Pod Insights Rotten Mango D4vd’s Defense Team Says Evidence Will Show D4vd Is NOT The Killer As CSAM Evidence Comes Out About this episode Two songs come out around the time of D4vd’s recent arrest titled, ‘Imaginary Love’ and ’S*x.’ However, these songs aren’t released by D4vd, they’re released by an artist with the stage name Cara Kova.
Cara Kova is also known as Caleb Burke, David’s younger brother. And his second debut single, ’S*x,’ is released right after David is arrested and charged in the murder, dismemberment and SA of a 14 year old girl.
Netizens have mixed feelings. Some just criticize the timing and title of Caleb’s release. Some disagree. That Caleb was states away from David and shouldn’t be judge by the actions of his older brother.
But a few netizens believe everything in David’s case is just way too suspicious and even use forums to ask anyone associated with David if they were a potential accomplice in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Full show notes available at RottenMangoPodcast.com
Transcript 14,154 words · 2 speakers
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0:59 Speaker 00 This is the audio part four for the newest updates of David's arrest with the David and Celeste Vivas Hernandez case. In part one, two, and three, we went over the arrest. We went over the prosecutor's preliminary brief, where they detailed the timeline of how they think David killed Celeste, when they think David killed Celeste, when they think he dismembered her body, and what happened afterwards, what tools he used. We also went over the 27-page autopsy that was finally released to the public, all of her injuries, as well as things like the fact that her left ring finger, pinky eye were missing. There's just a lot of details in there that I would watch first before heading into this one.
1:42 Speaker 00 And now, for this part, we're just gonna go through all of the things that have been happening in court since his arrest. The previous part, we went through the potential accomplices that netizens have been pointing their fingers at. Now, we're gonna keep you updated, so when we go into the June preliminary hearing, you know what to expect, you know kind of what's going to happen and what it means. And that is where we're headed. So with that, let's get into part four. David's attorney, Blair Burke, is proud of what she is doing. Like, maybe she's not proud about representing David, but you never know. She represented Harvey Weinstein previously, and she stated in an interview, "I am a feminist." Which, I mean, I think you can be a criminal defense attorney and be a feminist.
2:23 Speaker 00 That's not what I'm saying. Also, I guess it's not feminist to judge other women, but there's just a lot of statements that she made in this interview that are unhinged. She says, "In terms of sexual harassment, in terms of misconduct even, that's a conversation we should have. But these are very complicated conversations because human interactions, sexuality and sexual conduct is on a continuum. But while it's unacceptable or not allowed of us in a workplace, for instance, someone with more power to abuse their power by being vulgar or boorish or putting their hand on a woman when it's not wanted, it's important not to conflate that with rape. Every one of these acts is not rape. Every one of these acts is not a crime. It is definitely something we should be talking about,
3:07 Speaker 00 but it's not necessarily something we should criminalize." She continues, "One of those very uncomfortable truths is that there are women who engaged in sexual contact with a man in situations when they're not necessarily attracted to that man, but that more powerful man was offering them something they wanted. Advancement, the Golden Globe, something they want, and they decided to have that sexual encounter in order to get that, intentionally, consensually, and later regret that they did that. We can decide that that is a fundamentally coercive act and should criminalize it. But right now, it's not a crime, and I believe it shouldn't be a crime. I believe one of the dangerous things about what's happening here is we're treating women as children. We are infantilizing women."
3:52 Speaker 01 She's talking about this case?
3:54 Speaker 00 No, so this is an interview that she did around the time that she's representing Harvey Weinstein. So this is not particularly about David's case, but this is how she views what she does for work. She says, "We are infantilizing women. It's a thing as feminists we don't want to do, which is to claim that a woman doesn't have the ability to choose." This is a very, very high-profile celebrity attorney, by the way. She's represented Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Caitlyn Jenner, Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Kanye West, Reese Witherspoon, but also Harvey Weinstein. It seems that her career trajectory went from representing a lot of celebrities for celebrity-like crimes, divorces, intoxication, paparazzi run-ins. But after repping Harvey Weinstein,
4:38 Speaker 00 it seems like she's become a defender of those that have been accused of SA. Which is dangerous considering she believes and says things like this, or at least it's dangerous in my opinion, right? I think it's dangerous. But what do I know? She says things like, "The idea of someone going on Instagram or Twitter and making accusations all of a sudden, that's enough to destroy a life. I don't think any of us want to accept that, and we shouldn't. Because when they come to our son, or our father, or our husband, we would want someone to care about the process." It's also really dangerous because with that comes this horrible slogan, "Believe women," as if some gender by definition only speaks the truth. She also says that the statute of limitations is very important, but even the way she phrases it, she says, "If you were a victim of a crime, you need to report
5:20 Speaker 00 it, and there are reasons for it. Because the freshness of it allows it to be a reflection of evidence. If you wait 20 years just because you didn't feel like it, that creates a problem." No victim waits 20 years to go to the authorities because they just didn't feel like it, because they felt like they had other things that they wanted to do. And in the interview, she does the thing that makes me, just makes one instantly question her. She says, "My colleague, Alan Dershowitz, Alan fucking Dershowitz, Alan fucking Lives in the Epstein Files Dershowitz." Okay, so, she mentions an op-ed that he wrote, so, there's that. But what do you expect from the woman who literally has said, quote, "Just because you're a woman and make a
6:04 Speaker 00 claim on Instagram doesn't make you a victim?" I do think that defense attorneys play an integral part of our justice system, and sure, it is her job, but she really did not have to do this interview, she really did not have to say these things, and also say that she's a feminist while saying that just because a girl has an Instagram and an accusation doesn't make her a victim, putting down women in such a condescending manner when they are probably going through some of the most traumatic moments of their lives, to trivialize that, to be, "A girl on social media, you're not a victim," is just so, like, it's harmful in ways that I can't even begin to express. Yes, she can be a criminal defense attorney, and a feminist, and she probably could represent people who have been accused of SA, and be all those three things at once, but to me, I can't fathom how you can be a feminist
6:47 Speaker 00 and say these specific things. I don't think that anyone was upset with her for representing Representing Harvey Weinstein, I mean, yeah, people were, but I think these comments in the interview are pretty asinine. David retained Blair Burke last year when Celeste's body was first discovered in his car. He has since added Marilyn Bednarzki, a death penalty defense attorney in L.A. Because technically, David could face the death penalty. She's also just very experienced with over a hundred jury trials tried in federal court under her belt. As well as Regina Peter from Blair Burke's firm. The judge presiding over the case is Judge Charlene Almedo. She is a former prosecutor. She runs a strict program. She has a reputation of precision, fairness, composure. A lot of attorneys have stated, "You don't show up to a courtroom unless you're prepared."
7:32 Speaker 00 She has presided over the very high-profile trial of Danny Masterson. That 70 Shows actor that was accused and convicted of SA. He was the one where I think a lot of people, this might ring a bigger bell. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote those character witness statements in favor of Danny Masterson, the man that is convicted of SA. And they did this whole weird apology video that was weird. But during the sentencing, she tells Danny Masterson, "I know you're sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence. And thus, no doubt, feeling victimized by a justice system that you feel has failed you. And I'm sure you're asking yourself, "How you can be convicted of each charge of a sexual incident occurring 20 years ago, "based on the testimony of a woman that you believe is disgruntled and has a vendetta against you?
