July 22, 2026
D4vd Prelim Hearing Day 1: Gruesome Photos, Shocking Receipts And Revealing Body Cam Footage
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RSS Feed It was an emotional and disturbing day in court Tuesday, as the parents of murdered 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez sat through gruesome photos of their daughter’s dismembered remains. Her parents, just feet away from singer D4vd, who is charged with Celeste’s murder and dismemberment. The prosecution also presented evidence linking D4vd to online purchases in the aftermath of Celeste’s murder, body cam footage from officers questioning him a year before the murder, and a shocking look at just how much the singer was already earning at the time of her death.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks. It is Wednesday, July twenty second, and the parents of fourteen year old Celeste lebas Hernandez were offered the option to walk out of the courtroom or to at least turn their heads away yesterday as the prosecution put up picture after picture of their child's dismembered and decomposing body. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ THATTT robes was day one of the preliminary hearing for David. This is a long delayed, much anticipated day and just wow.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: I think every parent can't even imagine putting themselves in the position of her parents, Mercedes and Jesus, and to know that they chose to stay in that courtroom while the unthinkable photos of their daughter's remains were displayed all on a large screen for the entire courtroom to see. It's unthinkable and by all accounts, look, her mother began crying, she averted her eyes from folks who were watching. But they say her father stared at the screen with what they described as a mournful expression.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: My God.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: And so we're getting descriptions, various descriptions, but they are for the most part consistent. I would say Robes in describing a lot of what we're seeing in the courtroom. I say we're seeing I should say what they are seeing in the courtroom. There are not cameras, There will not be cameras as, will not be live streams, So we're depending on reports from reporters who are in there in the room, and yes, Robes from what they describe. This is part of the reason Ropes, even if they wouldn't have shown the images to the world via a live stream, just hearing some of this detail is difficult to hear. And this is why the judge and I can't go. I mean, how can you argue? I want to see it, I want access, But Robes, this is some this is some horrible stuff.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: It's hard enough to read it, Honestly, it's hard enough to see the words in black and white, let alone see those photos and hear some of the testimony where they describe what they saw.
00:02:15
Speaker 1: And you we initially thought this was going to go a few days. We saw a report. Would you say, yesterday could go up to maybe.
00:02:21
Speaker 3: They were saying three to seven days.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: Seven days now, so yesterday was day one, and yes, we are hearing a lot of details, a lot of new details and yes, the gruesome photos shown in the courtroom on day one of this hearing. Of course, singer David real name David Anthony Burke is charged with murder and sexual abuse of fourteen year old celest rebus Hernandez, who's dismembered and badly decomposing body was found in the trunk of that Tesla Rose Today one they got three witnesses on the stand already, two of them having to do with the investigation, one of them to talk about his financial manager. Actually, I thought Robes. There was back and forth again we see what the ultimate decision was, even about how David was supposed to come into court. This was an interesting compromise, I guess the judge decided to find. Of course, his side wanted him to be able to come in and street clothes, unshackled. Didn't quite get what they wanted. No.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: In fact, he ended up in the courtroom in his orange jail issue jumpsuit. His hands were uncuffed, so that was part of the compromise, but he was shackled to the chair he was seated in. Seems like that's a fair compromise because obviously they wanted to maintain security and also at the same time allow him to have his hands free during these days long hearings that would be tough to sit there with your hand shackled the entire time.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: So a lot of people would say, I don't give a damn exactly.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: When you see these photos, you might think, yeah, there should be worse things happening to him.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: We give zero damns about your comfort in this courtroom. But it was packed once again and rodes, as it's happening in many of these high profile cases. I don't know how it worked out there, how you get a ticket if you will, But they do a lottery for the public. But it sounds overwhelmingly from what I was seeing that most of the folks are actually media.
00:04:13
Speaker 3: Ye they're in the room.
00:04:14
Speaker 2: Yes, dozens of reporters, I believe is how it was characterized. But yes, a lottery for the public to get seats as well. This case has gotten worldwide attention. People have been focused on this case from the beginning. A lot of it was just the lack of information for so long and the amount of time it took for authorities to actually even make the arrest and even acknowledge that David was their main suspect. That took months before people were able to get that information, and I do think that generated even more interest. And just the details in this case are worse than any horror movie we've ever seen.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you said, a worldwide headlines on this case. He was on the verge possibly becoming a worldwide star, and they get into that and is why won of the people called to the stand yesterday was Benjamin Gregor, his financial manager. Will tell you what he actually said about David's earnings. Robes this which were shocking a little bit, I do have to say for an up and comer, but the first person up robes in this I wish I could would have seen this actual video. But depuby Wan Gonzalez from the La Sheriff's Department now this he is not a part of the current murder investigation. He was a part of the investigation into missing Oh.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: She was thirteen when she went missing.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: Thirteen. Celesse Ribas Hernandez was missing in twenty twenty four. So Robes, they go to his house, they make a connection, know that he knows her, so goes to ask him some questions. Robes. The entire interaction that the officer described and what is described on video seems like he was as chill as all get out.
