Singer D4vd ordered to stand trial for stabbing and dismembering 14-year-old girl in Los Angeles

The allegations

Prosecutors say David Anthony Burke, the 21-year-old singer known as D4vd, began a sexual relationship with Celeste Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18. On 23 April 2025, after an argument the night before in which she threatened to expose their relationship and ruin his career, he invited her to his Hollywood home and fatally stabbed her. The criminal complaint includes special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, and murder by means of lying in wait, along with an allegation that Burke personally used a sharp instrument.

In the weeks that followed, prosecutors allege, Burke placed her body in an inflatable pool and cut off her limbs with a chainsaw he had ordered online under a false name. He stuffed the remains into garbage bags and left them in the trunk of his Tesla. The vehicle was later towed to an impound lot, where the severely decomposed body was discovered in September 2025, more than four months after the killing.

The hearing

A five-day preliminary hearing in Los Angeles ended on 27 July 2026 with Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruling that prosecutors had met their burden to proceed to trial. She ordered Burke held without bail.

“The people have met their burden on all counts.”

Prosecutors presented text messages, forensic testimony, and photographs of the remains. Detective Corey Farrell read aloud the final texts from Celeste's phone, obtained via warrants on Burke's iCloud account. As she approached his home shortly after 10 a.m. on the day she disappeared, she wrote:

“girly pop i'm almost there open ur door if ur home.”

Her phone then went permanently silent. The night before, the two had argued over his relationship with another woman, and she sent a profane message saying she would tell her father lies about him and "i will end ur career and ur life."

District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman called the evidence presented only a fraction of what investigators have gathered.

“This has been a parent's worst nightmare, hearing the ghoulish details of how their child was killed, dismembered and left as trash.”

Defense arguments

Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney, Blair Berk, told the court there is no evidence of a premeditated intent to kill.

“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez.”

The defense established that no witnesses saw and no cameras captured the victim entering the house or Burke being present during the alleged time of the killing. Under cross-examination, Detective Farrell acknowledged that Celeste had asked to come see Burke seven times in the days before her death, and he agreed only after she demanded it. Farrell also testified that both sets of parents knew about the relationship, that Burke had attended church with her family, and that her parents had consented to her traveling to London with him for a week.

What happens next

Burke is scheduled to be arraigned on 31 August 2026. A trial date has not yet been set. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. The prosecution has not yet announced whether it will seek capital punishment.

Burke rose to fame in 2022 when his song "Romantic Homicide" went viral on TikTok. He later created the anthem for the video game Fortnite. He has remained in custody without bail since his arrest in April 2026.