D4vd accused of killing Celeste Rivas, a 14-year-old lady, to cowl up their unlawful sexual relationship
Prosecutors current digital proof of the pair’s troubling relationship, together with an abortion and threats from Rivas
D4vd faces prices together with first-degree homicide, little one sexual abuse, and mutilation of stays
D4vd goes to trial.
A Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom choose dominated that prosecutors offered sufficient proof throughout a five-day preliminary listening to to order the 21-year-old singer-songwriter, born David Anthony Burke, to face trial on prices stemming from the 2025 killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Through the multi-day listening to, forensic specialists, criminalists and prosecutors outlined what they allege was a calculated killing and tried cover-up, presenting bodily and digital proof surrounding the teenager’s demise.
In keeping with the Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace, prosecutors referred to as 12 witnesses who testified about proof they are saying hyperlinks Burke to the alleged homicide. District Lawyer Nathan J. Hochman stated the listening to represented “a small however illustrative fraction” of the proof investigators have amassed.
“D4vd allegedly squandered his fame and fortune by brutally killing a younger lady as a result of he feared their illicit sexual relationship would wreck his aspiring profession,” Hochman stated in an announcement. “The one headlines that can accompany his stage identify from right here ahead shall be in regards to the vicious homicide of a younger lady.”
Burke has pleaded not responsible.
Prosecutors Current The Timeline Of Alleged Occasions
Investigators allege that D4d killed Celested Rivas inside his Hollywood Hills residence in April 2025. As beforehand reported, Burke arrange a blue inflatable pool in his storage to comprise the blood splatter earlier than utilizing online-purchased chainsaws to dismember her physique. LAPD criminalists testified to discovering hint DNA in keeping with Rivas on a rowing machine, charging cables, and bloodstains beneath brick mats within the storage.
{The teenager}’s stays had been finally double-bagged inside two heavy-duty cadaver luggage and saved within the entrance trunk of Burke’s Tesla, the place they sat decomposing for over 4 months till the impounded car was towed to a Hollywood lot in September 2025. The automotive was discovered with 11 particular person air fresheners stuffed all through the posh car in a determined bid to masks the overwhelming odor of decay.
Past the bodily crime scene proof, prosecutors reconstructed a deeply troubling digital paper path detailing the unlawful, predatory nature of the pair’s relationship. Textual content messages recovered from Burke’s iPhone confirmed that the 2 first linked in January 2022 when Rivas was simply 11 years previous. By late 2023, when Rivas was 13 and Burke was 18, the connection turned sexual, finally resulting in a being pregnant and subsequent abortion in early 2024.
In emotional textual content exchanges from August 2024, Rivas expressed deep regret over the abortion, writing to Burke, “i care abt u i killed my child [for] you… id do something to have it again.” Nonetheless, by Spring 2025, that they had made a flip for the more serious. Textual content messages offered throughout D4vd’s case confirmed intense arguments fueled by jealousy, boundary points, and Rivas’ want to finish their in-person relationship. On April 22, 2025, the night time earlier than her homicide, Rivas threatened to publicly expose their unlawful relationship and reveal intimate particulars that might wreck his exploding music profession.
Fearing the speedy destruction of his public picture and multi-million greenback recording contracts, prosecutors argue Burke organized an Uber to move the 14-year-old to his residence the next night to completely silence her.
Burke at the moment faces a number of prices, together with first-degree homicide with particular circumstances, steady little one sexual abuse, and illegal mutilation of human stays. As a result of particular circumstance allegations of mendacity in wait and killing a witness, the 21-year-old faces a possible most sentence of life in jail with out parole or the demise penalty if convicted.
Burke’s protection staff, led by lawyer Marilyn Bednarski has tried to poke holes within the timeline, arguing that the superior decomposition makes establishing a exact time or technique of demise scientifically not possible.
