Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
Speaker 2: It is Thursday, April thirtieth, and a story that we
Speaker 2: already thought was just unthinkable actually keeps getting worse now
Speaker 2: that prosecutors have released new graphic details about their case
Speaker 2: against singer David and with that, welcome to this episode
Speaker 2: of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: Roobes. It was horrible before we got all these details.
Speaker 2: I cannot believe the details that have been released now.
Speaker 2: This is some monstrous, methodical stuff we're talking about.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 4: And prosecutors said it best when they called it horrifying.
Speaker 4: That is, there's no other word to describe it. And
Speaker 4: perhaps this is one of those cautionary tales for the defense.
Speaker 4: Be careful what you wish for, or be careful what
Speaker 4: you asked for. They pushed for this evidence to be
Speaker 4: released immediately, and my goodness, given what we've just read
Speaker 4: and seen, why would they want that.
Speaker 2: You know, they pushed in. What's the other thing they've said?
Speaker 2: We said at the very beginning when David was arrested
Speaker 2: real name David Anthony Burke, twenty one year old singer
Speaker 2: charged with first degree murder in the death of fourteen
Speaker 2: year old Celestribus Hernandez. When they first came out with
Speaker 2: their statement. You and I said, wow, we've read a
Speaker 2: lot of statements from attorneys over the years who kind
Speaker 2: of you know, they'll be cute with some words here
Speaker 2: or there. They came out in a full throated defense.
Speaker 2: We are going to show this dude is innocent. I
Speaker 2: can't wait to hear them.
Speaker 3: I have a one word response to that.
Speaker 1: How can't wait?
Speaker 3: When you see what.
Speaker 4: The prosecutors were about to go through the page filing.
Speaker 4: This is a new evidentiary filing that the prosecutors were
Speaker 4: forced to present because of David's attorneys pushing this process
Speaker 4: quickly along, which is very unusual. Most of the time,
Speaker 4: defense teams want time to go through the evidence, prepare
Speaker 4: their defense. They don't want this all put out for
Speaker 4: public consumption. And yet here we are with eight pages
Speaker 4: of the worst horror movie I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2: So this sets up, folks says we were about to
Speaker 2: go through robes is that he was arrested with April sixteenth,
Speaker 2: seventeenth when he was arrested. All right, this case has
Speaker 2: been going on for months. We were waiting to see
Speaker 2: what was gonna happen, And they're going to arrest him.
Speaker 2: They finally arrest him, we don't get a lot of
Speaker 2: details robes. So we got a few early on which
Speaker 2: were that they said he was in some kind of
Speaker 2: inappropriate sexual relationship with this girl when she was under age.
Speaker 2: She threatened his career in some way, and that's why
Speaker 2: he had to kill her. That is essentially as most
Speaker 2: as we got that got us to this point. We
Speaker 2: were supposed to get hearing this week, and this evidence
Speaker 2: has now been presented in a new filing. You're talking
Speaker 2: about this eight pager robes it goes through. If this,
Speaker 2: how do you begin to even defense put a defense up.
Speaker 1: If they have what they say they have.
Speaker 4: Yes, from text messages to forensics like DNA linking the
Speaker 4: death of Celestrivus Hernandez to.
Speaker 3: David and his home.
Speaker 4: They have just a number of items that he purchased
Speaker 4: which would lead to how he dismembered her.
Speaker 3: According to prosecutors.
Speaker 4: So look from the relationship which was inappropriate, the text
Speaker 4: messages between the two, a clear motive that they've established,
Speaker 4: and then the physical evidence they have. This is a
Speaker 4: pretty overwhelming case against singer David.
Speaker 1: All right, where you want to start.
Speaker 4: Let's start with perhaps you know, can I say something
Speaker 4: that was really interesting to me. I didn't realize this
Speaker 4: we've been talking, as we've been telling the story that
Speaker 4: Celestia had been missing for a year and a half.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize when she was first reported missing in
Speaker 4: February of twenty twenty four, where those flyers went up.
