transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:06] This is Crime House.

Speaker 2:
[00:09] Some cases have been dubbed the Trial of the Century, but none of them compare to the Trial of OJ. Simpson. The evidence against him seemed overwhelming, blood, witnesses, and a history of abuse, and yet he walked away a free man. The decision to acquit didn't just end a trial, it divided the country, shattered two families searching for justice, and ignited debates about race, celebrity, and the criminal justice system that still echo today. Today, I'll break down all the courtroom drama, the shocking verdict, and why Nicole Brown Simpson's murder still leaves America grappling with the truth. Every crime tells a story, about the people involved, the system that tried to stop it, and the nation that couldn't look away. Some cases are so shocking, so deeply woven into who we are, that decades later, we're still asking, how did this happen? Hi, I'm Katie Ring, and this is America's Most Infamous Crimes. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I'll take you deep into cases that have a lasting imprint on society, and still haunt us today. I wanna thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review, and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. To get all episodes at once ad free, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the final episode on the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.

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Speaker 2:
[02:38] By the end of the day, on June 17th, 1994, 47-year-old OJ. Simpson was in police custody for the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He was held without bail for the next month until his arraignment hearing on July 22nd. During the hearing, OJ said he was, quote, absolutely, positively, 100 percent not guilty, and he had a whole team of lawyers standing behind him, ready to prove it. Along with Robert Shapiro and Robert Kardashian, OJ was represented by F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, and Johnny Cochran. They were nicknamed the Dream Team because every one of them was an all-star of the legal world. But only one of them could be the lead attorney. At first, it was Robert Shapiro. Shapiro was known as the go-to lawyer for celebrities. But the one problem was that Shapiro's specialty was in civil litigation and settlements. But this was shaping up to be the criminal trial of the century, and the team needed a lawyer with experience in criminal cases. OJ and his team decided that Johnny Cochran, who'd become a defense attorney after working as an LA city prosecutor, would take the lead. Cochran was an exceptionally skilled trial lawyer, a powerful communicator, and was known for his storytelling. On top of that, this trial was on the heels of the Rodney King trial in the LA riots, and there was deep, visible tension between the LAPD and black communities. The jury in O.J.'s case was majority black, and Cochran was also seen as someone who could connect culturally and emotionally in a way other attorneys couldn't. He also had unmatched credibility on race and policing with a history of suing the LAPD for police misconduct. He understood how to frame the case around racism, police bias, and systemic injustice. Cochran was the perfect lawyer to lead the Dream Team, and his shift in their strategy in this case would make all of the difference. Cochran argued that the LAPD had botched its investigation by rushing to the conclusion that OJ was guilty. He sold a story to the jurors that this was not just about evidence. It's about whether you can trust the system presenting it, but he still had an uphill battle ahead of him. On the other side, Marsha Clark and Christopher Darden of the LA District Attorney's Office were leading the prosecution. Like any prosecutor, their job was to prove O.J.'s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and the evidence was overwhelmingly in their favor. If this case was just about what happened in the courtroom, it might have been a no-brainer, but it went so far beyond that. It wasn't just about public opinion, it was a reflection of society itself. It's hard to describe how incredibly famous OJ was at this point in time. He wasn't just a celebrity, he was an icon. An NFL Hall of Famer, a movie star, and a household name. Imagine if all of a sudden The Rock was on trial for murder. The hysteria would be off the charts. That's the situation the prosecution found themselves in. If they were going to win their case, they needed to do more than just show the evidence pointed to OJ. They had to strip away the fame and charisma and convince