"COURTS REOPEN: CRUISE SHIP HOMICIDE, MARINE MONSTER SENTENCED & GRAND JURY CONVENES ON SINGER'S TESLA BODY"

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter. Monday, December first, twenty twenty five. Courts are back open. The Thanksgiving break is over and the cases are piling up. Before we dive in a question for our listeners. The past two weeks we've been doing Classic Trials while the courts were closed. dB Cooper, Andrea Yates, Ted Bundy, the Manson Family. You seem to enjoy it, so we want to know do you want more Classic Trials or do you prefer the live coverage of breaking cases. Go to our Facebook page just search Celebrity trials and join the conversation. Vote tell us what you want to hear. We're building this show for you. Also, mark your calendars. End of the month, we're counting down the top ten trials of twenty twenty five. Diddy, Luigi Mangio, the cases that defined the year. It's going to be a wild ride, but today back to the daily grind. Three cases you need to know about. First, a Florida teenager found dead on a carnival cruise ship.

1:14 Anna Kepner, eighteen years old, high school cheerleader on a family vacation. Her grandmother said good night to her in the casino. Next morning, Anna's body was found concealed under the bed in her cabin. Death certificate just released mechanical asphyxiation homicide, and her sixteen year old stepbrother has been identified as a suspect. Second, a former Marine Corps recruiter sentenced to prison for breaking into a Michigan home with the intent to kill everyone inside. Ricardo Castillo told police he wanted to murder the entire family, found an eleven year old girl at a sleepover, attacked her, planned to sexually assault her corpse. The judge called it a real life horror movie. He got two hundred and twenty five months.

1:56 And Third, the David Burke case just escalatedmatically the singer known as David with a four whose tesla was found with fourteen year old Celeste Revas decomposing in the trunk. A grand jury has been convened. LAPD detective filed a court document calling this a murder investigation. Autopsy records have been sealed and police confirmed David travel to Santa Barbara and Spring twenty twenty five. The significance still under investigation. I'm reed, Carter, the courts are open. Justice is back in session. This is celebrity trials. Let's start with the cruise ship death. Anna Kepner, eighteen years old high school cheerleader from Florida's Space Coast set to graduate next year, had her whole life ahead of her. November seventh, twenty twenty five, Anna was on a family vacation aboard the Carnival Horizon. The ship had sailed from Miami, cruising the Western Caribbean with stops in Cosamel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

3:02 Anna was traveling with her father, her stepmother, her stepmother's two children, and her grandparents blended family holiday trip. The night before she died, Anna spent time with her grandparents in the ship's casino. Her grandmother, Barbara Kepner, remembers the last thing Anna said to her mema, I love you guys, I'll see you later. They never saw her again. The next morning, November seventh, a medical alert blared over the ship's broadcast system. First Responders were directed to the cabin Anna was sharing with two other teenagers, including her sixteen year old stepbrother. A room attendant found Anna's body concealed under the bed. Her grandmother, Barbara was there when the news came I just screamed, she told ABC News, I couldn't stop screaming. For weeks, the case remained shrouded in mystery.

3:59 The FBI, which has jurisdiction over crimes in international waters, refused to release any information. The medical Examiner's office stayed silent. Everyone was waiting. This week we got answers. ABC News obtained a copy of Anna Kepner's death certificate cause of death mechanical asphyxia, manner of death homicide. The certificate states Anna was mechanically asphyxiated by other person or persons. Let me explain what that means. Mechanical asphyxia is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing. According to Stephen Nelson, a chief medical examiner in Central Florida who reviewed the certificate, in some way, shape or form, your airway has been cut off. This includes strangulation, smothering, chest compression.

4:51 Something or someone prevented Anna Kepner from breathing until she died. Nelson, who is not involved in the case, called the death highly high suspicious, and he pointed to one detail in particular, the body was concealed under the bed. The concealment part alone is very troubling, Nelson said. Anna Kepner was killed, then her body was hidden. Someone didn't want her found. Now here's where it gets darker. Court documents filed in an ongoing custody dispute have identified Anna's sixteen year old stepbrother as a suspect in her death. The disclosures came from motions filed by his parents, offering the clearest public indication that federal investigators are looking at a member of Anna's own blended family. The call is coming from inside the house, or in this case, inside the cabin. Anna's family has been told that preliminary information indicates no signs of sexual assault, no drugs or alcohol in her system.

5:52 This wasn't a party gone wrong. This wasn't a stranger attack. This was something else entirely. The ship returned to Port Miami on November eighth, as scheduled. Anna's time of death was listed as eleven seventeen am on November seventh. No charges have been filed. Nearly three weeks have passed, but maritime lawyers say that's not unusual for deaths in international waters. When I've had international marine deaths deaths on a vessel in the high seas. It can take quite some time to get the final autopsy reports, said Houston attorney Marcus Spanioletti. It's not unusual. The challenges are significant. Cruise ships are registered in one country but travel through many others. Passengers and crew come from around the world. Determining who has jurisdiction is complicated, and the crime scene floats away literally before investigators can fully secure it. You have a short amount of time to do the best you can to solve this case or collect all the evidence you need.