8:17 Speaker 00 But you are not convicted on the testimony of one person, although the testimony of one person is sufficient evidence. You are not convicted based on rumors, innuendo, gossip, or speculation. You are convicted based on the testimony and evidence that 12 people from the community found to be credible. In addition, shortly after you paid Jane Doe one, approximately $400,000, to keep quiet about the charged incident. And while some may argue whether you believed her story was true or not, "You just didn't want the bad publicity. She was seeking money from you, close to half a million dollars. An awful lot to pay for the silence about an incident you claim never happened. That's a bad look. So, Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person's voice and choice. Ultimately, one-
9:01 Speaker 00 Way or another, you will have to come to terms that with both your prior actions and subsequent consequences. She then slapped him with the maximum sentence stating as to count one, a violation of penal code, I sentence Mr. Masterson to be imprisoned in state prison for a term of fifteen years to life. Count two in prison for fifteen years to life. I order them to run consecutive. So you can be, you, your terms can be concurrent, which means served at the same time, which I don't understand the purpose of that. So it's like both, let's say you have fifteen years, fifteen years. Technically, you would think it's thirty, but they're like, you can serve them simultaneously concurrently. So you only serve fifteen years, but she said consecutively. So charge one fifteen years. Once that's up, another fifteen years.
9:47 Speaker 00 The total sentence is thirty years to life. There have been a few hearings in court so far, all ramping up to the preliminary hearing. And the first three hearings, I will say the defense team Blair Burke seemed a bit not as collected as Deputy DA Beth Silverman.
10:02 Speaker 01 So I'm assuming she's very, very expensive, right? In that caliber.
10:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
10:08 Speaker 01 Right?
10:09 Speaker 00 I don't know for sure, but there were estimates that Danny Masterson's trial, because he also had a really high profile team. Probably cost him like five, ten million dollars easily. And that was essay charges. This is, we're already talking about lots of discovery, lots of evidence and murder charge, potentially death penalty.
10:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:33 Speaker 00 Yeah. A lot of people are like, how can David afford Blair Burke? I don't necessarily know how much David has made previously in his career, but he was dropped from his label. And it sounds like a bad thing, right? It's like, oh, he was dropped from his label, which means he's not making any more money. When the Celeste body was found, he was dropped from his label. However, it kind of almost gave him the rights to his songs back. Like he doesn't have to split as much licensing, it appears. So he's still getting, even on Spotify, he's still getting like twenty-three million streams a month. I tried to cross-reference with how much other artists were
11:13 Speaker 00 reporting on Reddit that they were getting paid as being the sole owner of their songs. I mean, he still probably has to pay royalties to the people who co-wrote the songs, helped produce the songs. But it's
11:23 Speaker 01 Didn't, doesn't he make his own stuff in the closet?
11:26 Speaker 00 Yeah, but there's lots of producers that worked on his Withered album and um. He could potentially be making close to like a million dollars a month from streams.
11:37 Speaker 01 Dang.
11:38 Speaker 00 I don't know because streaming is like such a weird, I'm just going based off of what people said on Reddit of how much they make per stream. On certain platforms and then I tried adding it up. My math could be horribly off, so don't trust me on this.
11:51 Speaker 01 Twenty million listens right now?
11:53 Speaker 00 Twenty-three million on Spotify. That's not including Apple Music or other streaming platforms. The only place that he's not making money is YouTube. So YouTube very quickly demonetized his account. So none of his music videos are bringing in money.
12:07 Speaker 00 Yeah. I think that he's going to end up using most, if not all and more on his legal defense team. And I do think anything after that is, I mean, I do hope that Celeste's family bring on a civil suit.
12:25 Speaker 00 So.
12:27 Speaker 00 But I don't even know what would be left at that point.
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15:53 Speaker 00 So it seems like Blair Burke is familiarizing herself with everything going on. She doesn't seem as quick with it as Deputy DA Beth Silverman, which is to be expected. It seems that Silverman has been working on this case for at least months and months and months and months. However, there are rumors that Blair Burke might not even take this case to trial. Someone who claims that they have worked with Blair Burke before states that she has a tendency to take on celebrity cases before really looking into them and that she probably may quit sometime during the trial or before the trial. One Reddit comment is talking about the person that knows Blair Burke. He apparently has a YouTube channel. He's an attorney. I think it's like Bruce lawyer. And they write, "He says that she predicts she's going to step down before it even goes
16:37 Speaker 00 to trial, either because the family runs out of money, or because she won't like what she sees in discovery, or because it'll be obvious that he did it." And she's already said some bold things about this case that she's like, "Oh, it's going to show he didn't do it." People are also saying Blair Burke doesn't necessarily seem like the type to do murder trials. She seems like the Hollywood fixer type.
16:58 Speaker 01 Interesting.
16:59 Speaker 00 But she did say in a previous interview, "I never hesitate to get a client. That's what I love. That's what I do. The most important time for a criminal defense lawyer is when the mob is out, right? I'm very proud of what I'm doing as a woman, as a feminist, as a criminal defense lawyer. We as women should not want injustice." But as for Blair Burke, one comment reads, "She doesn't do many homicide trials. Her last murder client got life in prison, so not a stellar record there." That's what they write. Now, during the first few hearings in court, David appeared to be emotionless. He doesn't really show a lot of emotions, just kind of looking around the courtroom. But he's not intently looking around the courtroom. It's just like he's just kind of gazing out, seeing what's going on.
17:36 Speaker 01 Is that like the video clip that we saw?
17:38 Speaker 00 Yes. That was not Judge Almedo. That was a different judge for his arraignment. And Judge Almedo is not a fan of cameras in the courtroom. This is a state case, which usually lots of state cases are live streamed. I highly doubt this will be live streamed.
17:55 Speaker 01 Well, how how do you know she's not a fan of the cameras?
17:57 Speaker 00 So the same thing happened with Diddy's trial where all these legacy medias, they have attorneys representing them. And they'll come and they'll try to talk to the judge in open court. So this is all in like court transcripts. And they'll be like, hey, we need to either see something or we want cameras in the courtroom. So this, in this case, the attorney came up and was like, I'm representing legacy media, enlisting all the media companies and like, we want cameras in the courtroom. And she's like, no.
18:24 Speaker 00 She's just like, no. She's like, it's up to me and no. And she's citing the law too. She's citing codes, like law codes. She's like, because of this? No, I can say no because of no.
18:35 Speaker 00 So I don't think she's gonna allow cameras in the courtroom, which might be for the best. This is kind of similar to Luigi's trial in New York City, which is the first trial is gonna be in state court, not federal court. So we know federal court, there's no cameras in the courtroom. State court, a lot of judges will let cameras in. It's up to the discretion of the judges, but Luigi's judge also does not seem to be a fan of cameras. But he looks kind of bored. That's the best way to describe David. He just kind of looks bored. There hasn't really been any notable intel about how he looks in any of the hearings. He just looks distant, bored, unengaged. Except the last one, he apparently winked at his attorney, allegedly.
19:17 Speaker 01 What do you mean? Just, just a quick wink?
19:20 Speaker 00 Yeah, they were able to push back his preliminary hearing by a month. And it's reported that after hearing that when David was led back, he winked at his attorney. I don't know, maybe there was something in his eye. It could have been a lint ball. It could have been a wink. But that's been the reporting. So he looks bored and he has pled not guilty and his attorneys have stated, let us be clear. The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celestina Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death. We will vigorously defend David's innocence. We would like to have the evidence come into the light of day. Meanwhile, the prosecutors are like, oh, you want the evidence to come into light of day? We're gonna drop a pre preliminary hearing brief.
20:01 Speaker 00 Okay, this is where there's so much like legal context and I don't know how many people care about this, but it might be important. If you watch the very first audio episode of the updates, I kind of went into the grand jury, charging grand juries, which resulted in indictment. So there's multiple ways that someone can get arrested in state court in California, which is a grand jury comes with a true bill of indictment. So this is, they voted. The DA went to the grand jurors and was like, can you vote? They're like, yes, here we go indictment. David Burke gets arrested, he's indicted. This is, you see this happen in federal cases because that's how it always happens in federal cases. Indictment, arrest. Right, or it's like arrest and then we find out about the indictment, but it's already been filed. So then in California, this is not that common.
