May 1, 2026

MUSK MELTDOWN ON THE STAND, D4VD’S CHAINSAW SHOPPING LIST, AND THE “BABY LAMB” WHO STRANGLED A CHILD

Show Notes
Transcript

Three stories where the people in charge stopped pretending. From Oakland to Hollywood Hills to Fort Worth, this is what privilege, predation, and pathology look like in the open.

Day three of Musk versus Altman, and the world’s richest man finally meets a question he can’t bully. We bring you the cross-examination, the term sheet meltdown, and the Tesla AGI tweet that came back to bite him. Then to Hollywood, where the David case took a hard turn this week. The preliminary hearing was supposed to start today. Instead, prosecutors filed a brief so detailed the judge refused to seal it. Chainsaws. A burn cage. A record release party the day after. And in Fort Worth, the defense brings their last witnesses for Tanner Horner.

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WEBVTT

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Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. This is

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Daily Crime in Justice for Friday, May first, twenty twenty six.

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We're going to be honest with you. There's a version

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of today's show where we tell you day three of

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the Open Ai trial was about emails and term sheets

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and corporate structure, and you tune out before we get

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to the courtroom. There's a version where we tell you

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the David case had a procedural hearing yesterday and you

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assume nothing important happened. There's a version where we say

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the Athena Strand defense brought more witnesses and we pretend

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that's news. We're not doing those versions. Wednesday in Oakland,

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Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, spent six

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hours getting cornered by a lawyer who has done this

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dance with him before, the same lawyer who beat him

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on the Twitter deal three years ago. Musk lost his composure.

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He told the lawyer the questions were lies. He compared

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a yes or no question to have you stopped beating

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your wife. The judge had to step in. We're going

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to walk you through it. Yesterday in Los Angeles, the

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David case took a turn. The preliminary hearing that was

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supposed to start today today Friday, has been pushed to

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May twenty sixth. The defense asked for time. They also

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asked the judge to seal a brief the prosecution had

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just filed. The judge said no, then the public got

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to read the brief. We're going to walk you through

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that too. Content advisory up front. It is bad. It

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is some of the most disturbing material we've had to

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summarize on this show. And in Fort Worth, the defense

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for Tanner Horner is running out of witnesses. They had

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a man testify from the seal across from Horner who

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described him as a baby lamb. That is a direct

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quote about a man who pleaded guilty to capital murder

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of a seven year old. Three stories, three completely different rooms,

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same lesson. When the people in charge stop pretending what's

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underneath isn't pretty. Let's go Wednesday morning in Oakland, day

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three of the trial. That could either restructure one of

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the most valuable AI companies in the world or hand

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Elon Musk one hundred and thirty billion dollars in damages

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or both. A quick recap for anyone who joined. Late

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two years ago, Elon Musk sued open Ai, the company

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he co founded in twenty fifteen with Sam Altman and

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Greg Brockman. Musk says he gave the company about thirty

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eight million dollars when it was a nonprofit. He says

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they promised it would stay a nonprofit. He says when

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they spun up a for profit subsidiary, partnered with Microsoft,

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and started making real money, they betrayed the original mission.

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He calls it stealing a charity. He wants Altman and

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Brockman removed from the board. He wants the company restructure,

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and he wants the money to go back to open

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AI's nonprofit foundation, not to him personally. Open AI's position

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is simpler. Musk wanted control, he didn't get control. He left,

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He started his own AI company called Xai, and only

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when open ai started winning did he show up with

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a lawsuit. They call it harassment. They want the case dismissed. Tuesday,

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Day two was Musk's direct examination, his own lawyer walking

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him through his version of the founding story. That's the

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easy part. Wednesday was the hard part, cross examination, and

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the lawyer doing the cross examining is William Savat of Walktaeil, Lipton,

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Rosen and Kats, the same man who represented Twitter when

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Musk tried to back out of buying it for forty

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four billion dollars in twenty twenty two. Musk lost that fight,

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and now Sabat is across the courtroom from him again.

