Law&Crime Sidebar - D4vd's Bombshell Decision Rocks Teen Dismemberment Case

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

David Burke, the singer better known by the moniker D4vd, was arraigned in Los Angeles on Monday. The hearing comes months after Burke was arrested for allegedly killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who he was also reportedly abusing sexually. In a major shakeup, the district attorney announced that Burke chose to substitute out his legal counsel, meaning he will now be represented by a public defender. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber got insight from inside the courtroom from correspondent Julia Deng.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Level up your business with a free 14-day trial of Odoo by visiting https://odoo.com/sidebar.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The district attorney's office is ready to proceed to prove all three charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Bombshell news from Los Angeles court today. As we move closer to a murder trial for David, the romantic homicide singer's high-powered legal team is now out. We're digging into what happened in court, what's next, what this means for one of the biggest cases of the year, and we're doing it all with a reporter who is inside that courtroom today. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. David is back in court for a big hearing in his criminal case. Something major happened. And when that happens, you know what we do. We break it down here on sidebar. And in a little bit, I'm going to be bringing in our reporter who is in the courtroom, our eyes, our ears. There's no cameras in that courtroom. She'll let us know what happened. But look, today, out in L.A., this was David, 21-year-old David Anthony Burke's arraignment. This is where a criminal defendant is for. presented the charges that they're facing. They're instructed on their legal rights. It's supposed to be,

you know, pretty standard, pretty pro forma, not what happened today. Okay, before we even get into what happened both inside and outside of that courtroom today, remember, this comes about a month after a judge determined there is sufficient evidence for this case to move forward towards trial. Sufficient evidence, sufficient probable cause to support the charges of first degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of. human remains. David has pleaded not guilty to all these charges. He has remained held without bail. Actually, we did a whole sidebar episode of what his life may be like at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility out in Los Angeles. Remember, he's accused of murdering and dismembering

the body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, this teen from Lake Elsinor. Her remains were reportedly found back in September of 2025 in the trunk of a Tesla allegedly registered to David. He was arrested in April. Prosecutors alleged that he had been in an illegal sexual relationship with Celeste, a minor. And when she allegedly threatened to expose him, authorities claim that he allegedly lured her to his place and killed her. Now, something big happened in court today that none of us expected. So aside from the report that he looked exhausted and his hair was rumpled, what happened today changed the entire game. Okay?

Now, before I bring in our reporter who was in that courtroom, we'll let us know everything that we need to know. You know this is a big case that we've been following here on Sidebar. And with that, we can't show you every line of every page, of every document, every piece of evidence. We're limited here on Sidebar. But the case file section on the Long Crime Plus app, that's your answer. We are opening the evidence vault so you can inspect the raw body cam footage, the 911 calls, the crime scene photos, the full trial tapes firsthand on all these major cases. Plus, you get ad-free streaming of all your favorite long-crime and court TV shows. So you can see the full picture for an entire month free, by the way.

Just head on over to longcrimeplus.com. Enter promo code sidebar, and you can start exploring and learning today. Okay. So this is where I bring in long crime correspondent Julia Dang into the conversation. She was in the courtroom. She's been in the courtroom for all these major hearings. So happy to have her back. Julia, this was not what we expected.

This is not what we thought was going to be a typical arraignment. said were a defendant is just, you know, presented the charges, presented their legal rights. There was a bombshell today. Talk to us what happened. And this took a turn this morning, Jesse. Nobody that I talked to, at least, was expecting this. So this started a little bit later that it was supposed to. It was supposed to be an 8.30 a.m. arraignment here at the courthouse. And everybody here knows this judge is very prompt. when the clock made it to 835, we started wondering, you know, what is going on? The attorneys are not seated. Defended is not here, and the judge is still in chambers. So we learned pretty quickly,

after this went on for a couple more minutes, they were talking about something with the judge. And I started to wonder, you know, could they be working out a plea deal? That's the one thing that might stop this from going to trial at this point. After they determined during that preliminary hearing that went on for five days, there is probable cause for this to move forward. So I'm thinking, could there be a plea bargain? You know, what charge might be reduced? What is going on back there? So then they come out and again, this took a turn. This took a 180 turn. David, David Anthony Burke, charged with first degree murder in addition to other felonies, he now has new defense counsel. He is,

no longer being represented by his original defense team. He is now going with a public defender. Nobody saw this coming, but he does have another hearing on this schedule now. That's going to be another status conference. That status conference is going to be his first one being represented by an L.A. County public defender, and that's on Monday, October 19. He did enter his pleas today. He pleaded not guilty again to all three counts. And we did hear from the LA County District Attorney Nathan Hoffman right after this agreement wrapped. And he made it clear. He still hasn't made a decision about whether or not the prosecution is going to pursue the death penalty, which this case is eligible for.

