Feds Could Make D4vd's Murder Case Even Worse

Could singer David now be hit with. federal charges? I wonder because of the. alleged child sexual abuse material. apparently found on his devices. This. alleged illegal sexual relationship over. state lines. Are the feds getting. involved? Are they already? Because if. that is the case, David's legal. predicament would change drastically. I. [music] am bringing on a former federal. prosecutor to discuss. Welcome to. Sidebar presented by Law & Crime. >> [music]. >> I'm Jesse Weber.

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is your one-stop shop. And having a tool. like Opus Clip means that our producers. can get you viral courtroom updates. instantly. This is the most powerful. tool there is to share ideas and edit. like a pro. So, go to opus.pro/sidebar. to get a free week and then 50% off. Could David face federal charges? Now, remember, he's currently charged with. California state crimes. 21-year-old. David Anthony Burke has been charged. with first-degree murder, continuous. sexual abuse of a child under 14, and a.

lawful mutilation of human remains, all. in connection with the death of. 14-year-old Celeste Davis Hernandez, who. was found dead, mutilated in a Tesla at. a Hollywood tow yard out in Los Angeles, and that this car was apparently. registered to David. And the criminal. complaint also includes special. circumstance allegations of murder of a. witness, murder for financial gain, lying in wait. There is a special. allegation that Burke allegedly used a. deadly and dangerous weapon, a sharp.

instrument, to commit the crime. And the. reason that's all important is because. if he's convicted, he could get a higher. penalty. He could get life in prison. without [clears throat] the possibility. of parole. He can even get the death. penalty even though there's a moratorium. on executions out in California. But. essentially, the argument is is that he. allegedly killed Celeste on April 23rd, 2025 after she threatened to expose him. Prosecutors allege he couldn't let. anyone know about their alleged illegal. sexual relationship, that this would. ruin his career. So they claim he lured.

her to his property, killed her shortly. after she arrived, stabbed her to death, and then dismembered her body. He has. entered a not guilty plea. It's. important to always remember that he is. innocent until proven guilty. But with. all that said, now I am wondering about. federal charges. Could federal charges. be on the horizon? Because if that is. the case, that will change everything. For that, I want to bring in Jean Rossi, former federal prosecutor, criminal. defense attorney to talk about this. Jean, thank you so much for taking the. time. Always good to see you. I have to.

just start with the big one. This is the. one when this came out, this was my. first thought. And I haven't had an. opportunity to really dissect it as as. much as I wanted to because from the. evidence list included in a filing ahead. of the preliminary hearing, which is set. for the end of the month, and that's. where prosecutors will present what they. say is sufficient evidence for this case. to move forward. There's this part. It. says, quote, "The description of. photographs depicting the victim naked. as well as she was engaged with. defendant in sexual activity when she. was 13. As this evidence constitutes.

child sexual abuse material, CSAM, the. photographs themselves will not be. presented. While all possible charges. that could be proven were not filed, the. CSAM is proof of their ongoing sexual. relationship while the victim was 13 and. 14 years old." And Los Angeles County. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman. said in court in a recent hearing that. the search warrants in this case turned. up quote a significant amount of child. pornography on Burke's devices. Now, I.

go to Eugene. If that is the case, is. that automatically federal charges? >> It's not automatically, but it sure. points towards federal involvement. And. there are two federal charges uh that. could occur here and I'll get to a third. in a moment. But I want to go to the. child pornography. They have seized 8. terabytes of information from his iCloud. account. They've only reviewed 1.

terabyte. So, they got 7 more terabytes. to go where they could even enhance the. murder charge and also child. pornography. But go to feds. The US. attorney or Department of Justice could. charge him theoretically with possession. of child porn and or production of child. porn. Possession is a 5-year minimum. The production is I think a 15-year. minimum. I could be wrong on that, but I. think it's 10 to 15 years. But it's a. it's a minimum. The other charge that.

could possibly occur here is federally. is kidnapping. It appears that she may. have been lured to his apartment across. state lines and that for the purpose of. kidnapping her, not letting her go, and. then he abused her and he killed her. Kidnapping resulting in death is at. federal level. >> Would it still be federal would it still. be federal if she came from Lake. Elsinore, California to the Hollywood. Hills, in California? All in one state.

