Prosecutors: D4vd stabbed Celeste Rivas Hernandez, bought chainsaws after teen died

[0:00] Let's get you caught up to speed on our top stories today, beginning with this, two high-profile murder cases go before judges today. [0:08] Nick Reiner, accused of stabbing his parents to death, and singer David, accused of murdering Celeste Rivas Hernandez. [0:15] A couple of really grim stories. [0:17] Fox local's Christina Gonzalez is live at the Criminal Courts Building in downtown L.A. [0:22] with the very latest on both cases this afternoon. [0:25] Christina, a really busy day. [0:26] Oh, Marla, I just literally ran out of the David courtroom. [0:32] And I'm going to warn everybody, because what's happened today we did not expect. [0:37] They're setting a preliminary hearing for May 26. [0:42] And what happened today, the big deal today, was that there was actually an argument between the defense and prosecutors, [0:49] because the prosecutors filed what they believe is their case to be presented at the preliminary hearing. [0:57] Now, at that point, the defense stood up and said, we don't want the public to hear this. [1:03] They tried to seal it, because it is very, very disturbing. [1:07] I have been able to obtain this. [1:09] The judge agreed that it does not have to be sealed, so we, the media, can get it and present it to the people who are you listening. [1:16] But I want to warn you, before I read some of these elements, this is disturbing stuff. [1:21] And it's a good reason why they wanted it sealed, the defense. [1:24] Let me show you some video, but please be aware. [1:26] I'm going to try to be as tasteful as I can. [1:29] But in essence, what the prosecution is saying is that David Burke met Celeste Rivas when she was 11 years old and he was 18. [1:37] They started dating when he was 13, when she was 13, he was 18, and they started a sexual relationship. [1:44] Now, they believed her parents found out, took her cell phone away because she kept on running away from him. [1:50] And we've heard about this before. [1:51] But he actually bought her a cell phone at her junior high school and actually, you know, had it delivered to her. [1:58] Now, they did have a sexual relationship for quite some time. [2:01] She ran away. [2:02] But here is, and I warn you, this is where it gets really crazy. [2:06] According to the prosecution, the night before they believed she was killed, April 23rd, the night of the 22nd, there was a big fight. [2:14] And they went back and forth with text messages. [2:16] She was upset because he was seeing other girls. [2:18] And she was threatening in those text messages to disclose information about him that would get him in trouble and, quote, ruin his career. [2:26] So, he actually gets an Uber for her, according to prosecutors, and has her delivered to his home that day, April 23rd, to come to the house. [2:36] He pays the Uber to drop her off. [2:38] And according to them, that is when he kills her. [2:43] They say he stabbed her to death. [2:45] And he actually waited, according to this complaint, until she, quote, unquote, bled out. [2:52] Then he took her phone, traveled to Santa Barbara, and kept on calling, texting her, saying, where are you, where are you? [2:59] As her body is sitting in her house, again, according to prosecutors. [3:02] I want to underline that David has declared himself not guilty, okay, of all this already in court, of any charges, or whatever may happen. [3:11] So, he goes to Santa Barbara, and that's where, according to the complaint, investigators actually found her ID and some of her stuff. [3:18] Then he returns home and, get ready for this, he starts ordering on Amazon the tools that they say he used to dismember her body, [3:26] including, and I kid you not, a burn cage, and shovels, and all kinds of things, has the stuff delivered. [3:35] And according to them, because they served a search warrant in his garage, this is where he supposedly did this, [3:41] he proceeded to dismember her body, specifically, Jering is taking away her pinky finger because his name was tattooed on it. [3:50] Again, these are allegations by the prosecution. [3:53] He has pled not guilty, and this is the case they plan to present at the preliminary hearing on May 26th. [4:01] They say that they have biological evidence, her DNA in the garage, in items left over from the pool, that kind of thing. [4:10] Now, the defense wanted all this quashed because they said this is prejudicial to him, obviously. [4:16] The prosecution in court was saying, of course it's prejudicial. [4:19] It's our case against them. [4:20] The judge decided, we do not steal this from the public. [4:25] The defense said, well, how are