the jury that one of the world's most beloved celebrities was just a man capable of murder. To do that, they had to change people's perceptions of OJ from the happy face they saw on the movie screens and billboards to a violent abuser. So they dug up everything they could about the domestic violence he'd committed during his marriage to Nicole. And one of their best cards to play was the fact that OJ had pleaded no contest to spousal battery in the past. And even though he got off with just a $700 fine, this was a documented record of abuse. And along with the physical evidence, it gave Marsha and Chris a motive, means, and opportunity. But before the trial even started, things went haywire. One witness had seen OJ driving recklessly on the night of the murders, and the prosecution wanted to call her to the stand. They thought her testimony would add to their theory that OJ had driven to Nicole's house that night and was fleeing in a hurry. They also thought his erratic driving would prove he had a lot on his mind that night, like murdering his ex-wife. But instead of saving her story for the courtroom, the woman sold it to the press. Marsha believed that this compromised her integrity and she was polled as a witness. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only person who capitalized on Ron and Nicole's deaths. In the lead up to the trial, one of Nicole's best friends, Faye Resnick, wrote a scandalous tell-all book about Nicole Brown-Simpson, the private diary of a life interrupted. A lot of it covered Nicole and O.J.'s relationship. Although Faye wrote that OJ was physically abusive, she had plenty of tea to spill about Nicole too. Faye claimed that Nicole used drugs, was obsessed with sex, and even alleged that she and Nicole had been intimate together. Critics called it trash, but to the defense, it was gold. The book became a bestseller and had a huge impact on how the public viewed Nicole. And the defense used that to their advantage. While Nicole's reputation was being torn down, O.J.'s lawyers were trying to build him up. They went on offense in the press with Johnny Cochran framing OJ as a victim. He said the LAPD had targeted OJ because of his race, and that the entire investigation was mishandled. Meanwhile, Marsha Clark and the prosecution tried to stick to the high ground. She was sure her case was rock solid, and didn't think she needed to wade into the media circus in order to win. The facts were on her side, the evidence was on her side, and as far as Marsha was concerned, no jury would acquit OJ after hearing the truth about how he treated Nicole, but she didn't count on what came next, and it would turn the entire trial on its head. Because the murders happened in the upper class Brentwood neighborhood, most people figured the trial would take place in nearby Santa Monica, which, like Brentwood, was a predominantly white affluent community. But in a surprise move, the district attorney decided to hold the trial at the courthouse in downtown LA. Officially, the reasons were logistical. The prosecutors worked downtown and this would cut down their commutes and give them easy access to their offices. But that didn't stop rampant speculation that the real reason for the move was optics, because the DA knew it wouldn't look good if OJ was convicted by an all-white jury, especially in the aftermath of the recent Rodney King riots. If you're not familiar with the Rodney King riots, here's the background. Two years before this case in 1992, four white LAPD officers were acquitted after beating an unarmed black man named Rodney King almost to death on camera. Even though the incident had happened in Los Angeles, the case was tried in the suburb of Simi Valley, about 40 miles northwest of downtown LA, and the jury's demographics reflected that. Following the verdict, the simmering racial tension in southern California had erupted into six days of violence and looting. And now the prosecutors on O.J.'s case wanted to be sure something similar didn't happen again. Moving the case to downtown LA meant the jury pool would be much more diverse, and in turn reduce the possibility of racial bias. But with all of the publicity, it was hard to find anyone who didn't have pre-existing beliefs about O.J.'s guilt or innocence, regardless of his race. The court called 250 potential jurors, and it took a month and a half to whittle down that list to 12 jurors plus 15 alternates. In the end, the initial panel was made up of 8 black jurors, 2 Hispanic jurors, 2 white jurors, and 1 Native American juror. With that, the stage for the Trial of the Century was officially set, and the fireworks were just beginning.

