Body of D4vd's Girlfriend Cut Up Into Pieces: Court Filings

We have breaking news. New court. documents reveal that singer David is. officially a murder suspect and there is. a criminal case being pursued against. him in connection with the death of. 14-year-old Celeste Riveras Hernandez. And [music]. unfortunately, these documents also. reveal apparent new and disturbing. details about her dismembered body. Welcome to Sidebar presented by Law &. Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, if you're into a content. creation, if you're putting things out.

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There have been no arrests, there have. been no charges. Well, there have been. arrests, but not in connection with the. actual, let's say, killing of Celeste or. the removal of her body. There was an. arrest in terms of somebody being. brought there to testify. But, here's. the big part. You've heard reports of a. grand jury being impaneled, you've heard. reports of David being considered a. suspect, but nothing official. There has. been so much that authorities haven't. been revealing about this investigation. But, right now, Steve Fischer, the. private investigator who had been.

investigating this case on the ground, demanding justice, who may have. testified in front of the grand jury. himself, by the way, although we can't. officially confirm that. And by the way, he represents the owner of the house. where David was reportedly staying near. where the Tesla was found. He just. dropped not only huge bombshells about. this case on X, but he just gave us 150. pages of court filings that have. revealed a lot of new information. We. have learned more about Celeste body,

and we have learned that there is a real. case against David for murder. So, let. me lay out first what he posted on X, and then we'll discuss the actual. filings. First, Steve wrote, "In a. petition for attendance to compel David. family members to appear before a grand. jury, it's disclosed that Celeste. Riveras-Hernandez's head and torso were. found in a cadaver bag, her severed arms. and legs in a second bag. David Burke, meaning David, is the target of the. grand jury for one count of murder." And.

when you read from the screenshots that. he posted, and we'll talk about this. more from the actual filing, "People of. the state of California v. David Burke.". Nathan Hochman at the top, so that's the. LA County District Attorney. Beth. Silverman is the assistant DA. We've. mentioned her, too. So, this is. confirming there is a real case. They. are the prosecutors, including her. Saw. her coming in and out of court before. And then the filing states that there is. now pending in the Superior Court of the. County of Los Angeles the above entitled. grand jury investigation by the state of.

California against target David Burke, wherein target may be involved in having. committed the following criminal. offenses against the laws of the state. of California to wit, one count of. murder. This is big. This is big because. it was always a question of whether or. not they were really investigating him. and gathering evidence regarding a. murder charge. And when I looked it up, when I looked up that penal code under. California law, murder is the unlawful. killing of a human being or a fetus with. malice aforethought. Basically, an. intentional killing. So, while there.

were theories out there that let's say. Celeste had died as an accident. Let's. say Celeste died from a drug overdose. and there was a panic and they were just. there was just a instance of trying to. dismember her body or dispose of her. body or hide her body. Remember at one. point you heard from authorities maybe. there was nothing beyond just the. removal of her body that was being. investigated. Remember maybe that was. the only charge. Not the case. Now they. believe they have enough evidence to. support a murder charge that he. intentionally killed her. And then it. goes on to say how you have the three.

witnesses summoned by California are. Da'uud, Colleen, and Caleb Burks. So, his dad, his mom, and his younger adult. age brother. And the information that's. attached to Steve Fishers tweet is in. reference to Da'uud Burks court. paperwork and it says quote that if. Da'uud Burks comes into the state of. California in obedience to a summons. directing him to attend and testify at. said grand jury investigation, the laws. of the state of California and of any. other state through which he may be. required to pass by the ordinary course. of travel to attend such proceeding.

shall give him protection from arrest. and the service of process civil or. criminal in connection with matters. which arose before his entrance into. said state pursuant to such summons. That Da'uud Burks is an adult. That the. prosecution will provide the witness a. round trip airplane ticket and. transportation to and from the airport. Wherefore it is requested for on behalf. of the state of California that your. honor certify to the above and foregoing. by the issuance of a certificate there. to under the seal of the superior court. of record in the state of California to.

