'Messy' D4vd Braces for Explosive Teen Dismemberment Hearing

Accused child killer David was back in. court for a very important [music]. hearing because we just got confirmation. on what is going to happen next in this. murder case. Welcome to Sidebar. presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. By the way, if [music] you're putting. things out on social media, if you're. into content creation, you might be. wondering, how do we share all these. clips on these rapidly developing. stories so quickly? Well, we use. something called Opus Clip. Opus Clip is. an all-in-one AI editor that makes it a. breeze to cut, create, and upload videos.

across any platform. Through AI, OpusClip generates B-roll, refframes. footage, and it even cleans up audio. Using OpusClip is so easy. You just. visit opus.pro/sidebar. You sign up, you upload it, in minutes, you'll have perfectly edited clips ready. to go for Tik Tok, shorts, reals. Opus. Clip is really 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. Okay. July 7th, 2026, we got this brand. new hearing that just happened in the. David case. I'm going to be bringing on. a reporter in a little bit who was in. there. We'll give a playbyplay of what. happened, how David looked, how he. acted, what we can expect next. Two. things. First, I'm going to give you. context. And two, I got a very. interesting update in this case. It just. came down. So, let's first start here. David. David is the romantic homicide. singer currently charged with. firstdegree murder, continuous sexual.

abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful. mutilation of human remains, all in. connection with the death of 14-year-old. Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors. alleged that he was in a sexual. relationship with her, that back on. April 23rd, 2025, David allegedly lured. her to his rental home in LA, stabbed. her to death, allegedly watched her. bleed out, and then reportedly took. horrifying measures to conceal this. alleged crime. All in an effort, according to prosecutors, to keep. Celeste quiet about their relationship,

to prevent her from coming forward, to. prevent her from ruining his lucrative. career. The special circumstances. allegations in this case that carry. heftier penalties, potentially the death. penalty, murder of a witness, murder for. financial gain, lying and weight, that. he allegedly used a deadly and dangerous. weapon, a sharp instrument. Prosecutors. allege he purchased a blue inflatable. pool, chainsaws, a body bag, heavy duty. laundry bags, that he dismembered her. body, that he allegedly made suspicious. trips to the Santa Barbara County area,

that he purportedly lied to friends and. associates about the alleged smell of. decomposition in his place. And then you. go to September 8th, 2025. This is the. day after what would have been Celeste's. 15th birthday. Her dismembered, decomposed body is found reportedly in. the front trunk of a Tesla allegedly. registered to David at an LA towyard. At. the towyard, LAPD detectives open the. Tesla's front storage compartment and. reportedly find this black cadaavver bag.

that is covered in insects. And inside. the bag, authorities claim they. discovered a severely decomposed head. and torso. A plastic garbage bag beneath. the black cadaavver bag reportedly. contained the dismembered arms and legs. Now, Celeste's ring and pinky fingers on. her left hand had reportedly been. amputated. They weren't found in the. Tesla. And this is a level of graphic. detail that has just led to a very. interesting development in this case.

This is new. So before I even talk about. what happened in court today, NBC News. has reported that more than a dozen. employees of the Los Angeles County. Medical Examiner's Office are under. investigation for allegedly viewing law. enforcement investigation files without. the appropriate authorization. So the. release of details of Celeste's death. before the autopsy was published for the. whole world to see, that may have. started this. The outlet reports that. the Celeste case may have prompted this.

probe by the human resources department. Now, neither the ME's office nor the. union representing the office's. investigators has issued a comment at. the time of this recording other than. this union saying, quote, "We expect the. county to conduct any investigation. professionally, fairly, without. prejudice. We encourage others to allow. the process to run its course before. making conclusions." The union that. represents other staff members of the. Emmy's office wrote, quote, "We can say. unequivocally that our union remains.

firmly committed to safeguarding the. privacy of all victims. Patient privacy. is an issue we take seriously, especially because so many of our union. members work in health care and interact. with patients either directly or. indirectly." Now, let me just tell you. why this is so interesting. because it. was reported that the LAPD robbery. homicide division, which is leading this. investigation into Celeste's death, had. asked the ME's office at one point in. time not to release Celeste's records. and that the ME's office reportedly.

refused, citing quote insufficient. jurisdiction. Now, what happened? November 21st, 2025, the court ordered. that the LAPD medical examiner's report. and information about Celeste's death be. sealed, that a security hold was placed. to prevent any information from reaching. the media. The ME's office came out with. a statement saying, at the time, at. 10:54 a.m. on Friday, November 21st, the. County of Los Angeles Department of. Medical Examiner received a court order. initiated by the Los Angeles Police.