20:46 Speaker 01 What's not common indictment?
20:47 Speaker 00 Indictments are not common in the state of California on a state level. And that's because, for example, in a lot of places, when you get indicted, you don't really get a preliminary hearing.
21:02 Speaker 01 Okay.
21:02 Speaker 00 Because you've already been indicted.
21:04 Speaker 01 Right.
21:05 Speaker 00 So they're like, yeah, you can go to trial. A preliminary hearing, what that is, is the prosecution presents evidence to the judge. And the judge decides if they're gonna go to trial. The judge has to be like, okay, this is enough evidence that we have to try the case. I'm not saying you're guilty, but we have to try the case. So that's the whole purpose of a preliminary hearing. And lots of DAs, if they don't, they don't want a preliminary hearing.
21:33 Speaker 01 Because they don't want to give away their.
21:35 Speaker 00 Yeah, and also the defense in the preliminary hearing can actually.
21:39 Speaker 01 Prepare?
21:39 Speaker 00 Prepare and ask questions to the witnesses that the prosecutors are bringing up. They can basically cross-examine witnesses. Like a mini cross.
21:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:48 Speaker 00 They don't like that. The DAs are like, we don't like that, that's annoying, we don't like it. Now, in the state of California, even if you are indicted, you can legally request a preliminary hearing. So it's kind of pointless. It's pointless because you're indicted. So in most cases, like a federal case, you're going straight to trial. I mean, you're gonna have tons of status conferences and all these things and hearings, but you're going to trial.
22:12 Speaker 01 Yeah, why are we doing, or why are we doing another?
22:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, but in the state of California, you can request it anyway. So people will usually just file a criminal complaint, which is the DA files a criminal complaint and then the suspect is arrested or the target is arrested, whatever.
22:28 Speaker 01 So who filed, uh, who requested this um preliminary hearing?
22:32 Speaker 00 Well, you have to have a preliminary hearing.
22:34 Speaker 01 Oh, oh, oh.
22:34 Speaker 00 Okay, so basically, at any point, there needs to be a decision made where there is enough evidence to go to trial.
22:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
22:45 Speaker 00 Right? Indictment, the grand jurors decide there is enough evidence to go to trial.
22:50 Speaker 01 Right.
22:51 Speaker 00 So on a federal level, they just go to trial.
22:53 Speaker 01 Yeah.
22:53 Speaker 00 If they plead not guilty, right? They go to trial.
22:56 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
22:56 Speaker 00 But in California state, even if the grand jurors say there's enough to go to trial, the defendant can say, no, I want the judge to reconfirm this, basically. I want a preliminary hearing.
23:06 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
23:06 Speaker 00 Okay?
23:06 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
23:07 Speaker 00 But there was no indictment in this, just a criminal complaint.
23:10 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
23:11 Speaker 00 Then David gets arrested. Well, David is arrested, then there's a criminal complaint.
23:14 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
23:15 Speaker 00 So now someone needs to decide if there's enough to go to trial, which is they have to have a preliminary hearing.
23:20 Speaker 01 Right.
23:21 Speaker 00 Now, here's the interesting thing. Preliminary hearings, legally, the defendant is allowed those in a timely manner. I think it's like ten court days. So if within ten court days, the prosecutors can't pull it off, or the prosecutors are unprepared, they do the preliminary hearing, the judge is like, you guys have nothing.
23:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
23:37 Speaker 00 Then the defendant is free to go. Like, you can't just keep them until you're ready to do a preliminary hearing. So the defendant is usually like, okay, maybe we'll go with a preliminary hearing if they feel like there's not enough evidence.
23:49 Speaker 01 Right.
23:50 Speaker 00 So Blair Burke, she's coming into these court hearings and she's like, yes, my client would like a timely preliminary hearing. Let's schedule it. So the first schedule was like, May first. Okay? Then they're like, hmm, we need some of the information that the prosecutors have so we can prepare for the preliminary hearing. And this is where it gets very tricky because you, just like the law, it's, the defense is entitled to discovery for the trial. Like, there is different, but you're not entitled to all the discovery for the preliminary hearing.
24:19 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:20 Speaker 00 There's like certain benchmarks I think they have to meet, like certain discovery they have to turn over. So it's been like a whole headache, and then it got pushed to May twenty-six. And then the defense is like, hmm, maybe we need a little bit longer.
24:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:34 Speaker 00 So now it's June 29th. And this is the thing, I mean, the fact that they were even wanting it so soon is unheard of. Usually the defendants don't want a quick preliminary hearing. They want the defense to prepare as long as possible. They want to go through the discovery. They want to study it. They want to know, you know, kind of what to expect, who they expect to testify, to cross examine. Now, I don't think any of the star witnesses are going to testify. Just putting that out there, you know? I think it's going to be lots of police officers and I think it's going to be forensic experts.
25:07 Speaker 01 So, okay, so this is my understanding, my little, what I'm getting out of this is that at first, David's team was like, okay, let's just do this thing because I think they think they maybe can get away with it. Let's just get it over with.
25:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, sometimes the, from what I can tell online is, and from lawyers who have been speaking up about this, is that a defendant will push the attorney to want it sooner because they're like, I just want to get out of here. Like I'm just, like, come on.
25:36 Speaker 01 Let's go.
25:36 Speaker 00 Yeah.
25:37 Speaker 01 And then as the day started to approach, they were like, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. We need to be better prepared. You know, can, can, can you guys give me more?
25:45 Speaker 00 Yes.
25:46 Speaker 01 Information. So that's when the real, okay.
25:49 Speaker 00 Yeah.
25:50 Speaker 01 I see.
25:51 Speaker 00 And I think there was a lot of conversation and even almost fear mongering of people saying, well, he wasn't indicted. So the prosecutors might not be ready. The prosecutors have no idea what they're doing because he wasn't indicted and it already took seven months to arrest him. Like they're a mess. But in the state of California, on a state level, most felony charges do not come with an indictment. They come with a criminal complaint and there is a prelim.
26:16 Speaker 01 Okay, so you're saying they're, you think they're totally ready?
26:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, and then just like seeing the way Beth Silverman is conducting herself in these hearings. She seems like she knows what the fuck is up.
26:27 Speaker 01 She's the DA, right?
26:27 Speaker 00 She's the deputy DA. She's in charge of this case, yes. But there was also questions of, oh, well, David was arrested before the criminal complaint. So maybe the LAPD arrested them and the DA's office is scrambling, right?
26:42 Speaker 00 But it doesn't seem like that. Beth Silverman is coming here locked and loaded. She seems like she she's been ready.
26:48 Speaker 01 She's the one that said there's forty terabytes of.
26:51 Speaker 00 Evidence. Yes, yes. And the the defense was saying things like, you know, we hope all the evidence will come to light and see the light of day. And that is when the prosecutors dropped the pre preliminary hearing brief, which is a bit unusual. People don't really drop it at this stage. But it seems like they had the opening. The defense was already like, we want the evidence to come to light. Prosecutors are like, okay, Beth, like, we're gonna drop this brief. And also, it's a way to control the narrative for them. And it's, I guess, in a good way, it's to educate the judge on what has been happening behind the scenes, so that the judge is also very aware. Now, Blair Burke and her team did not like that. They were like, we gotta seal this shit. Seal it.
27:35 Speaker 00 We don't, this cannot be public. Blair Burke said, Your Honor, late this morning, we received a digital copy of what appeared to be a pre preliminary hearing brief filed by the prosecution. I come to the court with a very serious concern, given the, I think what can be characterized as the extreme media attention so far in this case. And the prosecution has appeared to file a rather unusual, in my experience, pre preliminary hearing brief that appears to be a very one sided version of what is anticipated as the evidence in this case. But no evidence has been presented by the prosecution in a courtroom. Certainly, there has been no adjudication of the admissibility of that evidence. There's no ruling, basically, of if that evidence is, you know, enough to go to trial.
