A judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence to try the D4vd singer for the murder and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez after authorities said he threatened to expose their relationship and destroy her career.
D4vd will be tried for the murder of Celeste Rivas
Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that evidence presented by prosecutors in a preliminary hearing that lasted five days provided probable cause for a trial on murder, continued sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.D4vd, the 21-year-old singer born David Burke, whose career was on the rise before the allegations emerged, has pleaded not guilty.“People have met their burden in every aspect,” Olmedo said. He ordered Burke held without bail.Olmedo stressed that the probable cause standard for a preliminary hearing like this is well below the trial threshold. However, the prosecution said the evidence was overwhelming.“Based on the mountains of evidence presented,” Assistant District Attorney Beth Silverman said, “all allegations have been proven well beyond the required standard.”Burke had no visible reaction to the decision. The defense declined to comment outside court.Prosecutors on Monday closed their case by giving a moment-by-moment account of Rivas Hernandez’s last night, showing that after a stream of text messages with Burke, her phone went permanently silent when he arrived at her home.As she approached her home in Hollywood shortly after 10 a.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “Daddy girl, I’m almost there, open the door if you’re home.”Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed her to death when she walked in the door.The night before, the two argued over text about his relationship with a woman. He sent her an angry and profane message saying that she’s going to tell her father so many lies about him and “I’m going to end your career and your life.”Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department, under questioning by the prosecution, read the texts obtained from the warrants on Burke’s iPhone and iCloud accounts.The defense argues that there is insufficient evidence for the murderAfter Monday’s closing testimony, the defense argued that the evidence was insufficient and the manslaughter charge should be dismissed.“There is no evidence that Mr. Burke had a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez,” said Burke’s attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.He said communications between Burke and Rivas Hernandez showed “no threat, no evidence of a history of violence” and that he had “the opposite of homicidal malice” toward her.He argued that a medical examiner’s ruling that her death was a homicide from two stab wounds was too vague and inconclusive to be evidence of murder. The defense did not directly give an alternative theory as to how he died and is not required to.The defense showed several other texts from Rivas Hernandez threatening him about their relationship, saying he would go to Burke’s mother, talk to her friends and “leak” information about them.Under questioning from defense attorney Blair Berk, Farrell said he saw no indication that she ever threatened to go to the police or take any legal action against him.The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come see him in the days before her death, and he reluctantly agreed only after she asked, and that she had threatened to kill Burke and maim him.The defense argued that all malice had come from her.Silverman told the judge that “the defense tried numerous times throughout this proceeding to smear the victim” despite the fact that she was a girl.The detective also said under questioning from Berk that Burke and Rivas Hernandez’s parents knew about their relationship, that she had attended church with family members and that her parents had given their consent for her to go to London with him for a week.Prosecutors allege that D4vd immediately began covering up the murderAfter her phone went silent, Burke sent her several other messages that night asking where she was and expressing concern. Prosecutors allege those messages were sent as cover after he killed her.Prosecutors allege Burke dismembered the body in his garage. A police analyst earlier testified at the hearing that samples taken from apparent bloodstains matched his DNA.His body was found in a Tesla registered to him nearly five months later.The detective documents the sexual abuseIn earlier testimony, Farrell recounted dozens of sexually explicit photos of Burke and Rivas Hernandez and years of text messages describing the same things, along with conversations that indicated she had an abortion in 2024, 13 years after he got her pregnant.Farrell described the photos that could not be shown in court, material so graphic it left Rivas Hernandez’s mother in tears and caused both parents to leave the courtroom Friday. They returned to court on Monday.D4vd’s career was reaching new heights at the time of the killD4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online music phenomenon as a teenager with a mix of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had a huge following on TikTok, Soundcloud, and Spotify, where his best songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion streams.In 2024, he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after authorities said Rivas Hernandez was killed.