David Anthony Burke, the 21-year-old singer known as D4vd, appeared in court on Tuesday in an orange jail jumpsuit for the first day of a preliminary hearing in the murder case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl whose remains were found in Burke’s Tesla last year.
Prosecutors allege Burke fatally stabbed Rivas Hernandez in April 2025 after she threatened to expose their alleged sexual relationship, then took steps to conceal her death and dispose of her remains.
On Tuesday, prosecutors showed graphic photos of how Rivas Hernandez’s remains were discovered in the car, as well as 2024 body camera footage of Burke speaking with investigators after her family first filed a missing person report.
Additional details about the killing and the alleged steps taken to cover it up are expected to be revealed by prosecutors over the course of the preliminary hearing.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person under 14 years old and the mutilation of a human body.
His attorneys have denied the allegations, saying “the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”
The preliminary hearing, which has been delayed several times, began on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and is expected to last about four days. A judge will decide whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence for the case to move forward to trial.
Burke is being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Here’s what else to know about the case as Burke appears in court this week.
How the case unfolded
The parents of Rivas Hernandez reported the teen missing from their home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., in early 2024. Investigators found Burke’s number in her phone records and contacted the singer. He said he had spoken with her once and was unaware she was a minor or that she was missing. Later, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department visited him at his Hollywood Hills home and informed him she was a 13-year-old runaway, he said he had met her only once — in November 2023 — and did not know her age.
Rivas Hernandez’s remains were discovered Sept. 8, 2025, one day before her 15th birthday, inside a Tesla registered to Burke. The car had been towed from the Hollywood Hills to an impound lot after seemingly sitting abandoned for weeks.
Authorities were called after someone reported a strong odor coming from the car. Investigators found bags with decomposed human remains inside the vehicle, and forensic testing later identified them as belonging to Rivas Hernandez.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed that her cause of death was “multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s).” The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
What prosecutors allege
A picture of singer D4vd is seen during a press briefing on the case against him in Los Angeles on April 20, 2026.
(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)According to court filings, prosecutors allege Burke used a fake name on Amazon to buy two chainsaws, a body bag, an inflatable pool, heavy-duty laundry bags and a “burn cage” incinerator in an effort to dismember Rivas Hernandez’s body in his garage and conceal evidence.
Investigators said evidence found in Burke’s garage was consistent with the dismemberment of the victim and that blood recovered from the garage matched the DNA of Rivas Hernandez.
Prosecutors also allege that Burke first met Rivas Hernandez in 2022, when she was 11 years old, and began a sexual relationship with her in 2023, when she was 13 years old and he was 18. Text exchanges between the two contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive. “There are also explicit photographs documenting and corroborating their sexual relationship,” prosecutors said in the filing.
According to prosecutors, Rivas Hernandez and Burke spent “a significant amount of time” together, including trips to Las Vegas, London and Texas, where she met his family, the documents say.
In April 2025, the two argued after Rivas Hernandez threatened to reveal their sexual relationship, prosecutors say, which prompted Burke to arrange for an Uber to bring her to his home, where she was killed shortly after arriving. Prosecutors allege he took “horrifying measures” to destroy and dispose of her remains.
Day one of the preliminary hearing
On Tuesday, prosecutors showed body camera footage from February 2024 of Burke speaking with sheriff’s deputies at his home after they began investigating a report that 13-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez had gone missing, according to the Associated Press.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Gonzalez testified that Burke was cooperative and allowed him to search the house, which was owned by Interscope Records and used to house its artists. Gonzalez and his partner found no signs that Rivas Hernandez or any other girl had been there.
Burke told investigators he had only met Rivas Hernandez once in person. He shared her phone number with them and showed them photos from his phone of her yearbook picture and a missing person flier from social media. He also told them he didn’t know she was a minor. “She told me she was 18,” Burke told investigators in the video. “Everybody’s telling me she was 13.”
Prosecutors allege that Burke, who was 18 at the time, had already been in a sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez for several months. They allege that after she threatened to expose their relationship and ruin his career, he killed her and tried to cover it up.
Prosecutors also showed graphic photos of Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered and decomposed remains after they were found inside the Tesla registered to Burke on Sept. 8, 2025. LAPD homicide Det. Joshua Byers testified Tuesday that he found the head and torso in a body bag, with the arms and legs in a garbage bag underneath. He also testified that two fingers were missing from one hand.
Rivas Hernandez’s parents were present in court.
Who is D4vd?
D4vd performs at Gobi Tent during the 2025 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 20, 2025, in Indio, Calif.
(Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)Burke rose to fame on TikTok with his indie, R&B and alt-pop music. He has more than 18 million monthly Spotify listeners and is best known for songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” which have each amassed nearly 2 billion streams. Several of his high-profile collaborations with Laufey, Kali Uchis and Holly Humberstone have been removed from streaming services.
In early September, he performed a sold-out headlining show at The Fillmore in Minneapolis, Minn., the same day police discovered human remains inside a Tesla registered to the singer. After Rivas Hernandez’s remains were found, several brands, like Crocs and Hollister, ended their partnerships with Burke, and his concert tour was canceled.
A new song purportedly by D4vd titled “Marcescence” mysteriously appeared on the singer’s Spotify page on July 16 for about eight hours before the song was removed. The track remains visible but unplayable.
‘Justice for Celeste’
A makeshift memorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez, placed outside her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on April 21, 2026.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)A day after Burke was charged in April, Rivas Hernandez’s family issued a statement thanking investigators for “their hard work” on the case and “the people of Lake Elsinore for all their support.”
“Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night and we spent wonderful times together,” the family’s statement read. “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.”
If convicted, Burke faces a maximum sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The district attorney’s office has not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
