D4vd Murder Case: New Evidence Could Influence Defense Strategy

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is supported by FX's The Shards, a seductive drama from executive producer Ryan Murphy.
Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the series follows a group of glamorous, deeply entangled high school seniors drawn into a life of wealth, beauty, parties and excess. At its center is Brett, whose reality begins to unravel when the arrival of a new student coincides with a series of mysterious murders. FX's The Shards premieres August 5th on FX and Hulu.

**Branson Quirk** (0:37)
Hey, welcome to the TMZ Podcast. I'm Branson Quirk.

**Cara Rainwater** (0:41)
I'm Cara Rainwater.

**Branson Quirk** (0:42)
The David Trial is about to begin. The judge has ordered that this will go to trial, and that's not really a shock.

**Cara Rainwater** (0:51)
I'm not surprised. I think we all knew that was going to happen.

**Branson Quirk** (0:54)
Not surprised in the slightest based on all of this evidence that is stacked against David. This was just broken about two minutes ago.
The judge has ordered the case to begin within 90 days in Los Angeles District Attorney. Nathan Hockman is expected to speak soon with their reporters. They're out at the courthouse here in Los Angeles. So David is due back in court for arraignment on August 31st. Again, not a surprise.

**Cara Rainwater** (1:26)
Yeah, I'm not shocked at all.

**Branson Quirk** (1:27)
And there's a lot that's come out today. The most notable being text messages that were shown in court. This is the preliminary hearing that has just wrapped up. So these text messages that were revealed during David's preliminary hearing show Celeste Rivas threatened to kill him and destroy his career one day before prosecutors allege that he murdered her. If you're just joining and you have no idea about this case, what so ever, it was over a year ago that prosecutors claimed that David was lying in wait, the singer David, for Celeste Rivas, who is very underage, to come to his house. The sexual relationship is one of the allegations and one of his charges. And again, lying in wait in which she showed up, they've claimed that he stabbed her to death in which she bled out on the floor. And then he dismembered her body, put it in his Tesla, or it made its way to the Tesla. There's a ton of evidence, including a pool that he had bought. They found plastic particles in her autopsy, which kind of proves that scenario, allegedly. Can't say, innocent and proven guilty, obviously. And among other things, like a chainsaw, other materials that he had bought on Amazon, under an Elias name and things like that. So yeah, so these text messages that have come through, according to testimony, Celeste wrote, quote, Oh my effing God, I swear to God, I'll kill you. She also allegedly threatened to strangle David, tell lies about him to her father, mutilate his penis, and quote, end his career and his life.
So reading this only kind of confirms what prosecutors were alleging.
Saying that David, his career was threatened, felt threatened that if she went public with the relationship, that it would ruin him.
Which then comes to him lying in wait, planning this out, all the purchases, coming out, killing her, and now we're here. So continuing on, the next day, the messages appeared friendlier, with David arranging an Uber to bring Celeste to his home. At 10:02 PM, Celeste wrote, quote, Girlie pop, I'm almost there, open your door if you're home. Eight minutes later, David replied, Gate open, door unlocked.
TMZ reports, Celeste never sent another text after that message. David continued messaging her, and this is where the text messages come in, where they said that he continued to message her phone after allegedly killing her, to kind of cover his tracks, saying, Uber said, you're here, where are you at? Hello, bro, Celeste. He later asked whether she had blocked him, said he would call someone named Jen, and continued asking for a response after midnight. Messages could potentially appear to create a trail suggesting David did not know where Celeste had gone. So after I just read all this out to you, what's your make of this? Does this sound like a guy who's clearly trying to cover his tracks?

**Cara Rainwater** (4:47)
100%. Even the text messages, I really do believe that that was after the fact that she was killed. So it's just such a scary situation, but I definitely don't think that he's innocent in this.

**Branson Quirk** (5:00)
I mean, if they're trying to claim that she went missing on the way over to his house, never showed up and everything, that sounds so statistically improbable. I can't even begin to go off on it. Like, probability-wise, said her Uber didn't show up, or she didn't show up, and he said, your Uber says you're here. Where are you at?