Inside D4vd's Preliminary Hearing in Murder Case

0:03As a warning, some of the following reporting is very graphic and disturbing, so please watch and listen with care. Singer-songwriter David Anthony Burke, better known by his stage name David, which is spelled D4VD, was back in court this week for a preliminary hearing. Now, in a preliminary hearing, the prosecution and defense present evidence to a judge who then decides if the proof is substantial enough to move on to a trial. Before the hearing began, it was anticipated to last at least three days. In April, 21-year-old David was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

0:43The teenager's dismembered remains were discovered in the front trunk of David's impounded Tesla in September of 2025. The hearing started Tuesday on a gruesome note, with the prosecution presenting photos of Celeste's dismembered body after her body was discovered in the impounded Tesla. CBS News reports that Celeste was unrecognizable given that her body was found five months after she was last seen. And when the grisly images were presented, David appeared blank-faced, slumped in the chair that he was chained to. In addition to the murder charge, David has been charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14.

1:25The unlawful mutilation of human remains as well. The murder charges include what they call special circumstances, lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation. A special circumstance means that if convicted, David faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The L.A. County D.A. has not yet announced if they'll seek the death penalty. David has pleaded not guilty to all charges. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Anne-Marie Green, and this is Case by Case. We've been following this case now for a few episodes. So if you want to revisit that coverage, just check our case-by-case podcast feed and the 48 Hours YouTube channel.

2:12Back when we last discussed this case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office had shared a brief on April 29th regarding preliminary hearing evidence, alleging that Celeste was 11 years old when she first met David, and messages between the two suggest a sexual relationship may have started when she was 13. A preliminary hearing was supposed to take place in late May, but it kept on getting pushed back until it finally began earlier this week. This case has received a lot of attention, giving David's budding career in the music business. At one point, opening for Grammy Award winning artist SZA and creating tracks for the wildly popular Fortnite video game.

2:53With me today to discuss what came out of court is Los Angeles Times investigative crime writer Richard Winton. Richard, thanks so much for joining us. I'm returning to this podcast to talk about this. You know, you were in the courtroom. So I think I want to start with just sort of give us a lay of the land and then we'll talk about some of the pretty disturbing evidence that came out. But we know that in the courtroom they presented some photographs of Celeste. Celeste alive. Celeste not alive. Her family was there. This must have been really tough for them to see and hear. Yeah, I mean, it was clearly, as the prosecutor begins the presentation shortly into it a little bit, she says, and she mouths it more than she actually physically says it, are you okay?

3:47towards the mom quite clearly. And then she goes and comforts her at the first break because, yes, they're showing images of Celeste, the very alive teenager, and then human remains, which are, as the detective Byers, who's Josh Byers, who's the lead detective, described them, there wasn't really, she didn't really have a face. Two of the fingers were removed because they would, as prosecutors allege, connect David to her because one of those fingers had his name on. So yeah, it was very dramatic. But even beyond that, like there was later on, there was some testimony where a CHP officer, a California highway patrol officer, recovered her passport card near a lake somewhere up in Santa Barbara County.

4:41And even that, the mom reacted to almost more so obviously you know it's deeply personal heartfelt and yes she was seeing she cried in the corridor outside as well there's like a area outside i mean and they've been very quiet they're not going with like a big public spectacle they're not talking you know sometimes in these kind of cases you get they're not doing that kind of thing here right are they Are they expected to testify? Any members of her family? Not at this stage. They are not going to testify. So the preliminary hearing is taking place on the ninth floor of the L.A. County Superior Courthouse.

5:24You have told us that a lot of high profile cases have taken place there. Is there a particular reason why that location ends up being the location for so many high profile cases? Basically, in Los Angeles, that's like the high security level corridor. So typically high level gang murders, you name it, high celebrity cases, but more violent crimes. Always. That was where for people who may remember Judge Lance Ito's courtroom was. When you bring up Ito, that was the judge in O.J. Simpson's case. Yes. Yes. So when you're on your judge on this floor, you know, you will get the most important cases and the most media attention cases in Los Angeles.