28:19 Speaker 00 And we have a very real concern about the reasonable possibility of the jury pool at a future trial being tainted. She goes on to say that the brief even includes hearsay. Your Honor, we would ask the court to seal the people's brief. We were not, obviously, we've come at the earliest possible opportunity to do so. Beth Silverman hits back, "I've certainly never heard of the defense claiming that a people's filing is one-sided. I'm laying out what I believe to be the evidence that's been unearthed over the last several months and what the people intend to present the court during a preliminary hearing. It's interesting because whenever I handle these types of cases that tend to garner media attention, by the time the trial rolls around, which is, as the court is aware, years down the road usually, many people on the panels don't even know about the case."
29:00 Speaker 00 Beth Silverman goes on to state, "We've had cases that garnered much more media attention than this one, and I can think of one that's going on right now." I think she's referencing Nick Reiner.
29:10 Speaker 01 Really? Okay. What is she saying about it?
29:12 Speaker 00 No, she's just saying, "I can think of one right now that's getting more attention than this one." I think that's a reference to Nick Reiner. But I mean, this is LA County, like you're talking about Menendez Brothers, ASAP Rocky was recently tried. Like, it's LA County.
29:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:30 Speaker 00 She goes on to state more or less, "Hey, so, I mean, we're gonna even bring all this to open court in a few weeks anyway. So, what do you mean you want it sealed? Like, there's nothing in there that's gonna be sealed in open court. Like, what kind of logic is that, basically? That's what Beth Silverman is saying." And she says, "But I'd certainly like to see what the legal authority is that counsel claims it has before I make any other statements." Blair Burke argues, "It's an entirely one-sided narrative regarding what the prosecution believes they will seek to admit in court at the preliminary hearing or what the prosecution claims will be the testimony in a preliminary hearing of witnesses. We do have a very real concern about the amount of white-hot focus of attention on this case for the last seven months and specifically in the last two weeks. And we are very much concerned with guaranteeing
30:15 Speaker 00 David the right, as he is presumed innocent in this courtroom as we sit here today, the right to a fair trial. And we believe that this brief, if not sealed, will harm and compromise that right." The judge sides with Beth Silverman, the people, you know, that she will not be sealing the brief, hitting on the fact that LA County is the most populous county in the entire nation. LA County routinely has high-profile cases, including celebrities, and quote, "This case is not unique in that aspect. And I know Ms. Burke, and this is not to undermine your own characterization of extreme media attention. In this court's experience, this media attention is no different than the court has seen in other high-profile cases."
30:53 Speaker 01 Wow.
30:55 Speaker 00 As for her saying that the people's brief is one sided. She's like, well, yeah, it's the fucking people's brief, not the defense's brief. She says it's their brief. Just like any filing by the defense would be one sided in the sense that it would be a proponent of the defense position. Naturally, it's going to be one sided, basically. Why would the people put in your two cents? The defense is like, okay, fine. We want to quickly get a preliminary hearing and we want a lot of this discovery right now. Blair Burke was saying, this is like before she kept pushing it back. She's like, from the media reports, apparently there have been four months of secret grand jury proceedings.
31:35 Speaker 00 We believe that Mr. Burke is entitled at the earliest opportunity to an open preliminary hearing and the proceedings not be done in secret. So we are asking for a preliminary hearing to be set at the earliest possible date on the 10th day. So this is like, they keep pushing it back and back and back and they.
31:51 Speaker 01 Wait, so they wanted a quick in that moment? And then they keep pushing it back after that.
31:56 Speaker 00 She also states that she wants discovery, that they have no discovery, basically, quote, we have been given almost no discovery thus far. We've received a three page follow up report, no autopsy report and a copy of the complaint. And we would ask the people respectfully to produce discovery at the earliest opportunity. Beth Silverman is like, your honor, as I indicated to counsel, there's approximately forty terabytes of discovery in this case. Moreover, in order to obtain the transcripts from a grand jury investigation. So she's like, Blair Burke is asking me for grand jury transcripts. Counsel has to file a motion. She knows the way the system works.
32:33 Speaker 01 She's not doing it?
32:34 Speaker 00 So she's like saying, oh, I didn't get the grand jury transcripts. And Beth is like, you didn't fucking file a motion to get them. Okay, she didn't say it like that.
32:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. So Beth is like, she's not, she doesn't know what she's doing.
32:43 Speaker 00 Yeah, she's like, she knows the way the system works. I'm not able to gather those. They have to be provided after the court orders them released because it was an investigation. Second of all, if counsel plans on going to a preliminary hearing within 10 days, it is unlikely that there will be very much discovery provided within that period, given the voluminous nature and how long it's going to take to copy and to drives. In addition to that, the coroner's report was sealed in this case in order to prevent it from hampering truthful testimony from witnesses that testify at the grand jury. Which is kind of interesting to think about, but.
33:16 Speaker 01 Wait, why is it interesting? Oh, like, how would anybody know?
33:22 Speaker 01 So they're implying they don't want someone potentially know the state of
33:27 Speaker 00 Or how she died.
33:28 Speaker 01 How she died to tell a lie or mad, okay, wow.
33:33 Speaker 00 Or it could be like the, I guess, the TV shows where nothing has been released and someone's like, yeah, he stopped, I didn't know he stabbed her and they're like, who said she was stabbed? You know, something like that.
33:46 Speaker 01 So does David's team seem like underprepared or just?
33:51 Speaker 00 From what I saw,
33:55 Speaker 00 I know, I think I'm sure, I'm sure Blair Burke is on her shit. And it seems like with every hearing, she's more on her shit, okay? But if he's paying that much, I mean, at that point, like, get Brian Steele in there as well. Like, it's just, she doesn't seem to be as quick with all these little things.
34:20 Speaker 00 Yeah.
34:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:21 Speaker 00 Because usually when you are paying that much money, the defense, I mean, you're expecting them to be sharper than the prosecutors, no offense. Right? Because like, these are the top, top level.
34:32 Speaker 01 Yeah. Yeah, they're making the big bucks.
34:34 Speaker 00 Yeah.
34:35 Speaker 01 That's why they get paid millions on millions.
34:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, like, you're expecting they're gonna run circles around the prosecution.
34:41 Speaker 01 Yeah.
34:42 Speaker 00 But.
34:42 Speaker 01 Wow, okay.
34:45 Speaker 00 Not saying prosecutors are not as intelligent, they're just overworked. They got a lot of cases going on, they're underpaid, they're overworked. So the prosecutors are like, you guys want a preliminary hearing and you want all the discovery. I'm telling you right now, you're not gonna get that because there's so much evidence. It's going to take longer than even fifteen days to get you the evidence that you want. Throughout the investigation, we've accrued approximately fifty terabytes of data. Over the last approximately month, maybe five weeks, robbery homicide division has been trying to upload their entire investigative file through a system that the county purchased for the DA's office, where we're all supposed to be able to share information with defense counsel directly. After approximately four and a half weeks, five weeks, only thirty percent of the LAPD's case file has been uploaded and that is using multiple computers.
35:30 Speaker 00 There is a voluminous amount of digital data in this case. She also gives us an idea of what kind of evidence there will be. There are police reports and documents from the LAPD, from the sheriff's department, from the CHP. There's body worn video. There are numerous forensic reports, including DNA trace evidence, field investigative unit services, chemical processing, there are property reports, there are vehicle reports, there are arrests and booking reports. All of those things we are going to endeavor to turn over hopefully tomorrow afternoon. Overall, Beth Silverman seems super confident. David's team seems a little less confident. There are a lot of interesting moments where David's team seem.
