Photo: Ted Soqui/Pool/Getty Images
Singer D4vd, real name David Burke, underwent a grueling five-day preliminary hearing in Los Angeles in which prosecutors laid out their case against him. The 21-year-old is being held on charges of murder after 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s decomposing body was found stuffed in the front trunk of his Tesla on September 8, 2025.
The hearing, which concluded Monday, was held in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom to determine whether the Los Angeles district attorney had gathered enough evidence to take Burke to trial for Celeste’s death along with the charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. The criminal complaint against him also includes special-circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait as well as a special allegation that Burke personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a sharp instrument, to commit the crime.
“This has been a parent’s worst nightmare, hearing the ghoulish details of how their child was killed, dismembered, and left as trash,” Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement after the hearing. “D4vd allegedly squandered his fame and fortune by brutally killing a young girl because he feared their illicit sexual relationship would ruin his aspiring career. The only headlines that will accompany his stage name from here forward will be about the vicious murder of a young girl.” If Burke is convicted as charged, he will face either the death penalty or life in state prison without the possibility of parole, according to the DA, who has not yet made a decision on whether to seek the former. Here’s everything we know about the preliminary and upcoming trial so far.
The singer, known for his moody bedroom-pop sound, was charged with Celeste’s murder on April 20 in Los Angeles. The charges of first-degree muder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains came seven months after her decomposing body was found on September 8, 2025, in the front trunk of his Tesla, which had been abandoned and towed to an impound lot.
The car drew suspicion at the tow yard after a worker noticed a strong smell of decay and the presence of flies around the car. The tow-yard employee alerted police, who found Celeste’s severed body placed inside two cadaver bags — one containing her head and torso and the other her dismembered legs and arms — in the front trunk of the car. Following her identification through dental records, and after months of speculation fueled in part byBurke’s cancellation of a tour 11 days after Celeste’s body was found, Burke was arrested on April 16 at his Hollywood Hills home. Four days later, he was officially charged with murder. He has been held in custody without bail since his arrest.
The district attorney alleges that Burke met Celeste when she was only 11 years old and began a sexual relationship with her two years later when he was 18. According to court papers, prosecutors reviewed text messages between them in which they referenced sex and explicit photographs corroborating their sexual relationship.
Senior Deputy Juan Gonzalez was the first witness called to the stand at the preliminary hearing. He said he performed a welfare check at Burke’s house in 2024, a year prior to Celeste’s disappearance, while looking for her after her family reported her missing. During the encounter, Gonzalez said that he did not locate Celeste but that Burke told him he had met Celeste online through Discord and that she’d said she was 18. The DA alleges that despite Burke being told that Celeste was 13 by deputies, he continued to pursue her after she returned to her family. She subsequently spent weekends with him at his Hollywood Hills home and traveled with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas.
The district attorney also presented snippets of the roughly 9,000 text messages in court papers and in court between Burke and then-13-year-old Celeste concerning pregnancy, abortion, and the Plan B emergency contraceptive. “Both of us aren’t able to take care of it,” Celeste wrote to Burke in January 2024 according to a report in People. “I know but still,” he responded.
The DA further alleges in court papers that on the night of April 22, 2025, there were extensive text messages between Burke and Celeste concerning his relationships with other women. She threatened to disclose damaging information about their relationship “to end his career and destroy his life.” Later that night, at 8:40 p.m., the prosecution alleges that Burke sent an Uber to pick Celeste up from her house and that she was dropped off at his house at 10:10 p.m. Twenty minutes later, Burke texted Celeste asking where she was; he sent her two more text messages in the coming days, but she never responded. On April 23, all cellular activity for Celeste ceased, according to court records.
The DA alleges that Burke stabbed Celeste to death after she arrived at the house and that he sent the subsequent text messages to her only as a part of a cover-up. The next day, Burke went on a radio show to talk about his new album, which was set to be released that week. He also ordered a shovel from Home Depot that was delivered to his house via Postmates and later ordered two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, and a blue inflatable pool, all delivered to his house via Amazon, according to court documents filed by the District Attorney.
The DA alleges that Burke placed Celeste’s body in the blow-up pool to prevent blood from spilling out onto his garage floor as he dismembered her body, including severing her left pinky and ring finger because they had a tattoo of his name, according to court documents. The fingers have not been recovered.
Police served a search warrant on his house on September 17, 2025, and said they found multiple linear cuts in the floor consistent with the dismemberment of a body. They also found an inflatable pool in the garage and blood that matched the victim’s. A forensic expert testified at the preliminary hearing that he found blue fragments embedded in Celeste’s remains that, he said, were consistent with the material of the inflatable pool. The DA also presented cell-tower and Tesla Map data indicating that on several occasions, including the night of Celeste’s disappearance, Burke traveled to a remote area in Santa Barbara near where her passport was later found.
Friends and associates began to notice a “strong smell of decay” coming from the car when it was parked outside Burke’s house, according to the DA. The prosecution alleges there is surveillance video of Burke driving his Tesla for the final time on July 29, 2025, shortly before leaving on tour, then parking it around the corner, where it was eventually impounded.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to the crime. His attorneys Blair Berk and Marilyn Bednarski attempted to poke holes in the prosecution’s case. Berk questioned why two chainsaws found in the garage and a third miniature saw discovered inside the house were not collected into evidence after initial chemical swabs tested negative for blood. Bednarski questioned the medical examiner over his failure to define an exact date of death, due to the deteriorating condition of Celeste’s body when found, and noted the issues with toxicology tests on severely decomposed bodies, forcing the medical examiner to admit there was not enough information to support an overdose death, according to Fox 11.
D4vd’s attorneys, Berk, Bednarski, and Regina Peter, shared a joint statement after Burke’s initial arrest: “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.”
Celeste’s parents attended the preliminary hearing. When Celeste’s passport photo was introduced into evidence in court, her mother broke down crying. At times when the testimony became too gruesome, her family left the courtroom.
Olmedo concluded after the five-day preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence for Burke to stand trial for the murder of Celeste. Burke will return to court on August 31 for a post-preliminary hearing arraignment.
“What was presented by our Office over the course of the last week is a small but illustrative fraction of the evidence investigators have accumulated that proves defendant Burke is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the brutal murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement.
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