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Speaker 4:
[11:21] Is it uncontrollable rage, overwhelming fear, or is it something deeper? Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is a Crime House Studios original. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 2:
[12:09] Until the OJ trial, there were a handful of cases that had captivated the entire nation. Think Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and the Menendez brothers. But as soon as O.J.'s murder trial kicked off on January 24, 1995, it blew them all out of the water. The prosecution was up first. Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden stuck to their plan and went through the piles of incriminating DNA and forensic evidence piece by piece. They laid out a clear timeline for the night of June 12, 1994, and explained in detail exactly how OJ would have been able to commit the murders. And then they had Nicole's older sister, Denise, testify about O.J.'s domestic abuse. As far as they were concerned, they laid out the means, the motive and the opportunity with zero room for doubt. But the Defense didn't see it that way. Johnny Cochran and the rest of the Dream Team did everything they could to poke holes in the prosecution's argument. And while those holes may have started small, it wasn't long before they turned into giant cracks. First, Dennis Fong, the criminalist for the LAPD, came under fire when he admitted they might have made some procedural errors collecting the DNA evidence. The cross-examination was brutal to watch. The defense heavily criticized his handling of the evidence, pointing out collection errors, potential contamination issues, and breaks in standard procedure. These all fed directly into the defense's argument. The evidence couldn't be trusted. Even if it was a small mistake, if any part of the process couldn't be trusted, it threw the entire result into question. Then, Detective Mark Furman took the stand, and things got even worse. Remember, this was the officer who'd gone to O.J.'s house in the hours after Nicole and Ron were found dead, and it turned out his background was a bit questionable, to say the least. During cross-examination, the defense questioned Furman's past and heavily implied that he was racist. They asked Furman if he had ever used the N-word, and he vehemently denied that he had ever used it under oath. The Dream Team had to move on for the moment, but they had an ace up their sleeve, so they started laying the groundwork to circle back later. The prosecution was surprisingly on the back foot, but they were about to give O.J.'s lawyers their biggest opening of the entire trial. In June of 1995, six months into the trial, Chris Darden decided that the prosecution needed to do something big. They couldn't just rely on the dry facts, they had to make a statement, and that's when he decided to bust out the gloves. As a reminder, a key piece of evidence was a pair of blood-soaked gloves. One glove in the pair had been found at Nicole's condo, the other one was at O.J.'s house, and there was proof that OJ had bought the exact same brand. Darden and Clark were convinced that OJ had worn these gloves when he murdered Nicole and Ron. To hammer the point home, Darden asked OJ to try on the gloves right in front of the jury. But when OJ went to slip them on, the gloves were too small. However, he was wearing latex gloves under the gloves when he tried them on, and the prosecution later said the gloves had been soaked with blood, which made them shrink from their original size. But even if that was true, the image of OJ struggling to fit the gloves over his hands was extremely powerful. Johnny Cochran agreed, and months later during closing arguments, he'd utter the most famous line of the entire trial. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit. Safe to say, things hadn't gone like the prosecution wanted, but they'd done everything they could. And on July 6th, 1995, Marcia Clark and Chris Stardin rested their case. Now, it was the Dream Team's turn to have the floor. And when it came to tearing down the prosecution, his lawyers were just getting started. One of the first witnesses O.J.'s lawyers called back to the stand was Detective Mark Furman. After his testimony for the prosecution, the Dream Team found 13 hours of taped interviews Furman had given to a screenwriter working on a story about female police officers. The defense was only allowed to share two small excerpts with the jury, but those tiny bits of tape were all Johnny Cochran needed. In those clips, Furman used the N-word multiple times. Not only that, but he'd also talked about planning evidence in the past, which was a huge deal. Now, not only did they have evidence that Furman was racist, but from the start of the trial, the defense had pushed the narrative that the LAPD was corrupt, and they weren't above framing OJ for murder. At first, it probably just seemed like a distraction tactic, but with those tapes from Mark Furman now officially on the record, that was suddenly looking a lot more plausible. The defense rested on September 21st, 1995, and after a couple of days of closing arguments, the nine-month trial was officially over. Ron and Nicole's family were in the courtroom for almost the entire trial, and once the jury went to deliberate in early October, the Browns and the Goldman's were ready to wait a few more weeks for the verdict. But the jury came back in just four hours. No one was ready for that. It was such a shock that the judge delayed announcing the verdict until the next day. It only added to the anticipation that had already built up around the country. Wherever you went that night, there was only one question on everyone's minds. Did OJ do it? On October 3rd, 1995, the jury announced their decision. On the charges of murder for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, they found 48-year-old OJ. Simpson not guilty.

