A Los Angeles County grand jury is listening to proof associated to the dying of a teenage woman whose physique was found stuffed contained in the trunk of singer D4vd’s Tesla earlier this yr, two legislation enforcement sources informed 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 woman’s dying as a murder, a latest courtroom submitting by an LAPD detective referred to the case as a homicide investigation.
Now, the Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace has begun presenting proof to what’s generally known as an investigative grand jury, in line with one of many sources, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate the case with the media.
One of many sources stated 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 might convene an investigative grand jury to subpoena witnesses and compel different proof, together with movies. Such investigative panels might advocate expenses, however can not 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 choose to bar the L.A. County Medical Examiner from divulging post-mortem outcomes and different particulars associated to the woman’s dying that might in any other case be public.
It was Byers who characterised the probe into the woman’s dying as “an investigation into homicide,” in line with the doc.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman, who handles a few of the county’s most high-profile homicide instances, has known as a number of witnesses earlier than the grand jury, in line with one of many legislation enforcement sources.
Silverman didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Wednesday. The district lawyer’s workplace stated in an announcement it couldn’t “disclose any details about grand jury proceedings.” An LAPD spokesman referred The Occasions to an announcement issued earlier this week, which didn’t handle the existence of a grand jury.
An lawyer 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 woman’s dying, in addition to her relationship with D4vd.
The performer’s Tesla had been deserted on a road within the Hollywood Hills for a number of weeks earlier than it was eliminated. A tow yard employee observed 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 line 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, stated the woman had been “useless for a minimum of a number of weeks.” On Monday, Williams stated 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 monitor with greater than 1 billion performs on Spotify — ends with the lyrics “Behind my thoughts / I killed you / And I didn’t even remorse it / I can’t imagine I stated it / Nevertheless it’s true / I hate you.”
Celeste had beforehand run away from her Lake Elsinore residence. She was within the seventh grade, and her household reported her lacking a minimum of 3 times in 2024, in line with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Workplace. Throughout that point, she appeared alongside D4vd on-line, and legislation enforcement sources stated she resided at a rental residence with the singer. The pair met by way of social media, sources beforehand informed The Occasions.
Celeste first disappeared final yr on Valentine’s Day. Her mom made emotional pleas on Fb for assist in finding her daughter.
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 residence the place D4vd lived and eliminated digital units and different objects from the residence, which the singer’s supervisor had leased, in line with the proprietor.
On Tuesday, the LAPD stated it had some proof that D4vd went to Santa Barbara County within the spring. The explanation for the journey is below investigation, but it surely has “drawn no conclusions” in regards to the relevance to the case.
D4vd 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 a success with “Romantic Murder.”
Investigators imagine 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 line with two legislation enforcement sources acquainted with the inquiry.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, who serves because the division’s chief of detectives, stated this week that “accountability is coming.”
“Our RHD detectives have been working … They will get justice for Celeste Rivas,” Hamilton stated. “Nobody is off the desk, together with him,” referring to D4vd.
Hamilton stated, opposite to some stories, 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 Celeste’s dying by the courtroom order.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo appeared to query the knowledge of sealing his division’s findings.
“The apply of safety holds is just about extraordinary in different counties and has not been confirmed to enhance outcomes within the authorized system,” Ukpo stated. “We’re devoted to serving our neighborhood with full transparency; nevertheless, 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 identification 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 Court docket Choose Craig Richman agreed and granted the LAPD’s request that the medical expert’s findings be sealed, pending one other courtroom resolution.
