On Tuesday, July 21, the Los Angeles prosecutor's office presented at a preliminary hearing photographs of the dismembered corpse of minor Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the alleged lover of pop singer D4vd (real name – David Burke), reports Los Angeles Times (LAT). The artist is preparing to be tried on previously filed charges of molestation of a 14-year-old girl, aggravated murder and dismemberment of her body.
Burke was arrested in April following an investigation dating back to September last year, when police discovered dismembered remains in an abandoned Tesla car in Hollywood. The car was registered to the musician, who at that moment was on tour in the United States.
According to investigators, the singer, who became famous for the hit Romantic Homicide, met a girl on the Internet when she was 11 years old, and in 2023 began to enter into an intimate relationship with her. Burke invited Hernandez to his home for the last time on April 23, 2025, and killed her after she threatened to go public with their relationship, prosecutors believe.
The prosecution notes that the 21-year-old musician some time later dismembered the victim's body in an inflatable pool specially purchased online so that the blood would not get on his property. The singer, according to prosecutors, cut off two fingers from the dead girl in order to destroy evidence in the form of a paired tattoo linking them. Authorities say Burke was attempting to remove “Shhh…” from Rivas' finger, which also appears on one of his knuckles. He then dismembered her body into several parts and left it in the car, which was later taken to the impound lot.
Detective Josh Byers of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division commented on photographs of Hernandez's remains at a hearing on Tuesday. When the bag was opened, he saw “various body parts, arms, legs that had been chopped off.” Separately, a police officer said the victim's legs were “sawed at the kneecap and cut into four pieces.”
When Burke was arrested, Byers noted that he had a tattoo similar to the one on Hernandez's finger that was eventually discovered. According to images prosecutor Beth Silverman showed in court, D4vd also had the name Celeste tattooed in red ink on his finger.
Separately, Silverman mentioned that pieces of plastic from the pool were found in Rivas' remains when police finally found her body months later. Photos of the girl's severed knee showed blue plastic flecks.
Preliminary hearings in the D4vd case, at which the prosecution will present key evidence to the judge, are expected to last at least five days, after which a decision will be made on the possible start of the trial on the merits and jury selection.
Prosecutors also showed body camera video from February 2024 showing Burke answering questions from sheriff's deputies. They were investigating the disappearance of then 13-year-old Rivas from her home. Burke told them he met the girl once and did not know she was underage.
According to the prosecution, D4vd had already been in a sexual relationship with Rivas for several months. At that time he was 18 years old. Burke said he met her in 2020 or 2021 on Discord and Instagram, where she “was a fan of him.” The girl traveled with the artist around the United States and Europe, and also knew his parents, the prosecutor’s office claims, specifying that the minor ran away from home several times to meet with the musician.
D4vd's legal team has a filed request in a Los Angeles court asking that he be allowed to appear at his upcoming preliminary hearing without handcuffs or other restraints.
According to the motion, the defense argues there is no reason to keep him restrained because he has never… pic.twitter.com/7TvqaEnUNM
— Viralworm (@Viralworm9) July 21, 2026
If convicted of all charges, Burke faces life in a California prison without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is also possible, although Los Angeles County District Attorney Hochman has not said whether prosecutors intend to seek it, LAT writes. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom several years ago introduced a moratorium on the death penalty in the state, the publication adds.
One of the artist’s financial managers, Benjamin Gregor, said under oath that from 2023 to 2025 he earned from $10 to $11.5 million. D4vd wrote music that is a mixture of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop music, the Associated Press (AP) clarifies.
Thanks to this music, he became popular on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his main songs, including the 2022 breakthrough Romantic Homicide, have received more than a billion streams, the news agency emphasizes.
