Singer D4vd stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez to death to prevent her from going public about their sexual relationship and damaging his music career, prosecutors alleged on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office revealed the latest allegations through a court filing, detailing for the first time how she was killed.
The document alleges D4vd—whose legal name is David Burke—met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11 and began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. When she threatened to expose him, according to prosecutors, he acted.
"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 and stood by while she bled out," the filing states.
Burke then allegedly purchased two chainsaws and dismembered her body in an inflatable pool. Her decomposing remains were found in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September 2025.
What Led Up to the Killing
According to the court document, the relationship between Burke and Rivas Hernandez stretched back years before her death. After her parents reported her missing from her Lake Elsinore home—roughly 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles—in February 2024, Riverside County Sheriff's detectives reached out to Burke. He told them he had met her only once and was unaware she was a minor.When Hernandez returned home that February, her parents confiscated her phone. But Burke allegedly drove to her hometown and paid one of her friends $1,000 to provide her with a new phone so they could stay in contact. She was reported missing again in April 2024. That same year, according to prosecutors, she spent extensive time at Burke's Hollywood Hills home and traveled with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas, where she met his family.
Text messages obtained by prosecutors from April 22, 2025—the night before investigators believe she was killed—painted a picture that showed Hernandez had grown jealous over Burke's relationships with other women, as he allegedly led her to believe they had a future together.
The Aftermath
Investigators allege Burke went to extreme lengths to destroy evidence following the killing. He ordered two chainsaws online and used them to dismember Hernandez's body inside an inflatable pool in his garage, where her DNA was later recovered by investigators.Her remains were found on Sept. 8, 2025—one day after what would have been her 15th birthday—inside the front trunk of a Tesla that had been towed from an upscale Hollywood Hills neighborhood. Police found a cadaver bag filled with a decomposed head, torso, and additional severed body parts in a second bag beneath it.
"Defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim's body," prosecutors wrote in the filing.
The Case Against Burke
Burke, 21, was arrested on April 16 by LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division and charged with capital murder on April 20 by the District Attorney's Office. He faces first-degree murder with special circumstance allegations—including lying in wait, committing a crime for financial gain, and killing a witness—charges that could make the case death-penalty eligible, according to the DA's office. He also faces counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14 and mutilating a body. Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty.At a court hearing on Wednesday, defense attorneys asked Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo to seal the filing. She declined.