Singer D4vd (David Burke) will face trial for murder, child sexual abuse and remains mutilation over the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
A Los Angeles courtroom has delivered a ruling that will keep American singer D4vd in the headlines for months to come. The 21-year-old musician, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, has been ordered to stand trial for first-degree murder, child sexual abuse, and the unlawful mutilation of human remains.
The case centres on the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a teenager whose story has quietly gripped courtroom watchers since her remains were discovered inside a car registered to the singer.
Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo reached her decision after a preliminary hearing that stretched across several days and pulled in evidence, testimony, and forensic detail. Her conclusion was that prosecutors had done enough to establish probable cause, enough to argue that Burke fatally stabbed and dismembered Rivas Hernandez.
That threshold doesn’t decide guilt. It simply means the matter is now serious enough, in the eyes of the court, to move forward to a full trial.
Burke’s arrest happened back on April 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles, and it didn’t come out of nowhere. Behind it sat seven months of quiet, methodical investigative work involving the LAPD, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, and a county grand jury. Since that arrest, he has been held at Men’s Central Jail without the option of bail.
Prosecutors say the relationship between Burke and the teenager began when she was just 13 and he was 18, describing it as an illegal sexual relationship. Their argument goes further: that Burke killed her specifically because she threatened to expose what had been going on between them.
The details of how her body was found are especially hard to sit with. Her decomposed remains turned up inside the front trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke. Investigators believe the killing took place in April 2025, just days before Burke released an album, though it would take months before her remains were actually recovered.
Burke has pleaded not guilty across every charge, and his legal team isn’t backing down quietly. Their argument leans on the claim that Rivas Hernandez misrepresented her age, that she told Burke she was 16 when she was actually 11 at the point that misrepresentation is alleged to have started.
The defence also points to travel authorisation paperwork and past interactions with her family, arguing this shows her relatives knew about the relationship and didn’t object. On top of that, they’ve introduced threatening text messages the defence says the teenager sent Burke before she came to his home, suggesting a far more complicated picture than the prosecution’s narrative allows.
Whichever version the jury eventually believes, both sides agree on one thing: a 14-year-old girl is dead, and her family will have to relive these details in open court.
For now, Burke stays in custody, no bail on the table. A pre-trial date and formal court appearance have already been scheduled, and if convicted on the murder charge, he could be looking at life in prison, or, depending on how the case unfolds, the death penalty.
Cases like this rarely stay contained to one courtroom. They ripple outward, into conversations about fame, accountability, and how easily red flags get missed when the person involved has a platform. Celeste Rivas Hernandez won’t get to weigh in on any of it. That, more than anything else here, is the part worth sitting with.