00:05:52
Speaker 2: Yes, this was back in this body can video was from twenty twenty four.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. They go buy his house, David's house. They ask about Celeste.
00:06:01
Speaker 2: And this is so, this is before she's died, right, this is before she's dead, she's just missing.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: She at this point she was reported missing. I can't remember what time.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: I believe it was April of twenty twenty four.
00:06:13
Speaker 1: So they go to his house and are asking him about it. They say he greets them at the door, eating food, has a I don't know, some kind of wrap in his head, chills anything, offer them alcohol, and he says that he thought the girl was eighteen. She told me the quote that you hear him saying on the video. She told me she was eighteen. Everybody's telling me she's thirteen, And apparently he's saying at the moment robes this is news to me. I didn't know she was thirteen? Is yes, any way possible? No, this is true.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: He met her when she was eleven. Online.
00:06:47
Speaker 2: There's no way you think someone who's eleven years old before they've gone through puberty, or perhaps while they're going through puberty that you might imagine they're older than they appear, and so yes, he also clearly stated he only met her once and at the time he's telling police that at this door, acting all cool, calm and casual, he had already been in a sexual relationship with her for months, according to police. So he was flat out lying and yes to say he thought she was eighteen.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: But they were complimentary. They said he was nice and cooperative. There was nothing suspicious about him, and he was being helpful, chilling and not a little bit, ain't it. The second person they got up on the stand was Joshua Byers. Now this is the guy who was called in. He's a homicide detective and he's the one Robes who got involved when they had to go find the tesla, and he was there when they opened the tesla. Robes, the stuff he describes is just robes. The stinch he described, and there's a particular detail where he said the medical examiner said the body was in such a decompososed state in that body bag that it was impossible to remove it from the body bag.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: Yes, because the remains had essentially liquefied. He described it as liquefied tissue and described some of.
00:08:17
Speaker 3: What was around and in that bag.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: We're talking maggots and flies, like as gross as it gets. He's describing this, and again her parents are in the courtroom, and he talked about how the body bag was on top of a garbage bag. In that garbage bag contained Celeste's arms and legs.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: And again they're showing these images in the courtroom as he's walking everybody through it. And yes, her parents are sitting in that courtroom. Now he was he I think most time yesterday was spent with him because he knew so much about the investigation. A couple of things that he did add that I hadn't heard before. Robes, they can connect David's email address to plane tickets that were purchased for him and Celes Riebas Hernandez to fly from California to Texas, California to London. So they have they're making all these connections ropes to where it's impossible for him to say he didn't have a connection of some kind or relationship with her. Again, we don't know what the defense is going to be yet, right, or that he.
00:09:24
Speaker 3: Only met her once.
00:09:25
Speaker 2: Obviously, if you've got plane tickets of the two of them traveling together, purchased by him. And look, it'll be interesting to see how much we hear about that trip to Texas because reportedly he took her home to meet his family, So that is of note. So to try to say it was just casual or he met her once, that will be incredibly difficult.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: But go ahead.
00:09:47
Speaker 1: I just still as you say that, what in God's name is the defense going to be? You have to say she died accidentally and.
00:09:55
Speaker 3: With the stab wounds, with stab wos more than one wasn't that's difficult. Yes.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: Also among these photos you can see the Celeste's hand with those severed fingers. We've heard so much about the prosecution reporting that David basically amputated the finger, the ring finger where she had his name on it, and the pinky just I guess because it was right there, so he severed those two fingers. They've never recovered those fingers. But also that photo of celeste tattoo on her right finger that says alongside David's tattoo on his right index finger with the matching sh and that all obviously speaks to the clandestine nature of their relationship. And heap I believe, has Celeste's name on tattooed on one of his fingers as well. So try to explain that for somebody you've only met once.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Yeah, clearly he was lying with police at that time. It does not a murderer make I guess they are going to try to make that argument. They also again, those all the stuff we describe what they found in the trunk robes that we have been hearing about for months and months. That stuff was actually shown in court yesterday. So what a day you can imagine for the parents sitting in there. The other thing we hear it talked about figuratively, sometimes people have receipts.
00:11:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to see the receipts.
