Secret Witness Testimony Rocks D4vd Tesla Body Case: Report

Did we just find out who maybe testified. in front of a reported grand jury. hearing evidence in the Celeste Reebus. [music] Hernandez David case? And if. this turns out to be true, this is. someone very [music] connected to the. romantic homicide singer. Let's discuss. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and. Crime. [music] I'm Jesse Weber. Now, I have to say this real quick. If. you're putting things out on social. media, if you're in the content creation. game, you might be wondering how we're. able to share so many clips from all.

these stories so quickly. Well, the. answer is it's a secret. We use. something called Opus Clip. This is not. a secret anymore. This is an all-in-one. AI editor that makes it so easy to cut, create, and upload videos across any. platform. Through AI, OpusClip generates. B-roll. It refframes, and it even cleans. up audio. It is so easy to use. You just. visit opus.pro/sidebar. Sign up, you upload, and in minutes you. have perfectly edited clips ready to go. for Tik Tok, shorts, reals. Opus Clip is. your one-stop shop. And having a tool.

like OpusClip means that our producers. can get you viral courtroom updates. instantly. This is the most powerful. tool there is to help you share ideas. and edit like a pro. So go to. opus.pro/sidebar. to create your videos today. Got the. latest in David we got to talk about. Okay, so where we last left off, we told. you that it was being reported that a. grand jury had been impanled, right, to. hear evidence in connection with the. death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas. Hernandez, whose dead body was found in. the trunk of a Tesla that was registered.

to the romantic homicide singer back in. September out in LA. Now, there have. been no arrests in connection with this. case. There have been no charges. It was. reported that David is being considered. a suspect by the LAPD. But look, we. can't even 100% confirm that a grand. jury is in fact hearing evidence because. grand juries are secret. They're. supposed to be secret. It It's not going. to be confirmed by authorities. However, law enforcement sources apparently. helped to confirm this according to the. LA Times. And according to the LA Times,

they cite how in a court filing in this. case, there is a reference to a GJ. number, a grand jury number. I'll talk. about that a little bit more because it. was reported that there is an. investigative grand jury that has been. hearing evidence in this case for some. time now. An investigative grand jury, if that's actually what this is, is. different than what you might think. If. this is true, an investigative grand. jury doesn't issue indictments, formal.

charges. They can recommend charges. They can help with issuing subpoenas for. witnesses. They can produce other. evidence. And then usually all of that. can be taken to another grand jury for. an indictment. All of that to say, if. this is true, we have a big development. TMZ is reporting that the president of. David's touring company was questioned. by a deputy district attorney in front. of the grand jury on Monday. We are. referring to Robert Morgan Roth who.

apparently heads up Mogul Vision. That's. David's record label and also Zara. Brothers Travel, the touring company. Now TMZ is reporting that Morgan Roth. comes out of the courtroom is in the. hallway and was allegedly overheard. telling his lawyer that the deputy DA. who was questioning him quote she was. very pushy on why I didn't call police. and quote I said I feel like I didn't. have the responsibility to do that and.

just wanted to continue with the tour. Let me break that down. We don't know if. this is true obviously, right? But if. it's true and if he was in fact. questioned about this and about. Celeste's case, if that's the grand jury. he's a part of or the, you know, what. he's testifying to, that would signal. that he potentially knew a crime was. committed and didn't do enough that the. reference to the tour could be about. David's tour because after all, David.

was on tour when Celeste's body was. found. The tour was ultimately cancelled. when this was making a lot of news and. David has been basically been MIA since. And what exactly did Morgan Roth know. about what was going on? Does that mean. David knew something? Does that mean. David was connected to this? Obviously, there's a lot of questions, but to have. someone directly connected to the singer. being reportedly questioned in a grand.

jury proceeding, that's a big. development that we have to talk about. And I should note that it was reported. that the deputy DA presenting evidence. to the grand jury, okay, so if this is. true, it has been reported that that may. be Beth Silverman. She is a career. prosecutor who apparently handles some. very big high-profile murder cases in. the county. She once received the. Centurion Award for Excellence in cold. case investigations with technical. support. She was the one who prosecuted.