>> don't we don't know if she went to. another state and we he was. communicating with her. We don't know. We got 8 terabytes of information. We. have 7 more terabytes to go. We don't. know that. But on a child pornography. stuff, that's definitely an interest of. the federal. prosecutors. I can tell you that right. now. >> Let's explore that a little bit. I. looked at some of the statutes and tell. me what the elements are and how it. might apply. So, I saw 18 USC 2251. sexual exploitation of children, production of child pornography. 18 USC.

2252 certain activities relating to. material involving the sexual. exploitation of minors. So, possession, distribution, and receipt of child. pornography. 2252A certain activities. relating to material constituting or. containing child pornography. And I. looked under the DOJ's website, they. basically say images of child. pornography are not protected under. First Amendment rights and are illegal. contraband under federal law. Section. 2256 defines child pornography as any.

visual depiction of sexually explicit. conduct involving a minor, someone under. 18 years of age. Visual depictions. include photographs, videos, digital or. computer-generated images. distinguishable from an actual minor and. images created, adapted, or modified but. appear to depict an identifiable actual. minor. Federal jurisdiction is impacted. if the child pornography offense. occurred in interstate or foreign. commerce. So, this includes, for. example, using the US mails or common. carriers to transport child pornography. across state or international borders.

Additionally, federal jurisdiction. almost always applies when the internet. is used to commit a child pornography. violation. Even if the child pornography. image itself did not travel across state. or international borders, federal law. may be implicated if the material, such. as the computer used to download the. image or the CD-ROM used to store the. image originated traveled in interstate. or foreign commerce. And then it goes, "Any violation of federal child. pornography law is a serious crime. Convicted offenders face severe. statutory penalties. For example, a. first-time offender convicted of.

producing child pornography faces. statutory minimum of 15 years to 30. years maximum in prison. A first-time. offender convicted of transporting child. pornography faces, like you said, fines. and a statutory minimum of 5 years to 20. years in prison. Convicted offenders may. face harsher penalties if the offender. has prior convictions. Okay, I guess I. go back to you when I'm laying that out. Is it just the fact you put it on your. device and it connects to the iCloud? Is. that sufficient? I mean, I think a lot.

of these statutes were built before our. technology. Um and so, it's not like the classic. example, child pornography, you put it. in the mail, you send it to somebody, right? If it's on your phone and it's in. the iCloud, is that enough? >> That could be enough. Because here's. why, because the interstate nexus for. child pornography cases, and actually. any federal crime, the bar is very low. in in terms of affecting interstate. commerce. If you use your iCloud, if you. use a computer, if you use the mails,

it's almost inevitable you're going to. invoke a federal jurisdiction via the. commerce affecting commerce. So, that. doesn't bother me one bit in terms of. the affecting interstate commerce. I I. did want to add this. Um the intent here. would be uh circumstantially. You. probably don't have any admissions from. uh Mr. Burke. I'm going to call Mr. Burke. So, you really just his. possession would satisfy the elements of. either intentionally, knowingly, and or. willfully possessing this material or.

transporting or producing. It sounds. like he took it up a notch and he was. producing this child porn. He just. wasn't receiving it. It was You seem to. be obsessed with her. I would say this, one of the articles that I read said. it's possible that he was starting his. relationship, if you will, I use that. loosely with uh Ms. Hernandez when she. was age 12. So, we got 12, 13, that's. well below 14, of course. So, he's. facing some charges at the state level.