00:11:22
Speaker 1: They literally have the receipts robes from what he was up to. They have the dates of purchases, and they have a chainsaw. They have the date robes that he had a shovel and a chainsaw delivered to the house via postmates.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: Yes, and I believe this. We can get into the timeline in a bit, But this is the day after prosecutors believe she was murdered. He orders the next day, Well, he has a shovel delivered via Postmates to his Hollywood Hills home to his home then between May first and May fifth, so just a few days later, they have seats of him purchasing a body bag. I didn't even know you could purchase a body bag?
00:12:05
Speaker 3: By the way, how do you do that?
00:12:08
Speaker 1: I guess you can, But well, somebody ask why you need it?
00:12:11
Speaker 3: And why would that be available? Why should that be available to?
00:12:15
Speaker 1: What else are these used for? There?
00:12:17
Speaker 2: I've never googled body bag. I don't really want to either.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Why would you need one?
00:12:23
Speaker 2: Maybe if you have an animal, but still wouldn't you just call authorities to come take your pet away. I'm trying to imagine a legal scenario in which you would or need, would need to have access to a body bag, two chainsaws. That inflatable pool we've heard so much about, and by the way, they've described it as.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: A blue inflatable pool.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: They will even show you in the pictures where her leg was amputated. You can see above the knee correct some blue specs that came from that pool. They say he used an alien when he made these purchases, as if somehow that was not going to connect him to the purchases.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: This is one of those things you're talking about dumb criminals. Man.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: He used his credit card, used an alias Travion Davis. And yes, all of those items that were purchased using his credit card using a fake name were found in his home.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Yes, And the thing Robes initially they had this receipt for the two chainsaws that he purchased, but they discovered that there was because those two were found in the house. The third one has never been recovered, and that's the one that came from Postmates. Where is that chainsaw the.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Bottom of some body of water, probably or buried with the shuffle he purchased.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: Who knows. But the timeline Robes is that this timeline is incredible as laid out by the prosecutor on what happened on April twenty second, twenty third, twenty fourth, and twenty fifth. I know their circumstantial evidence, roabes. This is as is building a case. That four day stretch of what happened is incredible.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: It is because on April twenty second, prosecutors say, Celeste threatened to expose their illegal relationship. Now I guess we haven't seen yet, but I'm assuming they know this based on text messages or phone records, so we'll be looking for that. The following day she's murdered. So April twenty second, she's threatening to expose their relationship. April twenty third, they say she was murdered. April twenty fourth, David orders a shovel via Postmates, and April twenty fifth, oh yeah, his debut studio album, Withered is released.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: I never put this together before. Had we seen this? Maybe I just didn't see it laid out like this, But I didn't realize that sequence of events went like that.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was that close. I knew his album was about to be released. I didn't realize it was literally one day after the next.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: I mean you could. It's not a stretch to think if she was threatening to expl it was tied to or she knew the album release was coming and that she was using that as some kind of threat. My goodness, back to back to back days, all this is happening. Kills her two days, according to authorities, two days before his album is released, and.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Then the sickening thing about it, he goes on to go to an album release party, goes off celebrating, goes on his worldwide tour as if nothing's happened. All the while, we're now seeing what he was doing in the days. While he's celebrating his big new studio album, his debut studio album, he's also actually taking a.
00:15:42
Speaker 3: Prime role in a horror movie of his own creating.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: And the other nugget I forgot to include here, they showed evidence of the his phone was connected to that tesla on the day that tesla was abandoned. So they share the evidence that phone has never been recovered, but it had a nickname of Tranquilizer Go Figure, but they know it was connected to that tesla. So they're essentially saying, we have evidence he was the last person driving the car before it was parked on the street. They have video surveillance of that day of him making a stop in that car as he's driving. They video of him actually walking off the street away from the car in the direction of his home. Ropes.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: That's as close to a smoking gun as you're gonna get.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: And again, this is a preliminary hearing to determine what.
00:16:40
Speaker 3: Whether or not this case should go to trial.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: Yes, so stay with us here. As we talked about a moment ago we were kind of stunned at how well this career of his was going. Also, a couple of things up in the air still One what is the defense strategy going to be? And two will they go for the death penalty?
00:17:04
Speaker 2: And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. And yesterday day one in David Anthony Burke singer David's preliminary hearing, Wow, it was as.
00:17:26
Speaker 3: Promised it was. I mean, it was gruesome.
