Crime Weekly - S3 Ep145: D4vd Officially Named As “Target” During Grand Jury Hearing

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Court documents now confirm that singer D4vd has been formally named the "target" of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation into the alleged homicide of 14-year-old Celeste Hernandez. Prosecutors allege he "may be involved in having committed" one count of murder, though no arrests have been made.Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

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As the seasons change, so do your storage needs. So how do you make space for the new season ahead? It's easy with Access Storage. Access Storage has convenient locations near you with flexible and affordable storage solutions to store all your winter year until next year. Try four weeks free today. Visit AccessStorage.ca.com. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Lavasar. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're here, as you can see from the thumbnail, we're giving you an update on real name David, rapper name D4VD. We have covered this twice on Crime Weekly News, both with major updates in the case. And I would classify this as a major update as well. Stephanie's going to fill you in in case you're not keeping up to date on this investigation because they're going to make a movie out of this one one day, I think. This is a big one. Yeah, this is just continuing to unwarray.

And I'm thankful it is because Celeste Rivas Hernandez is a victim, was a victim, was a real person who had a life. And unfortunately, I just think mainstream, this case is not getting as much attention as it should. And I don't understand why. I really don't. I'm not sure either. I think once again, it kind of goes back to sort of even like an R. Kelly thing. like there was so many people who were a fan of him and didn't want to admit and acknowledge. And they were like, well, we can separate the art from the artist kind of thing.

Like, no, I cannot. So we're talking about this. And I'm glad to see that it's moving forward because for a while we were like, well, what's going to happen? You know, David went off on his world tour. And it didn't seem like law enforcement was doing anything. But behind the scenes, it appears that they were. there was a grand jury called in this case. And because of the grand jury, we have found some things out and we've had some kind of unravelings and other people have been pulled in. So what we know is that, first of all, we also have documents coming out because when people were being called for the grand jury, they were pushing back, including David's family. So they challenged the subpoenas for their jury. They challenged the subpoenas for their jury. They were pushing back, including David's family. So they challenged the subpoenaes for the grand jury, and because of that, new documents were unsealed, and we found out a bunch of

things. So the newly unsealed documents reveal that when LAPD opened up the Tesla trunk or frunk, they found a black cadaver bag covered with insects and a strong odor of decay inside. So now we have the fact that Celeste was in a cadaver bag when she's found. There was some preparation there for sure. Yep. So according to the document detectives, partially unzipped the bag. They found a decomposed head and torso. And then the medical examiners processed the body. They said upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body.

A second black bag discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were discovered. So Celeste was dismembered and her body parts were placed in two separate bags. Now, the first court of appeals in Texas, because that is where David's family members lived, they denied the petitions from the three Burke family members to ignore the subpoenas. So these people didn't even want to go to the grand jury and have to talk about this or testify or be asked questions, which I think tells you a lot. I would agree with you. You know, it's like if you're if your family member, if your son, brother, whatever is completely innocent,

has nothing to do with this. What's the problem? I have no problem having an attorney present. But when you, yeah, when you're in the court system, participate, do the right thing. Everyone should want the same thing to find out what happened to this young girl. Yeah. Well, if you have no doubts in your mind that David had nothing to do with this. Yeah. You should have no problem to go and answer questions. Why would that be an issue?

Couldn't agree more. Since them numerous witnesses have been called in to testify, including one of David's managers and even one of his friends who, if you're from my generation and Derek's generation. We all know Neo, right? Neo was a very big recording artist back in the day. And I think he does. Bangers. Some great songs. Yeah. Well, once again, we're separating the art from the artist. It does not appear that Neo wanted to testify at the grand jury either. Now, by the way, just to make the distinction, this is not the same Neo. His name was Neo. But in case anybody thinks we're talking about Neo the singer, we're not. No. Neo's image is out there. Neo's mugshot is at

out there if you want to look it up. Yes. So. I'll show it on the screen. Neo made, did make some great songs. Yes. So this person, he ended up being arrested because he basically ignored the subpoena, just did not show up to the grand jury.