Yeah, and I'm going to play you that sound a little bit later on for our audience. And again, I think that's because they might be using as a bargaining chip, a way to say, do you really want to take this to trial? We have this death penalty here. Maybe there's just a deal we could work out where you plead guilty, life in prison, and not the death penalty. In those moratorium on executions in California. But I got to go back to this. So after this moment in court, there was a statement that has been released from David's former attorneys,

Blair Burke, Marilyn Benarski, Regina Peter. This was obtained by LA Magazine. This morning, the court branded our request to withdraws counsel appoint the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. after it was determined David qualified for appointed counsel. We continue to support David and his defense against these serious charges. We are grateful that the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office has taken over the representation, and that David has a highly capable and committed team of attorneys and investigators behind him. Let me ask you this.

Just to be clear, this was them withdrawing from the case as opposed to him firing these attorneys, because if they're withdrawing from the case, do we know why? Was it an issue of money? Does he not have the funds for private counsel? Was it disagreement over a legal strategy? Do we have any idea what happened here? That's the big question, Jesse. We don't actually know why.

And because of attorney-client privilege, we may never find out why, at least from the parties involved, money could be an issue. You know, this case is dragging on. representation is very expensive. It could be that. There may have been a rift, a disagreement over whether or not to take a plea deal. We don't know yet what happened in chambers this morning between the defendant and his attorneys, prosecution, and the judge. We simply don't know. But moving forward, we do know David now has a public defender. And what that public defender can do,

per Nathan Hockman, the L.A. County District Attorney, is submit a mitigation packet. And that's going to be a packet of information on the DA. The prosecution will take into consideration regarding whether or not to pursue the death penalty. There's no timeline on that decision. We don't know if that mitigation packet is going to be submitted before this goes to another free trial hearing, that status conference set for October 19th. But I can tell you this. This, this just came out this morning. L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hockman revealed the original defense team. They had an opportunity to submit that same mitigation packet. They never did. So we don't know why. David has now split with that defense team and moved forward with a public

defender. But definitely a turn, definitely a 180 turn that we did not see coming this morning. All right, before we jump back into this, if you run a business, I think you want to listen up, okay? Because running a business, as you know, is tough enough. Why make it harder doing things manually and relying on dozens of apps that don't really talk to each other, right? That's where our sponsor, Odu comes in. Odu is an all-in-one business management platform with a full suite of integrated apps that seamlessly connect all your operations, from sales and accounting to manufacturing, even shipping. Odu can automatically generate professional, sleek-looking sales orders, invoices, vendor bills.

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take your business to the next level by consulting with an Odu expert today for free at odu.com slash sidebar. It seems that he's going to be represented by deputy public defender, Waleid Kandiel, who also released a statement that Burke is entitled to a defense that takes his circumstances seriously and carefully examines the evidence we are committed to providing him with that defense. In court, did you make any observations from Burke or Benarski or David did their first? facial expressions, emotions, behavior, indicate anything to you as to what's going on here? No, Jesse, no indication from the original defense team as to how they were feeling or what exactly

they may do next regarding this case. But I can tell you, when Beth Silverman, the deputy DA prosecuting this case, when she walked into the courtroom out of judges' chambers following this conversation, she seemed to be grinning. She had a very brief whistly. conversation with one of the LAPD detectives who testified during the preliminary hearing. She was probably filling him in on what was happening and what we were about to find out. One of the original defense attorneys, Blair Burke, she had her hand on the defendant's back as the judge was relaying this new information to the court. But beyond that, no, no indication as to what happened.

But this was significant to me. The LA County Public Defender, last name Can Deal, the attorney who's taking on this case now, he was seated in the courtroom during this conversation. He was there and he was ready to take on this appointment. That tells me this was all negotiated beforehand. Big question is why. We don't know that. And he wanted more time, right?

Didn't he want to waive this arraignment for more time? time to prepare? That's correct. That was probably a strategic move. The more time they have, the more they can push this back, the better, because he's got other cases to handle as well. But when he made that request, the judge immediately denied that request. And she told him, in front of the courts, you know, this is pretty straightforward. It's the same three felonies that he has been charged with since April. You simply need to submit your clients. free. So David did again plead this morning to all three felony counts, and that's first-degree murder, unlawful mutilation of a corpse, and ongoing sexual abuse of a child under 14.

Let's just put this in perspective for our audience about how significance this is. In the sense, this is no criticism of the public defender's office or any public defender's office. However, we had talked before that his, now as former counsel, Blair Burke in particular, these are very skilled and experienced defense attorneys who have tried criminal cases in Los Angeles, have had celebrity clients. You and I both were covering kind of what they were doing during the preliminary hearing, which was quite significant, trying to poke holes in the prosecution's case. I mean, talk to our viewers and our listeners about what was the work you were seeing from this now former defense counsel. What were the arguments they were bringing up?

