A judge is set to decide if there's enough evidence to send singer D4vd to trial for the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Select breaking news story 2 of 4FILE - A makeshift memorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found inside a vehicle owned by singer D4vd, is displayed outside her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif.
, on April 21, 2026. on trial in the killing and dismemberment of a 14-year-old girl that authorities said had threatened to expose their relationship.to the Hollywood Hills house he was renting, stabbed her multiple times then cut apart her body in his garage using chain saws. The preliminary hearing in Los Angeles is expected to last about four days and will look much like an abbreviated trial. There is no jury.
, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His attorney, Blair Berk, has said Burke is not responsible for Rivas Hernandez's death. The defendant, who has been held without bail in a jail near the courthouse since his arrest, will appear in court in his jail clothes, after the judge rejected a request that he be able to wear a suit as is usually allowed at a jury trial.
No cameras will be allowed in the courtroom. , prosecutors filed a memo, which the defense unsuccessfully tried to have sealed, outlining what their evidence would show at this hearing.when she was 11, began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to report him.
She was reported missing multiple times in the years before her death, and prosecutors said they have evidence she was with Burke for long stretches, including a trip to Texas where she met his family. Detectives had contacted him about her, but authorities say he lied and said he had only met her once and didn't know she was a minor. Prosecutors said they have sexual text messages and photos the two exchanged.
A court filing said he sent a car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles outside of Los Angeles. The two exchanged messages until she arrived at his Hollywood home, after which her phone went dead.
“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,” the document said. Prosecutors said they have records showing Burke ordered chain saws and wading pools that he used to dismember her body in his garage, and that her DNA was found there on blood stains discovered when police served a search warrant.
They said he then drove around for months with the body in the trunk. About four months after her death, her Prosecutors said the car was parked around the corner from his house, and surveillance video will show he was the last person to drive it. Preliminary hearings like this one serve a similar function to that of grand jury proceedings.
Prosecutors generally present only as much evidence as they think they need to, and witnesses are kept to a minimum — mostly police and other investigators. For defense attorneys, it can provide ways to explore potential weaknesses in witness testimony that they can exploit at a trial. The songs he wrote and recorded on his phone were a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop.
The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Instagram, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays. In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour. He performed at last year's Coachella music festival just a few weeks before prosecutors said Rivas Hernandez was killed, and his album was released. Five months later, he was on tour promoting it in when the body was discovered.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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