6:52 FBI Special Agent Matt Parker has said, and then your crime scene leaves. The carnival horizon is bad at sea right now, carrying new passengers, new families, while Anna Kepner's family waits for answers. Anna Kepner was eighteen years old, cheerleader, daughter, granddaughter, should be finishing her senior year of high school, should be planning for prom, should be applying to colleges, should be alive. Instead, she was mechanically asphyxiated on a family cruise and found concealed under a bed, and her stepbrother, a sixteen year old member of her own blended family, is a suspect. The call is coming from inside the house.

7:36 Rest in peace, Anna, someone has to say your name. We'll be right back with a former Marine Corps recruiter who told police he wanted to kill an entire family and what he planned to do to an eleven year old girl's body after she was dead. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm Reed Carter. June fifteenth, twenty twenty four, Plainfield Township, Michigan three. Am Ricardo Castillo, twenty five years old, breaks into a home. He's not there to rob anyone.

8:16 He's not there because of a grudge. He doesn't know the family inside. He's there to kill them, all of them. Castillo later told police he broke into the home with the aim of killing everyone inside. His words admitted to investigators. Surveillance cameras captured what happened next. Castillo entered the home, took off his shoes, his socks, his pants, then walked to the kitchen, still wearing only underwear and a T shirt, and grabbed a knife from a drawer. He went upstairs looking for bedrooms, looking for victims. The first few doors he tried were locked. Then he found the master bedroom unlocked, husband and wife sleeping in sid Castillo told police he decided to quietly close the door and look for an easier target. Easier target let that sink in. He bypassed the adults because he wanted someone more vulnerable. He found her, an eleven year old girl sleeping at the house for a sleepover with the homeowner's daughter. Castillo told investigators what he planned to do. Kill the girl, then sexually assault her corpse. He took off his underwear, got on top of her, and started stabbing. The girl's screams saved her life.

9:33 They woke the other people in the house. Castillo stopped the attack. Minutes later, a nine to one one caller reported that a man covered in blood was being held at gunpoint in a child's bedroom. Deputies arrived and found Castillo still in the room, bloody knife next to him, the eleven year old girl with stab wounds to her shoulder and arm. She survived required surgery, but she survived. Castillo was charged with assault with intent to murder, first degree home invasion, assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, and carrying a weapon with unlawful intent. Also a separate charge for an illegal entry incident in nearby Rockford hours earlier, meaning this wasn't even his first crime. That night. At his initial court appearance, Kent County under Sheriff Brian Muir called Castillo a monster. The judge set bail at two million dollars cash. Only this is as big as it gets, said Judge Sarah Smolensky. It's as scary as it gets, it's as horrific as it gets, and it puts all of us in a fear zone like no other. Here's the detail that makes this even more disturbing. Castillo's job.

10:46 My job is a Marine Corps recruiter for the Marines, Castillo told the judge at his first court appearance. A Marine Corps recruiter, the person communities trust to guide young people towards service. The person who visits high schools to talks to parents, represents the United States military. And he broke into a home to murder a family and rape a child's corpse. November twenty sixth, twenty twenty five, sentencing day, Castillo pleaded no contest to the charges. Judge Christina Mims called the case a real life horror movie. Prosecutors read a statement from the eleven year old victim. I never would have guessed an innocent sleepover would have left me in the hospital. She said. I remember being in a lot of pain on the floor. I remember seeing all of my blood everywhere. I remember feeling warm running down my body from the blood. I remember the smell of it.

11:42 I can still feel the sting of the pain. Eleven years old, had a sleepover, and now she carries those memories forever. Castillo offered a brief statement, I'm not trying to justify myself. I just want to ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. I ask for forgiveness. I know I don't deserve it. His attorney said Castillo was intoxicated the night of the incident, that he's pledged to forego alcohol for the rest of his life. Make it make sense. Alcohol made you break into a stranger's home, strip naked, grab a knife, hunt for the most vulnerable victim, and plan to sexually assault a dead child. That's not alcohol, that's evil. Judgemm sentenced Ricardo Castillo to two hundred twenty five months to forty years in prison for assault with intent to murder, plus seven to twenty years for home invasion, and one point five to five years for criminal sexual contact.

12:36 Sentences to run concurrently, two hundred and twenty five months is almost nineteen years before he's even eligible for parole. He'll be in his mid forties before he sees freedom again. Not long enough. Some people can't be rehabilitated. Some people are just evil. The eleven year old victim is alive, recovering, scarred forever by what a stranger did to her while she slept at a friend's house. Lock your doors, check the locks on your children's bedrooms, because monsters like Ricardo Castillo are out there and they're looking for easier targets. Finally, today, a major escalation in the David Burke case. You remember this.