So he was arrested in Helena, Montana, in an out of jurisdiction warrant from a Los Angeles County for failure to appear. Once again, why would you not? want to appear. What's the problem here with going to the grand jury and asking and answering questions that are asked of you if you're not concerned that you're going to implicate your friend or your family member in some way? We're not really sure what's going on here. I think people are just, you know, being told not to go. So you think that's what's happening. I think there's a, there's, there's messages being getting around to, to not cooperate with the law enforcement

community and this grand jury hearing, which, Or should say trial, whatever it is. Well, it depends on what it is. If we're talking about an investigative grand jury, that means they're still trying to gather more information. If this is a grand jury that's been convened to see if they can get an indictment against D4 or David, I should say, Dave. What is it, D4VD? There's a difference there. But either way, if you're subpoenaed to come testify at one of these hearings, you have a legal obligation to do so.

It's not open for, you know, hey, would you like to come? If you're being subpoenaed by a court, you have to go. Well, some of them thought that they didn't. I think that there was a misunderstanding of what a grand jury hearing is, or what that entails and I guess the reach of a grand jury. It's almost like a trial. Or maybe as you're saying, there were some sort of communications or messaging sent to these people of like, hey, we're not really concerned with what you're legal repercussions will be if you don't show up at this grand jury because other repercussions may be more severe for you if you show up at this grand jury. Or even just the implication that you're a snitch.

if you go. Yeah. And we're not saying, listen, David is innocent until proven guilty because that is the justice system that we operate in. And the grand jury investigation is into Celeste's murder.

Not necessarily David's involvement in her murder. Now, they have identified him as a suspect now and they have said that he is a target. Yes, exactly. target of the grand jury investigation. So, I mean, put two and two together. Which means that this is more of like trying to see an indictment against him for the grand jury hearing. I believe that is exactly what's happening, which means if they're bringing it to the grand jury, they feel that they have enough to convince a grand jury to agree that this person should be indicted

and that there will then proceed to be some sort of trial for that. Correct. And they're both kind of the same thing. And they can also be at one time where they're presenting what they have at this grand jury hearing where they're saying this is the information we have so far. We're looking to gain more information. We want to really make sure we have our eyes dotted, our T's crossed. That's where they can subpoena David's friends in to try to fill in those holes. His friends and his family. Right. But they already feel like they have enough. They're just trying to strengthen that case. And so I'm sure on David's sides of thing, they're saying, well, we're not going to help you in doing that. Yeah. And I think it's interesting to find out that

Celeste, we knew she had been dismembered. We knew she was badly decomposed. Law enforcement is saying it's likely she was dead for weeks before her body was found, which would make sense because that car was sitting there for quite a while. And it's interesting that there's a black cadaver bag and then there's another bag so her body parts were put into two different bags. This wasn't really, in my opinion, a sort of, oh, we got to hurriedly get rid of the this body and let's just grab some garbage bags from the kitchen. There was some thought put into this. And I don't think, based on what we're hearing and what we're seeing, that it was only one person who took part in at least the aftermath of Celeste's death. What do you think? No, I think it would be a

collaborative effort, especially if it, in fact, it did involve David. If he was involved and this happened, more than likely he brought in some members of his team to assist and facilitate this. And I would highly doubt if we had video of the cyber truck being parked that you would see. Did we determine it was a cyber truck? I know at one point they thought it could be a cyber truck. No, I think it's just a regular. Could be like a Y or an X, whatever. It's a Tesla.

I highly doubt if we had access to video showing that car being driven that you're going to see David pop out of the car. I'm almost even wondering if he had anything to do with the cleanup and the aftermath, because as you said, I think that he was kind of this person who would have people take care of that for him. Yeah, I mean, listen, you have money, you have influence, you have yes men around you,

that will do whatever you tell them to do because they want to be part of that crew, they want to go on the tours, they want to be at the parties, right? This is how they earn their stripes. And it's almost like maybe I implicate them with me, right? Like I bring them in on this so that they have something to lose as well, so that their hands are dirty as well. And so when a grand jury subpoena comes or the police come knocking, they would be less likely to, you know, throw me under the bus.