36:07 Speaker 00 Okay, maybe like it just takes a second for them to get into the groove of things, but there's this moment where the defense requests the judge to unseal the search warrants. We'd ask that we'd orally move to unseal them so that the court can issue an order. So that like we're just asking through mouth. The court is like, yeah, I'm not sure I can issue just a general order to unseal search warrants without specific case numbers. I don't have a problem with issuing an order, but I think I would need to have the specific. And by case number, it wouldn't be this case number. Beth Silverman talks to a detective and she's like, okay, I'll get you all the warrant numbers. And later Blair Burke is like, by the way, I brought you this five terabyte drive for you.
36:47 Speaker 00 Since you told me last time in open court that the one terabyte drive I gave you wasn't enough.
36:53 Speaker 01 Wait, wait, wait.
36:54 Speaker 00 Okay, so previously, previously Blair Burke gave Beth Silverman a one terabyte drive. Okay, which like is notoriously not a lot. Like this is one terabyte. There have been FOIA requests that we've done where they're like, send us a fucking one terabyte drive. And it's like police reports, right? So I'm assuming in this case it's massive and they're sending a one terabyte drive.
37:14 Speaker 01 She knows there's.
37:15 Speaker 00 Yeah.
37:17 Speaker 01 Fifty terabytes.
37:18 Speaker 00 So then she sends a one terabyte drive and Beth Silverman in open court is like, hmm, what did you think you were gonna do with that? Like, what do you, what do you want us to do with that? That's nothing. We need a lot more than that. Like you, you keep asking us for discovery and you give us a one terabyte drive.
37:32 Speaker 00 So then she's like, by the way, I brought this five terabyte drive. Okay. She's like waving it around, I think.
37:38 Speaker 00 Now they want specifically before this prelim, it seems that the defense clearly want the iCloud data. Beth Silver, this is iCloud from David's iCloud account. They want that.
37:51 Speaker 01 What? That's what they want?
37:53 Speaker 00 And by the way, the CCM is not going to be on there. Um, there, we're going to get into that in a second, but they want the iCloud data. Whatever's on that iCloud.
38:01 Speaker 01 I don't know if it is on iCloud photos.
38:04 Speaker 00 Probably.
38:05 Speaker 01 Photos, voice memo, maybe?
38:07 Speaker 00 Hmm. Notes apps these days. People have been doing lots of notes apps. He seems like the type to do that. Yeah. So they're like, we want the iCloud data. Beth Silverman was like, that iCloud data in totality, just the iCloud data is probably like eight, eight terabytes. Which this has been again, misspoken in the news and on Reddit of like, oh, it's eight terabytes of CCM. It's just eight terabytes of iCloud data. And none of the CCM is going to be on there, obviously. They can't just like hand over CCM like that. So Beth Silverman is like, okay, we'll get your fuck ass five terabyte hard drive out of here. She doesn't say it like that, but more or less. She is like absolutely. I will say absolutely under no circumstances, did she say that? I'm just making things up. It just sounds like that. Okay.
38:53 Speaker 00 She's like, I'm sorry. Just so counsel's aware, and I'm sure the court knows this. We cannot place an item that is larger than the capacity of the drive you provided us on two different drives. She's like, like legally speaking, we don't do this. I can't split up evidence. So if the iCloud data is eight terabytes, I can't put four on this one and four on the other one. You gotta at least give me a 10 terabyte drive and I can put all the eight terabytes in that 10 terabyte drive. So basically get your fuck ass five terabyte drive out of here. Is that not? And Beth Silverman is like, it cannot be split. These are direct transcripts. Not the fuck ass five terabyte drive, but like the rest of it. Blair Burke says so. Beth Silverman says it cannot be split. I heard that for the first time today. We will do that and deliver it tomorrow.
39:37 Speaker 00 She's like, I'll get you your 10 terabyte drive tomorrow. And she says, great. And also going forward, I've been informed that when you give up a hard drive, it needs to be sealed. In other words, you know, you give us an open box. We need a sealed hard drive, like in the original packaging.
39:51 Speaker 01 Hmm.
39:52 Speaker 00 Okay, so.
39:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
39:54 Speaker 00 Yeah.
39:55 Speaker 01 Wow.
39:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, I did think. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll see her in her full glory soon, I guess. But I. There are. It's interesting. It's just interesting. Oh, and speaking of the CCM, so the CCM evidence, the way that they do it is, at least in this county, is they're gonna put it on a law enforcement computer. That CCM will be placed in the courthouse in a very specific room that only the defense and the prosecutors can access. And the defense will have to go there and view the CCM, or an expert will have to go and view the CCM on that specific computer. They can't bring it back. They can't have it on their devices.
40:41 Speaker 00 Because even just having it on a device is illegal, even if it's for work, right? So. Yeah. Which, I mean, Blair Burke knows that, and she's like, yeah, absolutely. So it's not a problem. I'm just saying it was a part of the conversation. Yeah. Because I guess there were some concerns of like. Maybe David would like to see.
41:03 Speaker 00 Certain things, right? Now, netizens think that this, the defense probably will not be insanity. It doesn't seem like there can be even a viable insanity plea. Which, I mean, hardly ever works to begin with. But there's just so many times you can see he's in the right state of mind, protecting his tour, protecting his music, performing. Um, a lot of people think that the defense will be that Celeste OD'd. And that he is just responsible for freaking out and getting rid of her body, or trying to get rid of her body. In the autopsy report, it looked like she tested positive for drugs being in her system. Those were presumptive positives.
41:48 Speaker 00 So this is the initial basic toxicology, which is just like a basic thing that they do for all the autopsies. But how a lot of things could come back positive because of other compounds that are found in the body through the decomposition process. Such as meth, MDMA. But when they did further testing, those came back not detected. Other things that were found in her system were low amounts of ethanol, basically alcohol in her system, which we all know is naturally formed during the decomposition process. So really, there doesn't seem to be drugs in her system that the defense could point to and say, see, she OD'd. I think the only thing the defense really has is everything the autopsy doesn't say.
42:29 Speaker 00 So the autopsy says the manner of death is homicide and by two penetrating wounds. But it doesn't say who's holding the knife, right? So it doesn't say it is a knife. It doesn't say it's David holding the knife. So I think that's gonna be the main focus. I don't necessarily think they could even point the finger at anybody else, but I I really don't know what the defense is going to be. These are just speculations. I just can't imagine what the defense is. As for did David's family know? That's been a huge topic of conversation because the court document states this is the pre preliminary hearing brief that Blair Burke wanted sealed. Throughout 2024, the victim spent a significant amount of time with the defendant, including summer weekends at his home in the Hollywood Hills
43:13 Speaker 00 and traveling with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family. People cannot grasp the concept that David's parents believed that she was of age. She clearly doesn't look of age in any photos and videos that I've ever seen of Celeste. She clearly looks like a minor. Online sentiment agrees with that. The family have reportedly been very, very close with David. It it seems like, I mean, there's footage of his sister going up on stage. There's alleged videos and photos from the concert at the Fonda Theater where Celeste is sitting with his parents in the VIP section. One comment writes, apparently David was telling people she was 19 and a college student at USC.
43:55 Speaker 00 And maybe that flies with his friends, like maybe that is okay if he's brought to a huge house party where the lights are dim and everybody's drunk. And you're just like, oh, yeah, this is my girlfriend. She's 19. I don't know if people would question in that context, especially if it's like a very passing greeting of like, hi. I think if you hung out with Celeste multiple times, you would know she's a minor. Like that, I just can't wrap my head around the fact that someone could argue that they don't know, but I don't know. If you see her in passing, maybe. Now, if you're bringing someone home to your parents and you say she's 19 and she's a student at USC. His dad is an attorney. His mom is a teacher. I can't imagine that they would believe that. I just don't see that happening.
44:37 Speaker 01 You know, what's a high school, middle school teacher? Is it?