compel the attendance of Da'uud Burks as. a witness at the grand jury. investigation on the date and time set. forth pursuant to law. Basically, outlining that he is needed to be a. witness in this case and that if he. follows it and he shows up, he's not. going to be arrested and charged. Got. this other post from Steve, quote, court. transcripts show that detectives from. the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division were. in Texas to escort David's parents to. Los Angeles to testify. To testify about. what they know about the suspicion that.

their son murdered and dismembered a. 14-year-old girl. #monster, #Celeste. Davis Hernandez. And Steve also posted a. portion of a transcript for me. Texas. court where attorneys for the Burkes. were arguing that their clients wanted. to make sure that everything was in. order and they knew about everything. before they went to Los Angeles. And. we're going to talk about this more, but. that part of the transcript reads, and. again, LAPD detectives are here to make. sure they get a flight, they get a. hotel, they get room and lodging, that. it will not cause undue hardship to.

them, and that the court issue those. subpoenas on behalf of California. And. then the judge says, okay, Mr. Martinez, yes, your honor, if I may, just take a. step back and advise the court of what. we actually received this afternoon, okay? We received from the state at the. request of the state of California a. subpoena for Colleen and Woody Burke, a. certification from a judge in California. where it states that there is an. affidavit attached from the Assistant. District Attorney of Los Angeles, and we. have the attestation from the clerk, and. we have an affidavit from an Assistant. District Attorney in Los Angeles, but it. has been redacted. Now, I'm going to get.

more into exactly why this is. significant in just a second. By the. way, as we think about them testifying, what would they testify? We'll talk. about that, too. But also, would they. plead the fifth, right? Something to. think about. Here's another post from. Steve, quote, a Waller County, Texas. court compelled David's parents and. brother to travel to Los Angeles to. appear before the grand jury on February. 11th, 2026. That decision was appealed. and a writ of habeas corpus was then. filed on February 3rd, which was denied. It appears they have appeared before the. judge, most likely invoking the fifth,

but that is speculation on my part, Celeste Davis Hernandez. So, see, he. thinks the same thing I do. And that. tweet included part of a court document. which reads, the court ordered Mr. Burke. to appear before the California grand. jury on February 11th, 2026. A writ of. habeas corpus was filed on February 3rd. The writ challenged the ex parte nature. of the proceeding, meaning one-sided, deprivation of due process, incorrect. application of Article 24.28, and incorrect finding that Mr. Burke's. testimony was material and necessary. The court denied the writ on the merits. Again, we're going to talk all about. that. But, to the cap off these.

bombshell revelations about the David. case, Steve actually shared more than 150. pages from Texas courts laying out what. happened. And with that file, came a. long statement from this private. investigator. Quote, "Celeste Rivas. Hernandez deserves better. It's. infuriating that we're approaching 6. months and no charges have been filed in. her murder. If the evidence hasn't been. secured by now, what exactly is. happening? Is this a blown. investigation? We now know these.

monsters sawed off Celeste's arms and. legs. Let's not call it dismemberment. That word sounds clinical, like a. surgeon removed her limbs. This is not. what happened. A vicious, sick group of. people brutally hacked her arms and legs. off her body. Was she alive when they. started? And yes, I am using plural. terms because in my professional. opinion, there is no way one person did. this alone, whether participating. directly or acting as an accessory. Yet, only one individual is named as a target. in the court filings. Like you, Neo.

Christopher Langston, you knew. I've. seen family members publicly defend him. and threaten lawsuits against anyone who. names him. Sue me. I beg you. Please sue. me. Give me subpoena power. Give me the. power of discovery because that may be. the only way the truth comes out. I beg. of you. File that defamation suit. How. do people like David, Neo, and Asia live. with themselves? 6 months, no charges, no press conference, but LAPD and the. District Attorney's Office did issue a. press release stating they had the. medical examiner's autopsy and. investigative findings sealed so. detectives could review them first, claiming it was not meant to undermine.

transparency. They got that information, yet the records remain sealed. That. press release misled the public. That. press release was a lie. Another press. release suggested the only potential. criminal culpability might be. concealment of a body. Talked about that. before. They said that knowing Celeste's. arms and legs have been sawed off. You. came out with that press release knowing. what had been done to her? If they do. not have enough evidence to charge those. responsible, then they need to say that. plainly. Admit that after nearly 6. months the investigation has not. produced sufficient evidence to charge.

