LOS ANGELES — A decide is ready to determine at a listening to that opens Tuesday whether or not there’s sufficient proof to place singer D4vd on trial within the killing and dismemberment of a 14-year-old woman that authorities stated had threatened to show their relationship.
Prosecutors have stated the proof will present that 21-year-old D4vd, whose authorized identify is David Burke, introduced Celeste Rivas Hernandez to the Hollywood Hills home he was renting, stabbed her a number of instances, then minimize aside her physique in his storage utilizing chain saws.
The preliminary listening to in Los Angeles is anticipated to final about 4 days and can look very like an abbreviated trial.
There isn’t a jury. Decide Charlaine Olmedo will determine whether or not the prosecution supplied sufficient proof to display possible trigger to proceed to trial.
The listening to will resemble a mini trial
It is going to be the primary public presentation of proof towards Burke, who was arrested in April and pleaded not responsible to homicide, steady sexual abuse of a kid underneath the age of 14 and illegal mutilation of human stays. His lawyer, Blair Berk, has stated Burke isn’t answerable for Rivas Hernandez’s demise.
The defendant, who has been held with out bail in a jail close to the courthouse since his arrest, will seem in courtroom in his jail garments, after the decide rejected a request that he be capable of put on a swimsuit as is normally allowed at a jury trial. No cameras can be allowed within the courtroom.
Quickly after his arrest, prosecutors filed a memo, which the protection unsuccessfully tried to have sealed, outlining what their proof would present at this listening to.
The defendant and the sufferer had recognized one another a number of years
The submitting stated Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, started sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to report him.
She was reported lacking a number of instances within the years earlier than her demise, and prosecutors stated they’ve proof she was with Burke for lengthy stretches, together with a visit to Texas the place she met his household.
Detectives had contacted him about her, however authorities say he lied and stated he had solely met her as soon as and didn’t know she was a minor. Prosecutors stated they’ve sexual textual content messages and pictures the 2 exchanged.
A courtroom submitting stated he despatched a automotive to choose her up on the night time of April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles (129 km) outdoors of Los Angeles. The 2 exchanged messages till she arrived at his Hollywood residence, after which her telephone went useless.
Right here’s the newest on the D4vd’s homicide expenses of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas:
“Figuring out he needed to silence the sufferer earlier than she ruined his music profession as she had threatened, very quickly after her arrival at his residence, defendant stabbed the sufferer to demise a number of instances and stood by whereas she bled out,” the doc stated.
Prosecutors say they’ve proof linking Burke to woman’s demise
Prosecutors stated they’ve data displaying Burke ordered chain saws and wading swimming pools that he used to dismember her physique in his storage, and that her DNA was discovered there on blood stains found when police served a search warrant.
They stated he then drove round for months with the physique within the trunk. About 4 months after her demise, her decomposing physique was discovered within the Tesla registered to Burke that had been towed from the Hollywood Hills in September.
Prosecutors stated the automotive was parked across the nook from his home, and surveillance video will present he was the final particular person to drive it.
It’s not completely clear why it took seven extra months to arrest Burke — although uncooperative witnesses needed to be subpoenaed and the remaining post-mortem report displaying she was stabbed was not launched till December.
The protection has not publicly offered its model of occasions.
Preliminary hearings like this one serve the same perform to that of grand jury proceedings. Prosecutors usually current solely as a lot proof as they suppose they should, and witnesses are stored to a minimal — principally police and different investigators. For protection attorneys, it could actually present methods to discover potential weaknesses in witness testimony that they will exploit at a trial.
D4vd had budding music profession
D4vd started making music for YouTube movies he created of the online game Fortnite when he was a youngster.
The songs he wrote and recorded on his telephone have been a mix of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop.
The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Instagram, SoundCloud and Spotify, the place his high songs, together with his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Murder,” have greater than a billion performs. In 2023, he launched two EPs and opened for SZA on tour.
He carried out finally yr’s Coachella music pageant only a few weeks earlier than prosecutors stated Rivas Hernandez was killed, and his album was launched.
5 months later, he was on tour selling it when the physique was found.