Speaker 4: Later that month, she came back home and her parents
Speaker 4: took her cell phone away because they knew she was
Speaker 4: having this relationship. I didn't realized that, and that then
Speaker 4: he drove the almost two hours to her house to
Speaker 4: pay off a classmate to buy her a phone so
Speaker 4: that he could continue to communicate with her. And then
Speaker 4: it sounds like in twenty twenty four, he took her
Speaker 4: all around the world, whisked her around with him, and
Speaker 4: brought her with him everywhere from London to the Hamptons.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize all that was going on, and.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize you talk about that missing. She resurfaced
Speaker 2: and was reported missing again. And when she was reported
Speaker 2: missing again, Rose, this might be one of the most
Speaker 2: devastating details that I, for whatever reason, she's never seen again.
Speaker 2: What they believe it was April twenty third, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: is when he killed her. Well, on April twenty second,
Speaker 2: they say, he put her in an uber and she
Speaker 2: was driven to his home and she was never seen again.
Speaker 4: What do you have you well, it was just April
Speaker 4: twenty third. Yeah, he sent an uber to pick her up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was never seen again. He was reported missing,
Speaker 2: they say again after that moment robes he They say,
Speaker 2: lurd was the word they kept using previously. Now we're
Speaker 2: understanding a little better what they're talking about. He put
Speaker 2: her in an uber to bring her to him, to
Speaker 2: her death.
Speaker 3: It's it's pretty disturbing. So he says that she arrived.
Speaker 4: At his home at ten ten PM, and then at
Speaker 4: about ten thirty that night, he texted her to say
Speaker 4: where are you as a pre premeditated cover up for
Speaker 4: the fact that he had just murdered her. They believe
Speaker 4: she arrived at ten ten and by ten thirty she
Speaker 4: was already dead. And then here's the big deal. After
Speaker 4: he was texting her, they see that a couple of times,
Speaker 4: where are you?
Speaker 3: Where are you?
Speaker 4: He never tried to contact her again after April twenty sixth.
Speaker 2: I said the and they know her phone there was
Speaker 2: no activity, So that's why they're so sure about when
Speaker 2: she died. But Robes, we the premeditated part we heard about,
Speaker 2: you know, right after he was arrested. Now they're saying
Speaker 2: he actually was sending messages to her phone and trying
Speaker 2: to cover up that they like to act like for
Speaker 2: later when they're looking at me, I'll this will be
Speaker 2: proof that I was just looking for.
Speaker 3: She was in a new Bern. She never came to
Speaker 3: my house.
Speaker 4: The other thing, how about this, So this all happened
Speaker 4: on the night of April twenty third. On April twenty
Speaker 4: four fourth, the following day, he gave a radio interview
Speaker 4: and had a record release party promoting his new album,
Speaker 4: which came out the following day on April twenty fifth.
Speaker 3: So the timing of.
Speaker 2: That, it doesn't make any I mean, okay, he's an
Speaker 2: innocent man. Robes, until proven guilty. This look, We've seen
Speaker 2: a lot of cases recently, Robes. I haven't seen one
Speaker 2: that is this overwhelming in evidence. I have not seen
Speaker 2: one so disturbing.
Speaker 4: I would like to quote from the filing from the
Speaker 4: prosecutors about what they had to say, knowing he had
Speaker 4: to silence the victim before she ruined his music career,
Speaker 4: as she had threatened. Very soon after her arrival at
Speaker 4: his home, defendant the victim to death multiple times and
Speaker 4: stood by while she bled out. At no time did
Speaker 4: he call law enforcement or nine to one one or
Speaker 4: take her to an emergency room to attempt to save
Speaker 4: her life.
Speaker 2: This is a fourteen year old girl, always talking about
Speaker 2: he was what at the time to see would have
Speaker 2: been twenty.
Speaker 3: He would have been twenty.