that are pretty significant. But, I want. to go back to the feds. If there is any indication that she. crossed state lines, that would invoke. the kidnapping statute if he lured her. across state lines, which is possible, I. don't know, and they have this death. resulting clause of the kidnapping. statute, that is a death penalty. eligible at the federal level. And I'll guarantee you this, if the LA. US Attorney's office has evidence of. kidnapping resulting in death, you can. guarantee they're going to charge it,

and they probably would seek the death. penalty because from what I've read, this gets to a case I had in the Eastern. District of Virginia, uh United States. versus Ernesto Cole. He was a drug. dealer, he killed about 35 people. One. of the people whom he killed was uh in. the Eastern District of Virginia, the. victim was put in a in a uh car that was. parked on Teddy Roosevelt Island during. the 4th of July 1991, and tourists and.

people saw flies and the odor from the. car uh over 3 days was just uh. overwhelming. They impounded the car, and they found inside uh the victim. Uh. that was the basis of the the murder. charge, the drug trafficking and murder. charge. This has similar qualities. It. seems like that that she was left in the. trunk of that car for weeks. >> Yeah. >> While it was parked in front of his. rental property in Hollywood, I think.

>> Yeah, and and that's what complicates. it, but again, I don't think I haven't. seen anything that like the car was. driven across state lines. It might have. been transported within California, but. [clears throat] I haven't seen it. crossing state lines, which actually. talking about crossing state lines, it. brings me to something else. I I'm. curious your perspective on another. potential federal charge. Sex. trafficking. What do I mean? So, in the. brief it says numerous text messages. between defendant and the victim. evidencing their sexual relationship, pregnancy, abortion, and use of Plan B.

emergency contraception. Messages. through March 2025 prove defendant. continued to manipulate the victim as. she messaged, "All we do is have sex and. just hang out. Man, I want more than. that for myself." These messages were. obtained from defendant's iCloud data. And by the way, apparently there was a. prior investigation into their alleged. relationship. And it said, "Despite. being informed by law enforcement the. victim was only 13, defendant continued. to pursue her." After the victim. returned home in February 2024, her. parents took her cell phone away.

Defendant drove to Lake Elsinore and. paid a junior high school student in the. victim's class a thousand dollars to. give the victim a cell phone defendant. purchased so they could stay in contact. Throughout 2024, the victim spent a. significant amount of time with. defendant including summer weekends at. his home in the Hollywood Hills and. traveling with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family. Jean, whenever I hear about an alleged illegal. sexual relationship with a minor and. this is going across state lines and.

international lines, is that sex. trafficking? >> Yes. Go to Go to the Diddy trial in the. Southern District of New York. He had a RICO count, he had a he had a. Mann Act count, and he had sex. trafficking involving violence. I don't. think you have RICO here, but you could. have a Mann Act. Mann Act is I'm in I'm. in Washington D.C., I call a lady of the. night in L.A. Hey, I'll pay your airfare. hotel, come here and we'll have.

physical. relationship. That's a Mann Act. violation. There's no threats, there's. no violence. If you add violence, that's. tricks sex trafficking involving. violence or the threat of violence. We. could have that. Now, here's the thing. This is why I think kidnapping could be. on the the radar screen in addition to. Mann Act or sex trafficking at the. federal level. I'm sure she left the. state of California. and there were communications between.

Mr. Burke and Ms. Hernandez that caused. her to come back to LA and engage in a. relationship with him when she was under. 14 or even if she wasn't for. >> [snorts]. >> under 14. Sex trafficking doesn't have. an age. Man Act doesn't have an age. So, those are two federal charges that could. apply. >> Does he have to promise her something? Does he have to give her something of. value? Does he have to give her money? Does he have to Is it paying for the. trips? Cuz isn't that a key component of. a sex trafficking case? I don't know if. it's different if you're talking about.

minor. >> It it it the the the jury instructions. for the Mann Act and the sex trafficking. is very broad. It could be entice. Entice could be you're just the verbal. persuasion. It could be a financial. gain. It's very broad how you entice. somebody to cross state lines for either. Mann Act purposes or sex trafficking. purposes. >> Okay. By the way, before I go into the. next component of this and how this may. work, I just want to go back to the. potential CSAM, the child sexual abuse.

