Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
City News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Singer D4vd, who is charged with killing a 14-year- old girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard, took “horrifying” steps to destroy the teen’s corpse, prosecutors wrote in a graphic court brief filed Wednesday, with the defendant using a “chain saw and perhaps other tools” to remove her limbs.
Attorneys for D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, implored Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo to seal the prosecution’s court document to prevent its public release, but Olmedo refused the request.
Olmedo scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for May 26, while a status hearing was set for May 12. The preliminary hearing had tentatively been scheduled to begin Friday but was postponed at the request of the defense, over the objection of Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman.
The 21-year-old is charged with capital murder in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were found Sept. 8, 2025, in the front trunk of the Tesla registered to the singer. The body was decomposed and dismembered, with the head and torso in one bag and her severed limbs in another, authorities said.
D4vd — pronounced “David” — was charged April 20 with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and mutilation of human remains.
Through his attorneys, D4vd has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors said they believe Celeste was killed by D4vd in a Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025.
In the newly filed court document, prosecutors alleged that Burke “purchased tools to carry out his plot to dismember and dispose of the victim’s body,” including ordering a shovel, two chain saws, a body bag, heavy- duty laundry bags and a blue inflatable pool to be delivered to his home under a fake name.
Los Angeles police detectives served a search warrant last Sept. 16 at his home and found “evidence consistent with the dismemberment of the victim’s body in the inflatable pool, which contained multiple linear cuts,” according to the filing.
The filing alleges that several biological samples, which tested positive for blood, were collected within the garage area. DNA analysis determined that various samples matched the victim’s unique genetic profile.
Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office released the long-sealed autopsy report on Celeste’s death. The examination concluded that the teen died of “multiple penetrating injuries” with an object or objects.
The autopsy was performed on Sept. 10, 2025, two days after the girl’s body was found. The manner and cause of death were determined Dec. 9, 2025, but the results had been ordered sealed by a judge while police and the District Attorney’s Office built their case.
Celeste’s body was found just days after what would have been her 15th birthday.
The murder charge against D4vd includes the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain and killing a witness in a criminal investigation. The District Attorney’s Office is expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Burke.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said the lying in wait allegation stems from D4vd’s invitation to Celeste to come to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, after which she was never seen again, while the financial gain allegation stems from the singer’s effort to maintain his lucrative music career, which was being threatened by his alleged sexual relationship with the underage girl, Hochman said. Celeste was considered the key witness in that investigation, leading to the allegation of murdering a witness, he said.
According to the prosecution’s brief, Burke and the girl met in January 2022 when she was 11 years old and they began a “sexual relationship” in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18, and that “text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.”
The prosecution alleges in the filing that the girl likely died April 23, 2025, and that the two had “engaged in a lengthy argument described in detail in their text messages” the night before that “reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together.”
The teen “became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with the defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” according to the filing, which noted that his first studio album was set to be released a few days later.
Burke allegedly sent an Uber to bring the girl from her Lake Elsinore home to his residence and then sent text messages to her inquiring where she was after the Uber dropped her off, the prosecution alleges.
The prosecution contends in the brief that it was “part of defendant’s premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time.”
D4vd was arrested April 16 by Los Angeles Police Department officers. His attorneys issued a statement at the time denying the singer killed Celeste.
“Let us be clear, the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, and he was not the cause of her death,” defense attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter said. “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
Celeste had been reported missing by her mother in 2024, when the girl was just 13. Her mother previously told reporters her daughter had a boyfriend named David. D4vd has a tattoo on one of his fingers matching the one reading “Shhh” that the medical examiner revealed previously was on Rivas’ index finger.
The victim’s dismembered body was found in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla Model X on Sept. 8, 2025, which had been towed three days earlier while parked about 400 feet from Burke’s home in the Hollywood Hills, according to the prosecution’s court filing.
“Surveillance video and other evidence confirm defendant was the last person to drive the vehicle on July 29, 2025, before he left Los Angeles on a concert tour,” according to the document.
Defense attorneys asked that prosecutors turn over as much “basic discovery” as they can as quickly as possible.
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