David Anthony Burke or anyone else who. participated or was an or was an. accessory. Admit it's a blown. investigation. Admit that important. evidence was left behind after the. search warrant. Admit that critical. surveillance was lost because nobody. followed up to obtain it. Celeste's head. and torso were placed in one cadaver. bag. Her arms and legs were placed in. another. Someone purchased cadaver bag, cut her apart, placed her remains inside. those bags, put her in the trunk of a. Tesla, and went on with their lives. They purchased cadaver bags. They went. to the extent of purchasing cadaver.

bags. And still, 6 months later, there. were no charges, no accountability, silence, sealed records. Threaten me. with contempt all you want. I will. proudly take that contempt charge for. the pursuit of justice for Celeste River. Hernandez. 6 months is enough. Do your. sworn duty or admit the case was failed. We need to let the LAPD and the DA's. office know we are mad and this is not. acceptable. And I wish her family would. do the same. Here is the full 151 page. court filing for anyone willing to read. it. David Celeste River Hernandez. Well, I'll tell you we read through it and. we're going to go through it. But,

obviously, he's upset. Understandably. so. And while we do not know what is. going on behind the scenes and whether. or not they are about to issue an. indictment or whether or not anyone's. about to be arrested, you can understand. his frustration and how long this is. going on. And. if it seems that it's just David they. may be going after. But, I want to go. through these court documents, try to. make sense of what we're seeing. So, first, we have this petition on behalf. of Da Woodberg. Again, this is David's. father. We've talked about this before. It's an unusual filing. It's a habeas.

petition. Usually you see habeas. petitions when someone's already been. convicted, they're in prison, they're. trying to say that their their detention. is unlawful, that there's new evidence. that's come out. They're trying to get. their conviction thrown out or a new. trial. So, this one's a little. different. But, basically, the argument. is they're saying that the family. members' rights are being violated to. have to testify, to be compelled, to be. transported to another state to provide. testimony. And this was filed out in. Waller County, Texas. There was an order. from January 18th for Colleen Burke, the. mother here, to appear before the Texas.

court to explain why she shouldn't have. to appear before the grand jury in LA, why she shouldn't have to comply with. the subpoena. You go to page 13, I want. to bring your attention to this actual. subpoena that was issued to DeWood Burke. from Nathan Hochman, signed by Beth. Silverman, ordering DeWood to appear. before the grand jury in LA on February. 11th. So, you're not even just seeing. Steve's interpretation of the filings. This is you're actually seeing it. This. is These are actual court documents. And. in this subpoena, it is explained to.

DeWood that the grand jury is secret. Don't tell anyone about this, I mean, other than your attorney. Page 15, there's a court document. It's from a. Judge Craig Richmond, Judge of the. Superior Court in LA, certifying there. is a grand jury proceeding in the case. of David Burke, that Beth Silverman is. requesting DeWood to appear and provide. material and necessary testimony. What. could that be? Well, we don't know. exactly for sure, though get a little. bit more into it. Maybe it's just the.

family saying, "Yeah, that was his. Tesla. It was registered to him." But. again, going back that DeWood would get. round-trip airline tickets, transportation. But now I want to get. into the document that Steve took a. screenshot of. It is a petition for. attendance of out-of-state witness. They. were filed for Colleen, Caleb, and. DeWood, with the main crux of the. filings being the same, but there's some. slight differences that we'll get into. But this is This is the real details. about the case that we want to get into. Quote, "It is alleged in this case that. the target may be involved in the death.