Department to place a security hold on. medical examiner case number 202514252, Celeste Rivas Hernandez. No records or. details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death. and medical examiner report, can be. released or posted on the website until. further notice. The chief medical. examiner, Dr. Ode Akbo, is quoted in a. press release saying the following at. the time. Quote, "The department's. mission is to have full transparency. with the community by providing. information about our cases to empower. people to make changes that save lives.

Since becoming the department head, I've. worked on eradicating the practice of. placing security holds and medical. examiner cases simply by law enforcement. request. The practice of security holds. is virtually unheard of in other. counties and has not been proven to. improve outcomes in the legal system. We. are dedicated to serving our community. with full transparency. However, the law. precludes us from doing so while the. court order remains in this case. By the. way, LAPD robbery homicide issued a. statement at the time saying in part, quote, "The LAPD sought to seal the.

records of the Los Angeles County. Medical Examiner's investigation into. Celeste Riva's death. That order was. sought only to ensure detectives from. the robbery homicide division learned of. important information surrounding her. death before the media and the public. The order was not sought to undermine. transparency. Then on April 22nd, 2026, the ME report was released and Dr. Uko. said this quote, "After several months, I am grateful this information can now. be released not only to the public but. also to the grieving family enduring.

loss. It is unfathomable they have had. to wait this long to learn what happened. to their daughter. I just had to put. that into context as we make sense of. this. And by the way, what was found? The medical examination for Celeste was. completed on December 9th, 2025, and the. results were released after David's. arrest. The findings in part, I'm going. to read verbatim from the summary. portion. Quote, autopsy examination was. limited by extensive post-mortem. changes. There are two penetrating. wounds of the torso with smooth edges. that may represent sharp force injuries.

is the wound on the upper abdomen. penetrates the liver and the wound on. the left chest penetrates one of the. left interccoal spaces with disruption. of the adjacent ribs cortical surfaces. The left lung appears intact. The. bilateral upper and lower extremities. show full thickness dismemberment. Multiple other skin and soft tissue. defects are present without apparent. associated internal injuries. The. ideology of these defects is not clearly. apparent due to severe post-mortem. changes. Postmortem toxicology performed. on liver tissue shows the presence of a.

low level of ethanol which may be due to. postmortem changes or ingestion and does. not appear to be contributo to the cause. of death. Given the history and. circumstances as currently known by me. in the setting of the findings by. examination, ancillary studies and in. the absence of other definitive causes. of death, the cause of death is multiple. penetrating injuries. The manner of. death is classified as homicide. That's. where we're at. All right. So, what is. going on as we head into the David. hearing today? What happened in court? You know who I'm bringing in. I'm so. happy to have her back. Our eyes, our.

ears for what happens in this Los. Angeles courtroom. NBC LA reporter Julia. Deng is back with us. Julia, thank you. so much for coming on. Um, I have a lot. to get through uh with you. But first, whenever we have a hearing and wherever. we don't have cameras in there, I got to. ask, how did David look? How did he. look? How did he act? Let's start there. >> Okay, there. Jesse, I love that you open. with that question. I think every time. we talk, he didn't look great. I mean, he had longer hair. He was unshaven. He.

came in wearing his um regulation LA. County jail uniform, that orange. jumpsuit with a white shirt inside. Um. but he was very engaged, you know, totally present, sat down, made eye. contact with the judge. Um and they even. exchanged a bit of small talk. you know, he said good morning. He was smiling. And here's the major update. It's not. that David isn't looking great um or.

that his defense attorneys are still. stalling for more time as part of their. strategy. The significant update today. following the status conference is that. this case is actually moving forward. This is now our third status conference. in this David case that we're chatting. about. The last two, as you recall, deja. vu, because we've done this now a couple. times, they were both continued, meaning. the case was essentially delayed during. those last two status conferences in May. and in June. Well, this time we all came.

in expecting this case to be continued. again to essentially be delayed one more. time. But no, they're moving forward. This is actually going to a preliminary. hearing now. And that is said to start. on Tuesday, July 21st, so 2 weeks from. today. And Jesse, it was just a very. different kind of atmosphere today, different energy. As soon as I walked. in, I noted on defense and prosecution,

it felt like they were kind of on the. same page. They both understood. I think. this case was finally going to move. forward. Um, so the judge closed by, you. know, chatting with them about how water. and coffee would be allowed in the. courtroom moving forward. She made a. joke about how we're going to be here. for the long haul. So again, preliminary. hearing starting Tuesday, July 21st. Um, and they've mapped out, you know, dates. for the next two weeks in case that.