44:40 Speaker 00 I don't know. But I mean, she has children around that age. Yeah.
44:46 Speaker 01 That's crazy.
44:47 Speaker 00 It doesn't make any sense to me.
44:51 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:52 Speaker 00 She looks so young in all of her pictures. I know people are probably gonna try to do the whole adultification thing of young girls where they're like, she's mature for, she looks, she looks eleven. I just, I don't know. I don't know how they could even possibly believe that.
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48:03 Speaker 00 They did know, however, that David was at least being investigated before his arrest, because they were subpoenaed to the grand jury hearings earlier in 2026. And that's part of why the information got leaked, that there was a grand jury investigation into David, because all of this is sealed. So it gets leaked in two big ways. So the first of them is that David's parents and his brother Caleb, the three of them, Caleb is now 18, they fight the subpoena. They're in Texas and they file a petition of HABIS Corpus contending that the trial, that the court's order summoning them to testify in California violates due process. So this, this is public. So like they have to reference the grand jury investigation. And they have to reference that David is the target of the investigation.
48:46 Speaker 01 That's how people find out?
48:47 Speaker 00 Yeah, so that's how they're like, oh, we can confirm for sure there's grand jury investigations into David. Because otherwise it's sealed. And then Neo gets arrested, and it's kind of like, okay, now we can like definitely confirm again, once more, that this is happening.
49:02 Speaker 01 But they did end up going?
49:04 Speaker 00 No.
49:05 Speaker 01 The families?
49:05 Speaker 00 No, yeah. They've still been fighting it out in court.
49:08 Speaker 01 Okay.
49:10 Speaker 00 Yeah. So the DA's office fought telling the judge in Texas. I would say if a car with a dismembered decomposing body is registered to your home address, because David's car was registered to Texas.
49:25 Speaker 00 You should expect to be questioned by the authorities about that. And that's what this is, Judge. I'm asking you to find that the family witnesses are necessary and material. And I'm asking you to find that it will not cause them undue hardship. As for the Burke parents, their attorney argues on their behalf. If the DA needs parents to testify, then they have no case. In my opinion, they're just doing that for harassment purposes. If a proper subpoena was issued, they would have already spoken. They, the attorney has stated that the Burke family has been somewhat aware that an arrest was a possibility, which is kind of crazy. Yeah. Which a side note, David also transferred two of his Houston houses to his, a trust under his mom's name. I believe his mom is the beneficiary of the trust. That was back in September of last year.
50:11 Speaker 00 So he moved quick with that. Really quick.
50:14 Speaker 01 Wait, September? The body was found in September?
50:16 Speaker 00 Yeah. And within like 10 days, he moved the house to his mom, both houses. And you know-
50:22 Speaker 01 That must be in the work already then.
50:24 Speaker 00 Yes. Maybe. If I'm not mistaken, that's a very lengthy process to move a house title deed, whatever, to a trust, to like move ownership. I'm sure you have to get, I don't know if he has a mortgage, like lots of people are involved.
50:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. He for sure started that before.
50:41 Speaker 00 Or got it done very quickly.
50:44 Speaker 00 Right. But it seems like that was a huge priority then at that time, is all I can say. But through the attorney, the family has made a statement stating, "The parents are sad and disappointed that David was arrested. However, they fully stand behind him and believe he is innocent. They fully support him." Caleb, this is David's 18-year-old brother. He was seen in that video with Celeste and his little sister at the Fonda Theater. He has unfollowed David on Instagram since David's arrest. He takes to his story to write, "All pedophiles and rapists should die, period." So that was kind of the very first statement that he ever made.
51:23 Speaker 00 During the grand jury investigations, because he also filed a habeas corpus to not testify in front of the grand jury, people thought that he was probably on the same sentiment that David's parents were on, which is they're going to stand by David. But then he posted that. And so people were wondering, okay, well, clearly this is, in the context of everything happening, it seems like he could really only be talking about David, right? Is what people were thinking.
51:53 Speaker 00 Then he was also seen liking comments like "Justice for Celeste." Now, after David's arrest, though, around the time of David's arrest, Caleb starts releasing more music. I will say that he didn't just kickstart his career after David's arrest. This is not like a new thing, which I do think would be very problematic. He has been releasing music for a long time, for like the past three or four years. He actually went under a different stage name. So he went from being Caleb with a V, so C V L E B. That was his stage name, similar to like David, but then he changed it to Karakova, to further distance himself from his brother. So he released two songs. One was titled Sex, which kind of
52:39 Speaker 00 sent the internet off on a witch hunt of people accusing Caleb at best being insensitive, at worst being involved. There were a lot of accusations being thrown about. Caleb Burke has since come out to state, quote, "I've been wanting to say something for a while, but I have to be careful about what I say. This is an ongoing legal matter. I don't want to make this horrible situation about me. I want justice for Celeste and her family. I've seen people say that I knew what was going on and was protecting my brother. This is not true at all. I have not lived with my brother for years and was not very close with him. We didn't speak often, other than when our family was brought on tour or he was visiting home. I was around Celeste a few times when I was fifteen. I did not know her well, and I did not know her age."
53:22 Speaker 00 I think, I will say, maybe more believable when someone is fifteen to not be able to identify. I think I give a lot more grace in this situation versus his parents.
53:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
53:34 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, I'm like, you're fifteen, you probably don't know either, right? He continues, "People have been posting a video showing me backstage with her at one of David's concerts when I was fifteen, and I've been waiting to address it for a while. So when this video was circulating, some people were even thinking, what if Caleb and Celeste were dating and, like, there were so many weird internet theories which turned out to be entirely false. But he writes, "People have gone as far to say that I was sneaking her backstage, which is not true. She was already at the show, and the video takes place after the show had already ended. In the video, we were sent to grab something from a fan that was in the front of the stage, and we were walking back." News companies such as TMZ, Daily Mail and others have started saying that I'm taking
54:19 Speaker 00 advantage of the whole situation to promote my music and that I am just now launching my music career. That is not true at all. I've been releasing and posting music over the last three to four years and I took over a half-year hiatus due to what happened. I changed my online name from Caleb to Kova as I did not want to associate myself with any of this. I have not once mentioned this situation or my identity on the new accounts. So on Karakova, he never mentions that he's David's brother. TMZ even reported my age incorrectly, saying that I'm 20 when I just turned 18 in November. I had scheduled my first release under the new name before any of this became a headline again. And the song came out two days before the arrest. This project, the music, videos and songs were already in motion long before any news coverage around my brother resurfaced. My
55:03 Speaker 00 intent has never been to use this to bring attention to myself or my music. This is the whole reason why I started over from scratch. My decision to continue releasing music is not about using any of this for attention. Music is my life. And after stepping away for months because of everything that's happened, I want to build my own path. Medicine reactions have been mixed. There are two groups of people. They're very divided. One group who believe that Caleb, David's brother, is being incredibly insensitive and tone deaf, with one person writing, "Even if Caleb had no malice in releasing music, at best it's still incredibly disrespectful and demonstrates a complete lack of empathy towards Celeste and her loved ones." I keep seeing comments following his statement along the lines of, "He shouldn't have to pause his life," or, "There's never going to be a perfect time to do it," and find the lack of empathy towards Celeste and her loved
55:46 Speaker 00 ones absolutely abhorrent. No matter how you spin it, even if he had nothing to do with this case, he is someone who is way too close to this case for this to be anything but in bad taste. Anyone who says, quote, "There will never be a perfect time," is being willfully ignorant. Are you telling me there is truly no better time than right fucking now? One comment responds, "Justice for Celeste. I disagree though. If my brother killed somebody, what does that have to do with me? I didn't do it. Y'all need to remember that David Anthony Burke is the murderer, not David's family, not Celeste's family, not David's friends, not Victoria Mendez, which is the fake name he ordered supplies in. It was David. Be mad at him." Another perspective reads, "First, nobody in this case reserves more sympathy and empathy than Celeste and the Rivas Hernandez family. But people should really give Caleb a break. He is not the same person as David.