Samuel Little, the most notorious serial. killer in American history. Got three. convictions against him. She is a big. deal. Now, as we're trying to sort out. that grand jury information, I have to. also mention something else. Another. development. This is with respect to. Steve Fiser. We've had him on the show. before. He is the private investigator. who was hired by the owner of the. property that David was reportedly. staying at, which was near where the. Tesla with Celeste body that was found.

inside. That property had been subject. to a search warrant by police, by the. way. So, look, Steve has been quite. vocal about his investigation. Obviously, he doesn't share all the. details about what he has found, but he. posted this on X and we got to talk. about it. Quote, "What's done in the. dark will come to the light tomorrow. morning. I have been ordered to appear. in the Los Angeles County Criminal Court. for an order to show cause hearing for. contempt. I was not served with a summon.

to appear in court. I was not given a. complaint outlining the alleged contempt. to respond to. There is no case number. and I do not appear anywhere on the. court's public docket. I was handed a. handwritten note from a deputy district. attorney on Friday and told to appear. Tuesday morning. He also appears to have. posted that note. A punishment hearing. in criminal court that is not even. assigned the case number seemingly. because they do not want this to be. public information. Love me or hate me, this should concern you. The fact that. this is happening in our criminal court.

system is terrifying. That is why I'm. going public before the hearing. tomorrow, which I will not be attending, so that the public and the press are. aware of what is happening. Here is the. backstory. Recently, I testified on two. separate days as a witness before a. grand jury. When I was served with the. subpoena for the first day of testimony, two detectives came to my door at 6:00. a.m. and instructed me to immediately. call the deputy district attorney. She. told me that because I was now a grand. jury witness, I was no longer allowed to. speak about this case and that it would.

be illegal if I did. This put me in an. impossible position. I have a client. directly related to this case. If I. cannot speak to my client, I am. violating my professional duty. This was. the entire point of calling me as a. grand jury witness. It was a strategy. used to try to silence me. The Los. Angeles County Medical Examiner has. publicly spoken about a similar. silencing strategy being attempted. against their office. Then I did my. research on the law, spoke to lawyers, and found out I was being lied to. Here. is the critical fact. In California,

witnesses to a grand jury do not have a. general obligation of secrecy. That. obligation applies to the jurors and. officers of the court. A witness is only. bound to secrecy regarding anything they. learned solely from the grand jury. proceeding. It does not apply to. anything they already knew before. testifying or anything learned outside. the grand jury. I want to pause here. because many people are going to search. this online and Google AI is likely. going to give them the wrong answer by. claiming that witnesses must remain. completely silent. If you click through. to the actual sources it cites, you will.

see that the AI summary is incorrect. California law is silent on imposing. total secrecy on witnesses. Instead, witnesses are routinely admonished that. they may not disclose certain things, but those certain things only include. what was learned from the grand jury. proceeding itself, not independent. knowledge or publicly known facts. In. 1983, the California Attorney General. issued a written opinion on this exact. issue for legal clarification. It is. very clear. I have attached screenshots. of that opinion. I also want to be very. clear about this. I never disclose my.

testimony even though the law would have. allowed me to discuss my own testimony. I never publicly disclosed that I was a. witness before the grand jury, not once. and not twice. Instead, the deputy. district attorney abused the power of. the grand jury process in an apparent. attempt to silence me. I was told that I. broke the law and I was given a. handwritten note telling me to appear in. criminal court for a contempt hearing. There is no summon. There is no case. number. The matter does not appear on. the public docket. There is no. documentation outlining what I'm accused. of so that I can respond. I was also.

told that if I left town, I had to be. back by Tuesday morning. I wrote a. detailed letter to both the judge and. the deputy district attorney explaining. my position. They have had that letter. since Friday afternoon. I received no. response. With a hearing just hours away. and the threat of a contempt charge. hanging over my head in what appears to. be a secret off the books court. proceeding, I had no choice but to go. public so that the people and the press. are aware of what is happening. This is. the only way I can protect myself from. what I believe to be an abuse of power. It is frightening that this is happening.

at the highest levels of our court. system. There is power in transparency. I was left no choice. H So you can read. between the lines and make a very strong. argument that he's talking about the. Celeste Rivas Hernandez case. We don't. know for sure. Look, there is a lot we. do not know about what is going on. Partly because, and this is something. that seemed to have been referenced by. Steve Fischer, the medical examiner. The. medical examiner, we've reported this. before, received a court order that was. sought by the LAPD to place a security.