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Here's what happened. Savat opened by trying to establish a

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basic point that Musk had in fact supported a four

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profit version of open Ai, not opposed it. He pulled emails,

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he pulled meeting notes. He showed the jury that in

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twenty seventeen, Musk had directed Jared Birchell, who runs his

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family office, to register a for profit public benefit corporation

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in open AI's name. Musk's explanation, he did it in

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case it was needed. Sabbath then showed the jury an

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email where Musk told the other co founders he needed

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to have control of any proposed for profit quote, I

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needed to make sure it would go in the right direction,

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and I was providing almost all the money. That is

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not the position of a man who was philosophically opposed

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to a for profit. That is the position of a

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man who wanted to be the for profit. Musk's answer

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was that he was fine with a for profit as

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long as the tail didn't wag the dog. He told

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the court he was fine with a for profit as

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long as it was a subsidiary of the nonprofit. Quote,

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what you can't have is the for profit if it

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become the main event. And that's what we have here.

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Reasonable answer, coherent answer. The problem is what came next.

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Savat pulled up Musk's tweets, specifically a recent tweet in

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which Musk claimed Tesla was working on artificial general intelligence.

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Then save It asked Musk under oath whether Tesla was

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actually working on AGI. Musk had to admit on the

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stand that Tesla is not currently pursuing AGI. The tweet,

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which Musk had posted to his two hundred million followers was,

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to put it generously and exaggeration. You don't want to

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be the witness whose own social media posts are state's evidence,

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especially when you own the social media platform. Then came

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the term sheet. Savat asked Musk about a specific open

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AI term sheet from years ago. Musk said on the

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stand that he had read it. Specifically, He said he

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had read the very first part of it to get

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a high level grasp. Sabat then pointed out that in

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Musk's previous depositions sworn testimony given before trial, Musk had

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not mentioned reading the term sheet. Musk said he had

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tried to express in those depositions that he didn't look

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closely at the term sheet, not that he didn't read it.

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That distinction, I read it, but didn't look closely versus

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I didn't mention reading it became the most animated Musk

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got the entire day. Several minutes of back and forth,

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voices raised, words like simple and complex, thrown around like accusations. Savat,

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I'm asking you a simple question, Musk. Your questions are

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definitionally complex, not simple. It is a lie to say

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they are simple. That's a witness telling a federal trial

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lawyer that his questions are lies in a federal courtroom

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with a jury watching. Then it got worse. Musk told

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Sabat his questions were designed to trick him. He compared

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the line of questioning to quote, have you stopped beating

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your wife? That's a textbook example of a loaded question.

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It's also perhaps not the analogy you want to invoke

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when you're a billionaire who's been publicly accused of being

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difficult to your female employees and ex partners. Judge Evone

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Gonzalez Rogers cut him off, quote, we are not going

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to go there. That is a federal judge telling Elon

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Musk to stop, and Musk, to his very limited credit, stopped.

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There were other moments Savag confronted Musk about his contributions

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to open ai. Musk had originally promised one billion dollars.

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He delivered about thirty eight million. When Save It pressed

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him on the gap, Musk started explaining what else he'd

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contributed beyond money, his reputation, his recruiting power, his advice.

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The judge cut in and reminded Musk to answer the question.

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Musk eventually conceded that he had not delivered the billion.

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He said he lost confidence in the team. Seven pulled

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emails where Shiven Zealis, who was on Open Aiy's board

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and who happens to be the mother of four of

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Musk's children, had described two paths for restructuring open ai.

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Musk's lawyers will tell you those communications don't mean what

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Savot thinks they mean. But there is something important happening here,

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and the jury is watching it. Musk's personal life, his

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business life, and his legal arguments are all the same shape.

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He surrounds himself with people who agree with him, he

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puts them in positions of authority, and then he's outraged

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when an institution he doesn't control makes a decision he

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doesn't like. Make it makes sense. Late in the day,

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the jury looked tired. CNBC's reporter in the courtroom noted

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that several jurors were fidgeting. One kept closing her eyes.

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That's normal in a complex civil trial, but it's also

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a tell when jury check out during your testimony, you're

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not winning the room. Musk will return to the stand

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today Thursday for a final round of cross examination. Sabag

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has said he has about an hour and a half

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of questions left. Then Musk's own lawyers get a second

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pass at redirect, the chance to clean up the damage.