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Speaker 2:
[19:34] On October 3, 1995, they announced that 48-year-old OJ. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. When the verdict was read, the Goldman's cried out in agony while Nicole's family burst into tears. After nearly a year and a half of pain and heartache, they weren't any closer to finding justice for their loved ones. Meanwhile, OJ was visibly relieved. He mouthed thank you to the jury and hugged Johnny Cochran. But even though he'd escaped criminal charges, his legal battle wasn't over yet. After the trial, the Browns and the Goldman's filed a civil lawsuit against OJ for battery and wrongful death. So even though he might not see the inside of a jail cell, he could at least be found liable for Nicole and Ron's deaths and pay a financial price for it. The civil trial kicked off about a year later in October of 1996. This time, it took place in Santa Monica, and cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. When it comes to civil trials, the burden of proof is much lower. Instead of having to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the plaintiff has to present what's called a preponderance of evidence, meaning their claim is more likely than not. So basically, more than 50 percent. And four months later, on February 4th, 1997, the jury came to a decision. 49-year-old OJ. Simpson was found liable for battery and wrongful death, and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. It was a big win. But for the families of Nicole and Ron, it was more symbolic than anything else. They wanted some semblance of justice, and hearing a jury find him guilty felt somewhat relieving, despite the fact that it wouldn't result in any jail time. The last few years had taken a huge financial toll on OJ. Most of his corporate deals and endorsements had fallen through after the trial, and he definitely wasn't getting offered movie roles anymore. And according to OJ., he was $850,000 in debt, so he couldn't pay the damages. But there is evidence he moved some money to avoid paying out the families. To protect whatever assets he did have, he left LA and bought a home in Miami in the year 2000. Even if he failed to pay his mortgage, Florida law prevented his property from being seized. He also continued to receive his NFL pension, which was protected under federal law. When OJ left California, the two kids he'd had with Nicole went with him. Nicole's parents had tried to get custody, but in the end, 14-year-old Sydney and 12-year-old Justin asked to live with their dad. Nicole's mom made the painful decision to respect their wishes, and she let them go with OJ. You'd think that after what he'd been through, OJ would want to lay low and fade into the background. But instead of pulling back from the public eye, he leaned in. In 2005, he started working on a book titled, If I Did It, Confessions of the Killer. It was a book about how he would have killed Nicole if he'd actually been the murderer. Hypothetically, of course. After the book was announced, the reaction was about what you'd expect. The Goldman's were especially furious. Not only was it insanely disrespectful to Ron and Nicole's memories, but by then, OJ had only paid a fraction of the millions of dollars he owed. He'd set the book deal up through his daughter's corporation, which meant the Browns and the Goldman's wouldn't get anything from the book's profits. The Goldman's weren't going to stand for that. They filed a lawsuit and the book rights were awarded to them instead. They legally had to keep the same name, but they did make one change. They made the if extremely small and placed it inside of the I. So the title was still technically, If I Did It, but from afar, it looked like I Did It. After the book was published on September 13th, 2007, it reached number two on the New York Times Best Seller list, and OJ didn't see a single penny. The Goldman's donated a portion of the proceeds to the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice, which they established after his death. O.J.'s financial troubles were getting pretty serious, and they were about to get him in legal trouble too. The exact same day his book was published, 60-year-old OJ went to a hotel room in Las Vegas with several men to confront two sports memorabilia dealers because he had been tipped off that they had stolen some of his personal items and were selling them. The group entered the room and took items at gunpoint, although OJ claimed he did not know the guys he was with brought guns. No one was physically harmed, but weapons were involved. The incident was also recorded and sold to the media, and O.J.'s lawyers claimed he was set up. But that didn't matter. OJ got caught the next day and was charged with 12 felonies, including kidnapping and armed robbery. His next trial started a year later, and this one lasted only a month. On October 3rd, 2008, OJ was found guilty on all 12 charges. It was 13 years to the day since he had been acquitted for Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman's murders. OJ was sentenced to a maximum of 33 years behind bars, but he only ended up serving nine of them. On October 1st, 2017, he was released on parole for good behavior. After he got out, he moved to Las Vegas. This time, he stayed pretty quiet. His life seemed to revolve around golf, the few friends he still had and posting on social media. In May of 2023, he tweeted that he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Less than a year later, on April 10th, 2024, OJ passed away at 76 years old. That may have been the end of OJ. Simpson's life, but it wasn't the end of his story or Nicole's. In the years since her murder, Nicole's family hasn't stopped fighting to shed light on the dangers of domestic violence. Her sisters have been especially vocal, advocating for laws like the Violence Against Women Act. Recently, they talked about Nicole in a Hulu docu-series, The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson. Although they can never bring her back, they continue to honor her memory and show people how beautiful their sister was inside and out. At the end of each episode, I like to take a moment to answer any questions you may have about the case and share my thoughts. So make sure to comment below. One of the most surprising parts of this case for me was that I had always heard that the main reason OJ was acquitted was retribution for the Rodney King case. But after actually watching some of the trial, the cops actually absolutely F'd up this investigation. And it honestly almost reminded me a little bit of the Karen Reed case. However, in this case, I think OJ was 100 percent guilty. But I think the cops wanted to seal the deal so badly that they slipped up. Most people point to the glove as the one piece of evidence that was set up. But there were other officers that did see the glove at O.J.'s house before Detective Furman. And they were both photographed at the scene. But what really convinced me that there was some foul play was the blood on the gate and the blood on the socks. As I mentioned before, the cross of Dr. Dennis Fong, who was the criminalist, was absolutely brutal. And they tore apart almost all of the work he did. But one of the things was in the evidence, they had a drop of blood that was on one of the back gates. And that actually, they pulled up on the stand a photo from the day of when all this evidence was collected and photographed. And they had a picture of the gate, and you didn't see the drop of blood originally in a photo from the day after the crime. And on the stand, they asked Dr. Fong whether he saw a drop of blood in that place. And he said no. So people argue that that drop of blood was added later. And what added to that was in that drop of blood, there was a chemical called EDTA, which is an anticoagulant chemical that is found and used in medical blood tubes. So on the stand, they basically claimed that blood was planted on the back gate because they had taken blood from OJ and put it in vials. One of the detectives testified that they brought the vial of blood to the crime scene to give to the criminalist, which is completely breaking protocol.