material. What's the defense? And look, this is the prosecution's narrative. about what they found. It's the. prosecution's description of what these. potential images are. Do you say as a. defense attorney, uh it's not that, that these are very. benign images, they're not what is being. described, or if he's in possession of. it, it's on his devices, case closed? >> [laughter]. >> The thing about child pornography, if I. have a magazine on my desk right now. and it's child pornography and I know.

it's on my desk and it crossed state. lines, I got it in the mail, I'm guilty. of possession of child pornography. That's all you need. It's really an easy. charge to prove. The only defense would. Well, two defenses. One, you didn't know. you had possession. If you had. possession, it was a mistake. That would. be one defense. The other defense is you. know, it's not really child porn. It's a. photo of a young girl in a nice dress or. in a playground. It's not child.

pornography. That would be the other. defense. That second defense, the other. defense, that doesn't go anywhere. I'm. sure what's on his iCloud or anything. short of the iCloud is pretty graphic. and it's I think just as Stewart said, pornography, I know it when I see it. Same thing applies to child pornography. I know it when I see it. So, it's not. hard to prove that that's child. pornography. >> I want to touch upon something else. So, Beth Silverman, again, the assistant DA. who's prosecuting this case, said that. discovery materials in this case would.

include the results of a wiretap, okay, and also searches of Burke's cell phone. and iCloud accounts and that law. enforcement executed 54 search warrants. Wiretap, does that mean the feds are. involved? >> Possibly. Yes. Now, at the state level, they can. get wiretaps, but at the federal level, uh wiretaps are very common. Well, they're common in this type of case. So, it could be a federal wiretap. It could. be a state wiretap. It could be both. Here's the other thing I I was uh.

interested in. There were grand jury. subpoenas served on the parents of Mr. Burke in in Texas, okay, Houston, Texas. They were served on the parents in April. of 2025. and as you mentioned before, her alleged. murder occurred around April 23rd of. 2025. and the motive would be one, she could. possibly be pregnant and or uh worried. he's worried that he's a target of an. investigation. What I'd like to know is.

were they just state grand jury. subpoenas. or has had the feds gotten involved and. also served grand jury subpoenas on the. parents? The reason I mentioned that is. if the parents. got grand jury subpoenas from the feds. and they were doing something to. conceal, alter, or or impede the. investigation, that's an obstruction of. justice charge. >> Okay, that actually leads into something. else. I thought about this. I don't know.

if there's anything here. There is a. federal law on the books against. tampering with or killing a witness who. was part of a federal proceeding, right? Now, as far as we know there was no. federal proceeding. However, if we go by. the prosecution's narrative that she was. eventually going to expose him about. their relationship and even though. again, there's been nothing to indicate. there was a federal proceeding or. federal investigation, but if she said, "I'm going to show everybody these. pictures or I'm going to the FBI." If. there are like messages about that, could theoretically this be a case of.

allegedly tampering with killing a. witness at the federal level? I might be. stretching this because I don't know all. the the the situation, but I thought. about it. >> Well, at the federal level you need an. investigation. You need a pending. proceeding. And. I I supervised indirectly a charge where. a witness in a federal investigation was. going to cooperate with the feds or had. been cooperating and she was brutally. brutally murdered by MS-13 members. So,

that was a a separate charge. involving witness tampering and but it. would be a aggravating factor for. first-degree murder in a special. circumstances that that she was a. potential witness and he he took her. life allegedly allegedly took her life. I will say this though, unless the. wiretaps have some admissions or. inculpatory statements, Mr. Burke has an. argument that there's no I'm assuming.

there's no forensic DNA on the body. That would be bad of course. But they. got an argument they have an argument. I. don't say it's successful that you know, it's too attenuated. You can't place him. at the scene of any crime. You can't. There's no admission that he took her. life. If that's the case, then they have. an argument. >> Well, I I will I'll counter that by. saying. >> Go ahead. >> They through digital evidence Okay, this. is their This is what they're saying. they have. I don't know.