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After that, Jared Birchall takes the stand. The man who

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manages Musk's billions, registered the for profit corporation in twenty

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seventeen and runs XAI and Neuralink as side jobs. Greg Brockman,

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open AI's president, sitting in the gallery for three days

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now watching this all play out, has been put on

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a forty eight hour notice. He could be called to

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testify as soon as today. Look, I'm going to be

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honest with you. There's a real legal question buried in

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this trial. Did Open AI breach a charitable trust by

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becoming for profit? Reasonable people can disagree. Charity law is

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genuinely complicated. The expert witnesses Musk has lined up, Stuart

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Russell from Berkeley, the AI safety researcher, and David Scheiser,

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the Columbia tax law professor, are real heavyweights. This is

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not a frivolous suit. But Musk's problem is that the

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trial isn't about charitable trust law. The trial is about

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whether nine ordinary citizens in Oakland believe his version of events.

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And every time must takes the stand and tells a

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federal judge that her courtroom is unfair, that the lawyer's

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questions are lies, that the math on his ownership stake

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is too complicated to explain. He's losing those nine people,

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one closed eye at a time. Coming up the David case,

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the preliminary hearing was supposed to start today, it didn't,

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And what the prosecution put on the public record yesterday

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is worse than anything we've told you about this case

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so far, stay with us a content advisory before we

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go into this. We're about to summarize a court filing

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that contains detailed allegations of sexual abuse of a child,

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of the killing of a child, and of the dismemberment

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of a child's body. We are not going to read

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the filing word for word, but we are going to

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tell you what is in it, because the prosecution put

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it on the public record yesterday and a Los Angeles

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County judge specifically refused to seal it. If you need

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to skip ahead, the next segment starts in about eleven minutes.

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We've been on this case since last September. The artist,

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who records under the name D four VD pronounced David,

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which is what we'll call him, was arrested on April

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sixteenth of this year. His legal name is David Anthony Burke.

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He is twenty one years old. He has been charged

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with first degree murder of fourteen year old Celeste Revas Hernandez,

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with three special circumstances, lying in wait financial gain, and

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killing a witness. He's also charged with continue he was

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sexual abuse of a child under fourteen, and with the

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unlawful mutilation of human remains. He has pleaded not guilty.

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He is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility

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in downtown Los Angeles. He faces life without parole or

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possibly the death penalty. The district Attorney has not yet decided. Yesterday, Wednesday,

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April twenty ninth, he was in court for what was

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supposed to be a routine preliminary hearing status check. The

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preliminary hearing itself was scheduled to start today Friday, May first.

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It's not happening today. It's been pushed to May twenty sixth.

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Burke's defense team, led by Blair Burke, who took the

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case last October, asked Superior Court Judge Charlene Olmeto for

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more time. They said they need to review all of

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the evidence. The judge agreed. Prosecutors objected. They said they

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had already cleared their schedules for May first. The judge

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granted the postponement anyway, May twenty sixth. That's the procedural news. Well,

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here's the actual news. Before the hearing, prosecutors had filed

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what's called a preliminary hearing brief. It's the document where

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the state lays out what evidence they plan to present

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at the prelim and what they think the evidence proves.

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It's a strategic document. It is not always made public.

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Sometimes it gets sealed. Burke's defense asked the judge to

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seal it. They argued the brief was one sided and

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replete with hearsay, and that releasing it could taint the

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jury pool. Given the enormous media attention this case is getting,

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that is a real concern. It's a concern courts take seriously.

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Judge Olmeto said no. She told the defense this case

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was no different from countless other high profile cases in

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Los Angeles County and the public has a right to

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see what the state is alleging. The brief is now public.

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Here's what it says. Prosecutors alleged that Burke met Celeste

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Revas Hernandez when she was eleven years old. Eleven he

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began sexually abusing her. Prosecutors say when she was thirteen

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and he was eighteen. By twenty twenty four, she was

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spending much of her time at his home in the

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Hollywood Hills. The brief alleges she traveled with him to

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Las Vegas, to London, to Texas to meet his family.