Speaker 8:
[28:26] That's insane that they brought a blood sample to an active crime scene.

Speaker 2:
[28:30] Yeah. And that is not the only piece of evidence that they said may have had planted blood on it because they also found socks at O.J.'s house that they said had Nicole's blood on them. And in the original photos of those socks, you can't really see the blood, which wouldn't be out of the norm because they are black socks. But when the defense team held up the socks to the jury, it was a very prominent drop of blood. And the defense argued that the drop of blood not only would have been pictured in the photographs, but also it was almost more like a perfect drop of blood instead of what you would expect from a brutal stabbing like splattered blood. And this also had high levels of the EDTA. So that meant that both of these samples of blood had pretty much been in test tubes. And so for me, those were two pieces of evidence that I was like, ooh, there may have very well been some foul play here.

Speaker 8:
[29:43] Clearly this was a very chaotic and unorganized investigation. And as we know, the most important thing investigators should do upon arriving is to preserve the crime scene. It seems like they did the opposite of that.

Speaker 2:
[29:56] Yeah, they pretty much messed up everything. As I said, on cross-examination, the defense attorneys attacked how they handled the evidence, that there were so many opportunities for cross-contamination. One of the things they asked Dr. Fong, if he had handled any of the evidence with his bare hands and he testified, no, under oath. Then they pulled up a video of him picking up one of the envelopes with his bare hands. They also took a blanket from inside the house and put it over Nicole's body, which I understand that because it gives respect to the victim in case someone walked by. But there was also a huge argument that DNA could have been on that blanket from OJ or someone else and transferred to her body when the blanket was put on top of her body. So the way they processed the scene was terrible. There was also a miscommunication with Detective Ferman, who had first looked over the scene, taken a bunch of notes of all these different pieces of evidence. The detectives taking over the case didn't read all of those notes. So multiple pieces of evidence were actually not submitted, including they claimed there was a bloody fingerprint on the back gate. There was a knife box that was sitting on the bathtub. One of the medical cabinets was open and shuffled through. They didn't collect anything from that cabinet that could have had evidence on it. So between all of the mistakes we have at the scene, between not collecting items, between the possible chances of cross-contamination, the interviews that I didn't really touch on, but when they initially interviewed OJ., it was basically softballs that they didn't press him on any of the questions, which was insane, so they missed key information there that would either destroy what he was saying or add credibility to that he might have been at the scene. And then also those sketchy pieces of evidence that I mentioned earlier. But to this day, the detectives deny any tampering with that evidence. Regarding the gloves, a lot of people ask me about that. In the trial, the defense brought up pictures of the gloves, and it did look like the gloves had been moved at the crime scene between photos. So that was a little sketchy, but I don't know if the gloves were planted. They could have been, because I don't trust Furman at all either. But in terms of this being the biggest piece in the trial, when he tried the gloves on, he had latex gloves under, so obviously they wouldn't slide on very easily. They were covered in blood and wet, and so it would also make sense that the leather shrunk. His agent told him if he was worried about the gloves fitting, that he should stop taking his arthritis medication because it would make his hands swell so that the gloves wouldn't fit. So those are some of the biggest things. Then also, I think he was just acting like, oh, can't get them on. So obviously that was a huge mistake that the prosecution made by having him try those on because you're never supposed to ask a question that you don't 100 percent know the answer to in trial.