Speaker 4: And they said that there are text messages leading up
Speaker 4: to this day on April twenty third, that reveal Celeste's
Speaker 4: jealousy over his relationships with other women. As they claim
Speaker 4: he led her to believe that he and Celeste had
Speaker 4: a future together and she became extremely upset and threatened
Speaker 4: to disclose their inappropriate relationship.
Speaker 2: And they have these text messages, they say, some of
Speaker 2: this back and forth. But Robe's other thing that came out.
Speaker 2: This relationship they say started when she was what thirteen
Speaker 2: at least sexual one. He was eighteen, but they had
Speaker 2: been in touch for years prior to that, since she
Speaker 2: was eleven.
Speaker 1: Id's I don't understand that one.
Speaker 2: Again, I as you could argue he was a kid
Speaker 2: himself at the time, Well, he would have been what
Speaker 2: sixteen maybe maybe people will.
Speaker 1: Look at it some way differently. There.
Speaker 2: But when he gets to eighteen and nineteen and twenty,
Speaker 2: I mean Robes, she's thirteen years old, So yes, that
Speaker 2: I didn't realize Robes that, as they explained, there seemed
Speaker 2: to be more time, more history, more years, more depth.
Speaker 2: Even if you can forgive me for that one to
Speaker 2: their relationship, then I certainly previously understood they were in
Speaker 2: a full on relationship. She broke up with him and
Speaker 2: then got jealous, and there was a back and forth.
Speaker 2: At least Robes that sounded like a normal, if you will,
Speaker 2: relationship between two consenting adults.
Speaker 4: Except for that she was far, yes, beneath the age
Speaker 4: of consent.
Speaker 3: Yes, she wrote to him.
Speaker 4: They showed some text messages about all we do is
Speaker 4: have sex and just hang out.
Speaker 3: Man, I want more than that for myself.
Speaker 4: So you know, they discussed their sexual relationship in these texts.
Speaker 4: It's undeniable, according to prosecutors, back and forth and back
Speaker 4: and forth. But they also say that when you look
Speaker 4: at these text messages, it clearly shows how David was
Speaker 4: manipulating her because he was an adult and she was
Speaker 4: a child.
Speaker 2: How do you okay he is an innocent man until
Speaker 2: proven guilty. Now, all this we've discussed, now Robes, it
Speaker 2: sounds awful. You can't even imagine that this story can
Speaker 2: get worse.
Speaker 1: Robes.
Speaker 2: Every time they release a new detailed about this story,
Speaker 2: I go, are you freaking kidding me? This gets more
Speaker 2: and more monstrous, which includes robes, all of these orders
Speaker 2: he made and his Amazon and Postmate deliveries. Are you
Speaker 2: freaking kidding me?
Speaker 3: It's sickening.
Speaker 4: Actually, so he purchased will explain an inflatable pool, two chainsaws,
Speaker 4: a shovel, a body bag, heavy duty laundry bags, and
Speaker 4: other materials under a fictitious name Victoria Mendez.
Speaker 3: I have no idea why he used that.
Speaker 4: Name, but got all of these items delivered to his home.
Speaker 1: You have the dates.
Speaker 2: What was April twenty fourth, You have the day in May,
Speaker 2: April and May, and then there was a later one
Speaker 2: in July that got me. So let's start with what
Speaker 2: he ordered. Chainsaws. I guess that's pretty self explanatory. Bodybags,
Speaker 2: kind of pretty self explanatory props. Yes, you pointed out,
Speaker 2: and the prosecutors made a point to point out how
Speaker 2: important that inflatable swimming pool was.
Speaker 4: Yes, they say that he basically dismembered her body in
Speaker 4: this inflatable pool to try and stop the blood from
Speaker 4: spilling onto his garage floor, which it still did, because
Speaker 4: that is among the evidence that prosecutors say they now have,
Speaker 4: which is DNA from Celestrivus Fernandez from this blood stain
Speaker 4: that they found in the garage. But the inflatable pool
Speaker 4: was meant to prevent that from happening.
Speaker 2: IW that what that suggests ro you're talking about premedage.
