D4vd, the platinum-selling singer accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, sat quietly in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday as a police criminalist testified that his DNA was among the genetic material found on a trash bag that could
become significant evidence in the case.
The bag, which prosecutors say contained blood evidence linked to Rivas, was recovered from the garage of the singer’s Hollywood Hills rental during a Sept. 17, 2025, search. The search came shortly after Rivas’s dismembered and badly decomposed remains were found in the front trunk of the musician’s towed Tesla. Prosecutors claim the artist, born David Anthony Burke, stabbed Rivas to death in the house on April 23, 2025, and dismembered her body in the garage, probably weeks later.
Samantha Tosch, a criminalist with the Los Angeles Police Department, testified that a swab taken from the outer bag during the search of the house contained a mixture of DNA from four people. At least two contributors were male, she said, and Burke’s DNA was “included in that mixture profile.”
She said a sample from one of the wipes found inside the bag contained DNA that was three trillion times more likely to have come from Rivas than from an unknown person. Burke’s DNA was not detected on the wipe, she said.
Another criminalist testified earlier in the hearing that several Clorox-type wipes covered in brown stains were found in an inner trash bag placed inside the outer bag. After she applied a chemical solution that turns bright pink in the presence of blood, the wipes yielded a presumptive positive result, prompting the DNA testing.
On the witness stand Thursday, Tosch testified that other suspected blood evidence collected from various areas around the garage also matched Rivas’ DNA profile. She said samples taken from a seemingly blood-stained rowing machine were a match, along with samples taken from a black rubber mat on the floor, a Tesla charger, and a green tarp. She said Rivas’s DNA was also detected in a compartment in the rear trunk of Burke’s Tesla, separate from the front trunk where her remains were found.
Under cross-examination by Burke’s defense lawyer, Blair Berk, Tosch acknowledged that DNA can be transferred to an object without a person touching it directly. Berk also questioned her about the software used by the Los Angeles Police Department, suggesting that it calculated only the likelihood that Burke’s DNA was present in the mixture.
“It’s not saying David Burke’s DNA was definitively found in the mixture,” Berk said.
Tosch agreed that was “fair,” but she said it remained her professional opinion that Burke’s DNA was present on the outer trash bag.
Prosecutors allege Burke summoned Rivas to his Hollywood Hills home in an Uber on April 23, 2025, stabbed her in the abdomen and then left on a promotional tour. They say he later returned to Los Angeles, dismembered her body, and concealed it in his Tesla.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His defense lawyers say the evidence will show the singer did not kill Rivas or cause her death. The defense has questioned why investigators did not conduct more extensive DNA testing on the Tesla’s exterior and certain items recovered from Burke’s home.
Lisa LaHendro, a criminalist with the LAPD’s trace analysis unit, testified Thursday that she used a high-powered microscope to examine the fragments of blue material collected from Rivas’ remains found in the Tesla and matched them to the inflatable pool found in Burke’s garage.
“You can see the edges align on both sides,” she said, referencing a photo of one fragment recovered by the Medical Examiner that was placed next to a hole in the pool, like a puzzle piece. “They were both once one object at one time.”
LaHendro said investigators also recovered a fragment of black fabric from a trash bag in Burke’s garage that she compared against the black leggings found on Rivas’ dismembered remains. She couldn’t make a definitive match. The leggings were still wet, heavily soiled and badly deteriorated, LaHendro testified, making the edge detail too unreliable for comparison.
The day began with Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Lauren Wallace returning to the stand to further describe the suspected blood evidence found at Burke’s house. Under cross-examination, Wallace said investigators did not swab or collect two chainsaws found in Burke’s garage because both tested negative for possible traces of blood.
“The chainsaws did not appear to be used,” she said, so investigators decided “not to collect them.”
Prosecutors had mentioned the two chainsaws in a prior court filing, saying Burke ordered them on Amazon shortly after the alleged murder. An LAPD detective revealed for the first time Tuesday that investigators believe Burke also purchased a third chainsaw — a 10-inch Makita — from Home Depot on May 4, 2025, and had it delivered to his home through Uber Postmates. He said the Makita chainsaw was never recovered.
A third electric saw, found upstairs, also tested negative and was left behind, Wallace said Thursday. Defending her work under cross-examination, she said investigators did not swab or collect items they considered “not forensically valuable,” in part because Burke lived in the house and his DNA could be expected there.
Wallace began her testimony Wednesday, describing how she processed evidence at Burke’s rental home during a Sept. 17, 2025, search. She said Bluestar, a luminol-like chemical used to detect possible blood, produced strong reactions on the black rubber mats covering the garage floor and on the bricks beneath them. Presumptive blood tests also yielded positive results on a rowing machine, a crumpled green tarp, and stained wipes found in the trash bag that contained the fragment of black fabric.
Wallace also processed the inflatable pool that prosecutors say Burke used while dismembering Rivas. The pool had a “fresh, almost laundry-like scent” and a dryer sheet stuck to it, she said. No blood was visible, but one area glowed after being sprayed with Bluestar.
Los Angeles Police Department Detective William Roecker also testified Thursday, describing his review of cell-tower data linked to Burke’s phone and location data from his Tesla. He said the records showed that the phone and car traveled together from Burke’s Hollywood Hills home to a remote part of Santa Barbara County on three occasions, including the night of the alleged murder.
On April 23, 2025, Roecker said, Burke’s phone and Tesla left the house around 11:31 p.m. and traveled to a “pretty desolate” area off Highway 154, near where a transit worker later found Rivas’ U.S. passport card on Jan 7, 2026. (Prosecutors allege Burke traveled to the area after killing Rivas to dispose of evidence.)
Burke’s phone called Rivas’ number around 12:04 a.m. on April 24, Roecker said, though the call appeared to go unanswered. The phone and Tesla returned to Burke’s house around 7 a.m.
Roecker said the phone and car returned to the same area on the night of May 8 and again on the afternoon of May 31. He also testified that Burke used a charging station near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County.
Earlier in the multi-day hearing, yet another criminalist testified that investigators found at least 11 air fresheners inside Burke’s Tesla, including one beneath a mass of fly larvae near where Rivas’ remains had been concealed.
The hearing opened Tuesday with graphic photographs of Rivas’ remains, which were found divided between two black plastic bags in the front trunk of the Tesla Model X. Prosecutors said flecks of blue plastic on her knee came from the inflatable pool. Rivas’ mother bowed her head and cried as the images were displayed.
LAPD Det. Joshua Byers testified Tuesday that Burke had “Celeste” tattooed in red cursive on his left ring finger when he was arrested. He said data from the Tesla showed Burke’s iPhone disconnecting from the vehicle at 2:18 p.m. on July 29, 2025. A neighbor’s camera recorded Burke walking back toward his home two minutes later, he said. Automated police license-plate readers repeatedly recorded the Tesla in the same parking spot until it was impounded on Sept. 8.
On the hearing’s first day, Silverman played body-camera footage showing sheriff’s deputies questioning Burke in February 2024, after Rivas was first reported missing by her family. Burke said he had met her online, seen her once in person, and believed she was 18.
Prosecutors allege Burke later bought Rivas a secret phone and paid a classmate $1,000 to deliver it after her parents confiscated her previous device. Byers said investigators also found evidence that Burke traveled with Rivas to Texas and London and bought both airline tickets.
Benjamin Greger, a former financial manager for Burke’s management company, Mogul Vision, testified that he discussed the transfer of Texas properties from Burke to his mother to protect the assets from a potential civil lawsuit.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, the judge will decide whether prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to send the case to trial. Burke faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty if convicted as charged, though prosecutors have not said whether they will seek a death sentence.
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