Speaker 8:
[33:15] It seems like Detective Furman was also just a disaster for this case.

Speaker 2:
[33:19] He was definitely, I think, the thing that sunk this case. The fact that when he was asked on the stand if he had planted evidence that he had to plead the fifth was insane. That alone was mind-blowing for, I don't know if that ever really happened in trial. I can't say that for sure, but that was absolutely mind-blowing. Plus the fact that he is clearly extremely racist and was bragging about beating people of color. I think he was definitely one of the biggest things that absolutely taint this case.

Speaker 8:
[33:52] Is there anything else that convinced you that OJ. Simpson was guilty?

Speaker 2:
[33:57] Absolutely. Before any of the evidence came out, I definitely think he was capable of this because first off his stalking and his behavior after the divorce was a clear pattern of escalating violence. And with an abuser, many time this ends up in murder. That's why people say that leaving is the most dangerous time for victims because 70% of DV victims who are murdered are murdered after they leave. And I think OJ couldn't stand losing her. And when he drove by her house, like he had been doing constantly by testimony from her friends and her family, and he saw her with another man, I think he just lost control and exploded. And I think the sheer violence of the killings was in line with this, and it's believed that she was attacked first, then Ron was attacked. And then the person who did this went back to Nicole after Ron grabbed her hair and slit her throat so violently that they almost decapitated her. That shows that this was very personal to the person who was doing this, and that they were filled with rage, again, in line with O.J.'s previous behavior. When they notified Nicole's family, her sister, the first thing she said is, he finally did it, he killed her. Some other facts that I think are super sketchy is that the Bronco was parked outside of his gate instead of safely inside of the gate. The fact that no one answered the door when the limo driver was first buzzing to get in. But then he saw a man that fit O.J.'s exact description walk into the house, and then he tried buzzing again. And then all of a sudden, OJ answered and said that he had just overslept and got out of the shower. I think also the fact that he had a sketchy duffel bag that he wouldn't let anyone touch. The fact that the witness who said he saw OJ throw something away out of that same sketchy duffel bag into a trash can near the airport is sketchy. The fact that his blood was found next to the bloody shoe prints at the crime scene is sketchy. This blood too, the ones next to his footprints, did not have any EDTA, so I don't think that was planted in the slightest. I think the blood in the bronco was likely that of the two victims. Then more than anything, after the fact, his agent has since come out saying that he was talking to OJ and said, I always thought you did it not because I think you're a killer. And OJ replied, if she hadn't opened the door with a knife, she'd still be alive. And then lastly, it's the most insane thing of all in the 2006 TV interview with Judith Reagan that was titled, If I Did It, Here's How It Happened, where he starts talking about the hypothetical of if he did it, but then starts slipping up in his language in a way that seems like he definitely did it, and almost like he was reliving it in the moment. It's so creepy to watch, and I think that was probably the most convincing thing to me, that the way he was describing that murder was that, yeah, this guy 100% did it. Thank you so much for joining me. Come back next week for another deep dive into a true crime that changed America. If you haven't already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel at America's Most Infamous Crimes. Thank you for supporting the show.

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Speaker 4:
[37:54] A music star whose biggest hit was called Romantic Homicide has just been formally charged with first degree murder eligible for the death penalty. This is Vanessa Richardson, host of Crime House 24-7. 21-year-old singer David Anthony Burke, known as David, faces first degree murder, sexual acts with a minor, and mutilation of human remains in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered body was found stuffed in bags inside his abandoned Tesla. Prosecutors say he committed sexual acts against her when she was under 14, and she was a witness in an investigation against him. When those claims allegedly threatened his music career, authorities say he made her disappear. Hear the rest of that story and never miss another on Crime House 24-7, where we cover breaking true crime news daily. Follow Crime House 24-7 wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a story as it breaks.