hearing takes more time. So, Tuesday the. 21st, Wednesday the 23rd, Thursday the. 24th, Friday the 25th. And this could. drag on into the following week, especially as they get into evidentiary. hearings because we know there is a lot. of evidence, especially a lot of digital. data uh that was transmitted to the the. defense attorneys as part of discovery. >> Let's take a step back here. So, I. looked at some of the notes here. They. set up actual times when court would.

start for all of those days. A. preliminary hearing in this case is. significant because that is when the. prosecution will have the opportunity to. present their case. Now, not all of. their case. They have to present. sufficient evidence to establish. probable cause. Sufficient evidence that. there is probable cause David committed. or allegedly committed these crimes to. convince the court there is enough to go. forward with an actual trial. Now, this. is in front of the judge. This is in. front of the court. There's no jury.

here. It's a low standard, right? It's a. low bar. By all accounts, the. prosecution, from what we've seen, will. have sufficient evidence for this case. to move forward. But it does give the. opportunity for the defense to challenge. the evidence, to see what the. prosecution has, kind of a preview of. where they may go with the trial. But I. want to just take a step back here. before we even talk about next steps. with this. Was there anybody on David's. side? Were there any friends? Were there. any family? Was Celeste family there? Who else was in the courtroom today?

Again, Jesse, just like the last two. status conferences we've covered, uh we. didn't see any supporters, any friends, any family uh for either side, dated or. his alleged victim. Um it was primarily. just media. Um there was a deputy DA. sitting in the jury box. There was a. sketch artist in there. Um but the the. different energy this time I think. stemmed from the fact that defense and.

prosecution were both ready to move. forward finally uh toward this. preliminary hearing. And I'm curious as. to what part of that that evidence, you. know, the voluminous evidence in this. case the defense is ultimately going to. challenge. Now, the defense attorney did. say that um according to the DA in this. case, they have all the evidence that is. relevant to the preliminary hearings. that they were supposed to receive as a. part of discovery when they're sharing.

evidence between the two sides. Uh they. did say they've requested um. chronologies. from detectives. They're still working. on getting that. But again, it is. significant that every piece of evidence. deemed relevant to these preliminary. hearings has now been shared. So, the. defense now has what they need uh to. start building this case for them to. move forward. >> What about witnesses? I saw there was. some discussion today about witnesses, how they may testify, um how they may be.

presented in court. Um talk to us about. that. So, we have not seen any kind of witness. list just yet. I know Jesse, you and I. have chatted about that a couple times, you know, wondering who might ultimately. be called to the stand in this case. Um, I know there were questions, um, a lot. of chatter online about members of. David's family who might ultimately be. called to testify. So, we didn't see a. witness list. Uh there was chatter this. morning during this hearing, however,

about exactly where those witnesses. might be seated um at the council table, you know, the benches of lawyers in. front of the judge in this courtroom. So, there was some back and forth just. clarifying, you know, how many people. can be seated at that table? Where. exactly are they going to sit? It sounds. like defense attorneys want to make. sure, you know, they have enough. contacts um to make sure their witnesses.

are comfortable testifying. Of course, they're all coming in um I I don't want. to say coached, but prepared. They're. all coming in understanding just how. high the stakes are here, what David. could be facing, because again, he's not. charged with only murder. It's murder. and two additional felonies on top of. that. A mutilation of a corpse and. continuous sexual abuse of a child. >> You know, it's interesting because we.

have this conversation in an actual. trial. When can witnesses be in court, right? Because you don't want them. sitting through testimony before they. testify because that could influence. what they ultimately say. So, there is. some, you know, safeguards put in place. here. Preliminary hearing very. different, right? The rules of evidence. are different. The standard is. different. We understood that the. defense has a defense investigator. Did. Did that come out today? The defense. maybe has a defense investigator. >> That did come out. And there was a.

question about where that defense. investigator can actually sit. Um it it. sounds like they've got two chairs at. the um defense council table in front of. the judge. Obviously, there's one chair. for David. He was seated right on the. end of the table today. I was uh. basically caddy corner uh facing um the. front of the court um on his right hand. side. So I had a clear view of him in. profile looking at the judge. But yeah, the defense investigator uh might be.

seated right next to David or his lead. defense attorney. Uh, so yes, that is. somebody we likely will hear from now. that we know this is going to a. preliminary hearing and evidentiary. hearings. But here's here's the. question. Is this actually going to. trial? You know, we haven't heard. anything about a potential plea deal. Um, but we still need to get through. these preliminary hearings for a a trial.

date to formally be set. >> First of all, a couple things, right? A. defense investigator would be. interesting. maybe present an. alternative theory of the case, weaknesses in the prosecution's case, but do we know anything more about the. death penalty, whether or not. prosecutors are moving forward with. that? I know there's a mortoriium on. executions in California, but you always. wonder if that's an incentive for a. defendant to plead guilty so it's taken. off the table. Any word on that? >> No additional updates on that today, but. I can tell you what the status that that. is overall in this case. Um, in.

