially showed a lack of empathy and reason,” Barton said. “I can’t put myself in your place. I don’t know that I’ve ever had rage to that level, ever. But that is still concerning, especially since it seems she was also a victim herself of domestic violence.”

Menendez was visibly overcome with emotion when discussing details of the murder, although he did not appear to cry.

After the murders, Menendez said the spending sprees between he and his brother, including buying a Rolex, were an “incredibly callous act.”

“I was torn between hatred of myself over what I did and wishing that I could undo it and trying to live out my life, making teenager decisions,” he said.

Erik eventually confessed to the killings in discussions with a therapist, and L.A. County sheriff’s deputies found a letter in Lyle’s jail cell admitting to the murders. After jurors hung in their first trial, Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.

L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian opposed parole for Menendez during the hearing, arguing he lied to the parole board and had minimized his role in the killings during the hearing.

“When one continues to diminish their responsibility for a crime and continues to make the same false excuses that they’ve made for 30-plus years, one is still that same dangerous person that they were when they shotgunned their parents,” Balian said Thursday. “Is he truly reformed, or is he just saying what wants to be heard?”

Menendez, Balian argued to the board, was still a risk to society and should not be released.

Interest in the brothers case was revived in recent years following a popular Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The popular show aired after a Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” uncovered additional evidence of Jose Menendez’s alleged sexual abuse of his children and others, including Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo.

The new evidence was part of the brothers’ most recent legal appeal in the case. More than 20 of the brothers’ relatives formed a coalition pushing for their freedom, arguing they had spent enough time imprisoned for a pair of killings that were motivated by years of horrific abuse.

Last year, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón petitioned a judge to re-sentence Erik and Lyle to 50-years-to-life in prison, making them eligible for parole. After he defeated Gascón in the November 2024 election, new Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman quickly moved to oppose the re-sentencing petition, going as far as to transfer the prosecutors who authored it and asking a judge to disregard Gascón’s filing.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic denied that request. After finding prosecutors failed to prove the brothers were a danger to the public, Jesic granted the resentencing petition in May, clearing the path for Thursday’s parole hearing.

Fellow inmates and rehabilitation officials have described the two as “mentors,” spearheading programs and projects for inmates.

The two have created programs to deal with anger management, meditation, assisting inmates in hospice care and to improve conditions inside prison.

Lyle spearheaded a Rehabilitation Through Beautification project at Richard J. Donovan prison, to work on upgrades and create green space in the prison, along with painting a 1,000-foot mural. Erik has worked with other inmates to do the artwork for the project.

But members of the board questioned Menendez on various incidents, including a fight in 1997.

Menendez said another inmate hit him first, but admitted that he “acted aggressively” as well. In another fight, Menendez said he “fought back” in self-defense.

Members of the board also questioned Menendez on multiple incidents that he was found with contraband, including art supplies, candles, spray cans, and cell phones that Menendez said he would pay about $1,000 to obtain.

Some of the art supplies he used to decorate his cell, he said.

Menendez said he also gave other inmates access to the phone, because “if it was someone that I trusted or someone that I knew had a phone I didn’t want to tell him no.”

He said he used the phones to speak wiht his wife, watch YouTube videos and pornography.

“I really became addicted to the phones,” he said.

During the hearing, Barton said he was concerned about the number of support letters that refer to Menendez as a model inmate, saying it could minimize the impact of cell phones in the prison.

Menendez said it wasn’t until later that he realized the larger impact that cell phones could have, despite how prevalent they could be in prison.

“I knew of 50, 60 people that had phones,” he said. “I just justified it by saying if I don’t buy it someone else is going to buy it. The phones were going to be sold, and I longed for that connection.”

But in January, he said, he had an in-depth with a lieutenant and took a criminal thinking class that made him reassess.

“The damage of using a phone is as corrosive to a prison environment as drugs are,” he said. “In the sense that someone must bring them in, they must be paid for, it corrupts staff…phones can be used to elicit more criminal activity.”

Members of the board spent a significant amount of time questioning Menendez on the use of contraband phones, and also pointed to them as part of their reasoning in denying parole.

“Your institutional misconduct showed a lack of self awareness,” Barton said. “You’ve got a great support network. But you didn’t go to them before you committed these murders. And you didn’t go to them, before you used the cell phone.”

Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor, said Menendez decision to break the rules while in prison affected his chances at winning release, even though he was young when he was convicted.

“If you’re not going to comply with the rules in prison, you’re not going to comply out in society — that’s what they’re saying here,” Gorin said. “The big picture here is without serious medical issues or being elderly, I don’t know anyone who killed two people who has been paroled.”

Nancy Tetreault, an attorney for former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, said despite public support for parole, Erik was considered moderate risk in the comprehensive risk assessment. To have a better chance at release, he would have to be considered low risk, she said.

“That’s very hard to overcome,” she said.

The two brothers were also involved in classes, but also would need to be more involved in rehabilitative programs for a favorable decision, Tereault said.

“Yes, they have a lot of classes and things like that that I was reading the classes they’ve put together, like meditation, for insight, that they’re leaving it, but they need to, they need to start programming,” she said.

Menendez admitted to drinking alcohol and briefly using heroin at one point in prison, which he said he tried because he was “miserable” and feeling hopeless.

“If I could numb my sadness with alcohol, I was going to do it,” he said. “I was looking to ease that sadness within me.”

Members of the board also asked Menendez about his connection to a prison gang and a tax fraud scam in 2013, but did not discuss details of the scheme.

Menendez said part of the reason he associated with members of the gang, known as 25s or Dos Cinco, was fear of his safety.

“When the 25ers came and asked for help, I thought this was a great opportunity to align myself with them and to survive,” Erik Menendez said, adding that he thought he needed to keep himself safe since he had no hopes of being paroled at the time. “I was in tremendous fear.”

The gang was in charge of the prison yard, he said, and a member approached him about the scheme, although Menendez said he did not personally control the checks. The gang also supplied him with marijuana, he siad.

Much changed after 2013, Erik Menendez said, and he curbed his use of drugs and alcohol. At one point, members of the gang also believed he had become an informant.

“I did not like who I was in 2013,” Erik Menendez said. “From 2013 on I was living for a different purpose. My purpose in life was to be a good person.”

In Oct. 14, 2023, his mother’s birthday, he said he committed to stop using drugs, he told the board.

Deputy Parole Commissioner Rachel Stern asked Menendez about his work with hospice inmates, including a World War II veteran convicted of an unspecified sexual violence crime that Menendez helped with getting his meals and bedding.

Menendez said he saw his work with the inmate as a way to make amends for his father.

Menendez apologized to his family during the hearing, noting their support.

“I just want my family to understand that I am so unimaginably sorry for what I have put them through,” he said. “I know they have been here for me and they’re here for me today, but I want them to know that this should be about them. It’s about them and if I ever get the chance at freedom I want the healing to be about them.

IBIZA’S ‘Final Boss’ Jack Kay has continued his party tour of the island – spending the afternoon with Towie’s James Lock.

The pair were snapped together at Wi-Ki-Woo Hotel in Ibiza as James plugged his agave spirit brand, Cerrar.

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Standing underneath a pink umbrella, Jack stood alongside Lock, showing off thick gold chains and rings posing with “finger guns” and a serious face.

James – who had brushed his hair forward in an attempt to emulate Jack’s distinctive bowl cut hairstyle – later uploaded the pic, and joked: “Essex final boss Vs Ibiza final boss 🧑🏽”

The pair’s day together comes after Jack shot to fame in the space of a month after being declared “Ibiza’s final boss” due to his deep tan, tattoos, veneers, goatee beard and signature hairstyle.

