LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors said Wednesday that singer D4vd 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 outlining their plan for a preliminary hearing over evidence in the case.
It said D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, 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.”
Her body was found dismembered and decomposing in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September of last year.
Prosecutors obtained text messages between the two from April 22, 2025, the night before 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.
Prosecutors say they believe she was killed the following day, when all her phone activity went quiet.
The document says Burke bought two chainsaws online that he used to cut apart her body in an inflatable pool.
“Defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” prosecutors said in the brief. Two of her fingers were missing when the body was found. Rivas Hernandez had his name tattooed on them, they said.
Prosecutors had not previously described how they believed Rivas Hernandez was killed or given details on their relationship. An autopsy report said she was killed by penetrating wounds.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other counts. His lawyers have said he is innocent and did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death.
The defense attorneys asked Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo at a hearing Wednesday to seal the document, but she declined. They had no comment outside court.