6:07That floor has extra security measures. The lead prosecutor in this case, her name is Beth Silverman. She's got a nickname. LA Magazine once called her the sniper. Where does that come from? I'm not really sure how that name came about because as I described Beth, she's not someone who would be hiding in the long range area of something. I think she's more directly confrontational and a very aggressive prosecutor. She did the Grim Sleeper, which was the serial killer who killed numerous women in South LA. Yeah, Beth is a take-no-prisoners prosecutor. But as one of her colleagues once told me, if your family member's murdered, she's the one you want to prosecute.

6:55He is being represented, as you mentioned, by some high profile attorneys. Blair Burke's one. Regina Peter is another. Marilyn Bednarski is another. Blair Burke, as you point out, no stranger to celebrity cases. in 2017. She joined Harvey Weinstein's defense team when he was first facing accusations of sexual harassment and assault. Everyone may recall there was a case in New York, but then there was also in 2022 a case in California. He was convicted on one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault. Burke also represented clients like Mel Gibson in his 2011 case after he was accused of domestic abuse of his ex-girlfriend at the time, Oksana.

7:40There, there was a negotiated sort of deal, a no contest plea deal. So Mel Gibson avoided jail time. In this case, do you, after sort of hearing what you've heard from the prosecution or from the defense, is this the type of case where a plea deal for something could be presented? In this case, the very minimum right now, they're seeking life without parole. Most of negotiations in California cases, accusations of murder, and this is murder with financial gain, murder with special circumstances of lying in wait. And there's also continuous sexual abuse alleged. In this kind of case, typically what happens is the defense, if they are going to negotiate, are trying to negotiate a deal where their client one day walks out of prison.

8:39Right. And so if there's going to be negotiation, that would normally what it would be. Here, the district attorney of Los Angeles, Nathan Hockman, this is a child murder. She's a child. You have to remember this. and you've got the sexual abuse element. And so his likelihood of Beth Silverman and him negotiating, anything less than, well, it's basically not a negotiation. Life without parole is probably their kind of minimum. This may be the case that Hockman does seek the death penalty because this case has kind of the bars which usually would push those buttons. which are it's a child, there's sexual abuse involved, there's a pattern of planning, he's saying lying in wait.

9:34So if he's ever to use the death penalty, it's either this or a child torture case, because these are the cases if there's going to be one. Yeah. So based on what you've heard so far then, could you, you know, what do you foresee as perhaps the defense's arguments? What is it, any sort of indication as to where the defense might go with this? Okay, so during the prelim, this is a prelim in California. Basically, you just have this preponderance of the evidence. It's just like a very sort of lower standard. We're not talking beyond reasonable doubt. Most people have seen trials. You have to prove everything beyond reasonable doubt.

10:17It's an intense level of requirement. We see in this case, you know, we see a lot of physical evidence. of basically blood all over the garage. And then there's all the purchases of chainsaws, body bags, strange trips in his car. We had one of the forensic experts of the LAPD testified that it was likely, based on the blood fines, her body was actually in the frunk.

10:57I killed you. That was a snippet of David's 2022 song, Romantic Homicide. The music video features a blindfolded David singing over the corpse of a young woman in what appears to be a blood-stained wedding gown, and quick cuts reveal bloody knives pouring out of a suitcase. The video has over 200 million views on YouTube and commenters can't help but to attach the lyrics to the artist's alleged crimes. Some viewers in the comments connect the date of the video's release on September 7th to Celeste's birthday. It's on the same day. He performed the song two years ago at PNC Live Studio Session in Portland, Oregon.

