Prosecutors on Tuesday (Jul 21) started outlining in graphic element their homicide case in opposition to the indie pop vocalist often known as D4vd, accused of fatally stabbing and dismembering his 14-year-old girlfriend after she threatened to make their relationship public.
David Burke turned a music sensation on TikTok in 2022, which landed him a recording deal. His first studio album was launched in April 2025, within the week his girlfriend Celeste Rivas Hernandez went lacking.
He was arrested in April 2026 and charged with first-degree homicide, mutilation of human stays and youngster sexual abuse. He has pleaded not responsible to all expenses.
A police detective described the invention of a physique, later recognized by dental information as Celeste, in a automotive at an impound lot in Hollywood in September 2025.
Police have been known as to the power when staff observed a robust odour emanating from the automobile, in response to testimony from Los Angeles Police Division Detective Joshua Byers. The sufferer’s mother and father have been seated within the courtroom as Byers described a ugly scene, recounting a “very distinctive scent” of decay acquainted to murder detectives.
Investigators found Celeste’s torso and head inside a black vinyl cadaver bag stuffed within the entrance trunk of the Tesla registered to David Burke, the musician’s authorized title. Beneath the physique bag was a plastic rubbish bag containing the sufferer’s severed limbs, Byers stated.
The lady’s proper index finger bore a cryptic tattoo that stated “SHH”, Byers stated.
Deputy District Lawyer Beth Silverman walked Byers by his testimony as she displayed macabre pictures from the scene within the hushed courtroom.
The 21-year-old Burke, seated on the protection desk in orange jail garb for the preliminary listening to, watched the display screen, showing to comply with alongside attentively.
MORE WITNESSES TO BE CALLED
The preliminary listening to requires the Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace to display to a choose that ample proof exists to proceed to trial with the case.
District Lawyer Nathan Hochman, chatting with reporters exterior the courthouse, stated prosecutors would name greater than 10 witnesses over three to 5 days and determine later whether or not to hunt the demise penalty.
Burke went viral for songs recorded on his telephone for Fortnite gaming movies in 2022. The hit single Romantic Murder helped him signal a take care of Interscope Information.
He carried out on the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Competition in California final 12 months, lower than two weeks earlier than prosecutors say he dedicated homicide out of worry that his underage girlfriend would upend his budding profession.
“We consider the precise proof will present David Burke didn’t homicide Celeste Rivas Hernandez, nor was he the reason for her demise,” defence lawyer Blair Berk stated throughout her consumer’s Apr 20 arraignment.
Prosecutors filed a courtroom transient the next week outlining their proof and the alleged motive for the lady’s slaying, which the DA’s workplace stated was seemingly Apr 23, 2025, when her mobile exercise ceased.
Prosecutors stated Burke was out to silence the lady as a result of she had grown jealous of him and threatened to smash his burgeoning music profession by going public with damaging details about their relationship.
Burke had secured extremely worthwhile product endorsements on the time, the district lawyer’s workplace stated.
In one of many particular allegations included within the expenses, Burke is accused of committing homicide for monetary achieve. One other alleges he did so as a result of the sufferer was a witness to against the law.
‘HORRIFYING MEASURES’
Investigators recovered textual content message references to intercourse, being pregnant, abortion and Plan B emergency contraception, in addition to sexually specific pictures.
In the future after they’d quarrelled over her threats to reveal him, in response to the courtroom transient, Burke hailed her an Uber trip to his house within the Hollywood Hills, then stabbed her to demise after she arrived. An post-mortem discovered she died of “a number of penetrating accidents”.
Of their transient, prosecutors additionally alleged in graphic element the “horrifying measures” they stated Burke took to dismember and eliminate the lady’s physique.
In keeping with the doc, the performer positioned the sufferer’s physique in a blue inflatable pool “to forestall blood from spilling onto his storage ground,” then eliminated her limbs with a chainsaw “and maybe different instruments.”
The transient stated that Burke had bought the pool, two chainsaws, a shovel, a cadaver bag and different supplies on-line beneath a fictitious title and had them delivered to his house after the killing.
In keeping with their courtroom transient, Burke was the final particular person to drive the automobile on Jul 29, 2025, earlier than he left it deserted close to his house and departed on a live performance tour. Weeks later, the automotive was towed to an impoundment lot the place staff reported the odour of decay and alerted authorities on Sep 8.
A search of Burke’s storage that month discovered proof of dismemberment, together with blood samples and remnants of an inflatable pool with “a number of linear cuts”, in response to prosecutors.