00:17:30
Speaker 2: It was shocking, and even though we know we have a pretty good idea of the evidence against the singer, to see it displayed, or at least to read about it. We didn't actually see it because there aren't cameras in the courtroom because of it's explicit nature. It's just too much for people to see and hear. But what we have learned from what happened in that courtroom, it was just as awful as we were expecting, if not worse, I would even say worse. Just to to hear the photos, to hear what these detectives, with these investigators encountered upon even finding her body.
00:18:09
Speaker 3: It's just as awful as it gets.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: Did you see one this jumped off the page at me or it was one reporter described right, all the pictures we're talking about, all the pictures were showing of her dismembered body and all this stuff. Out of all those pictures, there was only one photo in which Celeste Revs Hernandez was recognizable. That was when they showed the tattoo on her finger. That was it. That was the only thing that was identifiable about a human being whose name was celest Revas Hernandez, who.
00:18:46
Speaker 2: Was a young girl who was fourteen years old.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: We oh, my god, we're here hanging out with a child. We've been yes, we've been talking about we're here on we're out of the city for a little bit for a few weeks. And Sabina's with us is thirteen years old.
00:19:02
Speaker 3: She's thirteen and a half baby.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: I say that to say she's six months away from being Celeste's age.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: And I think about her, just thinking we were watching the World Cup. She like thinks Jude Bellingham is cute, and I'm about to lose my mind. Right, the idea that someone her age is in any way just having a discussion with a twenty year old man doesn't make any Then you go back to twelve and eleven, what bro so that part of this story and I think just how much of a child she was is I guess getting a little lost in some of the gruesomeness, but we gotta can I know it's social media. The girls look older, and I know the shirts go up a little higher and whatnot. They like them cut. These are babies, man, these are babies.
00:19:52
Speaker 2: And she was a baby, and he was a I mean he, I was gonna say, And we have been saying that he was a bell to hit worldwide fame. He was about to go on his worldwide tour. He had been a TikTok YouTube sensation, but self made, self made, impressive as hell. But we were saying he was on his way. His debut studio album had just been released, but he was already earning significant cash. Like I was shocked when we heard in court yesterday just how much money David had been bringing in already before he was about to hit meteoric levels.
00:20:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know how these numbers work, but they said up to eleven and a half million dollars. Anywhere between ten and eleven and a half million is what he has earned in his career from his music career, from merchandising from whatever he's doing. He has earned that the past couple of years. He was twenty years old when he was arrested.
00:20:51
Speaker 2: I can't imagine to have that, to be on the precipice, and to have already earned that much, to be on the precipice of so much more. And maybe it was because so much was at stake for him, because so much money was at stake, and what his future earnings could be, that he was willing to kill this young girl whose name he had tattooed on his hand, to just make her go away. What is it in his mind is? And look some of his music, some of his lyrics, might point to his state of mind and where his head is about.
00:21:27
Speaker 3: I don't know.
00:21:27
Speaker 1: Is there some.
00:21:30
Speaker 2: Unknown blurring between reality and fantasy because his songs actually depict violence. Romantic homicide is one of his famous titles. It's just it's fascinating but disturbing all at the same time. How someone that young could be capable of committing such a vile, horrific act to another human being who he purported to love.
00:21:54
Speaker 1: And again they bring this up, and they brought the financial man of Drop for that reason. Robes to make the point he had a lot at stake, and he had a lot to lose and a lot more potentially to lose. He was just getting started. He was just getting started, his career started. Now, we didn't give much of a hint robe necessarily of what or maybe you could say maybe he did or they did, Robes give a hint of what a defense strategy would be. That they seem to be going after the evidence a little bit, going out actually the way it was collected. They're going out to the police and the investigation. I guess right now we're starting to see them chip I say, chip away, but at least ask some questions about how evidence was collected and maybe trying to hone in and focus on that part of the investigation so far, but I haven't seen anything necessarily they made any inroads to this point. The other thing we do want to mention Robes. The prosecutor said it when they first arrested and charged David. But still seem like they're not sure what they want to do with the life in prison or the death melody.
00:22:56
Speaker 2: Uh no, and they're holding that close to the vest. You made the point we were talking about this that look some people might say, what does it matter, when's the last time California has executed a death row inmate. But we've had a series of democratic governors, and Gavin Newsom is stepping down. A Republican could take his place come November, and the death penalty may very well may be reinforced or inforced at least at this point going forward. So it actually does matter and potentially could have. It could be the difference between life or death.
00:23:30
Speaker 1: Because robes, we talk about who's going to be the next governor, but ros death roy inmates sit there for ten years, twenty years, thirty forty years, you'll predict who might be the governor.
00:23:42
Speaker 3: That's so true.
