D4vd charged with first-degree homicide, together with mendacity in wait and monetary achieve
Accused of lewd acts with minor and mutilating Celeste’s stays to guard profession
Celeste’s physique present in D4vd’s impounded automotive months after her disappearance
Los Angeles County District Lawyer Nathan Hochman introduced the fees towards D4vd at a press convention on Monday, April 20.
The music artist, whose actual identify is David Anthony Burke, was charged with homicide and different offenses in reference to the demise of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. This comes almost 8 months after the lacking teenage woman was discovered useless within the trunk of the singer’s impounded automotive.
At a press convention on Monday, April 20, Los Angeles County District Lawyer Nathan Hochman introduced the fees towards the 21-year-old music artist, whose actual identify is David Anthony Burke.
In response to studies from Individuals, Burke was charged with first-degree homicide with the particular circumstances of mendacity in wait, committing the crime for monetary achieve, and murdering a witness to an investigation. Hochman added that Burke has additionally been accused by prosecutors of lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person beneath 14 years of age and mutilating human stays.
Because of the particular circumstances, these costs carry a most sentence of life with out the potential of parole or the demise penalty. Hochman’s workplace had not determined whether or not they can be pursuing the demise penalty.
“I’m a guardian of three youngsters, and a guardian’s nightmare is a state of affairs the place your daughter goes out one evening and by no means comes again,” Hochman mentioned throughout the press convention. “Celeste, a 14-year-old at the moment, went to Mr. Burke’s home within the Hollywood Hills. She was by no means heard from once more.”
The LA County District Lawyer alleged that D4vd killed Celeste on April 23, 2025, and later dismembered her “to keep up his very profitable musical profession that Celeste was threatening on that individual evening,” per Individuals. Hochman additionally claimed that the woman was a “witness” to a separate investigation into the “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” allegedly dedicated by the artist when she was beneath the age of 14.
After months of on-line hypothesis, that is the primary time authorities have alleged there was a connection between the 2 incidents.
Burke was arrested earlier this month within the Hollywood Hills and is at present being held with out bail. He was on a North American tour on the time of the invention and subsequently canceled the remaining dates, and has been the main focus of a grand jury investigation since November 2025, two months after Rivas’ physique was discovered.
D4vd’s attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, beforehand denied his involvement in a press release, saying:
“Allow us to be clear – the precise proof on this case will present that David Burke didn’t homicide Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the reason for her demise.”
Rivas was discovered useless within the trunk of an impounded Tesla on Sept. 8, 2025, the day after her fifteenth birthday. In response to a petition filed by the Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace, Rivas had been dismembered, together with her head and torso separated from her legs and arms. Since police had been granted a request to seal her post-mortem findings amid the investigation, her reason for demise has not been made public.
In a information launch following the press convention, Hochman alleged that Burke “personally used a lethal and harmful weapon, a pointy instrument, to commit the crime,” including that the woman’s “dismembered physique sat for over 4 months” in his trunk.
“The substantial period of time that handed between her demise and the invention meant that essential proof had degraded or disappeared, and as detectives labored to uncover the reality, in addition they needed to sift by way of and debunk a substantial amount of false data circulating publicly,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell mentioned on the press convention.
Burke’s arraignment is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