We'll have to see what they have. But. they claim through digital evidence and. cell phone evidence and surveillance. evidence, they can track her movements. to this property. They can track. purchases that he made to allegedly, you. know, dispose of her body. They can. track his movements to Santa Barbara. Also through, you know, messages that he. allegedly sent, they they've created a. timeline of when this alleged murder. happened. And there is some forensic. material too that I think is of note, but I just want to take a step back. here. >> What would be the advantage of pursuing. a federal case simultaneously. with a state case? Is it that if there's.

a weakness in the state case, hey, you. know, we can go the federal route? Does. it complicated at all? Talk to me about. that. >> Well, I mean, the advantage is your the. defense is facing two two wars, if you. will. Eastern front, Western front. So. that's always puts a burden on the. defense. And and, you know, it's a lot easier to convict somebody. when you have two battles going on. The The The negative is. if you have two charges in two separate. forums, state and federal, you're going.

to have problems with uh production and. disclosing of exculpatory evidence, other things that you have to disclose, because you're going to have to have the. state and federals compare how much. information they each have, and a judge. is going to say, "Hey, state, you get. everything you can from the feds and. vice versa." That could complicate. things. Usually what happens is the. state defers to the feds, but I think. the horse is, you know, we had to.

conduct Derby Saturday. The horse has. left the gate, if you will, uh on the state charge. they've already. started a process. Usually, at the. beginning of an investigation, the state. and feds decide who goes first or who's. going to take over the case. >> So, in other words, if there were. federal charges, it doesn't necessarily. mean the federal case would go first. There's a possibility the state case. could go first. >> That's exactly right. That's exactly. right. Yep. >> Now, I don't recall any mention of the.

feds at all. What do I mean by that? In. the press conference from LA. authorities, the LA District Attorney's. Office, law enforcement, haven't heard. anything about the feds. That doesn't. necessarily mean it's not happening, right? I mean, could the LA DA's office. just not be saying anything? Are they. Are the feds investigating behind the. scenes? I don't know. You tell me. >> Yes, see, think about it. You're have. You're You're Nate Hochman and you're. having a press conference. You're. announcing these first-degree murder. charges and other charges involving loot.

acts and sexual exploitation. The last. thing you want to do is have a press. conference say, "Okay, we've charged. Gene Rossi, but the feds are doing. something too." You're directing the. media to go to some other forum to ask. questions. You want the focus to be on. your investigation. Your investigation alone. So, it doesn't. surprise me that they were very. reluctant, intentionally, to avoid. mentioning that the feds may have an. investigation. I would be shocked. if the federal US Well, the US.

Attorney's Office does not have an. investigation or will be starting one. I. would be shocked if they are not doing. anything. >> And again, maybe someone in the comments. could correct me, but I go back to that. press conference. I don't recall the LA. DA saying, "You know, this was a joint. operation between the LA DA's office, the LAPD, Riverside County Sheriff's. Office, the FBI." Because sometimes you. see that, right? They'll be like, "We. had a multi-agency effort. The FBI. helped us with with information.". Sometimes the FBI is part of a state.

case, right? So, the fact that they. didn't mention that, you know, you tell me. >> Well, if that they did not mention the. Feds at all, FBI, ATF, anybody else, uh. does not surprise me one bit. They want. to have the focus on the LA DA's office. and their office alone. Not that they. want to hog the media, but they want to. focus on their case. If there was a. joint investigation, they would have. mentioned that. But, I want to stress, it does not mean the Feds are just.

sitting on their hands and not looking. at this at all. I guarantee you they are. looking at it. Whether they charge is. another matter, but they are looking at. it. >> Gene Rossi, my gosh, gave us a lot to. think about. Thank you so much, sir. Always good to see you first person. We. wanted to have to talk about this. Thank. you. >> Hey, thank you. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so. much for joining us and as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple. Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcasts. You can also check us.

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