00:23:43
Speaker 1: Down the road. So that is just day one. We'll keep another close eye on day two. I want to say thanks again to the reporters, and they're doing the great work of essentially they're the pool reporters for all of us, because only so many are being allowed in. So we certainly thank them for reporting out and will continue to report to you. But we appreciate you as always listening to us on t J on behalf of my dear Amy Robock. We'll talk to y'all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks. It is Wednesday, July twenty second, and the parents of fourteen year old Celeste lebas Hernandez were offered the option to walk out of the courtroom or to at least turn their heads away yesterday as the prosecution put up picture after picture of their child's dismembered and decomposing body. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ THATTT robes was day one of the preliminary hearing for David. This is a long delayed, much anticipated day and just wow.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: I think every parent can't even imagine putting themselves in the position of her parents, Mercedes and Jesus, and to know that they chose to stay in that courtroom while the unthinkable photos of their daughter's remains were displayed all on a large screen for the entire courtroom to see. It's unthinkable and by all accounts, look, her mother began crying, she averted her eyes from folks who were watching. But they say her father stared at the screen with what they described as a mournful expression.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: My God.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: And so we're getting descriptions, various descriptions, but they are for the most part consistent. I would say Robes in describing a lot of what we're seeing in the courtroom. I say we're seeing I should say what they are seeing in the courtroom. There are not cameras, There will not be cameras as, will not be live streams, So we're depending on reports from reporters who are in there in the room, and yes, Robes from what they describe. This is part of the reason Ropes, even if they wouldn't have shown the images to the world via a live stream, just hearing some of this detail is difficult to hear. And this is why the judge and I can't go. I mean, how can you argue? I want to see it, I want access, But Robes, this is some this is some horrible stuff.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: It's hard enough to read it, Honestly, it's hard enough to see the words in black and white, let alone see those photos and hear some of the testimony where they describe what they saw.
00:02:15
Speaker 1: And you we initially thought this was going to go a few days. We saw a report. Would you say, yesterday could go up to maybe.
00:02:21
Speaker 3: They were saying three to seven days.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: Seven days now, so yesterday was day one, and yes, we are hearing a lot of details, a lot of new details and yes, the gruesome photos shown in the courtroom on day one of this hearing. Of course, singer David real name David Anthony Burke is charged with murder and sexual abuse of fourteen year old celest rebus Hernandez, who's dismembered and badly decomposing body was found in the trunk of that Tesla Rose Today one they got three witnesses on the stand already, two of them having to do with the investigation, one of them to talk about his financial manager. Actually, I thought Robes. There was back and forth again we see what the ultimate decision was, even about how David was supposed to come into court. This was an interesting compromise, I guess the judge decided to find. Of course, his side wanted him to be able to come in and street clothes, unshackled. Didn't quite get what they wanted. No.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: In fact, he ended up in the courtroom in his orange jail issue jumpsuit. His hands were uncuffed, so that was part of the compromise, but he was shackled to the chair he was seated in. Seems like that's a fair compromise because obviously they wanted to maintain security and also at the same time allow him to have his hands free during these days long hearings that would be tough to sit there with your hand shackled the entire time.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: So a lot of people would say, I don't give a damn exactly.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: When you see these photos, you might think, yeah, there should be worse things happening to him.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: We give zero damns about your comfort in this courtroom. But it was packed once again and rodes, as it's happening in many of these high profile cases. I don't know how it worked out there, how you get a ticket if you will, But they do a lottery for the public. But it sounds overwhelmingly from what I was seeing that most of the folks are actually media.
00:04:13
Speaker 3: Ye they're in the room.
00:04:14
Speaker 2: Yes, dozens of reporters, I believe is how it was characterized. But yes, a lottery for the public to get seats as well. This case has gotten worldwide attention. People have been focused on this case from the beginning. A lot of it was just the lack of information for so long and the amount of time it took for authorities to actually even make the arrest and even acknowledge that David was their main suspect. That took months before people were able to get that information, and I do think that generated even more interest. And just the details in this case are worse than any horror movie we've ever seen.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you said, a worldwide headlines on this case. He was on the verge possibly becoming a worldwide star, and they get into that and is why won of the people called to the stand yesterday was Benjamin Gregor, his financial manager. Will tell you what he actually said about David's earnings. Robes this which were shocking a little bit, I do have to say for an up and comer, but the first person up robes in this I wish I could would have seen this actual video. But depuby Wan Gonzalez from the La Sheriff's Department now this he is not a part of the current murder investigation. He was a part of the investigation into missing Oh.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: She was thirteen when she went missing.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: Thirteen. Celesse Ribas Hernandez was missing in twenty twenty four. So Robes, they go to his house, they make a connection, know that he knows her, so goes to ask him some questions. Robes. The entire interaction that the officer described and what is described on video seems like he was as chill as all get out.