you not going to taint a jury pool? [4:28] And what the judge said is, L.A. is big enough, the jury pool's big enough, and they have enough cases like this, [4:34] that by the time we get to a trial, which probably will be in a few years, [4:38] the jury pool will be able to find people who are not biased by this. [4:42] Now, it goes on, I mean, I'm still reading through this paperwork, and I'm going to have a lot more at 5 o'clock. [4:50] But, you know, supposedly he drove the Tesla, and purposely he left her and the Tesla at the locations so that her body would decompose, [5:01] according to prosecutors, thinking that it would be much more difficult for them to tie her to him. [5:08] But it's a really, really, really disturbing. [5:14] It's, you know, I'm just giving you the highlights. [5:17] It's disturbing. [5:19] And he was in court, obviously, this was not right in court today, but he looks scared. [5:23] He looks very alert. [5:25] He's working with his attorneys. [5:26] He has three female attorneys, very good attorneys. [5:28] The prosecution also has a female attorney, so it's all women, around this little guy. [5:33] He's tiny. [5:34] I, you know, it amazes me how little he is. [5:37] He's a very small-framed man. [5:40] He was very alert, but he looks scared. [5:43] And if this is what the prosecution says they can prove in their preliminary hearing, this is scary for them. [5:51] May 26th, they wanted, you know, the defense initially said, hey, let's do it Friday. [5:56] And the prosecution called them on it and said, okay, let's do it Friday. [6:00] But Friday is May Day. [6:01] And they're expecting protests. [6:03] The judge was saying, we're going to have protests downtown. [6:05] Do you really want to do this? [6:07] And then the defense, when they said they had just filed this motion, he said, wait a minute. [6:12] No, we need some time to go over some evidence. [6:15] And, you know, they're still getting stuff. [6:16] So they decided on May 26th. [6:18] So that is when we will probably get more of this information. [6:23] And it looks like a very difficult case and a disturbing case against this young man. [6:30] But, again, he has pled not guilty. [6:32] He has good attorneys. [6:33] And they say they intend to prove that he didn't do this. [6:36] So we'll have to see what happens. [6:38] In the Nick Reiner case, they actually postponed their preliminary. [6:42] They didn't even set a preliminary hearing. [6:44] They decided that there's so much information that they still have to go through that they will meet again in September to decide when they can have a preliminary hearing. [6:52] So that's going to be a while on that. [6:55] The coroner doesn't even have a full report to the prosecution on that. [6:59] So this is my latest update on these two big cases today here at Criminal Courts. [7:04] A really big update. [7:05] So you're covering the Nick Reiner case, which you just ended with. [7:08] That has been pushed to September. [7:10] So we have several more months to go there. [7:12] But all big information, gruesome details. [7:17] And let's be clear that there were leaks that involved these gruesome details leading up to today. [7:24] TMZ has been on this case. [7:26] We've been reporting on it. [7:27] And there have been those gruesome details where there was, you know, things like the burn cage you mentioned that was found. [7:34] We didn't know if that was true. [7:36] Of course, this is what the prosecution says. [7:38] This detail about Santa Barbara County, interesting to hear that. [7:44] That's something that TMZ broke, you know, during these months leading up to the actual arrest. [7:50] Nonetheless, this is all coming to light. [7:52] Not to mention, Christina, which I don't know if this was mentioned at all. [7:55] But leading up to today, the idea that his song lyrics could be used as evidence against him because he has a song called, I believe it's called Romantic Homicide, on whether or not the prosecution is going to. [8:08] Romantic on the video. [8:08] Right. [8:09] And if the prosecution is going to use that against him. [8:13] You know, honestly, if they have DNA, if what they're saying here, if they have her DNA in the garage and items that were used to allegedly dismember her body, you know, the song. [8:28] It's irrelevant. [8:29] I mean, yeah. [8:31] I don't want to say irrelevant. [8:31] It's irrelevant. [8:32] I mean, it's just. [8:33] This is enough evidence. [8:34] It adds to it, but it's not. [8:36] I mean, if, you know, and they took their time with this case and it was a very difficult, you know, that when I was in the corner, just delivered to the court while we were there, a package of paperwork