LOS ANGELES – On the afternoon of April 23, 2025, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14 years old, was picked up from Lake Elsinore, California, by a car arranged by a man she had met through Discord as a child. Within hours, prosecutors say, she was dead, stabbed multiple times inside the Hollywood home of pop singer David Anthony Burke. On Monday, a Los Angeles judge ruled that the evidence against Burke is sufficient to send his case to trial.
Burke, who records and performs under the name D4vd, faces charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and has been held without bail since his arrest in April 2026. The five-day preliminary hearing before Judge Charlaine Olmedo ended Monday with a finding of probable cause, clearing the way for jury proceedings that have not yet been scheduled.
Prosecutors allege that Burke first made contact with Celeste through Discord when she was 11 years old. The relationship became sexual when she was 13 and he was 18. Her family reported her missing on multiple occasions during those years, each time without locating her. The relationship continued until she told Burke she intended to expose what had happened between them. A prosecution filing cited by NBC News stated: “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.”
What followed the killing, prosecutors allege, was a sustained effort at concealment. Burke dismembered Celeste’s body in his garage using chainsaws, having purchased cutting equipment, wading pools, cadaver bags, heavy-duty laundry bags, a shovel, and a fireproof mat in advance under assumed names. He stored her remains in trash bags in the front trunk of his Tesla for approximately four months.
On September 8, 2025, workers at a tow yard noticed a strong odor from the vehicle. Detective Joshua Byers, who testified during the hearing, described what investigators found: two severed arms and two legs in trash bags, the legs cut at two separate points. His testimony constituted the hearing’s most specific account of what prosecutors allege took place inside Burke’s home.
Burke’s attorney Blair Berk stated at the hearing that “Burke is not responsible for Celeste’s death.” The defense has indicated it will contest the prosecution’s account at trial. Burke appeared throughout the proceedings in jail clothing after the judge denied a request to wear a suit, and sat with handcuffs removed only while seated at the defense table.
Burke built his public profile as a teenager, first creating music for Fortnite YouTube videos before a 2022 release accumulated more than a billion plays on Spotify. He subsequently released two EPs in 2023, joined SZA on tour as an opening act, and performed at Coachella in the spring of 2025, weeks before the alleged killing. Between 2023 and 2025, a financial witness at the hearing estimated, Burke generated more than $10 million in gross income from his music career.
Burke is not the first music industry figure to face serious criminal accountability in recent years. Diddy’s sentencing last October on federal sex trafficking and racketeering convictions prompted debate about how the music industry enables patterns of exploitation. Diddy slammed Netflix over a docuseries examining his conduct, a legal battle that illustrated how accountability extends beyond the courtroom. The D4vd case differs in its specifics but arrives in the same landscape of industry reckoning.
The exploitation of children through online platforms and positions of cultural access has emerged as a recurring element in recent prosecutions. Ehud Barak’s documented connections to Jeffrey Epstein, revealed in Department of Justice files released earlier this year, reflected how influence and access can facilitate abuse over extended periods. DOJ moved to block unredaction of additional Epstein files this month under pressure from survivors seeking fuller disclosure. In a separate case, Boston Children’s Hospital nurse charged with sexually assaulting pediatric patients appeared before a Massachusetts judge this month, underscoring the breadth of contexts in which positions of trust can be weaponized against minors.
A trial date has not been set. The case moves now into the fuller adversarial process, where the digital record, including Discord messages, text exchanges, and purchases made under assumed names, will be tested against Burke’s defense. His music remains accessible across streaming platforms. No victim impact statement has yet been offered in these proceedings; that stage, if it comes, awaits a verdict.
For the family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Monday’s ruling is a procedural step, not a conclusion. She was 14 when she died, and had been reported missing so many times in the years before her death that those records now form part of the evidentiary record against the man accused of killing her. Whether the justice system’s response proves adequate to what happened to her remains an open question, one that will take a jury’s deliberation to begin answering.