00:05:52
Speaker 2: Yes, this was back in this body can video was from twenty twenty four.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. They go buy his house, David's house. They ask about Celeste.
00:06:01
Speaker 2: And this is so, this is before she's died, right, this is before she's dead, she's just missing.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: She at this point she was reported missing. I can't remember what time.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: I believe it was April of twenty twenty four.
00:06:13
Speaker 1: So they go to his house and are asking him about it. They say he greets them at the door, eating food, has a I don't know, some kind of wrap in his head, chills anything, offer them alcohol, and he says that he thought the girl was eighteen. She told me the quote that you hear him saying on the video. She told me she was eighteen. Everybody's telling me she's thirteen, And apparently he's saying at the moment robes this is news to me. I didn't know she was thirteen? Is yes, any way possible? No, this is true.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: He met her when she was eleven. Online.
00:06:47
Speaker 2: There's no way you think someone who's eleven years old before they've gone through puberty, or perhaps while they're going through puberty that you might imagine they're older than they appear, and so yes, he also clearly stated he only met her once and at the time he's telling police that at this door, acting all cool, calm and casual, he had already been in a sexual relationship with her for months, according to police. So he was flat out lying and yes to say he thought she was eighteen.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: But they were complimentary. They said he was nice and cooperative. There was nothing suspicious about him, and he was being helpful, chilling and not a little bit, ain't it. The second person they got up on the stand was Joshua Byers. Now this is the guy who was called in. He's a homicide detective and he's the one Robes who got involved when they had to go find the tesla, and he was there when they opened the tesla. Robes, the stuff he describes is just robes. The stinch he described, and there's a particular detail where he said the medical examiner said the body was in such a decompososed state in that body bag that it was impossible to remove it from the body bag.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: Yes, because the remains had essentially liquefied. He described it as liquefied tissue and described some of.
00:08:17
Speaker 3: What was around and in that bag.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: We're talking maggots and flies, like as gross as it gets. He's describing this, and again her parents are in the courtroom, and he talked about how the body bag was on top of a garbage bag. In that garbage bag contained Celeste's arms and legs.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: And again they're showing these images in the courtroom as he's walking everybody through it. And yes, her parents are sitting in that courtroom. Now he was he I think most time yesterday was spent with him because he knew so much about the investigation. A couple of things that he did add that I hadn't heard before. Robes, they can connect David's email address to plane tickets that were purchased for him and Celes Riebas Hernandez to fly from California to Texas, California to London. So they have they're making all these connections ropes to where it's impossible for him to say he didn't have a connection of some kind or relationship with her. Again, we don't know what the defense is going to be yet, right, or that he.
00:09:24
Speaker 3: Only met her once.
00:09:25
Speaker 2: Obviously, if you've got plane tickets of the two of them traveling together, purchased by him. And look, it'll be interesting to see how much we hear about that trip to Texas because reportedly he took her home to meet his family, So that is of note. So to try to say it was just casual or he met her once, that will be incredibly difficult.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: But go ahead.
00:09:47
Speaker 1: I just still as you say that, what in God's name is the defense going to be? You have to say she died accidentally and.
00:09:55
Speaker 3: With the stab wounds, with stab wos more than one wasn't that's difficult. Yes.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: Also among these photos you can see the Celeste's hand with those severed fingers. We've heard so much about the prosecution reporting that David basically amputated the finger, the ring finger where she had his name on it, and the pinky just I guess because it was right there, so he severed those two fingers. They've never recovered those fingers. But also that photo of celeste tattoo on her right finger that says alongside David's tattoo on his right index finger with the matching sh and that all obviously speaks to the clandestine nature of their relationship. And heap I believe, has Celeste's name on tattooed on one of his fingers as well. So try to explain that for somebody you've only met once.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Yeah, clearly he was lying with police at that time. It does not a murderer make I guess they are going to try to make that argument. They also again, those all the stuff we describe what they found in the trunk robes that we have been hearing about for months and months. That stuff was actually shown in court yesterday. So what a day you can imagine for the parents sitting in there. The other thing we hear it talked about figuratively, sometimes people have receipts.
00:11:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to see the receipts.
00:11:22
Speaker 1: They literally have the receipts robes from what he was up to. They have the dates of purchases, and they have a chainsaw. They have the date robes that he had a shovel and a chainsaw delivered to the house via postmates.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: Yes, and I believe this. We can get into the timeline in a bit, But this is the day after prosecutors believe she was murdered. He orders the next day, Well, he has a shovel delivered via Postmates to his Hollywood Hills home to his home then between May first and May fifth, so just a few days later, they have seats of him purchasing a body bag. I didn't even know you could purchase a body bag?
