Los Angeles prosecutors indicated in a court filing that they plan to present an overwhelming amount of evidence showing singer-songwriter D4vd is guilty of first-degree murder, sexual abuse and dismemberment in the gruesome killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in 2025.
Prosecutors with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office have been investigating the Inland Empire teenager’s death for months. On April 16, the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Burke, was arrested. The missing girl’s dismembered and decomposing remains were discovered inside a suitcase placed in a Tesla abandoned in an L.A. impound lot. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body.
Beginning May 26, prosecutors will walk through their findings at a public hearing expected to last five days and take on the feel of a condensed trial. Once the hearing concludes, a judge will decide whether the case against the 21-year-old singer will proceed to trial.
Burke found early fame online as a teenager after sharing home-recorded tracks that went viral on TikTok, pointing to a promising future in the music business. But his rising-star status vanished in an instant when Hernandez’s body was found months after her disappearance. The D4vd tour continued for a few dates after the discovery, but was canceled once it was widely reported that he may have had a connection to her death.
The District Attorney’s office said that evidence — including text messages from their phones, the autopsy report and other materials — shows that Burke began sexually abusing Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18. Their relationship continued until her killing on April 25, 2025; Burke’s phone, the filing states, contained child sexual abuse imagery.
Prosecutors said the relationship deteriorated quickly when she expressed jealousy over Burke’s involvement with other girls and threatened to expose them.
“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the filing alleges.
Burke then took what prosecutors described as “horrifying measures” to destroy and discard the victim’s body, purchasing two chainsaws and dismembering her in an inflatable pool weeks later, on May 5, 2025, inside the garage of the Hollywood Hills home where she was killed. DNA evidence was later discovered in the garage, according to the filing. Burke drove to Santa Barbara County to dispose of evidence and returned on April 24, 2025; Hernandez’s passport was found there in January. After returning to Los Angeles, he participated in a radio interview promoting his album Withered, which was about to be released.
Hernandez was missing for nearly 18 months before her body was discovered at Hollywood Tow on Sept. 8. She was identified by her mother after the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner noted a tattoo on her right index finger that read “Shhh…”. Her body was found cut into pieces in two bags in the trunk of a Tesla SUV registered in Burke’s name to a Houston, Texas, address, which was his parents’ home.
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s report on Hernandez was kept under wraps for months at the LAPD’s request, but was unsealed this week by a judge responding to a request from prosecutors. The examination revealed “two penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp-force injuries.” The blade penetrated the girl’s liver and ribs, the report states.
Hernandez’s parents, who lived with her in Lake Elsinore, California, about 70 miles from Los Angeles, spoke publicly for the first time since their daughter disappeared. Hernandez was first reported missing in 2024 and stopped contacting her parents as she spent her time with Burke, traveling with him around the U.S. and to London.
“Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night, and we spent wonderful times together,” Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez said. “We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”
The case grew in profile as it dragged on for months without an arrest after Hernandez’s remains were discovered. Investigators in L.A. also made the unusual move of securing a court-ordered secrecy hold on the medical examiner’s report, which increased interest in the case and raised questions about transparency.
Burke canceled his tour as his name became associated with the case, and he soon became the focus of a sweeping probe by prosecutors, including three investigative grand juries. Three of his family members were subpoenaed in the secret investigation, and in February, his father, mother and brother succeeded in having those subpoenas unsealed via an appeal in Texas.
While Burke’s defense team, who did not return calls placed by The Hollywood Reporter, has not detailed the version of events they say point to his innocence, they have indicated he will be vigorously defended. If convicted, Burke is eligible for the death penalty, though Los Angeles prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the case as a capital one.