By ANDREW DALTON
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alt-pop performer D4vd will face murder charges Aug. 31 in connection with the killing and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who authorities said had threatened to expose their relationship and destroy the indie-pop singer’s rising career just days before his debut album dropped.
After a five-day preliminary hearing, Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that there was enough evidence to put D4vd on trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
The dark and disturbing details presented over five days brought tears, gasps and horror to the courtroom. The evidence included grisly autopsy photos, explicit descriptions and depictions of sexual abuse and a stark picture of the final texts she sent minutes before she died and her phone went permanently silent.
The ruling was a major step in the 10-month investigation and prosecution of D4vd that began when the dismembered and decomposing body of a girl was found in the trunk of his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while he was on tour.
D4vd, the 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke, showed no emotion when the judge issued her ruling, watching calmly and intently in his orange jail clothes and glasses as he had throughout the proceedings.
He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued that the murder evidence was insufficient but did not argue against the other two charges. They declined to comment outside court.
Prosecutors argued that the evidence was overwhelming.
“Based on the mountains of evidence presented,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said, “all of the allegations have been proved way beyond the standard required.”
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that prosecutors presented only a “small fraction” of the evidence they have. They are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty, but Burke is eligible for it after Olmedo also found probable cause for lying in wait, killing for financial gain and killing a potential witness — special circumstances in a crime that allow for a death sentence.
Olmedo ordered that Burke continue to be held without bail until his arraignment.
Before the decision, prosecutors gave a moment-by-moment account of Rivas Hernandez’s last night.
As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10 p.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”
Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed her to death as she came through the door.
The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profanity-riddled text saying she will tell her dad so many lies about him and that she would “end ur career and ur life.” She had sent several similar messages around the same time.
Prosecutors said that Burke met Hernandez when she was 11, began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. A year before her death, the pair also exchanged messages about how she had become pregnant — she assured him the baby was his — and that she had an abortion.
Burke’s attorney, Marilyn Bednarski, argued that the evidence didn’t show the kind of malice that was required for a murder charge. “There’s no evidence that Mr. Burke harbored a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez,” she said.
The defense also established that Hernandez had asked Burke seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he reluctantly agreed only after she demanded it, and that she had threatened to kill Burke and to mutilate him.
D4vd, (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.
In 2024 he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.
Andrew Dalton writes for the Associated Press.