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She was thirteen, he was nineteen when Celeste's parents took

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her phone away because, as any parent would, they were

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trying to figure out what was going on. Prosecutors alleged

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Burke paid another student one thousand dollars to get her

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a new phone so they could keep talking, so they

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could keep doing whatever it was they were doing. There's

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a word for what that's called, when an adult systematically

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removes a child from her parents oversight. That word is grooming.

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In November of twenty twenty three, before any of this

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came to law enforcement's attention, there was a welfare check

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at Burke's home. Riverside County authorities had asked Los Angeles

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County to look in on him. According to the brief,

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Burke told the deputies who showed up that he had

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only met Celeste once in person. He showed them what

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he claimed was a yearbook photo of her on his phone.

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Prosecutors are now alleging that statement was a lie. They're

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alleging he had been sleeping with her for months by

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that point. The brief alleges that on April twenty second,

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twenty twenty five, Celestin Burke had an argument. She told

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him she was going to expose what was going on.

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Quote in the brief, she threatened to disclose damaging information

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to end his career and destroy his life. On April

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twenty third, twenty twenty five, prosecutors say Burke paid for

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a ride share driver to bring Celeste to his Hollywood

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Hills home. They alleged that very soon after she arrived,

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he stabbed her to death multiple times and then quote

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stood by while she bled out. He did not call

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nine one one, He did not take her to a hospital.

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At about ten thirty that night, he texted her asking

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where she was. Prosecutors say that was part of his

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cover up. He knew where she was. She was dead

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in his house. The next day, April twenty fourth, twenty

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twenty five, Burke gave a radio interview. He held a

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record release party his debut full length album called Withered Drop.

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The day after that. Take a second with that she'd

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been dead for less than twenty four hours. He went

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on the radio, He had a party, he released an album.

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Then comes the part of the brief that is the

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worst part to summarize. Using a fake name. Prosecutor's allege,

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Burke ordered the following items on Amazon and Postmates delivered

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to his home, a shovel, a body bag, heavy duty

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laundry bags, two chainsaws, a blue inflatable pool, and a

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burn cage. The burn cage, prosecutors say was part of

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a plan to incinerate evidence. They alleged that he used

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the chainsaws to dis remember Celeste's body in the inflatable

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pool in his garage. They say her DNA was later

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found there. They alleged he drove three separate times to

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Lake Kachuma in Santa Barbara County, about one hundred and

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ten miles northwest of his house, to get rid of evidence.

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Her passport, prosecutors say, was found near the lake in January.

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On September eighth, twenty twenty five, Celest's remains were found

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in the front trunk of Burke's tesla, abandoned in the

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Hollywood Hills, towed to a police impound lot, where an

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employee noticed the smell. Prosecutors also confirmed in earlier hearings

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that Burke's electronic devices contained quote A significant amount of

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child sexual abuse material. The brief alleges some of that

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material was of Celeste herself. He had been recording it.

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That is the state's allegation. To be clear and to

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be fair, David Burke has pleaded not guilty. His attorney,

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Blair Burke, has stated on the record, quote, the actual

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evidence in this case will show that David Burke did

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not murder Celeste Reevas Hernandez and he was not the

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cause of her death. That is the defense position. They

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are entitled to that defense. Burke is entitled to a

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presumption of innocence until twelve people in a courtroom say otherwise.

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But here's where the procedural part of yesterday matters. The

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defense asked for the brief to be sealed. They invoked

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the jury pool. They said, this case is getting too

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much attention. Of course they did, because if you're defending

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David Burke, the absolute last thing you want the public

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reading is that he met an eleven year old, started

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sleeping with her at thirteen, lied about it to police,

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killed her when she threatened to talk, and then the

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day after he stabbed a child to death in his

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own home, went on the radio to promote his album.

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There's no version of that story a lawyer can spin

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into something the public will forgive. And there's a deeper

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problem here. We've been telling you about this case since

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September of twenty twenty five, seven months. The medical examiner

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sat on the cause of death for months. The grand

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jury was convened, records were sealed, Investigators told the public

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there might only be concealment of a body charges. Independent investigators,

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the ones using their actual names, were screaming into the

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void about how slow this was moving, about what they

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were hearing about the state of Celeste's body, about a

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friend named Neo who was a target, about other people

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who knew about what it took to get from a

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tesla in a towyard to an arrest. Look, I'm going

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to be honest with you. There's an old, ugly pattern

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in cases like this. When the suspect is a young

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man with a million followers and a record deal, the

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system slows down. When the victim is a fourteen year

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old Latina girl from Lake Elsinore, the system slows down.

