In a courtroom on Wednesday, prosecutors said that singer D4vd, legal name David Anthony Burke, killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez by stabbing her multiple times.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office shared what they said the evidence would show in a document filed Wednesday that provided the first detailed allegations of efforts to dismember Rivas’ body and get rid of evidence, according to The Associated Press.
Burke has been charged with murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose decomposed body was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer last year.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges last week, and is being held without bond ahead of his trial.
The court filing, viewed and obtained by The Associated Press, said Burke began a sexual relationship with her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to reveal their inappropriate relationship.
“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out.”
Prosecutors obtained text messages between the two from April 22, 2025, the night before all her phone activity went quiet and they believe she was killed.
“The messages reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together. She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” the document says.
The document says Burke bought two chainsaws online that he used to cut apart her body in an inflatable pool. They said the Rivas’ DNA was found in his garage, where they allege the dismemberment occurred.
“Defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” prosecutors said in the brief.
Burke’s preliminary hearing was rescheduled for May 26 after it had originally been set to begin on May 1.
“The circumstances and present state of discovery led us to conclude we need this additional time to review the discovery we just got or are about to get,” Burke’s defence lawyer said at the hearing Wednesday, Rolling Stone reports.
Burke is due back in court for a status conference on May 12.
The hearing comes after prosecutors claimed that Burke possessed “a significant amount of child pornography” in an iCloud storage account and on his phone last week during a court proceeding to schedule a preliminary hearing.
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Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman made the claim that Burke’s phone and iCloud account contained the child sexual abuse materials, the Los Angeles Times reports. She did not elaborate or provide further details about the materials.
Silverman said the materials were found as part of a series of search warrants that were executed on the 21-year-old singer’s phone and iCloud account.
Burke is exercising his right in California to have a judge decide within 10 court days of his arraignment whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.
“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” lead defence lawyer Blair Berk told a judge last week.
Silverman said in court that the prosecution would be “very happy” to present their evidence, and that “40 terabytes” of it have been collected and can be shared.
Last Thursday’s hearing came a day after Rivas’ autopsy report revealed she died from penetrating wounds to her upper body.
Her death was ruled a homicide in the report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office that had been blocked from release for months.
The autopsy was limited by “extensive postmortem changes” to the body that was dismembered and decomposing when it was found in two bags in the trunk of a Tesla parked in the Hollywood Hills in September.
The examination revealed “two penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp force injuries.” One wound on the upper abdomen penetrated the liver. Another, on the left chest, damaged her ribs. The tube top she was wearing appeared to be cut in three places.
A judge had ordered the report sealed late last year at the request of law enforcement, but prosecutors agreed to allow its release last week.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office previously announced that Burke was charged with first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating a body in the killing of Rivas. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. Authorities say she was 14 when she died.
The murder charges included special circumstances — lying in wait, committing a crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it.
Authorities allege the Houston-born alt-pop singer killed Rivas to protect a career on the rise after she threatened to report their sexual relationship. His debut album, Withered, was released just two days after authorities said she was last known to be alive.
Authorities, who described Rivas on Monday as a “runaway,” said she was 14 when she was killed with a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, a day she was at Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills.
Prosecutors allege Burke mutilated her body about two weeks later.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Rivas was last heard from on April 23, 2025, after she went to Burke’s home and “she was never heard from again.”
“A parent’s nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back,” Hochman said.
“Celeste was just a child, under 14 years old, when David Burke allegedly engaged in repeated lewd and lascivious sexual relations with her,” Hochman continued. “But Burke’s actions did not allegedly stop there. When she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career, Burke allegedly murdered her, cut up her body and stuffed her body in two bags that were placed in the front trunk of his car.
“There the dismembered body sat for over four months, decomposing until it was found at a tow yard on Sept. 8, 2025. This horrific and gruesome murder committed by the charged sexual predator is shocking and appalling. To Celeste’s loved ones, we will get the justice you seek and deserve.”
In a statement released last week, Rivas’ parents called her “a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance.”
“We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste,” her parents said in a statement released by their lawyer, Patrick Steinfeld.
—with files from The Associated Press
