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WARNING: This story contains details of torture and descriptions of human remains. It may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has.
A judge ruled Monday that there was enough evidence to charge D4vd with the murder and destruction of her debut album Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, who said authorities threatened to reveal their relationship and derail the indie-pop singer's burgeoning career just days before her debut album was released.
“I will end ur career and ur life,” he told her in a text message he sent the night before his death.
Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that the evidence presented during the trial provided probable cause for a trial on charges of murder, aggravated sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and illegal mutilation.
The dark and disturbing details presented over five days brought tears, gasps and shock to the courtroom. Evidence includes gruesome autopsy photos, vivid descriptions and images of sexual abuse and a stark image of the last text she sent minutes before she died and her phone went silent forever.
The decision was a major step in a 10-month investigation and prosecution of D4vd that began when the girl's mutilated and decomposing body was found in the trunk of his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while on a road trip.
The singer will be tried
D4vd, a 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke, showed no sign of disappointment when the judge handed down his verdict, watching quietly and staring in his orange prison-style glasses as he had been during the proceedings.
He pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued that there was insufficient evidence of murder, but they did not contest the other two charges. They did not want to comment outside the court.
Prosecutors argued that the evidence was overwhelming.
“Based on the overwhelming evidence presented,” said Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, “all allegations have been proven beyond the standard required.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that prosecutors had presented “a small portion” of the evidence they had. They are still considering whether to seek the death penalty, but Burke is eligible after Olmedo also found probable cause for ambush, capital murder and possible witness murder, special circumstances in crimes that carry the death penalty.
Olmedo ordered that Burke be held without bail. The case will be heard on Aug. 31, and the trial may take place as soon as 60 days later.
Prosecutors described the teenager's last hours
Ahead of the verdict, prosecutors gave a minute-by-minute account of Rivas Hernandez last night.
As he approached his Hollywood home shortly after 10 a.m. on April 23, 2025, in the Uber he had sent to pick him up, he sent her one last text: “girl pop i'm almost there open ur door if ur home.”
Prosecutors say Burke stabbed him to death as he walked through the door.
The night before, the two argued over a text about his relationship with a woman.
Prosecutors say Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, began sexually assaulting her when she was 13 and when she was 18. A year before her death, the pair again texted each other about how she was pregnant – he assured her the baby was his – and that she had an abortion.
As the trial began, prosecutors presented photos of the two kissing and in bed. The footage shows that “David” drew red ink on a finger – one of two that had been cut off when his body was found.
Prosecutors say they have records showing Burke ordered the saws and saws he used to dismember her body in his garage, and that his DNA was found there on bloodstains.
They said he then drove for weeks and even months with a dead body in his trunk before the seemingly abandoned Tesla was driven out of the Hollywood Hills.
Sufficient evidence of murder: self-defense
The defendant said the evidence did not show the kind of brutality required for murder.
“There is no evidence that Mr. Burke intended to kill Miss Hernandez,” said Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.
He said the communication between Burke and Rivas Hernandez showed no “threat, no evidence of a history of violence” and that he had “the opposite of murderous hatred” in her.
He pointed out that the medical examiner who ruled that his death was a homicide due to the two stab wounds was not clear and did not mean that it could be evidence of murder. The defense did not offer another theory specifically as to how she died and it is not necessary.
The lawyer also testified that he had asked her seven times to come see her in the days before her death, and she reluctantly agreed after he asked her to, and that he had threatened to kill Burke and cut her up.
Silverman told the judge that “the defendants attempted numerous times during these proceedings to defile the victim” even though she was a child.
Farrell, who is a detective, also said under defense questions that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he was going to church with his family members and that his parents gave him permission to go to London with him for a week.
Patrick Steinfeld, a lawyer for Rivas Hernandez's family, said after the trial that they were “shocked that the defense attorneys presented evidence against a 14-year-old girl.”
