Overview
- Prosecutors, in a Thursday court hearing, said David Anthony Burke’s phone and iCloud held a “significant amount” of child sexual abuse material and noted a trove of roughly 40 terabytes of digital evidence that includes a wiretap.
- An autopsy report unsealed Wednesday found Celeste Rivas Hernandez died by homicide from multiple penetrating torso wounds and documented extensive dismemberment, with officials noting the findings were determined Dec. 9 but kept under a court-ordered seal.
- Burke has pleaded not guilty and is jailed without bail, with an evidence hearing set for April 29 and a preliminary hearing scheduled to begin May 1 as his lawyers press for a speedy public airing of the case.
- Prosecutors have filed special-circumstance theories of lying in wait, financial gain, and killing a witness, which make the case eligible for life without parole or the death penalty, though the district attorney has not decided whether to seek it.
- Because child sex abuse images cannot be freely copied, prosecutors said the defense must review them on a secure computer at the courthouse, a safeguard that helps explain why discovery in this large digital case is taking time.