He was captured dancing by a TikToker who later gave him the moniker as they posted it online – with the clip quickly picking up steam.

Jack’s hair in particular has been compared to a range of pop-culture icons from Ringo Starr to Friar Tuck and a Lego man.

“Final boss” is a joke from the gaming world used to suggest someone is the ultimate version of a particular stereotype.

Since then, Jack has been lapping up the attention, and it looks like it’s set to make him some serious cash as a result.

His viral fame caught the eye of ITV2’s Big Brother casting team and led to conversations about him joining the upcoming series.

Yesterday, he announced a step into a music career by releasing a new dance track on Spotify as well.

With a potential Big Brother stint too, it’s clear Jack is set to get the last laugh – all the way to the bank.

A source said: “The Ibiza Final Boss has really captured the nation’s imagination and is exactly the kind of character that makes for a fun Big Brother housemate.

“Bosses had talks with his management, it is very late in the casting process for housemates but everyone thought worth a chat whether it be in time for this series, even as part of a task, or for the future.

“Jack’s reps Neon Management have been inundated with offers for him so he’s certainly going to be busy for at least the next few months.

“They’ve seen an unprecedented level of interest in him, and that’s the nation loves him.”

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DEAR DEIDRE: THE inappropriately close relationship I had with my brother is now ruining my experience of motherhood.

I’m so scared that history will repeat itself that I can’t leave my young children alone together, and I panic when they touch each other.

When I was 17 and my brother was 18, we had a secret relationship — which I instigated.

What started as naive, teenage experimentation turned into an incestuously sexual relationship, which lasted until I left home.

I’ve never told a soul about it, and neither has he.

It wasn’t abusive but we are both aware it was socially unacceptable and against the law, and feel ashamed of what happened.

I can’t explain it, except to say that we were brought up in a strictly religious household where sex was considered to be a sin.

Neither of us was allowed to date or go out to parties and the like.

We were also exceptionally close, perhaps because we were so near to each other in age, without many friends.

I’m now 39 and married with two young children — a boy and a girl who are six and four.

He’s still single. We’re still in touch but we don’t talk about the past.

I didn’t dwell on it until my daughter became a toddler, and began to interact with her brother.

Suddenly, I felt terrified of what might occur if I didn’t prevent it.

I started keeping my kids apart, making them play alone in their rooms.

If I see them play-fighting, I pull them apart.

My husband is starting to notice. I know this isn’t normal, and I worry it’s harming their development.

Please help. All I want is for my children to have a happy, ordinary childhood.

DEIDRE SAYS: You’re brave to admit what happened and to ask for help. You’re not a bad person.

Clearly you love your children and don’t want to damage them.

But, as you’re aware, it’s important they are allowed to interact normally.

What occurred between you and your brother was unusual – though not unheard of – and it’s very unlikely history will repeat itself, especially if your children aren’t brought up in the strictly religious way you were.

It sounds like you may be more traumatised by what happened – and more guilty about it – than you’d allowed yourself to believe.

Speaking about this to people who understand and won’t judge will help you. You can talk in confidence to nspcc.org.uk (0808 800 5000).

You would also benefit from counselling. Read my support pack, How Counselling Can Help.

PAL HAS CROSSED THE LINE

DEAR DEIDRE: MY boyfriend never liked how close I was to my male mate, but I told him it was platonic.

Now I’m worried his fear was well-founded, after my friend crossed a line.

I’m 29, my partner is 30 and we’ve been together two years. My pal and I have known each other since uni. We’d meet for drinks or text about music and life – nothing flirty.

My boyfriend didn’t love it but I told him there he had nothing to fear.

Yet a few nights ago, when my friend walked me home after a gig, without warning he grabbed me and kissed me on the mouth.

I pushed him away and told him he was out of order. He just shrugged and said he “had to try”.

I told my boyfriend immediately – but instead of supporting me, he called me a cheat and stormed out.

I’m upset at how they’ve both behaved. How can I get life back on track?

DEIDRE SAYS: What your friend did was a serious violation of your trust and consent.

You can contact victimsupport.org.uk (0808 168 9111), who can offer free, confidential help.

You did the right thing by being honest with your boyfriend, but his reaction isn’t fair or helpful.

Jealousy can be painful, but it shouldn’t lead to unfair accusations.

Consider having a calm conversation when he’s ready, explaining how his response to this situation has made you feel.

WIFE’S DOGS ARE RUINING MY LIFE

DEAR DEIDRE: MY wife has just bought another dog after we had to have two rehomed a year ago because the neighbours complained about the noise they made.

They wouldn’t stop barking if we left them on their own and were still pretty noisy even when one of us was there.

I am 44 and my wife is 39. We have been together for ten years.

We both work full time and are often out in the evening, so the dogs were left alone for quite long periods on our work days.

One of our neighbours became very aggressive when he complained about the noise.

He swore at me and my wife and threatened us.

It was a very stressful time and in the end it really got to me – the constant barking of the dogs, the rows I was having with my wife about it and then this neighbour having a go at me every time I went outside.

One day I ended up in a fight with this guy when he saw me in the nearby pub – all because of the dogs. The police were called to break it up.

After that, the only option I could see was that the dogs had to be rehomed.

My wife was very much against it and still resents me for making it happen. I thought that was the end of it, but she has now spent money which we can’t afford on a puppy.

She didn’t even ask my opinion. I arrived home one evening to find the dog in our kitchen.

Worse still, even though it cries all night she is talking about getting another one.

I wish she could see what it’s doing to me.

DEIDRE SAYS: She is disregarding your feelings. You need to talk to her and explain how hurtful her behaviour is.

Things can be different this time but your wife needs to understand the puppy needs proper training.

You can talk to the vet for advice on classes. Your puppy also needs plenty of exercise once it is old enough.

The result will be a happier, more settled dog and your neighbours will benefit, too.

Watch the moment a group of Israeli activists stormed a live television broadcast to protest Israel’s war on Gaza. Members of Standing Together, wearing ‘Leave Gaza’ T-shirts, jumped onto the stage during the airing of the Big Brother show on Channel 13.

As Big Brother prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, we take a look back at the only couple from the show who are still together – Mickey Dalton and Grace Adam-Short

The new series of Big Brother is just around the corner, as ITV prepares for its third season, 25 years after it first aired on Channel 5. There have been a number of relationships formed throughout the years, but only one couple remain together.

Mikey Dalton and Grace Adams-Short met on the show 19 years ago, and are still going strong to this day. The pair took part in the iconic seventh series of the fly on the wall reality show alongside Nikki Grahame and Pete Burns.

The pair quickly fell in love in the chaotic house, with Mikey popping the all important question just four months after leaving. They tied the knot in 2009, and are now parents to four children. They welcomed their first child Georgina in 2012, and welcomed their first son Stephen three years later. It comes after Big Brother confirms its return to ITV with a ‘new look’.

READ MORE: Chris Hughes reveals wholesome way he finally admitted his feelings to JoJo SiwaREAD MORE: Big Brother winner unrecognisable 7 years after ‘accidental’ win

The couple are also parents to six year old Allegra, and son Atticus who they welcomed in 2022. The couple often speak about how they hope to show their children their series of Big Brother one day, so they can see where their parents met and fell in love.

“I didn’t have any idea that I was going to meet my life partner, my husband, absolutely not. We just thought it was going to be a fun summer. I was 20 years old, it was kind of like a gap year!” Grace said during an interview with This Morning in 2023.

It wasn’t love at first sight for Mikey, but in fact, lust at first sight, he later admitted. “I was lusting after her, I still remember the outfit you wore going in and the boots and everything. I was lovestruck when I seen her!”

