Britney Spears’ Ex Ordered to Trial on Stalking Charge

Britney Spears at the 4th Annual Hollywood Beauty Awards held on February 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (AP)
Britney Spears at the 4th Annual Hollywood Beauty Awards held on February 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (AP)
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Britney Spears’ Ex Ordered to Trial on Stalking Charge

Britney Spears at the 4th Annual Hollywood Beauty Awards held on February 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (AP)
Britney Spears at the 4th Annual Hollywood Beauty Awards held on February 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (AP)

A California judge found Monday that there is enough evidence against a man once briefly married to Britney Spears who showed up uninvited at the pop star's wedding to go to trial on a felony stalking charge.

After a two-hour preliminary hearing, Ventura County Judge David Worley ruled that 40-year-old Jason Allen Alexander should be held to answer on the charge, along with misdemeanor counts of trespassing, vandalism and battery, court records showed.

Not guilty pleas to all the charges were entered by an attorney for Alexander, who did not attend and remains jailed.

Spears married longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari at her home in Thousand Oaks, California, on June 9, in front of several dozen guests including Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and Madonna.

Alexander, a childhood friend of Spears to whom she was married for less than three days in 2004, appeared uninvited at the house before the ceremony, livestreaming his raid on Instagram.

Richard Eubler, a since-fired security guard for Spears, testified at Monday's hearing that Alexander got inside her house and up to the locked door of Spears' bedroom while she was inside, according to multiple media reports.

Eubler said Alexander had also tried to enter the property in the days before the wedding.

Alexander's attorney, Sandra Bisignani, argued there was no evidence he had any intention of harming Spears.



Father of One Direction Star Payne Arrives in Argentina

Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Father of One Direction Star Payne Arrives in Argentina

Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)

The father of One Direction pop singer Liam Payne, whose death in a fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires shocked the music world, arrived in Argentina on Friday, police sources told AFP.

Geoff Payne landed in Buenos Aires at 6:00 am, the source said.

The source did not say whether he would visit the morgue where the body of his son, the 31-year-old member of one of Britain's most successful pop groups of recent years, is being kept pending the results of toxicological tests.

Payne suffered "multiple traumas" and "internal and external hemorrhaging" after falling from the balcony of his room on the third floor of the Casa Sur hotel in central Buenos Aires on Wednesday night, an autopsy found.

The autopsy suggested he had not tried to stop his fall and was in a state of "semi or total unconsciousness" before his death.

The singer, who had spoken publicly about struggles with alcohol and coping with fame from an early age, was alone at the time and appeared to be "going through an episode of substance abuse," prosecutors said.

He was found dead after hotel staff called emergency services twice to report "a guest who is overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol, and destroying his room," according to leaked audio.

Tributes to the singer have been pouring in since Wednesday.

His former One Direction bandmates, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, said they were "completely devastated" by his death.

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC also offered their condolences, as did British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Payne was in Argentina to attend a concert by Niall Horan.

Argentine media published photos which they said showed the interior of his hotel room, with white powder on a table next to a piece of aluminum foil and a lighter, and a television with a broken screen.

Fans have left a mound of letters, flowers and pictures of the singer at a makeshift shrine to him outside the hotel in Palermo district.

"I feel like it's a part of adolescence lost," said Lena Duek, 21.