00:12:05
Speaker 3: By the way, how do you do that?
00:12:08
Speaker 1: I guess you can, But well, somebody ask why you need it?
00:12:11
Speaker 3: And why would that be available? Why should that be available to?
00:12:15
Speaker 1: What else are these used for? There?
00:12:17
Speaker 2: I've never googled body bag. I don't really want to either.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Why would you need one?
00:12:23
Speaker 2: Maybe if you have an animal, but still wouldn't you just call authorities to come take your pet away. I'm trying to imagine a legal scenario in which you would or need, would need to have access to a body bag, two chainsaws. That inflatable pool we've heard so much about, and by the way, they've described it as.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: A blue inflatable pool.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: They will even show you in the pictures where her leg was amputated. You can see above the knee correct some blue specs that came from that pool. They say he used an alien when he made these purchases, as if somehow that was not going to connect him to the purchases.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: This is one of those things you're talking about dumb criminals. Man.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: He used his credit card, used an alias Travion Davis. And yes, all of those items that were purchased using his credit card using a fake name were found in his home.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Yes, And the thing Robes initially they had this receipt for the two chainsaws that he purchased, but they discovered that there was because those two were found in the house. The third one has never been recovered, and that's the one that came from Postmates. Where is that chainsaw the.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Bottom of some body of water, probably or buried with the shuffle he purchased.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: Who knows. But the timeline Robes is that this timeline is incredible as laid out by the prosecutor on what happened on April twenty second, twenty third, twenty fourth, and twenty fifth. I know their circumstantial evidence, roabes. This is as is building a case. That four day stretch of what happened is incredible.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: It is because on April twenty second, prosecutors say, Celeste threatened to expose their illegal relationship. Now I guess we haven't seen yet, but I'm assuming they know this based on text messages or phone records, so we'll be looking for that. The following day she's murdered. So April twenty second, she's threatening to expose their relationship. April twenty third, they say she was murdered. April twenty fourth, David orders a shovel via Postmates, and April twenty fifth, oh yeah, his debut studio album, Withered is released.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: I never put this together before. Had we seen this? Maybe I just didn't see it laid out like this, But I didn't realize that sequence of events went like that.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was that close. I knew his album was about to be released. I didn't realize it was literally one day after the next.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: I mean you could. It's not a stretch to think if she was threatening to expl it was tied to or she knew the album release was coming and that she was using that as some kind of threat. My goodness, back to back to back days, all this is happening. Kills her two days, according to authorities, two days before his album is released, and.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Then the sickening thing about it, he goes on to go to an album release party, goes off celebrating, goes on his worldwide tour as if nothing's happened. All the while, we're now seeing what he was doing in the days. While he's celebrating his big new studio album, his debut studio album, he's also actually taking a.
00:15:42
Speaker 3: Prime role in a horror movie of his own creating.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: And the other nugget I forgot to include here, they showed evidence of the his phone was connected to that tesla on the day that tesla was abandoned. So they share the evidence that phone has never been recovered, but it had a nickname of Tranquilizer Go Figure, but they know it was connected to that tesla. So they're essentially saying, we have evidence he was the last person driving the car before it was parked on the street. They have video surveillance of that day of him making a stop in that car as he's driving. They video of him actually walking off the street away from the car in the direction of his home. Ropes.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: That's as close to a smoking gun as you're gonna get.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: And again, this is a preliminary hearing to determine what.
00:16:40
Speaker 3: Whether or not this case should go to trial.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: Yes, so stay with us here. As we talked about a moment ago we were kind of stunned at how well this career of his was going. Also, a couple of things up in the air still One what is the defense strategy going to be? And two will they go for the death penalty?
00:17:04
Speaker 2: And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. And yesterday day one in David Anthony Burke singer David's preliminary hearing, Wow, it was as.
00:17:26
Speaker 3: Promised it was. I mean, it was gruesome.
00:17:30
Speaker 2: It was shocking, and even though we know we have a pretty good idea of the evidence against the singer, to see it displayed, or at least to read about it. We didn't actually see it because there aren't cameras in the courtroom because of it's explicit nature. It's just too much for people to see and hear. But what we have learned from what happened in that courtroom, it was just as awful as we were expecting, if not worse, I would even say worse. Just to to hear the photos, to hear what these detectives, with these investigators encountered upon even finding her body.