Speaking on their fast engagement to local Plymouth newspaper, The Herald at the time of their nuptials, 23-year-old Grace said: “We got engaged after four months, which may sound quick but we got to know each other so fast on the show, so it felt right for us.”

The most recent romance in the civilian Big Brother house was in 2023, between Jordan Sangha and Henry Southern. Fans were rooting for the pair to get together in the house and were left absolutely gutted when they revealed they had split earlier this year.

Taking to Instagram to release a statement, Henry wrote: “After a lot of thought, Jordan and I have decided to go our separate ways. “It’s incredible sad, and we’re both hurting, but we know it’s the right step. We’re so grateful for the love and support you’ve shown us – thank you.” Henry added: “Please give us some space as we figure things out privately.”

Jordan also shared his own statement as he sadly wrote: “An unfortunate announcement. After many times, memories, and precious experience, Henry and I have parted ways.

“I want to than everyone who has supported us. We will always remain close friends. Cheers x.”

Elsewhere, earlier this year, former Love Island star Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa formed an extremely close friendship earlier this year in the Celebrity Big Brother house. Shortly after leaving, JoJo revealed she had split with her partner Kath Ebbs, and it wasn’t long before she and Chris became official.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Jessica Carter is tired of being resilient.

After her brother, Richard Ware, 48, was stabbed to death outside a Los Feliz homeless shelter last month, it fell to her to hold their extended family together.

Just eight months prior, another relative — her 36-year-old nephew, Jesse Darjean — was gunned down around the block from his childhood home in Compton. His slaying remains unsolved.

Across L.A. County and around the country, murder rates are falling to lows not seen since the late 1960s. Yet clearance rates — a measure of how often police solve cases — have remained relatively steady. In other words: Even with fewer homicides to investigate, authorities have been unable to bring more murderers to justice. Police data show killings of Black and Latino people are still less likely to be solved than those of white or Asian victims.

Carter’s hometown of Compton is still crawling out from under its reputation as a national epicenter for gang violence. But for all of its continued struggles, violent crime — especially killings — has plummeted. When the gang wars peaked in 1991, there were 87 homicides. Last year, there were 18, including Darjean’s fatal shooting on Oct. 24.

The way Carter sees it, the killers who took her brother and nephew are both getting away with it — but for different reasons. In Darjean’s shooting, there are no known suspects, witnesses or motive. But the man who stabbed Ware is known to authorities. The L.A. County district attorney’s office declined to file charges against him, finding evidence of self-defense, according to a memo released to The Times.

Ware’s sister and other relatives dispute the D.A.’s decision, claiming authorities have failed to fully investigate.

“The system failed him,” Carter said.

In the absence of arrests and charges, Carter and her family have simmered with rage, grief and frustration. With digital footprints, DNA testing and more resources than ever available to police, how is it that the people who took their loved ones are still walking free?

Jessica Carter, right, lights candles on the sidewalk to memorialize her brother, Richard Ware, who was stabbed to death outside a nearby homeless shelter.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

In Darjean’s case, the investigation is led by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which has patrolled Compton since 2000, when the city disbanded its own Police Department. Leads appear to be scarce. His body was found in the back seat of his car, which had been riddled with bullets. A father of three, he had just gotten home late at night from one of his jobs as a security guard.

To Sherrina Lewis, his mother, it seemed the world was quick to forget and move on. News outlets largely ignored the shooting. Social media sensationalized it. She couldn’t resist reading some of the comments online, speculating about whether her son was killed by someone he knew or because of his race or a gang affiliation.

But, Darjean was no gangster, she says. True, there had been rumors around the neighborhood about escalating conflict between the Cedar Block Pirus, a Black gang, and their Latino rivals. But if anything, Lewis said, her son was targeted in a classic case of wrong place, wrong time.

Jesse Darjean in an undated photo.

(Jessica Carter)

When homicide detectives began knocking on doors for answers, her former neighbors claimed not to have seen anything. For Lewis, it felt like betrayal — many of those neighbors had watched Darjean grow up with their kids.

“Each and every day I have to ask God to lift the hardness in my heart, because I‘m angry,” Lewis said. “They’re not gonna make my son no cold case, I promise you that.”

Lewis nearly lost Darjean once before, at the moment of his birth.

He and his twin brother were born three months early, and doctors warned that Darjean was the less likely of the two to survive. He suffered from respiratory problems, which left him dependent on a breathing machine. The prognosis was bleak.

Casha, left, and her brother Jesse Darjean as babies.

(Jessica Carter)

Doctors asked her for “a name for his death certificate” in case he died en route to a hospital in Long Beach. Picking “Jesse” on the spot was agony, she said. In the end, Darjean was the twin who survived.

Shy as a child, he had grown up to be outgoing and witty, a person who loved to cook soul food and make dance videos with his sister and post them on Instagram. While his siblings all moved away as they got older, Darjean insisted on staying put. Compton was home, through and through, he used to tell his mother. He wasn’t blind to the gang violence, but he came to know a different side of the city, one that represented Black joy and resilience — a side he saw captured in Kendrick Lamar’s music video for the Grammy-winning “Not Like Us.”

When his niece ran for Miss Teen Compton, Darjean advocated on her behalf by taking out a full-page ad in the local newspaper that proclaimed: “Compton is the best city on Earth.”

But Darjean knew the pain of losing loved ones. His friend Montae Talbert was killed late one night in 2011 in a drive-by shooting outside an Inglewood liquor store. Talbert, known as M-Bone, was a member of the rap group Cali Swag District, the group behind the viral rap dance the “Dougie.”

Around the same time, the mother of Darjean’s oldest daughter was gunned down in Compton. A few years later, another uncle, Terry Carter, a businessman who built classic lowrider cars and started a record label with Ice Cube, was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight.

After Darjean’s funeral, which Lewis said drew more than 1,000 people, she returned to the scene of the shooting: Brazil Street, right off Wilmington Avenue, on a modest block of stucco and wood-frame homes.

With the bravado of an angry, grieving mother, she began going door-to-door in her old neighborhood, seeking answers. She wanted to show anyone who was watching that she wouldn’t be intimidated into silence.

When she confronted one of Darjean’s close childhood friends about what happened, he swore he didn’t know anything. She didn’t believe him.

“He just broke down crying. I can tell it was eating him up,” Lewis said.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to multiple inquires about Darjean’s case.

Jesse Darjean holds his daughter Jessica. At right is another relative.

(Jessica Carter)

On some level, Lewis understands the hesitancy. Fear of gang retaliation and distrust of law enforcement still hangs over the west Compton neighborhood. After raising her six children there, in 2006 she sold their family home of 50 years and moved to Palmdale because she didn’t want her “kids to become accustomed to death.” For her, she said, the final straw was the discovery of a body “propped up” on her neighbor’s fence.

Like generations of Black women before her, Lewis is faced with enormous pressure to carry their family’s burden. Possessing a superhuman-like will to overcome adversity is celebrated by society with terms such as “Black Girl Magic” and “Strong Black Woman,” said Keisha Bentley-Edwards, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University. But such unrealistic expectations not only strip Black women of their innocence from an early age, but also contribute to higher pregnancy-related death rates and other bad health outcomes, she said.

“A lot of times people expect Black women to take care of it,” Bentley-Edwards said in an interview. Instead of romanticizing the struggle, she said, there should be “tangible support like housing or employment” and other resources.

But experts say safety nets are at risk, particularly after the Trump administration in April terminated roughly $811 million in public safety grants for L.A. and other major cities. As a result, federal funds for victim services programs, which offer counseling and other resources, have been slashed.

Lewis never thought she’d be in a position to need such help.