hold on any information being released. from the ME's office. So no records or. cause or manner of death information can. be released to the public about Celeste. And as I mentioned before, the LA Times. apparently reviewed this court petition. seeking the security hold that makes. reference to a grand jury number or. seemingly a grand jury number. Hence why. they're reporting it's possible a grand. jury has been convened here. And I will. also say the robbery homicide division.

of the LAPD released a statement at the. end of last month that said the. following quote. The Los Angeles Police. Department is aware of the recent. stories posted by various media outlets. about the David Celeste Rivas. investigation and would like to dispel. some information contained in their. reporting. The body of Celeste Rivas was. not frozen when it was discovered on. September 8th, 2025. So that is directly. contradicting what was reported by TMZ. They have actually been doubling down on. their reporting and their sources. She. had not been decapitated. We have.

evidence that David traveled to the. Santa Barbara area sometime during the. spring of 2025. The reason for that trip. is still under investigation and we've. drawn no conclusions at this point about. the relevance of the trip to this case. As far as the court order, 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 Robbery Homicide. Division learned of important. information surrounding her death before. the media and the public. The order was. not sought to undermine transparency. No.

other information will be provided at. this time. I want to make sense of this. new development, the grand jury, right? This idea of who may have testified. Let. me bring in once again Colin L. Schmidt, retired FBI agent, president, CEO of. Kronos Litigation Experts. Thank you so. much for coming on. Really appreciate. it. Let's start here. How much credence. do you give to the idea that we really. know there is a grand jury being. impanled and that we really know who is. testifying in front of the grand jury.

right now? Because it's definitely. possible that this guy Morgan Roth was. overheard and that he might be. testifying in this case. >> Well, it it appears you have multiple. data points confirming that there's a. grand jury based upon the people who. participated in the proceeding. So the. the like you talked about the rules of. secrecy, the DA's office and officers of. the court, which happen to be the. robbery homicide detectives are not. going to reveal that information and. that won't if if indeed it is a grand.

jury and panel, it's not going to come. out until after the indictment is filed. And then once indictment is basically. the from the grand jury and that that. will confirm all of these things that. are going on. If it is true that Morgan. Roth is testifying, why would they want. him to testify? >> Well, I think the generally speaking in. a in a violent crime, you don't do grand. juries in the local level. You do a. preliminary hearing, which means they.

would you would have a probable cause. You arrest somebody and then you present. your probable cause to a judge and the. judge would determine if you have uh. enough probable cause to uh to support. that arrest. I think in this case, the. grand jury was impanelled because they. want to lock in the witness statements. and have no surprises during trial. So, I think it's a very effective uh uh. legal strategy because you're going to. get you're going to basically have your. trial have know what all these people. are going to say before you have to put. them out in the public. But in terms of. that person uh testifying, if he indeed.

testified, like I said, it won't be. confirmed until there's an indictment. I. I think having him uh there as a witness. is logical because he was he was. interacting with their person of. interest throughout this whole process. and he is going to have some some. explaining to do if he indeed understood. there was a crime because there's. another law at least in the federal. system called miss prison a felony which. means if you knew there was a crime and. you took efforts not to report it that. puts you in some sort of legal jeopardy.

So, this case is starting to to kind of. come together and I think it appears. that there may be an indictment here. shortly. >> You you mentioned what potential. liability could be there if someone knew. about a crime and didn't report it. Um, but why grill him about that? I it. thought it was interesting to suggest. what was he told by whom? When did he. know it? Because you have somebody who's. directly connected to David. You have. somebody talking about the tour. the. tour was going on when Celeste's body.

was discovered. Um there's still a. question of how long she was uh in that. car. Uh they believe it was for quite. some time. But just assuming these. statements are true and assuming that he. was really grilled about this and was. questioned about this, what does that. tell you about his alleged involvement? What does that tell you about anybody. else's alleged involvement? And of. course, most importantly, what does that. tell you about David's potential alleged. involvement?