Especially if the whole theory that Celeste was potentially living with David in his home. And so people would have seen her there. We know that she was missing since, I believe it was the spring of 20. So with law enforcement saying, hey, she was probably dead for several weeks before her body was found, but she's been missing for several months more than that. She would have had to have been somewhere. And there is, based on the Bilderbear thing and certain things that police found in David's home, some theory that she was staying with him. And so people who worked for him, people who worked with him, friends, even family potentially may have seen her there. And so now these people who have seen her there and then Celeste shows up dead in the trunk of David's Tesla, are they going to be willing now to tell police, oh, I saw her at his house if they had something to do with the disposal of her remains after her death or maybe they were potentially at the house or around David and Celeste when everything went down, allegedly potentially. And so now he's kind of tying them to this crime even further, making it less likely that they will once again come clean with law enforcement because they are involved and implicated. Ah, snow melting, weather getting warmer, birds singing. But what is the first true sign of spring?

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What we can say is at this point, and I had given him a pass during our first coverage of this, But at this point, even though he knows he's being targeted, if he really cared about this girl or if he had a friendship or relationship with her, he should be out there pushing for justice, trying to figure out what happened to her, who's responsible. There's been none of that. I understand protecting yourself, especially if you're being targeted in the investigation, totally understandable. But the fact that he's really said nothing, the whole at the advisement of my lawyers, you know, thing that most people say, it becomes. becomes less to me, less warranted at this point when, you know, you're supposed to be figuring out what happened here if you're not responsible. The silence to me at this point is questionable. It's crickets from him, yeah. Yeah, it's just my personal opinion, not my professional opinion.

I think the optics of it look terrible and it doesn't boast well for him that he has said nothing. Now on top of that, you have law enforcement who has clearly been moving in silence, building a case against him. And we have kind of hinted toward this. If he was with her, it's very hard to believe based on some of the things that we know so far that he wouldn't have been there when whatever happened. Now, was it an accidental death? Was it something that was contributed to possibly drugs or alcohol or something that was at that property at that time that was given to her? And then you have to ask the question whether it was given to her knowingly or unknowingly. So there's a lot of questions here that I have.

And on top of that, you have his mother, his father, and his brother not cooperating with the grand jury, his friends not cooperating with the grand jury. This isn't between that and his silence and all of the, I mean, circumstantial evidence possibly at this point that, you know, it's his car. And we've talked about the evidence before. When you look at all of that, as Derek said, in totality, plus whatever the grand jury, jury is going to hear, which I'm sure is way more than we've heard. And whatever happens in the grand jury is secret. We won't know about it. It doesn't look good for him. It doesn't look good. The lack of cooperation, the silence, his family and friends, the people closest to him, wanting to not cooperate to find out what happened to this young girl. It's not looking very

sympathetic. No, and I want to take it a step further because we talk about the legal ramifications and what here, without saying too much, may indicate that this is more than just an accidental death that was covered up. I was recently covering a case, Erica Alonzo. Have you ever heard of it? No. Okay. In that case, without going too much into it and getting off the tracks here, essentially, it doesn't appear as if she was murdered, but it appears that there was a death, whether it was because she was given GHB and she didn't know it or she voluntarily took it. she had some complications. Nobody called law enforcement and her body was found 30 miles away in a dry creek bed. I bring that up because I was looking up the statutes and they have a body concealment

charge where when you look that charge up, it's essentially only a misdemeanor. Up to a year in prison, $10,000 fine max. I say that to you guys because if this was a case where it was an accidental death and he has a bunch of yes men around him. I would think with some compensation, someone would be willing to come forward and say, yeah, she had a reaction to something. David had nothing to do with it. I got rid of the body because I didn't want it to come back on him. She was with me. I'm sorry. That person goes to jail for maximum a year. They get out and they're a hero to the crew, right? That hasn't happened. So it makes me wonder.