of 14-year-old victim Celeste Rios. Hernandez, who may have been a victim of. foul play. Her severely decomposed, dismembered body" There was a mixed. reporting on whether it was dismembered. "Dismembered body was found in the front. trunk of target's Tesla on September. 8th, 2025. On September 8th, 2025 at. approximately 10:30 hours, Los Angeles. Police Department detectives received a. phone call from the manager of Hollywood. area official police garage. The manager. stated a black Tesla Model X had been.

impounded as an abandoned vehicle by the. Department of Transportation on. September 5th, 2025. The manager told. police there was a strong smell of decay. coming from the vehicle, which was. attracting flies. LAPD detectives. responded to the Hollywood tow yard to. investigate. Detectives approached the. vehicle, which was parked on the upper. deck of the impound lot, and immediately. noticed the smell of decaying biological. material consistent with a decomposing. corpse coming from the front storage. compartment of the vehicle. Detectives. obtained a search warrant for the. vehicle, and when the front storage.

compartment was opened, detectives. observed a black cadaver bag covered. with insects and a strong odor of decay. Utilizing black latex gloves, detectives. partially unzipped the bag and observed. a decomposed head and torso. Investigators and criminalists from the. Los Angeles County Department of Medical. Examiner responded to the tow yard to. process the decomposed body. Upon. removing the cadaver bag from the front. storage compartment, it was discovered. the arms and legs had been severed from. the body. A second black bag was.

discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the. dismembered body parts were discovered. Detectives were advised that on August. 26th, 2025, a citizen reported the. above-mentioned Tesla as an abandoned. vehicle parked across from 1405 Bluebird. Street. On August 27th, 2025, Department. of Transportation officers responded to. Blue Bird and marked the vehicle. On. September 3rd, 2025, Department of. Transportation returned to the vehicle. and issued a citation. On September 5th,

2025, Department of Transportation. impounded the vehicle to Hollywood area. tow. It was noted that the Tesla was. registered to Target David Anthony Burke. in Hempstead, Texas. David, who was a. singer and performing artist, was on. tour at the time his vehicle was. impounded. And then, the next section is. different for each witness, so you have. differences between affidavits seen. further down. Like Caleb, detectives. learn that Caleb Burke is the younger. brother of Target David Burke and has a. close relationship with him. Detectives. learn that Colleen Burke is the mother. of Target David Burke and has a close.

relationship with him. Per several. witnesses, she is instrumental to his. career success and manages his business. finances. Detectives learn that Dewood. Burke is the father of Target David. Burke and has a close relationship with. him. And then, there's a large chunk of. text that is redacted, too. Just want to. make note of that. From there, we have. this application for writ of habeas. corpus. So, the basic argument is is. that under Texas law, a court can only. force a resident to testify in another. state after there is a meaningful.

hearing, a meaningful notice. That the. argument is Dewood and maybe everybody. else here, the other family members, never saw the full documents that would. justify them going to LA to have to. testify. That there's not enough to. justify them going there. Now, I'm not. going to go through the whole legal. argument, but you get the main idea that. no one should be confined or restrained, especially imprisoned, if they don't. comply with a subpoena unless they have. meaningful notice, a meaningful. understanding of what all this is about.

But later on, you'll see there was an. order by the court where that writ of. habeas corpus was denied. Now, there's. more, but those are some of the. pertinent parts we have so far up to. page 50. We go further into this filing. There's a section in this filing called. transcripts and exhibits. This is. important. I want to talk about this. And it contains the petitions to appear. again, as well as transcripts from. multiple hearings. So, the first hearing. was in Waller County, Texas, on January. 23rd, 2026. And this one only concerned. Colleen and Caleb. They were there, not. Da Wood, for some reason. Plus, he had.