“The funny thing is, we’re from Compton born and raised, but we were not a statistic until my son was murdered,” she said. “My kids had a two-parent household. We both had jobs. We weren’t doing welfare: I worked every day.”

Months of waiting on an arrest in Darjean’s death led Carter, his aunt, into a “dark place.” She ended up taking a spiritual retreat into the mountains of Nigeria.

She was still working through the feelings of anger and guilt when she learned her brother, Ware, had been fatally stabbed on July 5.

She described the days and weeks that followed as a teary blur. Coming from a family of nurses taught her how to push aside her own grief and forge on, but she was left wondering how much more she could endure.

Ware, who went by Duke, was his family’s unofficial historian, setting out to map out their sprawling Portuguese and Creole roots and scouring the internet for long-lost relatives. He used to brag all the time about his daughter, who had graduated from nursing school and moved back to the L.A. area to work at a pediatric intensive care unit on the Westside. He used to joke that for all of his shortcomings as a father, he had at least gotten one thing right.

In recent months, though, Ware’s life had started to spiral. His diabetes had gotten worse, and a back injury left him unable to continue in his job as a long-haul truck driver. Relatives worried he was hiding a drug addiction from them.

He had adopted a bull mastiff puppy named Nala. She used to follow him everywhere, usually trotting a few steps behind without a leash. Even when he was having trouble making ends meet, he always “spoiled her,” his family said.

For a few months, he lived out of a van one of his sisters bought for him. He then landed at a shelter, a hangar-style structure on the edge of Griffith Park. He and Nala were kicked out after a short time, but he still frequented the area, and it’s where L.A. County authorities said the fight that ended in his killing began.

Prosecutors said in a memo that surveillance video showed Ware and his dog chasing another man into a parking lot across the street from the shelter. The two men, the D.A.’s memo said, had been involved in an ongoing dispute, possibly over a woman.

Friends, family and supporters of Richard Ware gather near the shelter where he was stabbed to death.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

According to the memo, the man said he’d been carrying a knife because of a previous altercation in which Ware ordered his dog to attack. On the day of the stabbing, the man said, Ware had shown up with Nala at the shelter, looking for a confrontation.

After the fight, responding officers found Ware suffering from a deep wound to his chest, Nala with several lacerations and the suspect hiding in a nearby porta-potty. His clothes had been torn off, and he was bleeding profusely from several severe dog bites, the memo said. Prosecutors said witnesses corroborated the man’s story that Ware had been the aggressor, in addition to the video footage.

Ware’s family says that account contradicts what they heard from other residents, who claimed Ware was the one defending himself after the other man attacked him with a vodka bottle. In the meantime, they are working to secure Nala’s release from the pound, where she has been nursing her injuries.

Richard Ware, 48, was stabbed to death on July 5 outside a Los Feliz homeless shelter.

(Jessica Carter)

On July 8, Carter organized a candlelight vigil for her brother outside the shelter where the killing happened. That morning, she said, she cried in the shower before steeling herself so she could run out to a Dollar Tree store to pick up some balloons.

When she got to the vigil, Lewis made her way around, greeting the swarm of relatives holding homemade signs and chanting Ware’s name. After a final prayer, the group released balloons, most of which floated upward with the evening’s lazy breeze. Some, though, got caught in the branches of a large tree nearby.

A smile finally crossed Carter’s face as she pointed up to them. She took it as a sign from Ware, as though he was saying a last goodbye before he departed to heaven.

“He’s trying to hang on,” she said.

If you’re looking for a football team that almost certainly will be improved over last season, Bellflower High fits the profile.

The Buccaneers went 0-10. Amir Neal was a starter and never quit. His mom kept telling him, “It’s going to get better, it’s going to get better.”

And it has with the hiring of first-year coach Keith Miller, who has brought along his 14-year-old freshman son, Austin, who’s 6 feet 5.

“We’re going to compete for championships and scholarships,” Miller vowed at a media day on Saturday.

Miller was an assistant at Bellflower when his brother, Jason, was head coach. His daughter plays flag football at Bellflower, so the Millers figure to be influential in the sports programs.

Having Austin around should help. He’s a receiver who’s still growing. New quarterback Elacion Saxton will try to use Miller’s size and athleticism for big plays.

Austin was asked if during a car ride his father treats him differently depending on his performance.

“There’s no difference whether there’s a good game or bad game,” he said. “My dad still loves me.”

After a follow-up question, Austin finally admitted a good game gets him a stop at Chipotle.

Let’s see how many stops he gets this season.

A newly unsealed court document alleges that Richard Tillman admitted to police officers that he drove a vehicle into a Northern California post office and set the building on fire, “trying to make a statement to the United States Government.”

It’s unclear what the statement was intended to be. According to the document, Tillman also told San Jose Police officers at the scene that he was responsible for spray-painting “Viva La Me” on the building as it was burning but was unable to finish writing because of the heat.

The youngest brother of late NFL star and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman has been charged with the federal crime of malicious destruction of government property by fire in connection with the incident at Almaden Valley Station Post Office on July 20 at around 3 a.m. Sunday.

The 44-year-old San Jose resident was arrested at the scene. The criminal complaint against Tillman was filed July 23 but remained sealed until Wednesday when Tillman made his initial appearance in federal district court in San Jose. KRON-TV in San Francisco reports that Tillman did not enter a plea.

Tillman is in federal custody and has a status conference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins scheduled for Aug. 6, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release.

The criminal complaint includes a statement of probable cause by U.S. Postal Inspector Shannon Roark. According to the statement, Tillman told officers on the scene that he had placed “instalogs” throughout his vehicle and doused them with lighter fluid. He then backed the vehicle into the post office, exited the vehicle and used a match to set the car ablaze.

The building was “partially destroyed by the fire,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Roark also stated that Tillman told officers at the scene that he had livestreamed the incident on YouTube. Tillman’s channel has since been removed from the site.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Pat Tillman famously walked away from a three-year, $3.6-million contract offer from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army, along with his younger brother, Kevin.

On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in the province of Khost, Afghanistan. He was 27.

The day after the post office fire, Kevin Tillman released a statement.

“Our family is aware that my brother Richard has been arrested. First and foremost, we are relieved that no one was physically harmed,” Kevin Tillman stated. “ … To be clear, it’s no secret that Richard has been battling severe mental health issues for many years. He has been livestreaming, what I’ll call, his altered self on social media for anyone to witness.

“Unfortunately, securing the proper care and support for him has proven incredibly difficult — or rather, impossible. As a result, none of this is as shocking as it should be.”

PARIS — A lawyer for France ‘s first couple said they’ll be seeking “substantial” damages from U.S. conservative influencer Candace Owens if she persists with claims that President Emmanuel Macron ‘s wife, Brigitte, is a man.

The lawyer, Tom Clare, said in an interview with CNN that a defamation suit filed Wednesday for the Macrons in a Delaware court was “really a last resort” after a fruitless yearlong effort to engage with Owens and requests that she “do the right thing: tell the truth, stop spreading these lies.”

“Each time we’ve done that, she mocked the Macrons, she mocked our efforts to set the record straight,” Clare said. “Enough is enough, it was time to hold her accountable.”

The Macrons have been married since 2007, and Emmanuel Macron has been France’s president since 2017.

In a YouTube video, Owens called the suit an “obvious and desperate public relations strategy,” and said the first lady is “a very goofy man.”

Owens is a right-leaning political commentator whose YouTube channel has about 4.5 million subscribers. In 2024, she was denied a visa from New Zealand and Australia, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.

The 219-page complaint against Owens lays out “extensive evidence” that Brigitte Macron “was born a woman, she’s always been a woman,” the couple’s attorney said.