Speaker 2: This was a lot of thought and landing into what
Speaker 2: he did. Maybe not initially, but we've seen another case
Speaker 2: like this recently. Forgive me, I can't remember the guy's name,
Speaker 2: but it was a dismemberment case that sure enough, after
Speaker 2: they believe the woman died, the guy goes out, they
Speaker 2: have all these receipts of all this stuff he started
Speaker 2: buying to try to chop up and get.
Speaker 1: Rid of a body. This plays exactly.
Speaker 4: Like that, yes, because they believe, yes, he used those
Speaker 4: two chainsaws and some other tools they said, to dismember
Speaker 4: her body in that inflatable pool, and then he amputated.
Speaker 4: We mentioned we knew this that he amputated two fingers.
Speaker 4: It was not the tattoo because they did actually use
Speaker 4: that to help identify her body. Initially, he amputated her
Speaker 4: left ring and pinky fingers, according to prosecutors, because they
Speaker 4: say her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name.
Speaker 4: Now those fingers have not been found, they have not
Speaker 4: been recovered, but according to people who knew her, she
Speaker 4: had his name on her ringing.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: I will give you krit this is and you're right,
Speaker 2: you caught that detail. Like this case has been studied
Speaker 2: since September. When I say studied by internet sleuths. They've
Speaker 2: been on top of this story since her body was
Speaker 2: found last September and connecting and piecing together her relationship
Speaker 2: with David, and they finding old live streams, they're finding
Speaker 2: old photos, and they kind of pieced together their relationship online.
Speaker 2: And one thing they pointed out Robes was she appeared
Speaker 2: to have that tattoo on her finger. And when we
Speaker 2: first heard the fingers had been ammutated, a lot of
Speaker 2: folks jumped to that conclusion immediately. I remember being on
Speaker 2: the podcast with you and you say, wait a second,
Speaker 2: it's not the right hand, it's not the correct hand,
Speaker 2: and we didn't understand, but you caught. We've been following
Speaker 2: the story so closely that you knew immediately that's the
Speaker 2: wrong hand.
Speaker 4: It's the wrong hand. It was the left hand. And
Speaker 4: you know what that says to me. She put his
Speaker 4: name on her left ring finger. She wanted to marry
Speaker 4: this guy. She wanted to marry him. She was in
Speaker 4: love with him. You don't put someone's name on your
Speaker 4: left ring finger unless that's the person who you think
Speaker 4: you're going to marry.
Speaker 1: But you also do it if you're thirteen.
Speaker 2: You don't know any better, and a grown man's manipulating you.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I yes, it was serious to her. It was more
Speaker 2: significant to her. I don't doubt that at all. But
Speaker 2: she is a baby, a baby, And to hear, man,
Speaker 2: it gets worse. It's almost some stuff I didn't even
Speaker 2: I would rather not hear. Let me just let me
Speaker 2: hear the charge, not the details. To think this happened
Speaker 2: to a baby.
Speaker 3: Man, it's just awful.
Speaker 4: And when we come back, there are even more details
Speaker 4: why that pool is so important, what his friends and
Speaker 4: business associated associates notice, and how they are sure that
Speaker 4: David is the one who parked that tesla a few
Speaker 4: blocks away from his home. Welcome back everyone to this
Speaker 4: episode of Amy and TJ, where we are going over there.
Speaker 4: The horrified, the grizzly, the unthinkable, the stomach turning details
Speaker 4: about what prosecutors allege singer David did to fourteen year
Speaker 4: old Celeste Reeves Hernandez, from their relationship which was wildly
Speaker 4: inappropriate and criminal, to the murder itself, the motive behind it,
Speaker 4: and then the method to how he got rid of
Speaker 4: her body. It's all beyond disturbing these eight pages this
Speaker 4: court filing. Just when you think the story can't get
Speaker 4: more shocking, it does. I found this particular detail. I
Speaker 4: don't know if you did, Babe, to just be so
Speaker 4: deeply concerning and also confusing why it took them so
Speaker 4: long to arrest him. Apparently David was lying to his friends,
Speaker 4: to his business associates, and to other people who had
Speaker 4: come over to his home or be in his vehicle
Speaker 4: and complain.