56:31 Speaker 00 Just because his older brother made a terrible decision does not mean that Caleb should have to suffer. He has already disowned him on Instagram stating that he thinks all rapists and pedos should die. He basically voiced that he wants death for his own brother. Consider how Caleb is feeling, what he's going through right now, and what he's human too. Imagine how difficult it would be to find out that your older brother, who you idolized and drew inspiration from, is not at all who you thought he was. Then while trying to process that, you're constantly being criticized and hated on just for being related to him. Can we please try to have some more empathy here? He's 18, the dude is barely even an adult. One person comments, "Agreed. He denounced his brother's actions and it's obviously not his fault. It's gotta suck to have that shame and stain on the family. And of course, you'd give your family member the benefit of the doubt until you saw evidence to the contrary.
57:15 Speaker 00 We didn't even find out anything till just a few weeks ago. I doubt he knew any more than we did. Predators are professionals at lying and hiding their behavior. Their families wanna believe the best of them, so it's even harder for them to accept. If he was defending him in spite of the evidence, it'd be a different thing, but he isn't. His life and character shouldn't be ruined due to his brother's shitty choices. My heart goes out to him because having a family member turn out to be a pedo and a murderer is a different kind of loss. One that you can't even really grieve without being looked at funny by the general public. It's gotta be overwhelming AF and I hope he has support beyond the parents who might be in denial for all we know. At least he came out and spoke on where he stands with it, which took a lot of spine in my opinion.
57:54 Speaker 00 Another comment disagrees though, writing, "But just saying if he wanted to, he could release all this shit later. It wouldn't end up in the end of the world." One person writes, "I think the problem with the whole discussion of Caleb is that people are blurring the lines of, this is tone deaf and poorly timed and this proves malicious intent. That's why some of this starts feeling like a bias-driven witch hunt. The standard becomes impossible to satisfy. If he releases music now, he's capitalizing on the tragedy. If he waits two years, people would probably say, 'He only waited for the backlash to cool down.' If he speaks publicly, he's manipulating sympathy. If he stays silent, he doesn't care." Once literally every action is interpreted in the worst possible light, it stops being about fairness and starts being about emotional projection. And to be clear, I completely understand why people are disturbed by the timing and the lyrics,
58:39 Speaker 00 given the context of this case. The optics are awful, but this feels gross and insensitive is still very different from this guy is intentionally exploiting a murdered child for his career, his musical career. One is a reaction to optics and emotion. The other is a serious assumption about someone's motives with no direct evidence behind it. I will say, I think the part that stuck out to me is that out of everyone on David's, I don't want to say side, but people that were closer to David than Celeste, that have publicly spoken out, his brother seems to be the most transparent and straightforward with condemning David.
59:14 Speaker 01 Yeah.
59:15 Speaker 00 His own brother. And I think that you can tell from the videos. And again, this is not me saying, oh, David's brother deserves all of our sympathy. You can tell from a lot of the videos, he definitely looked up to his brother.
59:25 Speaker 01 Is he, what, is he well established at all? Does he have?
59:28 Speaker 00 No.
59:29 Speaker 01 Oh, so he's, okay, barely having, okay.
59:31 Speaker 00 Barely. Meaning he doesn't outright condemn his brother, but he basically does, you know? And so it seems like this is the most transparent response that someone from close to David has put out, like far better than even Neo and Asia, who are older than Caleb and also were not related to David. As for Celeste's family, they told Rolling Stone that they are in unfathomable pain. There were rumors circulating that Celeste's parents were accepting money from David to hide the relationship. There were numbers thrown about anywhere between $9,000 a month to $15,000 a month that they were receiving this payout, that they were being financially supported by
1:00:16 Speaker 00 David. They have flat out rejected that rumor stating, I mean, Celeste's dad says, I have never had any contact with this guy and we haven't received any money from him or anyone in this family. The Hernandez family attorney states, I had the heartbreaking responsibility of informing the Rivas Hernandez family of the horrifying allegations in court that David Anthony Burke stabbed Celeste, stood by while she bled to death, used a chainsaw to cut off her limbs, and bought a burn cage with the plan to incinerate evidence. Delivering the news was the most difficult. Thing I've had to do in thirty seven years as a lawyer. He states for the family, the Rivas Hernandez family is absolutely devastated by the findings contained in the medical examiner's report involving the horrible and gruesome death of their beloved daughter. Those findings have caused profound emotional pain for the family.
1:01:00 Speaker 00 They respectfully ask for your privacy, understanding and patience as they process this information. There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now. They still have bills to pay and jobs to go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal. In another statement that's been released by the family, they say, we would like to thank the LAPD and DA's office for their hard work. We'd also like to thank the people of Lake Elsinore for all their support. Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night and we spent wonderful times together. We love her very much. And she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply and all we want is justice for Celeste. Some people don't like Celeste's family. Some people don't like the statements that they put out.
1:01:42 Speaker 00 Some people didn't like that specific statement writing, why do you feel the need to mention that she always told you she loved you? Is this so no one thinks she hated you guys? Some people are saying it's almost like an admittance of guilt. She told us she loved us, so we were attentive and loving parents. I do want to note that Celeste was reported missing the second time the police did open an investigation into the family. Deputies interviewed everyone at Celeste's family home and they found no evidence of child neglect. So they concluded their investigation writing, since they were unable to locate Celeste, they were unable to determine if a crime had happened.
1:02:15 Speaker 01 Wait, this is this during the time, okay.
1:02:20 Speaker 00 And I, I mean, I think there could be a lot of factors. There's no evidence, there's TikTok repost.
1:02:31 Speaker 00 There's random statements from people who claimed they were friends with Celeste. There's TikTok reposts that allegedly Celeste made in an account and even that's really hard to verify where she might have liked things that insinuated that she had a rough home life. But I think having a rough home life is leagues away from having neglectful parents that played some sort of role in not protecting you enough. I think in a perfect world, every parent should protect their child in a way that they can't go missing, that they cannot be groomed. But that's a very perfect world and there could be a lot of factors of why they don't even feel comfortable going to the police. I think people have, some people have.
1:03:14 Speaker 00 Drawn the speculation that Celeste's family didn't really bother to continue bothering the police about Celeste going missing because they didn't care. I don't think that's the case. I mean, you're also talking about a time that's heavy with probably ICE presence, immigration status could also play a role. Socioeconomic status definitely plays a role. I mean, she was missing for so many months and no one was, the police weren't really looking for her. So even if they had gone to the police every day, which we don't know if they did or did not, we don't know why the police weren't looking for her. Maybe they have already had dealt with the police and they know the police is not going to look for Celeste because, I mean, they didn't, they didn't look for a girl who's missing from a
1:03:59 Speaker 00 socioeconomically not a stable background. I'm sure if this was a missing girl from the Hollywood Hills, they would have looked for her. I think there's a lot of nuance that maybe we need to factor into this case. And I think out of everyone that the netizens should attack, Celeste's family is probably last on that list. London, however, has been a huge issue. The preliminary brief has stated that Celeste traveled to London with David. And traveling to London has been heavily just a point of contention because you cannot travel to a foreign country without your parents, without some sort of form being signed. Usually every country has different rules. She did have a passport card that was abandoned in Santa Barbara and found, remember?
1:04:41 Speaker 00 You know, the isolated highway stretch. So did her parents know that she was going to London? Was something forged? Was it not like, I guess that's been a huge point of contention. Because London is brought up, we don't know if David had gone to London multiple times, but recently he was talking about working on the Withered album, writing the album, and he says that he went to London to write the album. So just another London connection, but he says, quote, "I went to London with three of my friends and we made a song every day for two weeks. I love London because of the gloomy aesthetic and the gloomy vibe and environment that London has. There's barely any sun there and I love that because the music I make is really sad. So in the two weeks, I made a song every day and I came out with half the album.