They're a hero to the crew? To the crew that they took the fall for, right? Not to me, not to you. So you're saying maybe that's not necessarily what happened, but this person says it so that they can take the rap for it? They fall on the sword. They do a bid. And now they're a quote unquote hero to the insiders, right? Yeah, yeah.

They come back to a positive reception instead of being a snitch. Look at so and so. He took the fall, right? Yeah, like the mafia. He did a year of bid. He's in, right? Nobody's willing to do that. And I feel like that's because the circumstances surrounding her death may not be accidental and nobody wants to be tied to it because they know it's plutonium.

They know if they start peeling back the layers, they're going to figure out that this wasn't an accident and something more nefarious happened here. They don't want to have any attachment to her because of that. So that's just, again, my opinion, speculation, but. I don't think it was an accident. I mean, I just don't. It's not looking that way. Yeah, I don't know why you, if it was an accident that you would. go to such lengths to cover it up and implicate yourself further because then, and I mean,

we don't know if the medical examiner the coroner was able to determine the cause of death. We don't know. Was Celeste's body too decomposed? If they have determined the cause of death, with them bringing it to the grand jury and potentially going to trial one day, they won't release that to us, right? We won't know that. Not yet. But the police have said they believe that Celeste's, her death was only.

murder. So saying that they believe we're dealing with a murder here doesn't suggest that anything they've uncovered thus far would point in the direction of this was an accidental death. Yeah. And they might have some toxicology results that are back at this point and see, see if there was anything in our system. You know, and that's an important distinction to make also when it comes to the disposal of a body, right? I said it's a misdemeanor, but it's only a misdemeanor if the death itself was accidental. If the death itself was accidental, if the death itself was a felony, a.k.a. a murder, even if you're not the one who committed the murder, then that said charge of the body disposal could also be a felony. You see what I'm saying here?

So nobody else is going to want to be involved or attached to that if they know the root cause of what happened to Celeste. And that's just what I'm reading between the lines here, because on the surface, if it was what they may want people to believe, which was this tragic accident, Well, I would think someone would have came forward and maybe it took the fall. And yet that hasn't happened. And I really am also concerned that we haven't heard a ton from Celeste's family at this point. Maybe we have the advisement of law enforcement, though. It could be.

Now, there is somebody online posting on different things, Facebook posts, things like that, claiming to be Celeste's cousin. We don't know if this is actually Celeste's cousin. But if the person who is posting claiming to be Celeste's cousin is the cousin, then they're basically calling for justice. They're saying don't defend David. You don't know who you're dealing with. They're posting things. But once again, it hasn't been confirmed that this person is actually Celeste's cousin.

Other than that, we really haven't heard too much from Celeste's family. And as Derek said, that could be because of, you know, the advice of a lawyer. But we're dealing with a very young girl who ran away. This wasn't the first time Celeste had ran away. And we talked about this before. How is this happening? How do you have a 14-year-old daughter or a 14-year-old child in your home? And she continues running away.

And she's gone for months. And you're not out there trying to figure out what happened to her. We have some evidence that Celeste's cousin was hanging out with her and David during whatever alleged relationship they had. there's going to be questions that I'm not trying to, you know, be that person here, but there's going to be questions that when all is said and done, I have questions for Celeste's family as well, her parents and the people around her. Yep, I agree. Number one thing is to get justice first for Celeste, and I do want to make a correction.

It is a model, it looks like a Model S. It's definitely a sedan version of the Tesla, not a truck. Black will have the image up on the screen for anybody who's watching on YouTube. But, yeah, I mean, listen, we're not, we're not just pulling this out of left field guys when it comes to David. She was found, appeared to be, from what you're saying,

dismembered, right? There was only a head in a torso in one bag and then additional body parts in that second bag. That didn't happen through the natural process of decomposition.