Speaker 3: About the strong smell of decay.
Speaker 4: Several people commented to him and said aloud, why does
Speaker 4: your home smell like a rotting body.
Speaker 1: It's unmistakable, frankly, that smell and robes.
Speaker 2: My biggest question through all that, I don't know if
Speaker 2: they have dates on those visits and when people were
Speaker 2: over to the house. But I thought it was crazy
Speaker 2: that they said July seventh is when he ordered a
Speaker 2: bum cage, a cage to be used to essentially want
Speaker 2: to burn some stuff, get rid of something. Robes, if
Speaker 2: he's still planning and trying to get rid of her
Speaker 2: body she disappeared in April, Where is her body? Where
Speaker 2: is he storing her from April to July, robes and
Speaker 2: then obviously goes on to September. But Robes all this
Speaker 2: stuff he or how long does it take a body
Speaker 2: to start smelling and decaying? Days?
Speaker 3: Days, babe.
Speaker 4: And by the way, Burke was the last person to
Speaker 4: drive that vehicle. They can actually place him in the
Speaker 4: Tesla where he parked it on July twenty ninth, so
Speaker 4: we know that that's when her body was, at least
Speaker 4: at that point put in his car. But yes, that
Speaker 4: is a significant amount of time for a body to
Speaker 4: be decomposing in a body bag.
Speaker 2: It was in the house, then, I mean that suggests
Speaker 2: it was her body was in the house the whole time,
Speaker 2: and he had people coming over.
Speaker 4: He had people coming over complaining about a smell. Now
Speaker 4: there was also small blue plastic fragments that they found
Speaker 4: embedded and Celestes remains, and it was a physical match,
Speaker 4: an absolute match to the blue fragments from the blue
Speaker 4: inflatable pool, so they can directly tie her body to
Speaker 4: that pool, which was purchased by David on Amazon and
Speaker 4: delivered to his home.
Speaker 3: So these are just all of these. There are so.
Speaker 4: Many dots that they have connected, pointing all back to
Speaker 4: singer David. Also, people had made note of the trips
Speaker 4: he was allegedly taking to Santa Barbara. They didn't know
Speaker 4: what that was all about. Well, apparently they found items
Speaker 4: from Celeste in the area where he was in Santa Barbara,
Speaker 4: including her passport and other identifiable items. So again they
Speaker 4: can directly from a GPS standpoint pinpoint him to the
Speaker 4: location where they found some of her items that had
Speaker 4: been discarded. So it's just one thing after another legally evidentiary.
Speaker 4: It's all pointing to David.
Speaker 2: Anthony Burke will wait, right, we always do this in
Speaker 2: cases robes. We hear overwhelming evidence and then we hear
Speaker 2: the defense make a defense, and we go, okay, well
Speaker 2: we'll listen, but this is unbelievable what they've laid out,
Speaker 2: Robes said, there was a lot of criticism for the
Speaker 2: police department for what they are releasing enough information. They
Speaker 2: haven't been giving up public updates. They had the medical
Speaker 2: examiner seal the reports so it wouldn't be public before
Speaker 2: they were ready. Robes, do what you gotta do, Police, Robes.
Speaker 2: This is an overwhelming case that you need to get right.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking at all of this they had to
Speaker 2: do and all all they had to collect to present
Speaker 2: this now to what looks like an absolute air tight case.
Speaker 2: They want to get this rightes it hats off to them.
Speaker 2: This is a It's been a very difficult investigation for months,
Speaker 2: and dealing with something like this publicly, there's a rare
Speaker 2: cases Robes where we give them credit where credits do
Speaker 2: but Robes. I can't imagine the gargantuan investigative task this was,
Speaker 2: and to do it with such public scrutiny. This is
Speaker 2: one I will give cops their.