California, yes, there is a moratorum on. executions. Uh, Governor Gavin Newsome. halted those, I believe, back in 2019. But in this case, because there are. special circumstances uh as part of this. first-degree murder charge against. David, he actually is eligible for the. death penalty. So, they could ultimately. seek that if he's convicted. Um, and of. course, with executions halted, he. wouldn't immediately be put to death. But this is still considered a capital.

case, first-degree murder with special. circumstances. >> Julia, what about this protective order. that I understand something was put in. place today by the court? >> Yeah, that was interesting. Um, this. conversation started actually months ago. and there was a lot of back and forth. There was a lot of debate between um. defense and prosecution about how to. protect parties involved in this ongoing. case. So apparently prosecution um sent. back a revised draft of what they. thought would be an acceptable.

protective order back in May and and. they haven't been able to agree upon. anything until today. So defense. attorneys came back and said, you know, they've reached a conclusion about what. they felt like they needed. Um that was. submitted to the court today and it. sounds like the judge signed off on. those protective orders um at the end of. the hearing. Um that bit might have. actually been off the record. Uh that. was not something they shared in open. court uh with most media present, but.

they did state that uh they've agreed. upon what they need in protective. orders. They did not say who it covers. Um but we can guess there might be. people on the witness list who are. covered by those protective orders. And. particularly in a case this high-profile. um where you already have a question. about jury selection, it's not. surprising that you see these orders. being put in place to preserve. information coming out. What about grand. jury transcripts? So, I understand there. was a conversation about that, too. And.

that's interesting because that's part. of a larger conversation we've had in. this case, right? This was not an. indictment through a grand jury. This is. trying to move forward through a. preliminary hearing, right? There's two. ways for this case to progress. Um, and. our understanding is there's been. several grand juries that have been. impanled this case, maybe to evaluate. evidence, but we don't know if whether. or not these were grand juries that had. the power to indict or not, but there. has been no grand jury indictment, right? There's been no official charging. of him through a grand jury, but it.

seems the defense is interested in. transcripts of what happened at these. proceedings. That should be something uh sure during. the discovery process. And you're right, Jesse. I think there have been uh way. more questions than answers when it. comes to that piece of this murder. investigation. There was no grand jury. indictment, and we really don't know uh. what went down as a part of that. process. So, they had questions uh just.

about the logistics of how they were. going to get those transcripts. Um, that. sounds like, you know, are they getting. recordings? Are they getting um a stack. of papers with printed transcripts? You. know, are they getting a digital file. download? Um, and the prosecution and. judge responded that they would actually. go through the grand jury for that. Once. defense attorneys get their hands on. that data, however it may be coming.

through, you can bet bits and pieces of. that relevant to their case, relevant to. their defense, uh, will start making. their way, I think, to media. >> And by the way, typically defense. attorneys would try to strike a grand. jury indictment, uh, or grand jury. proceedings by saying, "Look, the. prosecution deliberately withheld. exculpatory evidence, right? evidence. tending to show a defendant is not. guilty or they misrepresented certain. facts to the grand jury. Just some. things to look out for. I want to go. back to something that you mentioned and.

I want to clarify. You talked about. maybe we might have a number of hearings. maybe leading up to the preliminary. hearing or having the uh preliminary. hearing and evidentiary hearings. So, timelinewise, is there anything going to. happen between now and this preliminary. hearing in two weeks? Um you said that. maybe they they're scheduling several. days for this preliminary hearing. What. are we looking for next? >> So let me clarify this um for anybody. who may be following this case without. legal background which I think is most. of our audience. I mean this has.

generated so much interest. Many fans. who previously followed David's music. and had awareness of um this this girl, this child Celeste who was seen in his. live streams, they're following this. too. So, just to be clear, um it is one. preliminary hearing, but because there's. so much that has to be parsed through. during that hearing, it will likely take. more than one day. It's not going to be. like these quick blips, these status.