“We’ll put forward our damage claim at trial, but if she continues to double down between now and the time of trial, it will be a substantial award,” he said.

In Paris, the presidential office had no immediate comment.

In France, too, the presidential couple has for years been dogged by conspiracy theories that Brigitte was born as a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, who supposedly then took the name Brigitte as a transgender woman. Jean-Michel Trogneux is, in fact, Brigitte’s brother.

Last September, Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against two women who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the claims about the first lady online. A Paris appeals court overturned the ruling earlier this month. Brigitte and her brother have since turned to France’s highest court to appeal that decision, according to French media.

The Macrons first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron was then Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three children.

Macron, 47, is serving his second and last term as president. The first lady celebrated her 72nd birthday in April.

Macron moved to Paris for his last year of high school, but promised to marry Brigitte. She later moved to the French capital to join him and divorced before they finally married.

Their relationship came under the spotlight in May when video images showed Brigitte pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from a plane on a tour of Southeast Asia.

Macron later dismissed the incident as play-fighting, telling reporters that “we are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” and that it had been overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

The brother of late NFL star and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman is being held in custody in connection with a vehicle driven into a Northern California post office.

The San Jose Police Department said in an email to The Times on Monday that 44-year-old resident Richard Tillman was booked on charges of arson after he allegedly drove a car into the Almaden Valley Station Post Office at around 3 a.m. Sunday and caused the box lobby area to catch fire.

The fire was extinguished and no injuries were reported.

According to to the Santa Clara County Sheriff Office’s inmate locator, Richard Tillman is being held on a $60,000 bond and has a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

“The motive and circumstances are still under investigation,” the SJPD said.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is leading the investigation, said in a statement emailed to The Times that it is looking into the incident “as a potentially intentional act.”

NBC Bay Area reported that the suspect told officers on the scene that he is Pat Tillman’s brother. The station also reports that the suspect live-streamed the incident on social media.

A third Tillman brother, Kevin, released a statement Monday.

“Our family is aware that my brother Richard has been arrested. First and foremost, we are relieved that no one was physically harmed,” Kevin Tillman stated. “We have limited information at this time but we are in communication with local authorities and are providing as much background and context as we can.

“To be clear, it’s no secret that Richard has been battling severe mental health issues for many years. He has been livestreaming, what I’ll call, his altered self on social media for anyone to witness. Unfortunately, securing the proper care and support for him has proven incredibly difficult — or rather, impossible. As a result, none of this is as shocking as it should be.”

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Pat Tillman famously walked away from a three-year, $3.6-million contract offer from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army, along with Kevin.

On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in the province of Khost, Afghanistan. Richard Tillman spoke at his brother’s public memorial service on May 4, 2004, at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.

Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Richard Tillman had posted an 11-minute video onto YouTube in which he stated he would “take down the system,” including the U.S. government. His YouTube channel has since been removed, the Chronicle reports, but previously contained several videos “posted in recent months documenting his own apparent unraveling.”

We’re nearing the home stretch for kiddie summer movies, moms and dads. Stay hydrated and nourished, because your multiplex chaperone duties aren’t truly over until early August or so, when the fare turns distinctively adult-themed before going full prestige in the child-unfriendly zone of fall awards season.

But with the messy, strained “Smurfs” on offer this weekend, a tired parent may want to bail early and find a last-minute sleepaway camp to shove the little ones off to instead, because this latest big-screen version of the cute-culture behemoth may test your tolerance for all things wee and cerulean. As legacy management goes, it’s more trial than celebration.

Even if you grew up with Belgian artist Peyo’s utopian woodland humanoids (rendered with Hanna-Barbera efficiency for cheap ’80s television), nostalgia isn’t on offer here — just the usual running tap of attention-driven wackiness, creating a fast-growing puddle of gags, colors, songs (including pop icon Rihanna’s contributions) and believe-in-yourself platitudes that feel random, not earned. As deployed by “Shrek” franchise veteran Chris Miller (“Puss in Boots”), animation is less a storied artistic method with which to enchant, so much as a whiz-bang weapon of mass distraction, scalable and noisy.

The Smurfs themselves have come in for something of an origin makeover. No longer simple, communal mushroom-village inhabitants with happy lives centered on personality quirks and avoiding a mean wizard, in this telling (written by Pam Brady) they hail from a line of ancient, cosmic guardians of goodness, a background that feels beholden to the superhero mindset overriding so much popcorn gruel these days. Conversely, the baddies, wizard brothers Gargamel and new antagonist Razamel (both amusingly snarled into existence by voice actor JP Karliak, channeling Harvey Korman), belong to — what else? — an Evil Alliance set on world domination.

Everything about the story, from opening to closing dance party, feels like it was made up on an especially unimaginative playdate by bored kids who’d rather be watching TV. A Smurf called No Name (James Corden) wants to be known for something, like his trait-defined pals Hefty, Vanity, Grouchy, Baker and Clumsy. Close friend Smurfette (Rihanna), the village’s confident, outgoing badass, tries to buck him up, but he sings a boring who-am-I lament anyway.

Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is kidnapped through a portal, the first of many. There’s a missing magical book given the name Jaunty (Amy Sedaris). The Smurf rescue party goes to a disco in Paris. Then the Australian Outback. Outer space too. Natasha Lyonne voices the leader of an underground species of what look like scratchy couch pillows. Razamel hates Gargamel. Papa has a red-bearded brother, Ken (Nick Offerman tiringly doing Nick Offerman), and we learn later, a long-lost sibling named Ron (Kurt Russell). All these brothers, yet I still wouldn’t say family dynamics are a going emotional concern.

Sometimes everyone floats in the air. Mostly, it’ll be your mind. But turn away for one second, and the characters will have likely gone to another dimension. Because, of course, multiverses are really popular now too. Like the kind in which no voice cast member was likely in the same city as any other when they phoned in their lines.

At least the animators looked like they stayed busy. At one point, when dimension-palooza hurtles our tiny blue posse into different animation modes — claymation, pencil drawings, 8-bit video graphics — there’s a whiff of the delightful, meta-zany chaos of classic cartoons. But for the most part, “Smurfs” hews to the textbook silliness of CGI-generated action and attitude humor, only this time so needlessly zigging and zagging it barely has time to convincingly sell its ultimate message of strength in togetherness. An incoherent movie is hardly the vessel for that kind of lesson. When it ends, though, it’ll definitely feel like an example of kindness.

What is it about brothers? So competitive, so determined to outshine the other, so very male. In popular music, there are numerous examples of passionate sibling partnerships that have burned bright only to flame out, leaving recriminatory anger and the occasional lawsuit in their wake.

The Everly brothers were no exception. Foundational pillars of 20th century popular music, they formed the first great harmony vocal duo to bridge country music and pop. Over a five year period from 1957 to 1962, the brothers recorded a series of singles — “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” among them — that imprinted themselves into the pop-music canon, their soaring, wistful, close-interval harmonies gliding straight into our souls.

You don’t have to look too hard to find Phil and Don Everly’s traces. The Beatles regarded them as the harmony group they longed to emulate; you can hear them sing a snatch of “Bye Bye Love” in Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary, and Paul McCartney name-checked them in his 1976 song “Let ‘Em In.” Simon & Garfunkel wanted to be the Everlys and included “Bye Bye Love” on the “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album. In 2013, Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones recorded “Foreverly,” an album of Everly Brothers songs.

And yet, biographies of them are scant. Barry Mazor’s “Blood Harmony” is long overdue, a rigorously researched narrative of the duo’s fascinatingly zig-zaggy 50-plus-year career, as well as a loving valentine to the pair’s enduring musical power.