two LAPD homicide detectives who could. testify if they if it was needed. Mia. Magnus represented Texas, as well as. California, basically by proxy. She told. the court, quote, "So, Judge, I'm. stepping into this last minute as well, but my understanding is this that there. is a grand jury investigation being. conducted in California, Los Angeles. County. These two individuals have been. summoned to appear for purposes of the. grand jury presentation. The prosecutors. in Los Angeles have executed all of the. paperwork that is necessary. It has gone. before, I believe they call them, the. superior court judge there, who has. signed off and done all the necessary.

certifications. And so, under Texas law, Code of Criminal Procedure, Article. 24.28, which is the Uniform Act to Secure. Attendance of Witnesses from without the. state, are now before you for the court. to make a determination that California. has complied with the rules that would. authorize a Texas court, you being a. district court judge, to review the. paperwork and then order that these. witnesses appear to appear before the. grand jury in California. Then you had. Kent Schaefer, who represents David's. mother, had this to say, quote, "So, on.

behalf of Colleen Burke, our position is. that the request or the summons and the. request for issuance of the subpoena is. unconstitutional in violation of the. Texas and the United States. Constitutions, in that it denies the. witness, Colleen Burke, notice and due. process, inasmuch as Article 24.28, Section B, which governs, says that the. court has to make a determination that. the witness is material and necessary, and that it will not cause undue. hardship to be compelled to attend and. testify. All we have been served with so.

far is a notice to appear here today. So, it is virtually impossible for us to. address materiality and necessity when. we don't even know what the subject. matter is that would be explored with. our client. But Magnus argued that the. determination about materiality of these. witnesses, that was already made by a. California judge. So all the Texas judge. needs to do was just make sure the. paperwork was all in order, tell the. witnesses they need to go. And the judge. says that actually since this was so. last minute, he doesn't even have any of. that paperwork. So they end up deciding.

to reschedule the hearing for several. days later. And at that February 2nd. hearing in Texas, you have Colleen, Caleb, and Dawood. They were all there. with counsel. Bennett Dodson is the. assistant DA of Waller County. Told the. court, "I don't think it's a secret to. anyone at this point that Mr. David. Burke is a musician who's quite famous. And this matter concerns a car that was. registered to him at this at these. witnesses address here in Houston that. had a dismembered decomposing body in. it. I would say if a car with a. dismembered decomposing body is. registered to your home address, that is.

something you should expect to be. questioned by the authorities about. And. that's what this is, judge." So there. you go. There you go. That's probably. what they'd be forced to testify about. But the attorneys for David's family. members argue that everyone involved in. both California and Texas courts, the. judges, the prosecutors, they had seen. the unredacted affidavit. But their. clients, they only got the redacted. version. So it's limited. And they want. to know what's in that. They want to. know what's in that big blacked out. section of the petitions. And again, goes back to the legal argument, "Hey, we have a right to know what this is all.

about under habeas before relinquishing. our freedom, right, to go and have to. testify." So you had Dodson say that. most of that information in the. affidavit is not a secret. It's already. known to the public. Saying quote, "It's. all over TMZ." Goes on to say the. redacted information concerns knowledge. that is only known to the grand jury, period. It has not been distributed. anywhere." What was the judge's. decision? Here's from the court. Quote, "But even when I look at it myself, I. still think these witnesses are material. and necessary because of the. relationship that's involved with the. witnesses and the defendant. So my.

ruling is going to be that they are to. go to California and honor the subpoena. by California. And the judge read out an. official summons to Colleen, to Wood, Caleb, with Caleb scheduled to appear. before the grand jury on February 10th, to Wood, Colleen, February 11th, with LA. prosecutors paying for the round trip. airline tickets and transportation to. and from court for all three. There you. go. Some new information. Seemingly some confirmations of material. that we haven't had in quite some time. Obviously, we will stay on this case as. we learn more. It's all we have for you.

right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us and as. always, please subscribe [music] on. YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's. [music] Peacock. We got Sidebar episodes. up there, too. If you want to follow me, X, Instagram, my NewsNation show, Jesse. Weber LIVE, Monday through Friday, >> [music]. >> Eastern.