A Los Angeles County grand jury is listening to proof associated to the dying of a teenage lady whose physique was found stuffed contained in the trunk of singer D4vd’s Tesla earlier this 12 months, two legislation enforcement sources advised The Occasions.
The revelation follows the ugly discovery of the stays of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in a Hollywood tow yard on Sept. 8. Though the Los Angeles Police Division has publicly declined to characterize the lady’s dying as a murder, a current courtroom submitting by an LAPD detective referred to the case as a homicide investigation.
Now, the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace has begun presenting proof to what’s often known as an investigative grand jury, in accordance with one of many sources, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the case with the media.
One of many sources mentioned the grand jury was in session for a number of days in mid-November, but it surely was unclear whether or not prosecutors had accomplished their presentation of proof.
Prosecutors could convene an investigative grand jury to subpoena witnesses and compel different proof, together with movies. Such investigative panels could advocate costs, however can’t themselves return an indictment.
Along with the 2 legislation enforcement sources, a courtroom petition offered to The Occasions on Monday contained a “GJ quantity,” referencing the existence of a grand jury.
In that doc, LAPD Det. Joshua Byers of the Theft Murder Division efficiently persuaded a decide to bar the L.A. County Medical Examiner from divulging post-mortem outcomes and different particulars associated to the lady’s dying that might in any other case be public.
It was Byers who characterised the probe into the lady’s dying as “an investigation into homicide,” in accordance with the doc.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman, who handles among the county’s most high-profile homicide circumstances, has known as a number of witnesses earlier than the grand jury, in accordance with one of many legislation enforcement sources.
Silverman didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Wednesday. The district legal professional’s workplace mentioned in a press release it couldn’t “disclose any details about grand jury proceedings.” An LAPD spokesman referred The Occasions to a press release issued earlier this week, which didn’t tackle the existence of a grand jury.
An legal professional for the 20-year-old singer, whose actual title is David Anthony Burke, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Detectives have spent months investigating the circumstances surrounding the lady’s dying, in addition to her relationship with Dv4d
The performer’s Tesla had been deserted ona avenue within the Hollywood Hills for a number of weeks earlier than it was eliminated. A tow yard employee seen a foul odor coming from the Tesla and alerted the LAPD.
Contained in the trunk, police discovered a black bag containing Celeste’s stays. She weighed 71 kilos and had a “Shhh” tattoo on her finger, in accordance with particulars launched by the medical expert previous to the courtroom order.
Celeste’s physique was found the day after her fifteenth birthday. LAPD Capt. Scot Williams, who leads the Theft-Murder Division, mentioned the lady had been “lifeless for a minimum of a number of weeks.” On Monday, Williams mentioned the physique had not been decapitated or frozen, as some media retailers have reported.
Detectives decided that the Tesla had been left parked alongside Bluebird Avenue since late July — across the time that D4vd started a nationwide tour. The tour was canceled quickly after the dying investigation drew worldwide media consideration.
D4vd — a younger singer whose music straddles the road between R&B and indie rock — has raised eyebrows with a few of his musical themes, notably within the wake of Celeste’s dying.
The Queens-born vocalist has appeared in a music video full of violent imagery: a younger girl with an obvious chest wound lies on a mattress because the singer hovers over her, blindfolded, his white shirt spattered with blood. In one other video, “One Extra Dance,” D4vd drags an individual — who bears the singer’s likeness — to a automobile, the place a pair stuffs the particular person into the trunk.
“Romantic Murder” — his hottest observe with greater than 1 billion performs on Spotify — ends with the lyrics “At the back of my thoughts / I killed you / And I didn’t even remorse it / I can’t consider I mentioned it / But it surely’s true / I hate you.”
Lengthy earlier than the invention of her physique, Celeste had run away from her Lake Elsinore house. She was within the seventh grade, and her household reported her lacking a minimum of thrice in 2024, in accordance with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Workplace. Throughout that point, she appeared alongside D4vd on-line, and legislation enforcement sources mentioned she resided at a rental house with the singer. The pair met by way of social media, sources beforehand advised The Occasions.
Detectives have been working for weeks to hint Celeste’s last actions and decide any connections with D4vd. As a part of their investigation, detectives searched the Hollywood Hills house the place D4vd lived and eliminated digital gadgets and different gadgets from the residence, which the singer’s supervisor had leased, in accordance with the proprietor.
On Tuesday, the LAPD mentioned it has some proof that D4vd went to Santa Barbara County within the Spring. The rationale for the journey is underneath investigation, but it surely has “drawn no conclusions” in regards to the relevance to the case.
Celeste first disappeared final 12 months on Valentine’s Day. Her mom made emotional pleas on Fb for assist in finding her daughter.
Burke shot to fame posting clips from the online game “Fortnite” to YouTube and different social media, then pivoted to creating his personal music and scored successful with “Romantic Murder.”
Investigators consider that a couple of particular person was concerned the dealing with of the teenager’s physique within the months earlier than her stays have been discovered within the Tesla, in accordance with two legislation enforcement sources acquainted with the probe.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, who serves because the division’s chief of detectives mentioned this week that “accountability is coming.”
“Our RHD detectives have been working … They’ll get justice for Celeste Rivas,” Hamilton mentioned. “Nobody is off the desk, together with him (D4vd).”
Hamilton mentioned, opposite to some reviews, that investigators haven’t sought the performer’s cooperation.
On Monday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s workplace revealed it had been barred from disclosing any particulars about Hernandez’s dying by the courtroom order.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo appeared to query the knowledge of sealing his division’s findings.
“The follow of safety holds is nearly unparalleled in different counties and has not been confirmed to enhance outcomes within the authorized system,” Ukpo mentioned. “We’re devoted to serving our neighborhood with full transparency; nonetheless, the legislation precludes us from doing so whereas the courtroom order stays on this case.”
In his courtroom declaration, Byers wrote that making post-mortem and medical findings public “will reveal or are likely to reveal the continued investigation and the integrity of the investigation in addition to the id of witnesses and/or informants who’re cooperating with legislation enforcement.”
Disclosure, he wrote, “may endanger the lives of witnesses and/or compromise the investigation.”
Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Choose Craig Richman agreed and granted the LAPD’s request that the medical expert’s findings be sealed, pending one other courtroom determination.