In his book, Mazor is quick to refute many of the myths that have accreted around the pair, starting with the backstory that the brothers were reared in Kentucky, a cradle of bluegrass, and that their dad, an accomplished guitarist and singer, nurtured them up from rural poverty into spotlight stardom. In fact, Mazor’s book points out that the brothers, who were born two years apart, moved around a lot as kids — Iowa and Chicago, mostly — soaking in the musical folkways of those regions and absorbing it all into their musical bloodstream. Though they were apprenticed by their father to perform as adolescents, they were their own men, with a sophisticated grasp of various musical genres as teenagers.

“They were as much products of the Midwest as they were of Kentucky,” says Mazor from his Nashville home. “The music they learned and the culture they absorbed was in Chicago, where they lived with their parents for a time, and they picked up on the R&B there. All of this eventually adds up to what we now call Americana, which is music that has a sense of place.” The Everlys brought that country-meets-the-city vibe to pop music.

Another misconception that Mazor clears up in “Blood Harmony” is the notion that the Beatles were the first musical group to write and play its own songs. In fact, Phil and Don wrote a clutch of the Everlys’ greatest records, including Phil’s 1960 composition “When Will I Be Loved,” which became a mammoth hit when Linda Ronstadt covered it in 1975. It’s also true that Don is rock’s first great rhythm guitarist, his strident acoustic strum powering ”Wake Up Little Susie” and others. George Harrison was listening, as was Pete Townsend.

The Everlys produced hits, many of them written by one or both of the husband-and-wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant: “Bird Dog,” “Love Hurts,” “Poor Jenny” and others. But the Beatles’ global success became a barricade that many of the first-generation rock stars couldn’t breach, including the Everlys. “Even though they were only a couple of years older than the Beatles, they were treated as old hat,” says Mazor.

Complicating matters further: A lawsuit brought by their publishing company Acuff-Rose in 1961 meant that the brothers could no longer tap the Bryants to write songs for them. The same year, they enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and found, just as Elvis had discovered a few years prior, that military service did little to help sell records. By the time the lawsuit was settled in 1964, both brothers had descended into amphetamine abuse.

The Everlys had to go back to move forward. Warner Bros. Records, their label since 1960, had become the greatest label for a new era of singer-songwriters taking country-rock to a more introspective place. Future label president Lenny Waronker, an Everlys fan, wanted to make an album that would place the brothers in their proper context, as pioneers who bridged musical worlds to create something entirely new.

Author Barry Mazor is quick to refute many of the myths surrounding the Everlys.

(Courtesy of the author)

The resulting project, called “Roots,” drew from the Everlys’ musical heritage but also featured covers of songs by contemporary writers Randy Newman and Ron Elliott. Released in 1968, the same year as the Byrds’ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and the Band’s “Music from Big Pink,” “Roots” sold meekly, but it remains a touchstone of the Everlys’ career, a key progenitor of the Americana genre. “‘The ‘Roots’ album was one last chance to show they mattered,” says Mazor. “And there was suddenly room for them again. It wasn’t a massive seller, but it opened the door.”

If anything, it was their own fraught relationship that tended to snag the Everlys’ progress. Their identities were as intertwined as their harmonies, and it grated on them. Mazor points out that they were in fact vastly different in temperament, Phil’s pragmatic careerism running counter to Don’s more free-spirited approach. This push and pull created tensions that weighed heavily on their friendship and their musical output.

“Phil was more conservative in some ways. He was content to play the supper club circuit well into ‘70s, while Don wanted to explore and was less willing to sell out, as it were,” says Mazor. “And this created a wedge between them.” Perhaps inevitably, from 1973 to roughly 1983, they branched out as solo artists, making records that left little imprint on the public consciousness. They had families and eventually both moved from their L.A. home base to different cities.

But there was time for one final triumph. Having briefly set their differences aside, the brothers played a reunion show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 1983, which led to a collaboration on an album with British guitarist Dave Edmunds producing. Edmunds, in turn, asked Paul McCartney whether he would be willing to write something for the “EB 84” album, and the result was “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” their last U.S. hit, albeit a modest one.

“The harmony singing that the Everlys pioneered is still with us,” says Mazor. “If you look back, the Kinks, the Beach Boys, all of these brother acts all loved the Everlys. But there’s also a contemporary act called Larkin Poe, who called one of their albums ‘Blood Harmony.’ They set an example for how two singers can maximize their voices to create something larger than themselves. This kind of harmony still lingers.”

Family photo

Family photo

‘An incredible moment’

Family photo

Family photo

Family photo

When President Trump deployed the National Guard to quell protests last month against immigration raids unfolding across Los Angeles County, he claimed widespread lawlessness forced him to send in the troops.

Days later, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman stepped in front of news cameras to announce charges against people who allegedly attacked police during the demonstrations. He avoided mentioning Trump or the swarms of masked federal agents descending on parks, workplaces and schools, but tried to push back against the White House’s chaos narrative.

Noting that the unrest was confined to a small section of downtown, Hochman promised to hold the lawbreakers accountable and disputed that Los Angeles was “under siege.”

Reflecting on the moment in a recent interview with The Times, Hochman said he wanted to set the record straight without igniting a partisan dispute.

“What I’m hearing and reading and seeing is a political discourse that I have no interest in engaging in,” he said. “But one that is misstating what the factual context is on the ground.”

A former Republican who rebranded as an independent last year, Hochman promised to “get politics out” of the district attorney’s office. He endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race but has stuck to his self-described “hard middle” since, focusing instead on restoring order to an office he criticized as being too chaotic under his predecessor.

Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on July 7.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Now more than six months into Hochman’s first term, prosecutors and law enforcement officials say the new district attorney has delivered “a return to normalcy” after the contentious term of progressive luminary George Gascón. By repealing nearly all of Gascón’s sweeping policies, Hochman is allowing his prosecutors to mete out justice as they see fit, restoring a relative degree of harmony to an office that spent four years at war with itself.

But Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign is testing the limits of Hochman’s neutrality.

When immigration agents followed two women through an L.A. courthouse last month and arrested them, it drew outcries from nearly all corners of L.A.’s legal community. But not Hochman, whose strained diplomacy has raised eyebrows.

“When the head prosecutor in the county doesn’t take a position, silence may appear to the community as support,” said L.A. County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia.

Hochman said that his office is not collaborating with the federal government on immigration enforcement and that he would prefer if immigration agents let state-level cases play out before taking action.

“I’m doing my best to focus on my mission, which is public safety. There’s a lot of politics going on and a lot of noise above that mission, whether it’s the president squabbling with the governor, squabbling with the mayor or anybody else who wants to interject in the political discussions,” he said. “I’m going out of my way nowadays to keep our focus in this office on the public safety aspect.”

It was that focus that made Hochman speak up at the news conference. He recalled watching TV news and social media clips of the first weekend of protests that echoed Trump’s proclamations that the city might burn down.

“You’d swear to God, L.A. was under siege. I mean I got scared the first night,” he said. “I’m calling up my people and I’m saying, ‘Is this going on throughout the city and the county?’”

Superpowers, celebrity trials and stark contrasts

Hochman’s measured approach stands in contrast not only to Gascón’s but also to his counterpart’s at the federal prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles.

During a news conference on arrests of people who allegedly attacked police during last month’s protests, Hochman calmly laid out the legal reasoning for the various prosecutions during the politically charged events. By comparison, U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli took the microphone minutes later and parroted Trump verbatim before pushing a long-held conservative suspicion about out-of-state agitators causing violence.

Although Hochman talked as a candidate about crime in apocalyptic tones, took significant money from conservative megadonors and worked with fundraisers tied to Trump, his overhaul of the district attorney’s office has not resembled the right-wing makeover some feared it would. If anything, Hochman’s law and order orientation is in line with statewide voter shifts on criminal justice reform.

Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman announces “aggressive action” against retail theft during a news conference outside a 7-Eleven in May.

(Al Seib / For The Times)

Gone are Gascón’s reformist policies discouraging the use of cash bail and limiting the use of sentencing enhancements. The death penalty is back on the table, although Hochman has not yet pursued it against a defendant.

Six months into his term, data show Hochman is charging felonies at roughly the same rate Gascón did. Although the new district attorney vowed during his campaign to charge more juveniles as adults, so far he has pursued a total of five cases — the same number Gascón had at this time last year, according to a spokesperson for the office.

After Hochman wiped out Gascón’s ban on filing certain misdemeanors, prosecutors charged nearly 70% of all low-level cases presented by police in the first half of 2025, records show. Hochman says it’s a necessary step to deter criminals, but Garcia and other advocates warn it puts more people at risk of deportation.

Hochman says he’s merely enforcing the law, and often presents himself as a man trying to get the trains back on time. In his downtown office, a framed silver age comic book sits by his desk, chronicling the adventures of “Mr. District Attorney.” Hochman laughs when describing the 1940s hero who seems to share his straight-ahead approach to the job.

“He doesn’t have any superpowers,” Hochman says. “Turns out, he’s just a really good lawyer.”

In an attempt to win over rank-and-file prosecutors, Hochman filled his administration with office veterans. And he’s made a point of dropping in on trials large and small — from celebrity defendants to juvenile cases far from the headlines — to cheer on his staff.

“We’ve seen a return to normalcy. We have a general understanding of what the expectations are of us,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Erlich, president of the union that represents most of Hochman’s staff. “We feel the upper management understands the job that we do, and it allows us to communicate and work on issues.”

Marilyn Manson, Menendez brothers and political pitfalls

Good vibes aside, some of Hochman’s decisions have rankled line prosecutors and led to political pitfalls.

The office has been on the wrong end of several high-profile cases this year, leading some prosecutors to question why the district attorney’s even-keel behavior tends to falter when the lights are on brightest.

“He wants to be recognized, so he’s always involved in these high-profile cases,” said one veteran deputy district attorney, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Sometimes to the detriment of the case.”

In January, Hochman announced he would not bring rape charges against rock star Marilyn Manson — roughly four months after he held a campaign event alongside some of Manson’s purported victims to attack Gascón’s handling of the case.

During his campaign for district attorney last year, Nathan Hochman spoke alongside actor Esme Bianco to criticize his opponent’s handling of a case involving singer Marilyn Manson.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

“You don’t parade people out. … I found that so deeply offensive,” said Lenora Claire, a former member of the district attorney’s office’s victim advisory board. “What was that choice other than being completely irresponsible? He hadn’t reviewed the case.”

Hochman said the case was handled appropriately and prosecutors made a decision not to charge that was “rooted in facts and the law, not a political agenda.”

Hochman’s personal involvement in the resentencing hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers who killed their parents in a pair of brutal shotgun murders in 1989, also drew scrutiny. The brothers were each serving a life sentence with no hope of release until Gascón petitioned for their resentencing last year, a move Hochman opposed both on the campaign trail and then in court.

Hochman’s interactions with the Menendez family drew allegations of bias and his decision to transfer the prosecutors who filed Gascón’s petition resulted in a civil suit. During one hearing in May, he personally took over arguments in the courtroom and said the brothers needed to show proper “insight” into their crimes, even after a judge repeatedly warned him it was legally irrelevant.

The brothers were resentenced and could be released by the parole board later this year. Hochman defended his hands-on approach — and maintained he ultimately came out ahead.

“When people say did you win or lose the Menendez case, I say we won. The defense was asking for immediate release through a voluntary manslaughter finding. The judge didn’t go there,” Hochman said.

Tougher sentences, ticked off attorneys

After a campaign fueled by pro-law enforcement rhetoric, some defense attorneys say Hochman’s election has emboldened prosecutors to become unnecessarily aggressive.

“They are focused more now on incarceration and high prison sentences, as opposed to probation and the opportunity for rehabilitation,” attorney Damon Alimouri said.

One of Alimouri’s clients, Gerardo Miguel, is currently awaiting trial in a vandalism and burglary case after allegedly smashing his way into a Los Angeles home while screaming, “call the police” before hiding in the victim’s bathroom, according to court records.

Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman outside the Van Nuys Courthouse during a hearing in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez in May.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

No one was injured in the incident. Miguel did not steal anything, nor does he have a criminal record. Yet, Alimouri said, the district attorney’s office’s only plea offer would send his client to state prison.

“[The prosecutor] said, I’m concerned about the safety of the public, this guy could have done X, Y and Z,” Alimouri said of the plea negotiation. “But the fact of the matter is [my client] didn’t do X, Y and Z. He curled up in the fetal position and called for help.”

Garcia, the public defender, also expressed frustration that Hochman’s prosecutors have been fighting attempts to get defendants into the county’s Rapid Diversion Program, which allows defendants to get treatment without taking on a criminal conviction. The program has a 90% success rate, according to Garcia.

Hochman, who championed the use of some mental health diversion programs during his campaign, says it’s a lack of county resources that limits the use of alternative justice programs.

“We don’t have enough beds, anywhere in this county, for dealing with that whole population,” Hochman said.

Allocating resources is the job of L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors, a panel that leans heavily left. Hochman won’t face reelection until 2028, and until then observers say his centrism could be an asset.

“The advantage to being an independent is he can put the voters in the city before his political party,” said Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at the University of Southern California. “Anyone with a D or an R next to their name comes under immense pressure to toe their respective party lines.”

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.

Kelly Osbourne’s engagement to Sid Wilson wound up being a family affair.

The Slipknot DJ proposed to the former “Fashion Police” co-host backstage at Ozzy Osbourne’s final show Saturday, and she said yes. But not before papa Ozzy got a few words in edgewise.

“Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world,” Wilson said, holding Kelly‘s hand after family and friends crowded around them and were shushed by mom Sharon Osbourne, according to a video Kelly posted on Instagram.

“F— off, you’re not marrying my daughter!” Ozzy interjected, true to form. A big round of laughter followed before Wilson got back to business.

“Nothing would make me happier than to spend the rest of my life with you,” he told Kelly, reaching into a bag slung across his chest and extracting a small box.

“So in front of your family and all of our friends,” he said as he got down on one knee, “Kelly, will you marry me?”

Kelly‘s jaw dropped as she looked around the room in shock. The two had welcomed a son, Sidney, in November 2022, less than a year after they started dating. Kelly, 40, and Wilson, 48, met more than 20 years ago when Slipknot was part of the Osbourne family’s Ozzfest tour.

She was still in her teens; he was seven years older and better friends at the time with her brother, Jack Osbourne. Kelly said on a podcast in March 2024 that Wilson began liking her — though she had no idea — in 2013, after they ran into each other at his record store on Melrose Avenue. Around 2020, he invited her to a Slipknot show in L.A., and things progressed from there.

“It wasn’t, like, forced. Because we had been friends for so long and known each other for so long, there was a sense of comfortability that I’ve never had with anyone else,” she said on the podcast, via People. Plus, she told her mother, “I was never going to come home with anyone normal.”

But bringing Wilson home now seems like it was a good move. On Saturday, after she nodded yes, he slipped the ring on her left-hand ring finger. Then he and his bride-to-be hugged like there was no tomorrow.

The brothers, who were en route to the UK, were found dead near Zamora in northwestern Spain after a car crash.

The funeral of footballers Diogo Jota and his brother has been held, two days after the siblings died in a car crash in Spain, with family and friends joined by players and staff from Jota’s Premier League club, Liverpool.