11:41And a little over a year later, one commenter called it one of the most haunted songs of our generation. Social media blew up in reaction to the case. David is an artist who built his career online, making YouTube videos and content around gaming and music. After the gruesome allegations in this case, it seems that his vast digital footprint looks to resurface in the lead up to the trial. So, Richard, the judge is currently evaluating the evidence with regards to this case. According to CBS News reporting, the prosecution has recovered over 40 terabytes of evidence. This is including data from David's phones and his iCloud account.

12:22And just to give you a sense of what that looks like, just one terabyte can account for at least 200 ,000 images. So the question here is, could some of this include David's own music? Yes, it's definitely part of the evidence. It's the music he's published and the music he hasn't published as well, which may have lyrics referencing the deceased. but importantly and i think it's emotional if they eventually get a trial i think beth still want to show jurors this are some of the videos some of the very graphic videos not so much the lyrics which often have bloody scenes including one video where he drags a body to the back of a car and puts it in the trunk i'm sure that she'll want to show that this is part of kind of the way he portrays things i'm sure that that all the imagery around his kind of sort of low-rent horror kind of persona visually will be something she would like to show jurors it's often hard to sort of categorize a recording artist so a lot of this visual material is probably in those terabytes but i think i you know i i thought the way you sort of summed it up was really good.

13:40When I looked at the words, I thought it's like a really simple, very short poem that, you know, outside of this context actually doesn't seem that interesting. But when you put it in the middle of a murder case, then it could become a problem. So the purpose of the hearing this week was to determine if there's enough evidence to move forward with a murder trial yeah i mean really honestly the standard of prelim is pretty low and this literally before the prelim beth silverman files this nine-page brief like back in april right which pretty much lays out and this is very unusual so there's two unusual things i was going to ask you is that odd blair burke pushed very quickly which is your right and on california law for a prelim as soon as possible, right?

14:32I can tell from her questions in court, she's somewhat trying to work out, okay, how much of the stuff do they have solid? When the forensic people up there, she kept asking in her cross, and so you were the first person in that scene? Did the detectives go in there? She like numerous times asked if they gloved up, masked up. She's not really asking about the forensic people because she knows they're going to be. She's asking about the others. Right. Let's review some of what came out of that brief, starting with the claim that Celeste was allegedly 11 years old when she first met David. And messages between the two suggested a sexual relationship may have started two years later when she was 13.

15:17And the brief also noted that Celeste had gone missing before. Can you talk about that? The prosecutors have alleged in their brief that they have proof of a sexual relationship between the two of them. That includes messages, references to Plan B, sex, abortion, and that's what they included in their sort of court briefing. In addition, this is documented. We documented ourselves at the LA Times. She was reported missing to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department three times during that same period in which they were having their relationship. Prosecutors say there was a significant amount of child pornography found on David's phone.

16:03According to the prosecution, these communications ceased April 23rd, 2025. And this is when they believe Celeste died. What was going on between Celeste and David starting with the night before? Basically, they'd got into an argument, it seems, that she would become angry or jealous. This is what the prosecutors allege in their brief. They basically allege that she implied that she would tell the world about their relationship. She's a minor. It would be a crime. So he brings her to the home via Uber. and once she's there prosecutors allege in their filing document and partly from what the medical examiner alleges she was stabbed twice that evening interestingly 20 minutes after she already was documented as arriving by that Uber he's like asking where she is it kind of paints a picture yeah the cover they that's when prosecutors allege that's when that cover-up begins that night he makes a strange driving trip in his tesla all the way up to santa barbara county to a place called lake kachuma i'm not sure what exactly he did but that happens to be where they found her passport id card like last november randomly inside the road they they can prove that that car went there they have license plate readers they have all kinds of stuff which show their vehicle moved along the track they got cam this stuff which tracks that vehicle according to the prosecution that's when he uses his various aliases to buy items which could only be described as the murder just if you're if you were supposedly trying to get rid of a body this is what you would do kind of ABC.