conferences. Each of these have lasted. no more than 30 minutes. I mean, last. time we were in the courtroom for about. 4 minutes total. Um, so this preliminary. hearing could stretch out across two. weeks. And as a part of that, there. could be evidentiary hearings. And. because there is so much evidence, I. think the judge preemptively wanted to. carve out enough time on her calendar. and on the attorney's calendars to. ensure that what they start they finish. And the important thing when they do. finish this multi-day preliminary.

hearing uh will be whether or not this. ends up going to trial and when that. trial is going to start. But again, major update today, significant piece. coming out of this is that, you know, all the evidence relevant to this. preliminary hearing has now been shared. with defense attorneys. They've. acknowledged that and they are now. saying they are ready to move forward. You know, just this morning we were. talking about this could be delayed. again. You know, this could go on for.

maybe a year. That can happen. That can. be a strategic move on the part of. defense attorneys. But this is speeding. forward now. And look, this is an. opportunity for the defense to challenge. the prosecution's evidence because it's. one thing what the prosecution alleges. that they have in their filings. Now, they're going to actually show it. Whether it's surveillance footage or. text messages or um forensic data or. witness testimony, this is the. opportunity. This is something we have. all been waiting for since September of. 2025. And let's be clear also, David is. innocent unless proven guilty. Before I.

let you go, I got to ask you about this. update. I I mentioned it before. So NBC. News has reported that more than a dozen. employees of the Los Angeles County. Medical Examiner's Office are under. investigation. Under investigation for. allegedly viewing law enforcement files. without the appropriate specific. authorization that it might have been. the Celeste case, Celeste Reverend's. case that ignited all this. You are. somebody who is in LA. you know, the.

interplay between the medical examiner's. office and the LAPD. Do you have any. more information about this? Cuz it. feels like a pretty significant. development. >> You know, innocent until proven guilty. We don't actually know what this. investigation is going to lead to. We. don't know for sure. I know um the the. agency hasn't said if this actually did. come to light because of the Celeste. case, but there had been details, you. know, there had been bits of information. floating around on online and we don't.

know where they came from. So hopefully. we get more information uh when this. investigation wraps up. But I do know. Eric Leonard, uh, investigative reporter. at NBC4 LA, reported this yesterday and. I I think it's just more noise around. this case. You know, there's so much. buzz, there is so much interest. Um, I I. think you recall after the the Kobe. Bryant um helicopter crash and.

investigation, right, that was an issue. as well. Um, there were allegations. um of of people improperly sharing. things. they had access to. So curious. to see what comes of that. And then of. course what is relevant in court is. whether that impacts the case at all and. whether that's a threat that either the. defense or the prosecution can pull on. because you know this as well as. anybody, Jesse. Anything that is not.

handled the right way, anything that's. not up to par, um could lead to the. integrity of the case uh really being, you know, really really um being. contaminated. >> And correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed. like during the course of this. investigation, there was a bit of. tension between the medical examiner's. office and the LAPD. Is that something. you've seen in your experience? Is there. is there a little bit of friction.

between them? >> I haven't seen anything. Um I've heard a. lot of things. I think we all have. What. I have questions about here um is not so. much this rumored rift uh between the LA. County Medical Examiner's Office and the. LAPD. I'm curious about um the LAPD, the. city police department, not being on the. same page as the LA County District. Attorney's Office. We've talked about. this before, how days went by uh between.

the arrest of the defendant here and. actual charges being filed. So, different agencies, different roles, and. yes, there are questions about these. different agencies not really being on. the same page. This is interesting, too. You know, these are investigative. bodies. Um, but I I want to point out. what the um defense what reps for. David's team said very early on when.

they said he was cooperating with LAPD. That was another example of parties not. really being on the same page and. messaging not really being aligned. because an LAPD captain came out later. on and said, "No, you know, we didn't. authorize that statement. We didn't have. awareness of it um and come to find out. this is the man now charged in this. case." I I don't believe he was. cooperating with them um at any point in. the way that his team may have said. So,

a lot of different parties, a lot of. different motivations, and I think in. this courtroom, we'll see how all of. this shakes out. Who's got the strongest. case? >> Well, you are going to be in there. I. would love for you to come back on when. the preliminary hearing happens and over. potentially over the course of several. days because that is the key. That is. the key in seeing what evidence the. prosecutors claim they have against. David in this case. So, Julia Deng, thank you so much for coming on. Thank. you. >> Excellent reporting as always. Really,

really appreciate you. Great. Great. >> 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 podcast. You can also check. [music] us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my NewsNation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday [music] through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. See you next time, everybody.