Text messages between the D4vd singer and Celeste Rivas Hernandez shown in court Friday indicated she had become pregnant and had an abortion more than a year before she was killed.In the exchange in early January 2024, D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, apologizes for “putting her through this.”
Text messages reveal Celeste Rivas Hernandez was pregnant
“It’s okay,” she said in a text message, “neither of us are able to watch and take care of the baby. It’s better right?”He apologizes again before asking if it’s his, to which she replies “of course it’s yours.”The testimony came during a preliminary hearing where a judge will decide whether Burke should stand trial for her murder.
Graphic photographs shown in court
Prosecutors spent part of Friday afternoon detailing the nature of the relationship between Burke and Rivas Hernandez, showing graphic and sexual photos of the two of them.The images were recovered from his iPhone which was seized during a search of his home. Text message conversations taken from her iCloud account often discussed birth control and pregnancy, and in early January 2024, they discussed abortion.
Prosecutors claim D4vd is a “sexually abused” underage victim.
Prosecutors are trying to prove that Burke began sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal his long sexual history and ruin his career. They allege he dismembered the body in his garage, and a police analyst testified at a preliminary hearing that samples taken from apparent bloodstains matched Rivas Hernandez’s DNA.
Doctors reveal details about the murder
The doctor who performed the autopsy on 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez gave the difficult details of her death Friday at a hearing to determine whether the D4vd singer should face trial in her death.Much of what Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Department said on the stand was already known: She had been killed by two blunt force injuries to the upper body, and her dismembered and decomposing body was found in the trunk of a Tesla.But the details he shared about what the autopsy showed — and, tellingly, what he couldn’t determine because of how degraded her body was when it was found — made Friday’s proceedings perhaps his most difficult yet. Photos shown of the autopsy led to awkward shifts in seats and murmurs in the courtroom.The defense used the uncertainties to suggest there could be other causes of death, including an overdose or self-inflicted injuries.Autopsy findings were hard to come byHe testified that he could not say when death occurred, one of the many challenges brought about by the degradation of the body.“It’s extremely difficult to say,” Ho said.He said she had been dead for “at least weeks,” then added that it could also have been months. Authorities believe she was killed in April 2025; his body was discovered last September.
Murder case of Celeste Rivas
Rivas Hernandez’s body was discovered in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September, nearly five months after authorities said Rivas Hernandez had been killed.Rivas Hernández was found the day after she would have turned 15.“He didn’t make it to his 15th birthday, did he?” Silverman asked. “Right,” Ho replied.Ho said there were many “skin defects” that could have been postmortem, but the two he identified as possible stab wounds had related internal trauma. A wound to his abdomen penetrated his liver. Another, in the left chest, hurt his ribs.He put it: “It would take at least minutes” for someone to lose enough blood to die from their injuries. Prosecutors said in a court filing that Burke “was hanging around while he was bleeding.” When pressed, he said it might have taken an hour, but he wouldn’t commit to that.
Defense seizes on inconclusive drug test
He testified that toxicology tests, done only on the liver because no blood was available, showed a low level of alcohol that could have been caused postmortem by bacteria. He said tests initially came back positive for benzodiazepines (medications typically used for anxiety) and methamphetamine. He said further tests came back negative for benzodiazepine. Methamphetamine was inconclusive, and as a result, Ho said, “I can’t say it played any role in the death.“Burke’s attorney, Marilyn Bednarski, asked if the decomposition could affect the accuracy of drug test results, and Ho agreed that it could.“There’s not enough information in the toxicology report to support an overdose death, is there?” Bednarski asked. He said he was right.Bednarski asked if it helps in an autopsy examination to talk to the deceased’s friends and family about their life: if they had a mental health problem, if they were suicidal, if they were frequent drug users or if they were violent.He answered “potentially” to each of them, but said there were no such conversations in this case.Ho said he could not tell if there had been a struggle before the death, or where the wounds came from.“You can’t rule out that he was holding an instrument that caused any of these injuries?” Bednarski asked.Ho said that self-inflicted injuries usually include surrounding superficial “hesitation marks”, and that none were found, but otherwise he couldn’t tell.
D4vd to go to trial for murder?
Burke could be tried for murder, mutilation and sexual abuseProsecutors are trying to prove that Burke began sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal his long sexual history and ruin his career. They allege he dismembered the body in his garage, and a police analyst testified at a preliminary hearing that samples taken from apparent bloodstains matched Rivas Hernandez’s DNA.
D4vd pleads ‘not guilty’
The preliminary hearing began Tuesday and will be used by a judge to decide whether the case should go to trial.Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body, and his lawyers have said he is innocent.