about this big. [8:49] And the judge is like, OK, who wants to make copies for who? [8:52] Will the prosecution go first? [8:54] It's just overwhelming the amount of evidence in this case. [8:58] And, you know, the prosecution has taken its time because when you have a body that is that decomposed, it is very difficult. [9:03] But they have a bunch of text messages from these two talking to each other and the fights and and the pictures. [9:11] And I want to say because we had reported the last time that there were pornographic pictures on his phone. [9:16] They're not general pornographic pictures. [9:18] They're pictures of her, you know, in all kinds of compromising positions. [9:22] So, you know, that is one of the things that I was reading here. [9:26] Let's clear that up because that was reported. [9:28] I guess it was late last week. [9:30] I'm losing track of the timeline in which his phone or his devices anyway had a whole lot of child porn on it. [9:40] So this wasn't just anybody. [9:42] This was specifically child porn. [9:44] No, this was her. [9:45] Her photos. [9:47] Yeah. [9:48] Yeah. [9:48] It's, you know, it's, you know, the pictures of her in compromising situations. [9:53] Oh, my goodness. [9:54] You know, which, you know, this is going to be a nightmare of a trial because, you know, I've sat in trials. [10:00] Imagine the family sitting there looking at this stuff. [10:03] No. [10:04] Yes. [10:04] You know, let alone the pictures that they have of all the other stuff. [10:08] Everything they've gone through thus far. [10:08] It's going to be a very gruesome trial. [10:10] So, oh, oh, you know, when we were up in Lake Elsinore, the family is devastated, you know, and granted, this young woman has been seen with this young man. [10:22] They were dating for a year. [10:23] She ran away. [10:25] They said they knew he was with her or she was with him. [10:27] He initially said he wasn't, then he said he was, and, you know, and it went back and forth. [10:32] But, you know, what is particularly disturbing and damaging for him is that there's planning involved here, if this is true, because her body is in the house, supposedly, and he's using her phone to text, you know, he's trying to text her to her phone. [10:49] Where are you? [10:50] Where are you? [10:50] When they seem to have evidence that the Uber dropped her off at the house. [10:54] Right. [10:55] So he's trying to cover his tracks. [10:56] This, which goes to a degree of culpability, it makes it even worse. [11:02] One thing is killing somebody in the heat of passion because they threatened you and you thought your life was over. [11:07] Another thing is the degree of planning that seems to have gone into this. [11:12] After the fact, yes. [11:15] Before and after. [11:16] And again, I want to underline. [11:17] To get her to his house. [11:18] Yeah. [11:19] And then everything else that transpired, according to the prosecution. [11:22] And now. [11:23] Right. [11:24] And again, he has said he's not guilty. [11:26] Right. [11:26] You know, he has pled not guilty on all of this. [11:29] So I want to underline that because the man does have the right to a defense. [11:32] I don't know what the defense is going to present. [11:36] You know, the defense says they have a solid case to say it wasn't him. [11:39] Yeah. [11:39] Well, as we've leading up to all of this, we've said if it were such an open and shut case, why did it take so long for this arrest? [11:49] You know, perhaps the defense. [11:51] Because of the composition of the body, it took a long time for them to be able to figure out quite a few things. [11:59] It is not easy to backtrack what happened to a body when it is that badly decomposed. [12:05] Right. [12:05] They said they couldn't even. [12:06] That was a big deal for them. [12:08] Yeah. [12:08] That's a big. [12:09] That was a big deal for them. [12:10] And they needed to make sure. [12:12] It's a big case. [12:12] You know, they don't want to be wrong on this. [12:15] Okay. [12:15] They don't want to be wrong on anything but something like this, you know. [12:18] But anyway, that's the latest. [12:19] We'll have some more at 5 o'clock. [12:20] I'm going to sort through some more of this. [12:22] And my apologies if I've offended anybody with the retelling of these details. [12:26] You know, we try to be as tactful as we can. [12:29] Yeah. [12:29] But there's no tactful way to describe this. [12:32] No. [12:32] You did a great job, Christina. [12:34] I mean, it's a lot to decipher and to go through. [12:38] So we thank you for hopping on the stream. [12:41] We know that you're up against a deadline for the 5 o'clock news. [12:43] So we'll let you get to it.