Speaker 4: Guests, and I am impressed at their ability to prevent leaks.
Speaker 4: There were almost no leaks on this case. You know
Speaker 4: something else before we go that stood out to me.
Speaker 4: I wanted to see if you had any thoughts on it.
Speaker 4: I talked about what prosecutors showed in these in this
Speaker 4: filing about all the places that he had taken to
Speaker 4: her taken her to in twenty twenty four Vegas, London,
Speaker 4: But one thing stood out to me Texas to meet
Speaker 4: his family.
Speaker 3: I am just so curious.
Speaker 4: We had stories about how prosecutors, or at least they
Speaker 4: were trying to bring his parents to that grand jury
Speaker 4: to testify.
Speaker 3: Not sure if that ever happened.
Speaker 4: Those are secret proceedings, but to think that he brought
Speaker 4: her to meet his family, that really that shocked me.
Speaker 2: I mean, I did go to some suggestion about what
Speaker 2: this relationship was that we don't fully understand. We know
Speaker 2: it was inappropriate, at least according to authorities. They say
Speaker 2: it was wrong. What was that friendship? Like when there's
Speaker 2: a sixteen year old kid an eleven year old kid,
Speaker 2: which is what they were right, What do.
Speaker 3: You have in common with an eleven year old when
Speaker 3: you're sixteen nothing.
Speaker 2: You're about to go a certain direction in your life.
Speaker 2: This kid is going to is many years before catching up.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know ropes And does that
Speaker 2: even matter, No, it doesn't matter how old you were
Speaker 2: at the beginning of it. Happened matters how old you
Speaker 2: were at the end, and this is a grown man
Speaker 2: and this is a baby.
Speaker 4: And they found we don't know the details as to who,
Speaker 4: or how many or how much would they set a
Speaker 4: significant amount of child pornography on his phone when they
Speaker 4: went through his devices.
Speaker 2: So including sexual images of Celestrievus Hernandez.
Speaker 4: Correct, Yeah, that is among the mounds of evidence they have.
Speaker 4: But photos of their sexual behavior, certainly that's disturbing. And
Speaker 4: also I forgot to mention they also have text messages
Speaker 4: that refer to pregnancy, abortion and plan be emergency contraceptive.
Speaker 4: So there was a suggestion perhaps that maybe even at
Speaker 4: one point celest was pregnant.
Speaker 2: Like we say, every new detail, it's almost like just
Speaker 2: I don't want to hear anymore. This is it keeps
Speaker 2: getting worse. But this is a significant story. A lot
Speaker 2: of people keeping an eye on. We are doing the same.
Speaker 2: And again this is a reminder, with all this and
Speaker 2: all the headlines and scandal you're going to see, this
Speaker 2: is about a fourteen year old baby that met her
Speaker 2: demise and was left in the trunk of a Tesla
Speaker 2: on a car, in a car, just on a random street,
Speaker 2: just discarded in that way, and there was a tragedy
Speaker 2: of her life even before she died. But man, this
Speaker 2: is a tough story, Robes. What's his next couple of things?
Speaker 4: He has a court hearing on May twelfth, That is
Speaker 4: next as far as we know.
Speaker 2: But yet we do not expect him. He is no
Speaker 2: bail right now, and I can't imagine any suggestion and
Speaker 2: we haven't mentioned it here, Robes, but couldn't imagine any
Speaker 2: chance of him getting bail of any kind because this
Speaker 2: is a potential death penalty case.
Speaker 4: It is a potential death penalty case. Prosecutors have not
Speaker 4: ruled that out. Not sure when they'll make that decision,
Speaker 4: but certainly it qualifies for the death penalty with the
Speaker 4: charges that he is facing murder, continuous sexual abuse, and
Speaker 4: unlawfully mutilating a body. We will stay on top of
Speaker 4: this one for you, everybody. We always appreciate you listening
Speaker 4: to us. I'm Amy Roeboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.