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The Hollywood Hills got more sympathy than the Inland Empire

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always has. Celeste Revas Hernandez was thirteen when David Burke

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allegedly started raping her. She was fourteen when he allegedly

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killed her. She would be fifteen now. She should be

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a sophomore in high school. She should be arguing with

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her parents about a new phone for legitimate reasons. She

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should be alive. Someone has to say her name. Celeste

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Revas Hernandez May twenty six will be there commercial break

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when we come back. The defense for Tanner Horner runs

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out of psychiatrists and starts calling the man's mom's friends.

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Athena Strands killer days thirteen and fourteen Stay with US

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Fort Worth, Texas Terrant County day thirteen and day fourteen

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of the penalty phase for Tanner Lynn Horner Quick reset

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for anyone who joined late. Horner is the FedEx contract

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driver who please did guilty on day one, April seventh,

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to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping for the killing of

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seven year old Athena Strand. He hit her with his

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van delivering a Christmas package to her house in November

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of twenty twenty two. She told him her name. He

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decided she'd tell on him. He tried to break her neck.

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When that didn't work, he strangled her with his bare

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hands in the back of the van. He drove around

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for hours. Afterward, he cleaned the van at a love's

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gas station. He sang jingle Bell Rock as he drove

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past search teams looking for her. The entire thing was

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on dash camp. Because he pleaded guilty, the only question

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now is whether he gets the death penalty or life

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in prison without parole. Texas requires the jury to make

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two findings unanimously. First, would Horner be a continuing threat

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to society? Second? Is there enough in his background to

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mitigate against death. The defense's only job at this point

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is the second question, find and anything at all that

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gives twelve people in Fort Worth a reason to vote

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for life. They've been at it for two weeks. They

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put up the brain scientists. They put up the speech

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pathologists who said his language in the abduction video turn

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quote horrific. They put up his mother, who told the

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jury about her own catastrophic childhood and her drinking during pregnancy.

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They put up the cousin who said Tanner eight coins

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as a kid. They put up the metals expert who

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said he had high light exposure. They put up the

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school counselor. They put up the special education teacher. They

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put up his pastor. They put up his fifth grade

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best friend, Ruby, who dated him in high school for

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a few months and described him as sweet and endearing

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right up until the part where she broke up with

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him to date someone else and he quote got mad.

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That was through day twelve. Now we're at day thirteen

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and day fourteen. Day thirteen Tuesday brought the mother of

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one of Horner's friends. She told the jury that both

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her son and Tanner were bullied as children. Some of

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the witnesses are starting to blur together at this point.

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The defense is hammering one note difficult childhood, difficult brain,

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difficult life. They're hoping the cumulative weight of it tips

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one juror. Then a friend named Jay testified said he

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met Horner in twenty fourteen through a mutual friend. Said

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he was shocked when he heard the news, described Horner

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as a goofball. Then Jay added a detail that the

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defense almost certainly didn't want him to add. Unprompted. He

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said Tanner would hit himself several times before hitting somebody else.

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Think about that for a second. The defense is trying

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to argue Horner's violence was the product of brain damage

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and a bad upbringing. Their own witness just told the

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jury that Horner's violence had a process a pregame ritual.

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He hit himself to work himself up to hit other people.

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That that's not damage, that's a method. There's a difference,

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and a Texas jury is going to know the difference.

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Day thirteen also brought a convicted felon, a man who

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knew Horner through music and who admitted to using drugs

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with him. Then doctor Eileen Ryan, a professor of psychiatry.

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She did a comprehensive forensic psychiatric evaluation. She walked through

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Horner's diagnoses. She told the jury about a suicide attempt

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Horner made in jail, cuts to his upper and lower extremities.

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She mentioned a previous suicide attempt in twenty eighteen. That

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last detail matters. The defense will tell you it shows

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Horner is a man in psychological distress deserving of mercy.

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