They were methodically breaking down every single piece of circumstantial evidence they could. And it was expertly done. However you may feel about these truly horrific charges, however you may feel about this case and who could be at fault, you have to hand it to that defense team. They were doing their jobs. In this country, you get your day in court, no matter what you're charged. with and you can be represented by whoever you choose to hire who's licensed, of course. So David chose this very aggressive, very experienced defense team, and they were in court doing their jobs. We watched that play out. There was no indication at all during the preliminary

hearing that just wrapped at the end of July. The final day was Monday, July 27th. There was no indication to me that there was any kind of risk or disagreement brewing between David and his three attorneys, Marilyn Blair and Meredith. They seemed to be in lockstep on the same page. And they waved time for this to go to an arraignment and then trial. So we didn't see this coming. And again, we don't know what happened. But that public defender who was waiting in the court, to take on this appointment, he had a heads up. So something happened before this morning that just became official, that was just accepted by the judge and this court.

So look, I mean, people will speculate if this had to do with funds because this was a complicated defense, particularly if they were going to challenge the cause of death and they needed their own experts. There was a question of what happened behind closed doors. Remember, if we remember in the preliminary hearing, there was evidence that could they definitively establish that Celeste arrived at the property. Those surveillance footage, the Uber driver apparently wasn't entirely sure what happened.

I know they were relying on cell phone evidence and digital data to try to place a timeline here. There was also a question, you know, what happened? Was there a fight inside the house? Was he acting in self-defense? You started seeing the beginnings of what could be a complicated defense. And then even when it talked to about the evidence that was collected, and whether there was a sloppy investigation and why could you not definitively say which weapon was used for the alleged dismemberment, a missing chainsaw, you don't have a murder weapon. So there was a lot of different areas that you see them exploring. But when there is such a complicated case with this amount of charges, I was wondering they're going to have a lot of witnesses and a lot of experts and a lot of time and a lot of motions.

that costs money. So I do wonder if in the end, that's an issue, which is surprising considering, you know, one of the first pieces of testimony we heard, Julia, was how much money he was making or was planning to make. I mean, remember, prosecutor said as the special circumstances allegations that, you know, he killed Celeste for financial gain, that he knew what he would lose if their relationship was going to be or their alleged relationship was going to be exposed. So it is shocking to say the least.

but as I'm starting to formulate why this might have happened. Did we get a sense of, other than this hearing that you mentioned, that's now upcoming in October, did we get a sense of when the trial is going to happen? Because under California law, there's a specific amount of time from when an arraignment happens to when you can actually have a trial. Did he waive it or now we don't know when the trial date's going to be?

He did waive time. In California, I believe, Jesse, it is 16 days after the arraignment for a felony. case. But I have a feeling this is not going to go to trial in 60 days. I also have a feeling if there's an opportunity here for this public defender to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors, I have a feeling that's something the defendant may want to take into consideration. I mean, we're talking about three serious felony charges. And one of them is eligible for the death penalty. Right. He's looking at serious consequences. And yes, Jesse, to your point about money, I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of this. If that may have played a role in why David decided to go with a county public defender instead of his original very experienced but very expensive defense team. But here's what I'm wondering. You know, why take on a county public defender when you could hire different private attorneys who are maybe not as price. He had other options, but he went straight to an LA

County public defender. I'm wondering, and this is completely speculative, there's no information on the record that would lead me to believe this, but I'm wondering if perhaps there was a conversation before today about a possible plea agreement. And I'm wondering if the original defense team tried to convince their client, David, to take that plea deal, and he didn't want to. He wanted this to go to trial, and he wanted to fight every charge. I'm wondering if that might have been a piece of this, too. We simply don't know, and because of attorney-client privilege, we may never find out. We may never find out, and it is true, and we just don't know, like you said, And particularly when there was an argument that the evidence was strong, really strong with respect to the sexual abuse charge,

maybe questionable with respect to the murder charge or a list of reasonable doubt. But look, that was from a legal point of view. Julia Dang, thank you so much for coming on, our long crime correspondent. We look forward to having you back for the next hearing. Now, before we wrap things up, after court today, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hockman appeared outside that courthouse. held a presser. Here's what he said. At that arraignment, David Anthony Burke entered not guilty pleas on all three charges. In addition, David Anthony Burke has substituted his counsel record out. Before it was Blair Burke, now it will be someone in the public defender's office.

With respect to what happens in the future, on October 19th, the court has set the next hearing. That is a pretrial hearing, zero of 90 days. What that means is that the court could order a trial within 90 days if the defense is ready to proceed. As soon, as a defense announces ready to proceed, the DA's office is ready to proceed. The last thing that will have to be decided, and that's a decision by myself as the district attorney, is whether or not we'll be seeking the death penalty in this case. We had invited David Anthony Burke's prior counsel to submit what's called a mitigation packet to the district attorney's office for consideration. A mitigation packet are factors that we are to consider why we should not bring the death penalty in this case.

We had not received that mitigation practice packet as of today. Certainly we will give additional time for a new counsel to come up with a mitigation packet if they so choose to present it in order to consider that mitigation packet as well as all the aggravating factors. in determining whether or not we will proceed with the death penalty. That decision has not been made today. All right. Continue to follow what happens next in this case. Unpredictable as always.

But as always, thank you so much for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.