No. Her body parts didn't end up in two separate bags because of decomposition. That's right. That's right. And so there was,

there could have been one person to pull this off. We've seen this before in cases we've covered, but she was in David's car, a car registered to him. So there's already a connection that within a reasonable

amount of time prior to her death, she was with either David or someone connected to David. She was in his friggin car, right? This isn't like top-notch detective work. So there's some tie here. And if it's not David, but it's David's vehicle, you have to wonder who's in his circle, who was in that apartment at that time, who was around David when she disappeared? Because someone in that, in that unit, in that organization, if you want to call it that, that group, they know what happened. And they're all not speaking because they know if they say too much, their stories aren't going to align. The more they say, the more trouble they're going to be in.

So they're opting to just say as little as possible and let law enforcement try to figure it out. And spoiler alert, they're going to. They're going to put it together because the weakest link will eventually crack. They just got to find that right piece and they'll get their answers that they're looking for. And David's friend, Neil Langston, who was arrested after ignoring the grand jury subpoena. He's been listed as, you know, a friend and a key witness. Now, what do they mean by key witness? He was arrested in Montana.

Does Neil live in Montana? Or is that someplace he went to avoid being in L.A. when the grand jury took place and he was hiding out? These are pretty, you know, extreme lengths to take at this point. What do they mean by witness? Did he hear something from David? Did David talk to him? Do they have evidence that there was conversations between them around the time of

Celeste disappearance slash death? Or are we going to find that Neo was in L.A.? at the time of Celeste's death. I guarantee they already had that answer. Right. And in witness, they mean, oh, hey, he was actually staying with his friend, David, in Los Angeles at the time that this happened. So maybe when they say witness, they mean he actually saw something. This is going, you know, there's questions here, but we're not going to stop talking about Celeste because.

No. It doesn't matter how much money you are, how famous you are. We need to find out what happened here. We need to find out what happened. You're not immune to being held accountable for the crimes you commit. And I do feel like sometimes there are people in high places. I'm not even just talking about celebrities. I'm talking about people with money.

We're talking about the Epstein files and all these things. They don't play by the same rules as us. And you know what? We have to try and prove them wrong when we can. One interesting side note about Montana, because I know we're going to be wrapping this up soon. It may be a connection. It may not be.

But one thing that I would be investigating is it is very well known that people who have large amounts of income will sometimes put down roots in Montana or a similar state, because there's a lot of tax incentives to be in those states, to be registered in those states. So I'm wondering if David or one of his associates or one of his LLCs have a location there to try to filter some of the money through that as a tax write off. That is something that a lot of people do legally, right? We'll have to see how that goes and we'll see if there's a correlation between him being in Montana and David. I don't know what this guy's financial status is, but he's got to survive somehow and I wonder who's helping him out with that as well.

Does he come from money? Is he being given money? Is he giving the resources, the vehicles, whatever, to survive out there? Yeah. And if so, who's doing that? Follow the money. That's what we need to do. Anything else from you?

No, that's it. Once again, we're not going to stop talking about Celeste. So every update that comes out, we will address it. And hopefully. Try to keep them when the big stuff comes out. I mean, we could do. Yeah, that's why, you know, this happened like a few weeks ago and then a month ago, but we don't want to just, yeah, the stuff's coming out, especially with the grand jury.

Yeah. Stuff's coming out constantly. so we kind of wait so we can group it all together. But let us know what you think about it. Let us know if you're on the same page. I think you are. For Neo, it was January 23rd. So it was a little bit of time from now,

but we wanted to put it in there because I do think the fact that they're tracking down as associates, not good for David, because they're going for all the limbs before they go for the head of the snake. That's my opinion. So we'll see what happens. Guys, as always, we appreciate you being here.

Later this week, we will have our interview with Elizabeth Smart. And spoiler alert, we already recorded it before we recorded this. It's an incredible interview, very insightful. We were able to ask some of your questions. You're going to get a lot out of it. So we hope to see you there. Audio on Friday, video on Sunday.

Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Bye. The Bell Air Direct app includes crash assist, which detects an accident the moment it happens, and even offers you emergency assistance at the tap of a button. Okay, but what if I don't have an accident? Well, just keep on keeping on. Bel Air Direct, insurance, simplified.

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