1:05:25 Speaker 00 And then I went back to Houston for another two weeks and I made the rest of the project on my phone just off a piece, you know, that people sent me with some things that I made. So if that's the case, maybe this is the London trip in question. And if that is also correct, it seems like Celeste may have helped write a lot of the music and that is bringing more lyrics up into discussion. There is a whole interlude, remember of Celeste's voice? What seems to be Celeste's voice in this new album, the String Theory interlude?
1:05:57 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:05:58 Speaker 00 So the dots seem to all be connecting here. I do think that with Celeste's family, we can't really be so rigid with our thinking. I think this is out of all the places to have some level of understanding. DA Hawkman says, "I had the chance to meet with some of the family members of Celeste and their grief is uncalculable and as to what happened to their daughter. What they have demanded, what we have assured them is that the DA's office working with LAPD will give them the proof beyond a reasonable doubt on who killed their daughter, on how their daughter was killed and bring that killer to justice. That killer that we have now charged is David Anthony Burke. But one person still writes, "I have no sympathy for them. They had one job, which was to keep their kids safe." Another writes, "They chose to be a parent, then refused to even do the bare minimum.
1:06:41 Speaker 00 It amazes me that there are people having sympathy for these parents. It's disrespectful to that little girl that no one was protecting her. The devil doesn't always need an advocate, so stop with the old 'they tried' BS. David is just one person. There will always be sick fucks like him around. It's up to the parents to watch and protect their child. That is why they need to be charged and made an example of, so maybe the next time a parent will think twice." A lot of people think that's a bit harsh with someone responding. I said it before and I'll say it again, whatever Celeste's parents and family did or didn't do, they're facing the consequences of it now by having lost their daughter and having to face the murder. To me, that's punishment enough. You guys have- A right to your own opinions, but as for me personally, I don't feel good about rubbing it in. As for David's family, they're facing the consequences of their own too.
1:07:23 Speaker 00 Others, right? They see their daughter hanging out in nice houses and getting taken care of. He had to have been buying her clothes, nails, or whatever most predators do, and they thought, wow, she's having fun and she's safe. It's easy to place blame, and yes, they should have done more, but also David shouldn't have murdered her and she would still be alive. I just think there's a lot more places to be angry about right now. Prosecutors have yet to decide if they want to pursue the death penalty. The defense has, like I said, requested the preliminary hearing be pushed back to June, late June. And as of right now, he is in the LAPD 77th Street Jail. He's in the same facility as Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents. David is also being segregated away from the
1:08:04 Speaker 00 other inmates due to his fame and notoriety. He gets a shower every other day. He gets a phone call the same day that he showers, so every other day. So it's a really big day for him, shower days. A couple hours of recreation time a week by himself. I believe it's about three hours a week. He's not on self-exit watch, but he's alone. They think that something could potentially happen to him due to his status. There also could be more charges headed David's way, just because, I mean, the CSAM, that could be a state charge, that could be a federal charge. Typically, it's the feds. And specifically for CSAM, I mean, Beth Silverman really emphasized it too. In the court hearing, she uses the words, "He also had an iPhone, and that iPhone,
1:08:45 Speaker 00 as it's been reviewed, contained a significant amount of child pornography. And under the law, child pornography cannot be retained without there being certain orders in place. I've consulted with our high-tech division, which also handles cases involving child pornography. The protocol, unless the court chooses to structure something different," and she goes on to state that they're going to put it on a law enforcement device in the courthouse, but she's like really honing in on the CSAM. So that's why people think, yes, it's to emphasize how deplorable the evidence is that they found, but also maybe there are extra charges coming his way. But if those charges will follow, I guess, is another question. And I guess the big question is what's going to happen at the preliminary hearing?
1:09:29 Speaker 00 I don't think it's going to be explosive in the sense of I don't think they're going to bring in star witnesses and all these other people. I mean, I might be proven wrong. I think a lot of it is going to be law enforcement. So in preliminary hearings, things are a little bit different. So you can actually bring in law enforcement and they can testify on what would normally be considered hearsay in a trial. So in a trial, you can't sit there on the stand and say, this person told me this.
1:09:55 Speaker 01 Interesting.
1:09:56 Speaker 00 But in the preliminary hearing, because it's a preliminary hearing, a police officer can say, his friend Neo told me this. That's an example. You know, when I was talking, I interviewed this person and they told me this. So hearsay is allowed in preliminary hearings when it comes from law enforcement officers.
1:10:14 Speaker 01 Interesting.
1:10:15 Speaker 00 Yeah. So you really, that's why a lot of preliminary hearings you have in smaller cases. You'll have like one law enforcement officer who's like, okay, so I investigated this case. This is what I was told by this person that I went here. They told me this. And then pretty much that's like the whole witness.
1:10:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. But it's gonna last a minute, right? Like
1:10:34 Speaker 00 Yes. I mean, judging by the way things are moving. So Beth Silverman says she can get it done in like four to five days.
1:10:42 Speaker 01 Four to five days?
1:10:43 Speaker 00 Yes, but that's not factoring in the defense also examining, you know? But also, we don't know because she was also, there was lots of scheduling happening. She was like, I already told my witnesses, cancel your vacations. And Blair Burke keeps changing the timeline.
1:11:00 Speaker 01 So we're gonna hear some firsthand.
1:11:03 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think we're going to get a lot of information. I think that preliminary brief. Yeah, I think we're gonna get a lot more information. And I think a lot of the questions in these few episodes are gonna get answered in the preliminary hearing.
1:11:19 Speaker 01 It's like just to hear that there's forty terabytes of
1:11:22 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:11:23 Speaker 01 like evidence. I cannot imagine how much is, how much they've gathered.
1:11:29 Speaker 00 Oh, and another thing, just to clarify some talk on Reddit and online. Deputy DA Beth Silverman stated that she plans to set a trial date within the next sixty days. I have seen some people confusing that with saying that we're gonna go to trial in the next sixty days. I think that's
1:11:49 Speaker 01 Setting a date.
1:11:50 Speaker 00 Yeah, and That date is probably gonna be years from now. That is if there is a trial. I I mean, I think the judge is obviously the preliminary hearing is gonna go in favor of the prosecution. There's gonna be a trial, but that's if David doesn't plead guilty.
1:12:05 Speaker 01 Hmm.
1:12:07 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:12:07 Speaker 01 Is that a possibility, you think?
1:12:09 Speaker 00 I don't think so. I don't think the DA is going to give him any sort of plea deal that he would like. Um, another thing, there's like politics involved. So DA Hawkman was recently elected. And there's, you know, this is his career, as with all DAs. And he definitely needs to prove himself. He has some not great wins under his belt already. Some criticism under his belt. So I mean, this is a huge case. I don't think they're gonna give him a good plea deal. That he would take. Yeah, and I just don't see him pleading guilty. I mean, I could be proven wrong, but usually
1:12:53 Speaker 00 people like David don't plead guilty. Because I mean, what would he get out of pleading guilty? He'd rather probably just take his chances. It's not like he cares about if he's going into debt paying for his attorney. Or his parents are going into debt paying for his attorney.
1:13:08 Speaker 01 Wow, okay.
1:13:09 Speaker 00 But yeah, so I will keep you guys updated once the preliminary hearing starts. And obviously with the future trial, when and if that occurs. But what are your thoughts on this case? Let me know in the comments. So with that, be safe and I will see you in the next one. The Hulu original series Phony is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Sunny's life is pretty great until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his with one exception, his mom. Starring five time Emmy nominee Connie Britton and Sam Nivola. This small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface. Watch the Hulu original series Phony. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.
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