>> Take a step back and look at the. elements of the crime and knowledge and. intent or consciousness of guilt is. demonstrates intent. So, I think when. they're saying, uh, why didn't you. report this? They're basically saying. there was a cover up and a cover up. would be uh indicative of consciousness. of guilt. So I think what she's trying. to do is establish the consciousness of. guilt not only by him or but by the. person that they have targeted in terms. of this investigation. So it it is. relevant that oh hey why did you not.

report this because they want to know if. somebody told him not to report this and. which that would show consciousness of. guilt. Is there a possibility that there. could be an explanation here where David. had absolutely no idea what was going. on? That David had absolutely no idea. that Celeste was in the car, that he. wasn't informed of anything because he. was on tour. They didn't want to. distract him from tour. And we we can. jump to the other conclusion, right? We. can jump to these other conclusions. about what David's alleged involvement.

uh is. Um we don't know for sure. Again, he hasn't been arrested. He hasn't been. criminally charged. uh authorities. haven't officially come out and called. him a a suspect or a person of interest, but is it possible that if you dissect. that statement, you could wonder, was. David properly communicated anything. about what was going on? >> Well, obviously we're speculating on. this show, but you have to kind of apply. a logical inference. Uh he was very. close to David. Uh he was his tour. manager. He's making lots and lots of.

money off of this guy. So there's a high. probability that he was aware of the. relationship between David and the. deedent. And I won't want to make one. more point. You have a lot of things. going on in this case, but we still have. to go back to the fact that a child was. found dismembered in a car. >> Period. End of story. You have all these. people getting involved and and. reporting on this and putting their. opinion this and that and the other, but. we have to go back to it's about justice. for this child. She has rights, too, even though she's deceased. And we have.

to respect those rights. >> And to be clear, there is obviously. mixed reporting on the state of her. body. Was it dismembered or not? What we. do know is she was she's dead. What we. do know is her decomposed body was found. in that car. There's a question of what. happened. There's a question of whe was. this a homicide? Was this just a cover. up of her body and disposal of a body, which is insane to be thinking about, but uh again, you're 100% right. We want. to keep that. We want answers because we. want answers for her and her family.

This idea though that you might have. people testifying in front of the grand. jury and potentially Mr. Morgan Roth, does that also tell you anything about a. second suspect? I've mentioned this. before on Cybar. I'll mention it again. You had a claim criminal defense. attorney Mark Geros who said on his Two. Angry Men podcast that there is a second. suspect that has been identified by. authorities. somebody who is connected. to the disposal of Celeste body saying. they've got this thing down to a. timeline that's almost down to the. minute triangulated down to the location.

it's social media cell phone Tesla it's. other GPS tracking devices is it. possible that when we're talking about a. grand jury we're talking about. potentially people who testified. including this guy who was connected to. David could this all be about a second. suspect. >> well I think it comes back her legal. strategy just based my my experience. using grand jury. She wants to make sure. there's no surprises when they put this. out because the media attention on this. is white hot. But to to your point about.

a second suspect, that's part of the. grand jury, investigative grand jury to. ask those questions to see if there was. some sort of either a conspiracy to to. uh to be involved in this uh uh murder. or crime or disposal of body or was. there a conspiracy to cover it up. the. she's using the grand jury like the the. founding fathers had designed it is to. to conduct an investigation, get. everything out in the record and make. sure that justice is served for her.

Complete justice. That means everybody. that was involved in this will see see. justice. >> Colin, it's no secret that law. enforcement authorities are trying not. to reveal too much about this. investigation. Steve Fischer, that post. on X. Okay. There were a lot of parts in that post. that line up with different aspects of. this case. Talking about his client. who's connected to the case, talking. about a deputy DA referring to her as.

she possibly Beth Silverman. Um this. idea, you know, testifying in front of a. grand jury. We're talking about a. potential grand jury here. Um the Emy's. office, right? I mentioned that before. his uh you know take on what the Emy's. office is allowed or not allowed to say. is very consistent with what we're. seeing. I I think it's a fair argument. to say this is about the Celeste Rivas. Hernandez David in case. We don't know. for sure. We don't know for sure what. Steve is saying. Um what did you take.

away from that? um his fight back. against this and this idea that also law. enforcement and the DA's office, they're. trying seemingly to not release any. information about what's going on right. now. >> Well, as a former law enforcement. officer and and somebody who's a private. citizen, if I'm asked to participate or. assist in finding justice for a child, I'm going to do it. And I'm also a.