00:18:09
Speaker 3: It's just as awful as it gets.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: Did you see one this jumped off the page at me or it was one reporter described right, all the pictures we're talking about, all the pictures were showing of her dismembered body and all this stuff. Out of all those pictures, there was only one photo in which Celeste Revs Hernandez was recognizable. That was when they showed the tattoo on her finger. That was it. That was the only thing that was identifiable about a human being whose name was celest Revas Hernandez, who.
00:18:46
Speaker 2: Was a young girl who was fourteen years old.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: We oh, my god, we're here hanging out with a child. We've been yes, we've been talking about we're here on we're out of the city for a little bit for a few weeks. And Sabina's with us is thirteen years old.
00:19:02
Speaker 3: She's thirteen and a half baby.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: I say that to say she's six months away from being Celeste's age.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: And I think about her, just thinking we were watching the World Cup. She like thinks Jude Bellingham is cute, and I'm about to lose my mind. Right, the idea that someone her age is in any way just having a discussion with a twenty year old man doesn't make any Then you go back to twelve and eleven, what bro so that part of this story and I think just how much of a child she was is I guess getting a little lost in some of the gruesomeness, but we gotta can I know it's social media. The girls look older, and I know the shirts go up a little higher and whatnot. They like them cut. These are babies, man, these are babies.
00:19:52
Speaker 2: And she was a baby, and he was a I mean he, I was gonna say, And we have been saying that he was a bell to hit worldwide fame. He was about to go on his worldwide tour. He had been a TikTok YouTube sensation, but self made, self made, impressive as hell. But we were saying he was on his way. His debut studio album had just been released, but he was already earning significant cash. Like I was shocked when we heard in court yesterday just how much money David had been bringing in already before he was about to hit meteoric levels.
00:20:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know how these numbers work, but they said up to eleven and a half million dollars. Anywhere between ten and eleven and a half million is what he has earned in his career from his music career, from merchandising from whatever he's doing. He has earned that the past couple of years. He was twenty years old when he was arrested.
00:20:51
Speaker 2: I can't imagine to have that, to be on the precipice, and to have already earned that much, to be on the precipice of so much more. And maybe it was because so much was at stake for him, because so much money was at stake, and what his future earnings could be, that he was willing to kill this young girl whose name he had tattooed on his hand, to just make her go away. What is it in his mind is? And look some of his music, some of his lyrics, might point to his state of mind and where his head is about.
00:21:27
Speaker 3: I don't know.
00:21:27
Speaker 1: Is there some.
00:21:30
Speaker 2: Unknown blurring between reality and fantasy because his songs actually depict violence. Romantic homicide is one of his famous titles. It's just it's fascinating but disturbing all at the same time. How someone that young could be capable of committing such a vile, horrific act to another human being who he purported to love.
00:21:54
Speaker 1: And again they bring this up, and they brought the financial man of Drop for that reason. Robes to make the point he had a lot at stake, and he had a lot to lose and a lot more potentially to lose. He was just getting started. He was just getting started, his career started. Now, we didn't give much of a hint robe necessarily of what or maybe you could say maybe he did or they did, Robes give a hint of what a defense strategy would be. That they seem to be going after the evidence a little bit, going out actually the way it was collected. They're going out to the police and the investigation. I guess right now we're starting to see them chip I say, chip away, but at least ask some questions about how evidence was collected and maybe trying to hone in and focus on that part of the investigation so far, but I haven't seen anything necessarily they made any inroads to this point. The other thing we do want to mention Robes. The prosecutor said it when they first arrested and charged David. But still seem like they're not sure what they want to do with the life in prison or the death melody.
00:22:56
Speaker 2: Uh no, and they're holding that close to the vest. You made the point we were talking about this that look some people might say, what does it matter, when's the last time California has executed a death row inmate. But we've had a series of democratic governors, and Gavin Newsom is stepping down. A Republican could take his place come November, and the death penalty may very well may be reinforced or inforced at least at this point going forward. So it actually does matter and potentially could have. It could be the difference between life or death.
00:23:30
Speaker 1: Because robes, we talk about who's going to be the next governor, but ros death roy inmates sit there for ten years, twenty years, thirty forty years, you'll predict who might be the governor.
00:23:42
Speaker 3: That's so true.
00:23:43
Speaker 1: Down the road. So that is just day one. We'll keep another close eye on day two. I want to say thanks again to the reporters, and they're doing the great work of essentially they're the pool reporters for all of us, because only so many are being allowed in. So we certainly thank them for reporting out and will continue to report to you. But we appreciate you as always listening to us on t J on behalf of my dear Amy Robock. We'll talk to y'all soon.