18:04So he starts ordering body bags, laundry bags. He orders chainsaws, a burn box, all these various items using sometimes an alias, Victoria Mendez, and another alias as well, a male name. And some of these items, prosecutors allege that, well we know from testimony and call two of those two of those chainsaws had no no blood on them they were still in the garage yeah so yeah we can see how you know they're constructing and he used these aliases right now on cross Blair Burke says well that shit you know basically was the burn box ever used well no I mean I've actually seen the thing someone actually shared me the image of of the bum box, it still basically looks like, you know, it's been, it's never been opened.

19:09There was also this bit about this, the, I think it's like a kiddie pool or something in these blue fragments. Yes. So as we heard from the criminalist in the prelim, basically they found that kiddie pool and it's, I don't know, it's not that small a kiddie pool it's a size which would fit a smaller person in it and in that kiddie pool what they found was it had some slash marks so it looked like a blade of some size had been used in that pool and the prosecutor basically alleges that the remains of Celeste they found in the embedded plastic material of that kiddie pool That's what it seems like very clearly happened.

19:57And so that is, you know, the prosecution's assertion that Celeste's body was dismembered in that pool and then that she was placed in the frunk or the front trunk of David's Tesla. they argue that he parked his car around the corner from his home and then he goes on tour that car was ultimately towed impounded and then celeste's remains were discovered inside all of these details are incredibly graphic they're disturbing i know people want to hear from celeste's family they have not spoken publicly but their attorney released a statement at the April hearing, and I want to read some of that for you.

20:41In light of the gruesome details emerging almost daily, the family has decided not to make any statements now or in the future. There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now. They still have bills to pay and jobs they go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal. Please grant the Rivas Hernandez family grace and compassion. And Richard, there was also some public speculation that David may have financially supported Celeste's family at one point. But CBS News received a statement from Celeste's brother. His name is Jesus Rivas. And he said, I never had any contact with this guy and we haven't received any money from him or anyone in his family.

21:31yeah i mean there's nothing in evidence that they have there's any financial connection there's there's no implication that they that he he knows even knows the family at this point it's all now there is an implication that she did meet his family and that is in the court briefing by the by the district attorney i think richard you know it's it's a room it's reminder that though this is a high profile case with a celebrity defendant this is real life for them um they still have to pay their bills they still have to do all the things that they were doing and then they still have to be kind of confronted with the media interest and the social media interest and the the uh the commentary and the comment section is doing what the comment section does and they're just a regular family you know what's really interesting about this case is now we have a different sort of press it's not just the press corps there's all these social media influencers who are turning up to the proceeding who cover and follow the proceeding and so and they're all doing these videos and it's uh it's really an interesting dynamic but it also means it just permeates out into the internet at just an incredible rate compared with other stories.

22:52So I'm sure this family can hardly avoid this even in daily life. So then as we look ahead, what's next? What details will we see coming out of the preliminary hearing that you think could inform the rest of the trial? In the end, the brief is basically what they're going to present. And that's a lot. And that was highly unusual. We talked to a couple of other former prosecutors and they said they'd never seen anyone file a what amounts to a trial brief at a prelim. In other words, oh, we're going to tell you, we're going to be totally transparent. This is, we got all this already. So you thought we weren't ready?

23:32Oh no, we have all this stuff. How do you think Blair Burke and Beth Silverman will be approaching this case? Well, Beth Silverman seems to be being very just blunt and direct. I I mean, the fact that she filed a prelim brief, which detailed most a lot of her case, the fact that she just doesn't seem to be hiding much. Well, I tell you, Richard, it's already kind of a hell of a case. My heart just breaks for Celeste's family. I feel for them because, yeah, this is now a celebrity case. And so the level of attention that they're going to be getting is going to be a tough one for them. Richard you keep coming back to talk to us and we really appreciate it and I know that we'll be continuing to discuss as this case unfolds Thank you And we'll be back next week with another episode of Case by Case be sure to rate and review and let us know which cases you are following and you want us to follow as well

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