D4vd is alleged to have used a chainsaw to dismember the body of a teenager he had sexually assaulted, then cut off two of his fingers to destroy a tattoo that linked him to the girl, according to a court document made public Wednesday afternoon by LA County prosecutors in the singer's murder case.
David Anthony Burke, 21, is charged with murder, sexual abuse of a minor and mutilation of a corpse. Los Angeles police raided his Hollywood Hills home and arrested him earlier this month. He pleaded not guilty last week. Prosecutors say Burke killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez because she threatened to expose her abuse and ruin her music career.
Before the trial that was supposed to start on Friday, Los Angeles County District Deputy. He said. Beth Silverman filed a nine-page brief outlining the evidence she plans to present. In the document, Silverman wrote that Burke killed Hernandez in April 2025, then ordered chainsaws, body bags, an inflatable pool and a shovel to be brought to his home to dispose of the body.
“Knowing that he had to silence the victim before he ruined his music career as he threatened, shortly after he arrived at his home, the accused stabbed the victim several times and stood aside while she was bleeding,” wrote Silverman.
The singer has long been linked to Hernandez's disappearance and death, after his badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow truck last September. Authorities said Hernandez was last seen at Burke's Hollywood residence on April 23, 2025.
An autopsy report made public last week revealed that Hernandez died from stab wounds. His body was mutilated when police found it in the trunk and two of his fingers were cut off, the report said.
In the document, Silverman said Burke first met Hernandez when he was only 11 years old. The two began a sexual relationship when she was 13 but “broke up” in late November 2024, according to Silverman. Text messages between the two contained references to “sex, pregnancy, abortion and the use of Plan B emergency contraception,” he wrote.
Hernandez was reported to have disappeared from her family several times in Lake Elsinore in 2024. Riverside County sheriff's investigators asked Burke about her whereabouts in February 2024, but Burke said she “didn't know she was a minor or had been reported missing,” Silverman wrote.
Two days later, he returned home and his parents took away his cell phone. But Burke allegedly drove to Lake Elsinore and paid the high school junior $1,000 to give her a new phone so they could stay in touch, according to the document filed Wednesday. The following year, Hernandez traveled with the singer to Las Vegas, Texas and London where he met “his family,” Silverman wrote.
Prosecutors say Hernandez was last seen on April 23, 2025, at the singer's Hollywood Hills residence. The day before, text messages revealed that the two had a big fight, the document said.
“[Hernandez] “she became very angry and threatened to reveal damaging information about her relationship with the defendant in order to destroy her career and destroy her life,” Silverman wrote.
Burke's lead attorney, Blair Berk, could not be reached for comment for this filing.
He asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo to close his plea Wednesday afternoon, but the judge denied his request.
Previously, Berk said that he did not believe that the prosecution's case could continue to be examined and he was forced to be heard for the first time when he appeared in court for the first time. Defendants have the right to a trial, where a judge decides whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring the case to trial, within 10 business days. In Burke's case, that would have set the case for a May 1 trial.
But on Wednesday afternoon, attorney Marilyn Bednarski asked that the hearing be postponed to May 26, citing the large amount of evidence in the case. Olmedo admitted there was “good reason” to postpone the trial for several weeks.
Silverman expressed some dismay at Bednarski and Berk's change of heart, noting that he had already warned the defense team that prosecutors had a lot of evidence to answer.
Silverman said last week that discovery materials would include phone calls and searches of Burke's cell phone and iCloud account, which prosecutors said turned up “a large amount of child pornography.” Law enforcement executed 54 search warrants, according to court records.
A medical examiner's report detailing how Hernandez died was not made available to the defense until last week. Prosecutors also convened three secret grand juries between November 2025 and February 2026 to gather evidence against Burke, according to Silverman. Documents from that hearing have been sealed since last week.
Bednarski said Wednesday he needed “more time to review what we've just found, or are yet to find, so that we can have a full and free hearing.”
“We told them this is what was going to happen,” Silverman said in response. “As I said briefly, we sent the summons, we prepared, we told the witnesses to cancel the holidays that we had planned.”
In asking Olmedo to close the briefing, Berk expressed concern that it was “one-sided” and could prejudice the jury.
“Prosecutors appeared to file an unusual trial briefing that appears to be one sided of what is expected as evidence in this case. But no evidence was presented by the prosecution in court. Certainly there has never been a decision to admit that evidence,” said Berk.
