D4vd's Pool Fragments Ended Up On WHAT?!

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:07)
A blue inflatable kiddie pool sat in the garage of a Hollywood Hills rental home.
And it cuts in it. Not tears from water, lots of playing on a hot summer afternoon.

**Tony Brueski** (0:20)
Cuts.

**Tony Brueski** (0:22)
Skelpled. Straight. Made with some kind of sharp object. You know the things you shouldn't have around a kiddie pool. And pieces were missing from those cuts. An LAPD trace analyst named Lisa LaHendro, over 20 years on the job, examined that pool. Then she examined the clothing recovered, with the remains of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. And the missing fragments from the pool were on her leggings on the remains.
That is what Day 3 of the preliminary hearing against David D4vd put in to the record in a Los Angeles courtroom.
David Anthony Burke, the singer known as David, is charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, illegal acts involving a minor under 14, and mutilation of human remains. You know, another Tuesday in the music world. He is pled not guilty. His defense team says they will vigorously defend his innocence.
Okay, well, that's good. How is he innocent? How? Well, the hearing in front of Judge Almetto is expected to run another few days.
This is our breakdown of day three. A bind over ruling. The decision on whether Burke stands trial. I mean, that really could come at any point, so. As of this recording, we haven't reached it yet. That doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. We'll certainly bring it to you as it does, but we're breaking things down so you get a full picture of these hearings that lead up to the judge saying, yes, this is going to trial or no, I don't think so. And on day three, two things happened. The prosecution connected the garage to the body through physical evidence. You can hold in your hand and the defense showed you exactly where they're going as well. Investigators also found jugs of fake blood in that garage. Because if you didn't have enough when you chainsawed your girlfriend, a little extra, you know, in case Halloween comes around and you're out. The defense has an explanation for those, and a detective testified about three separate drives Burke allegedly took to the same stretch of highway in Santa Barbara County, the same stretch where Celeste's passport card was later found in the dirt. Coincidence could have been anywhere. The wind, the seagull, a stork delivering a baby, a stork delivered a baby down the road, judge. And then he picked up her card and just they just happened to go around the same route.
There's an in and out down that way. They both like to go that way. The stork that picked up the card and David, it's all a big, big misunderstanding. Whoopsie woo, let's let him go back onto her, right?
No, LaHendro took the stand and walked through what she found inside the blue inflatable pool from the garage. You're never going to think of children's pools the same again after this, I'm sorry.
Hair fibers, plant material, black foam-like fragments, the pool had been cut apart with something sharp and the pieces that were removed didn't end up in a dumpster. They ended up on a dead girl. Many of the fragments were recovered from Celeste's leggings. The fragments were small, the kind of physical evidence you don't see without a crime lab. But they draw a line between two pieces that should have nothing to do with each other, a garage in the Hollywood Hills and the remains of a 14-year-old girl from Lake Elsnor.
The prosecution doesn't need a witness who saw what happened in that garage. They don't need a confession. They have plastic, tiny pieces of a blue inflatable pool that traveled from the garage to the body. LaHendro's testimony connects the cutting of the pool to the clothing Celeste was wearing when her remains were also recovered and cut. That connection doesn't depend on anyone's story, it depends on a microscope. Lauren Wallace, another LAPD criminalist who had stated her testimony, or rather started her testimony the day before and continued on day three. She testified about searching the Hollywood Hills rental where Burke had been living. What she found in the garage went beyond the pool. There were indications throughout the space that blood had been cleaned up, real blood, scrubbed from surfaces in a garage that also held an inflatable pool with chunks cut out of it. Prosecutors allege that Burke dismembered Celeste's body in that garage. The garage wasn't messy, it was actually clean. Someone scrubbed blood off those surfaces and left the pool behind.