licensed private investigator, which is. part of the code of ethics that uh. private investigators in California are. under. You know, arguably you can you. can make that argument where they have. to uh cooperate with law enforcement. But the post was so long and you have to. take a step back and say what was the. harm to him to go back and testify and. and support this investigation and do. what he needed to do and cooperate if. they if law enforcement asked me as a. PI, hey, can you just keep it down a.

notch? Just stay quiet while we get. through this. I'm absolutely going to do. that. And I'm gonna say tell them. whatever you need me to do, I'm gonna. do. So to to his point or about u he was. blindsided by this, it appears to me. they were kind of giving him a heads up. before they did serve him with a summon. to come down. That's what that that note. was about. But of course, we're only. speculating at this point because I. haven't talked to this this uh Mr. Fiser. about what really happened.

>> Can you still talk to your client about. what's going on, about what you. testified to in the grand jury? Um cuz. his point seems to be also like he's got. a conflict here. You you say I can't say. anything but I got a client I'm I'm. supposed to be reporting to. >> Well, he's not a lawyer. So there's no. private investigator privilege so to. speak with a client. Uh unless that. client is a lawyer and the lawyer has. put it under attorney client privilege. So most likely no. he has to cooperate. or he has to kind of uh you know keep it.

down you know kind of stop what he's. doing at least until they get through. this angr jury phase but you know to put. that out on on X with all of that. information and basically airing his. grievances it's it it's really not a. good move in my opinion. >> Okay, let me ask you this. Why is it. such a big deal? What is the worst case. scenario if the ME's office was allowed. to release information? What's the worst.

case scenario if information from the. grand jury was released? I think all of. us need to understand why, if it's true, the LAPD, the deputy district attorney, why they. don't want information released about. this case, particularly if there's a. grand jury going on, but why in general, so much so many eyeballs on this, a lot. of speculation. We we want the family to. have answers. What is the biggest danger. to an investigation to potential charges. if information is released at this time?

>> Well, you basically have two reasons. One is a media reason in my opinion is. basically they don't want to fuel the. fire of all the speculation and. conspiracy theories and all this. And so. they they want to kind of keep. everything close to the vest. They. they've been through this. you know, LA. DA's office is is the center of. high-profile crime. The second reason is. based upon what's in the ME report, it. might tip off somebody who doesn't know. they're under suspicion. And so, they. want to make sure they keep all that to.

the to their to themselves so they don't. so they have an opportunity per perhaps. talk to everybody and they're not tipped. off. >> If it's true Beth Silverman is heading. up this case, I mentioned some of her. career highlights. Um, that's a big name. to be a part of this. Uh, what would. what do you make of that? >> Well, just the fact that she impanled. investigative grand jury shows me her. level of if true. If true. Good point. It it it shows me her level of of soph.

sophistication and talent and she knows. what she's doing and she is uh arguably. probably the best homicide DA in that. office and the most experienced. So, she. really is making sure if it is true that. she has a grand jury that all of her. tees are crossed and her eyes are dotted. and it's going to be a is a clean. prosecution, as clean as you can have a. prosecution in this type of case. >> I wanted to ask you real quick.

[clears throat] also about the Santa. Barbara trip. I don't know if we've had. a chance to talk about it, but it's now. a point that seems to be confirmed by. law enforcement. They're looking into. whether or not David took this trip, whether or not that is somehow in. connection to what happened to Celeste, either her death or disposal of her body. spring. What do you make of that? >> Well, I think once again, speculating. what's on that the uh the supercomput. that's in that Tesla uh andor a phone.

uh they're going to see a certain amount. of time that uh he was in Santa Barbara. and that might be a key point in their. timeline in terms of what happened to. Celeste. Like I said, we don't know who. did this, what they did, or who's doing. it. But the but the fact based on that. they confirm this fact, the LAPD, that. he was in Santa Barbara for a for a set. period of time, I can only speculate. that they may be matching up or. reconciling that with her time of death.

And that's why that time is so important. of when he was in Santa Barbara. >> Colin El Schmidt, thanks for coming on. trying to make sense of this for us. really appreciate it. >> No problem. I appreciate it. >> 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 follow me on X. or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time.