Saturday’s service was held at Igreja Matriz church in the Portuguese town of Gondomar, where Jota had a home.

Portugal’s national team coach Roberto Martinez and several top Portuguese players also attended, including Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes.

Among the mourners, Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk arrived carrying a red floral arrangement in the shape of a football shirt with Jota’s No 20 in white. His teammate Andrew Robertson carried a similar arrangement with the No 30, the number worn by Jota’s brother, Andre Silva, who played for Portuguese club Penafiel.

Jota, 28, and his brother, Silva, 25, were found dead near Zamora in northwestern Spain early on Thursday after the Lamborghini they were driving crashed on an isolated stretch of highway just after midnight and burst into flames.

The brothers were reportedly heading to catch a boat from northern Spain to go to England, where Jota was to rejoin Liverpool after a summer break.

Cause of crash unclear

Spanish police are investigating the cause of the crash, which did not involve another vehicle, they said.

They said they believe it could have been caused by a blown tyre.

Their bodies were repatriated to Portugal after being identified by the family. A wake was held for them on Friday.

Jota’s death occurred two weeks after he married longtime partner Rute Cardoso while on holiday from a long season where he helped Liverpool win the Premier League. The couple had three children, the youngest born last year.

Jota was born in Porto but started his playing career as a child in nearby Gondomar. Silva played in Portugal’s lower divisions.

Their loss has led to an outpouring of grief and condolences from the football world and Portuguese officials.

Liverpool FC and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother, fellow soccer player André Silva, died in a car crash early Thursday morning, Spanish authorities said Thursday. Jota was 28, and Silva was 25.

The brothers were found dead near Zamora, Spain, the country’s Civil Guard confirmed to the Associated Press. Police are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred just after midnight when the Lamborghini the brothers were riding in veered off the road and burst into flames.

No other vehicles were involved and the brothers were alone in the car, police said. It’s unclear which brother was driving.

“We have lost two champions,” Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença said in a statement. “The passing of Diogo and André Silva represents an irreparable loss for Portuguese football and we will do everything we can to honor their legacy every day.”

Football fans stand next to tributes left Thursday at Anfield Stadium in memory of Liverpool player Diogo Jota.

(Ian Hodgson / Associated Press)

Jota, whose full name was Diogo José Teixeira da Silva, was known as a clinical finisher. Early in his professional career, Jota played for such teams as Paços de Ferreira, Atlético Madrid and the Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He signed with Liverpool in 2020 and went on to score 65 goals in 182 games for the Reds. The organization said in a statement that it is “devastated” by Jota’s death.

“Liverpool FC will be making no further comment at this time and request the privacy of Diogo and Andre’s family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss,” the team wrote.

Lakers star LeBron James, a minority Liverpool owner, referenced the team’s unofficial anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as he paid tribute to Jota on X.

“My prayers goes out to his loved ones during this time!” James wrote. “May you all be guided and protected! YNWA JOTA!!”

Jota played nearly 50 games for Portugal as well. He made the 2022 World Cup squad, but was unable to play because of injury. Jota’s final match was Portugal’s 5-3 win in a penalty shoot-out over Spain in the Nations League final June 8. About two weeks later, Jota married Rute Cardoso, who was his childhood sweetheart and mother of their three young children.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Jota’s Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo wrote in Portuguese on X. “Just now we were together in the national team, just now you had gotten married. My condolences to your family, to your wife and to your children. I wish them all the strength in the world. I know that you will always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and André. We will all miss you.”

Cristiano Ronaldo, left, celebrates with Portugal teammate Diogo Jota during a Euro 2020 qualifying match in Luxembourg in November 2019.

(Francisco Seco / Associated Press)

Silva was a midfielder for the Liga Portugal 2 squad Penafiel.

A moment of silence for the brothers will be observed at all UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 matches on Thursday and Friday, including the Spain-Portugal game Thursday at noon PDT.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Vin Diesel says the planned finale of the long-running “Fast & Furious” franchise will come with an unexpected passenger.

Speaking at Fuel Fest, an automotive event in Pomona over the weekend, Diesel told fans that the final “Fast & Furious” film will bring back one of the series’ most beloved characters: Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner. The longtime on-screen partner to Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, O’Conner last appeared in 2015’s “Furious 7,” which was completed after Walker’s death in a car accident in 2013 at age 40.

The franchise — known for its blend of street racing, elaborate heists and outsized action — has grown into one of the most successful of all time, with more than $7 billion at the global box office.

“Just yesterday I was with Universal Studios,” Diesel said in a video from the event. “The studio said to me, ‘Vin, can we please have the finale of ‘Fast & Furious’ [in] April 2027?’ I said, ‘Under three conditions’ — because I’ve been listening to my fanbase.”

Those conditions, he said, were to bring the franchise back to L.A., return to its street-racing roots and reunite Dom and Brian.

“That is what you’re going to get in the finale,” Diesel promised.

How the production might accomplish that reunion remains unclear. When Walker died during the making of “Furious 7,” the filmmakers turned to a mix of archived footage, digital effects and performances by Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody, who served as stand-ins for unfinished scenes. Artists at Weta Digital created more than 300 visual-effects shots to map Walker’s likeness onto his brothers’ bodies, often piecing together dialogue from existing recordings. The film’s farewell — showing Brian and Dom driving side by side before splitting onto separate roads — became one of the franchise’s most memorable and emotional moments, widely seen as a tribute to Walker’s legacy.

A return for Brian O’Conner would join a growing list of posthumous digital performances in major franchises — a practice that continues to stir debate over where the line should be drawn. In 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin was recreated through a mix of motion capture, CGI and archival material, decades after Cushing’s death. In 2019, “The Rise of Skywalker” relied on previously unused footage and digital stitching to return Carrie Fisher’s Leia to the screen three years after the actress’ passing.

And in last year’s “Alien: Romulus,” the late Ian Holm’s likeness was recreated as an android using AI and digital effects, with the approval of his estate — a choice that sparked controversy and led to more practical effects being used in the film’s home release.

Walter Scott, who with his twin brother Wallace founded the Los Angeles-based R&B group the Whispers — a hit-making force in the 1970s and ‘80s with songs like “And the Beat Goes On,” “Rock Steady,” “Lady” and “Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong” — died Thursday, according to multiple media outlets, including Billboard and the Los Angeles Sentinel. He was 81.

The Sentinel reported that Scott’s family said he died in Northridge after a six-month bout with cancer.

With a smooth, danceable sound built on sturdy post-disco rhythms and carefully arranged group vocals, the Whispers put 15 songs inside the Top 10 of Billboard’s R&B chart; “And the Beat Goes On” reached No. 1 in 1980, followed by “Rock Steady,” which topped the tally in 1987. The band’s music was widely sampled in later years, including by 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, J. Cole and Will Smith, the last of whom used “And the Beat Goes On” as the basis for his late-‘90s hit “Miami.”

In a post on Instagram, the musician and filmmaker Questlove described Scott as “one of the most trusted voices in ‘70s soul music” and compared him to “the talented uncle in the family….who btw could DUST you inna min w his dizzying blink & you lost him squiggle gee doo dweedy scatlibs.”

Scott was born in 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, and later moved to L.A. with his family; he and his brother started singing as students at Jordan High School, according to the Sentinel, and formed the Whispers in the mid-‘60s with Nicholas Caldwell, Marcus Hutson and Gordy Harmon. The group spent time in San Francisco before Scott was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War.

The group recorded for a series of record companies but found its biggest success on Dick Griffey’s Solar label. The Whispers were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Billboard said Scott is survived by his wife, Jan; two sons; three grandchildren and his brother.