13:29 One September eighth, twenty twenty five, workers at a Hollywood impound lot notice a tesla emanating a foul odor, attracting flies. They call police officers open the trunk inside the decomposing body of fourteen year old Celeste Revas Hernandez in a black garbage bag. The remains were so deteriorated it took over a week to identify her. The tesla was registered to twenty year old singer David Burke, stage name spelled D four VD but pronounced David. He was on a world tour promoting his debut album Withered, when the body was found. His most famous song romantic homicide. You can't make this up. For weeks, the LAPD refused to call this a homicide. Medical examiners couldn't determine cause of death because the remains were so decomposed. Police said it was unclear if any crime was committed beyond concealing a body, which is just a misdemeanor in California. That's changed multiple developments this week. First, LAPD Detective Joshua Byers, a veteran of the Elite Robbery Homicide Division, filed a court declaration Friday describing the investigation as quote an investigation into murder murder, not death investigation murder. Second, the Los Angeles County District Attorney has begun presenting evidence to an investigative grand jury.

14:56 According to the Los Angeles Times, the grand jury was in session for several days in mid November. Sources say Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman is leading the presentation. An investigative grand jury is used to develop evidence and determine whether charges should be brought. This is a major escalation prosecutors don't convene grand juries unless they're building towards something. Third, the medical examiner's records have been sealed by court order. No cause of death, no manner of death, no autopsy report, nothing released until further notice. Detective Buyers requested the seal to ensure investigators learned critical information before the media and public.

15:38 The judge granted it. Fourth, David Burke has officially been named a suspect. LAPD sources confirmed this to NBC News last week, and despite earlier claims from his representatives that he was fully cooperating, police now say that's not true. He has not been cooperating, an LAPD source with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC four. Fifth, police confirmed David Burke traveled to Santa Barbara County sometime in spring twenty twenty five. The significance of that trip is still under investigation. Celeste Reevas went missing from Lake Elsinore on April fifth, twenty twenty four, over a year before her body was found, and here's what police are disputing. Earlier media reports claimed Celeste's body was frozen and decapitated. LAPD Captain Scott Williams, commanding officer of Robbery Homicide Division, says that's not true. Celeste's body was not frozen, she was not decapitated. The whole frozen thing doesn't even make sense.

16:43 Her body was in the car for weeks, Williams explained. Even if she had been frozen solid when she was put in the car, which there is no evidence to suggest, she was, five or more weeks in the trunk of a car in sweltering heat in the middle of summer would not have resulted in a partially frozen body being discovered. So what do we know? Celeste Reevas was fourteen years old, missing since April twenty twenty four, found decomposing in David Burke's Tesla on September eighth, twenty twenty five, one day after she would have turned fifteen. Celeste and David apparently knew each other. Her mother told TMZ her daughter had been dating someone named David. Photos circulating online show them together.

17:29 They have matching tattoos SSH on their index fingers. David wrote an unreleased song with Celeste in the title and lyrics. His music videos feature graphic death imagery, including one showing a body placed in a trunk. He canceled his tour after the body was found, hasn't made any public statements, has reportedly not cooperated with investigators, and a grand jury is now hearing evidence. The walls are closing in. Here's the problem for prosecutors without a cause of death. Murder is hard to prove. Celeste's body was so decomposed that medical examiners may never be able to say definitively how she died. And in California, concealing a body is just a misdemeanor. If David Burke killed Celestreevas and prosecutors can't prove it, he could walk with a slap on the wrist.

18:20 That's justice in California. But the grand jury suggests prosecutors think they have something. You don't convene a panel like that for a misdemeanor. Celeste Rievas was fourteen years old. Should have turned fifteen on September seventh, twenty twenty five. Should be in high school right now, should be making tiktoks and hanging out with friends and figuring out who she wants to be. Instead, she spent weeks decomposing in the trunk of her boyfriend's car while he performed on stage across the country. We'll follow this one closely. When the grand jury makes its recommendation. If charges are filed, you'll hear it here. First, someone has to say her name, Celeste Reevus. That's Celebrity Trials from Monday, December first, twenty twenty five. Courts are back. We're back. The chaos continues.

19:10 Anna Kepner, eighteen years old, mechanically asphyxiated on a Carnival cruise ship. Her sixteen year old stepbrother identified as a suspect, body was concealed under the bed. Ricardo Castillo, former Marine Corps recruiter, sentenced to two hundred twenty five months for breaking into a Michigan home with intent to kill. The entire family attacked an eleven year old girl, planned to sexually assault her corpse. Judge called it a real life horror movie, and David Burke faces a grand jury in the death of Celeste Revas lapd now calling it a murder investigation. Autopsy records sealed the singer hasn't cooperated. Before you go, remember to hit up our Facebook page search Celebrity Trials. Tell us what you want more classic trials or more live coverage and get ready for our Top ten Trials of twenty twenty five countdown at the end of the month. I'm read Carter tomorrow. Whatever breaks, this is celebrity trials