LOS ANGELES — Singer David Burke, who performs under the name D4vd, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles to first-degree murder and other counts in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo set a preliminary hearing for May 26, 2026, to determine whether the case should proceed to trial.

Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed Rivas Hernandez to death multiple times after she threatened to reveal a sexual relationship between them. According to court filings, Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, and a sexual relationship began when she was 13 and he was 18.

"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 Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office wrote in a court filing. Prosecutors allege Burke paid for a ride-share driver to drop Rivas Hernandez off at his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, and that he texted and called her after her death to cover up the killing.

Prosecutors obtained text messages from April 22, 2025, between Burke and Rivas Hernandez. The district attorney's office wrote in a court filing: "The messages reveal the victim's jealousy over defendant's relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together. She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life."

Rivas Hernandez's dismembered body was found decomposing in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September 2025, the day after she would have turned 15. An autopsy report said she died from penetrating wounds. Two of her fingers were missing, and she had Burke's stage name tattooed on them. Her family had reported her missing in 2024 from Lake Elsinore, California.

Prosecutors allege Burke ordered a shovel, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, two chainsaws, a blue inflatable pool and a burn cage under a fake name, and that he used the chainsaws to cut apart the body in the inflatable pool in his garage to prevent blood from spilling onto the floor. Evidence was collected through more than 50 search warrants and three investigative grand juries, and prosecutors say it includes child sexual abuse images taken from Burke's phone and iCloud accounts.

Defense attorneys asked Olmedo to seal the court document filed by prosecutors, but she declined. "We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death," defense attorney Blair Berk said.

Burke was raised and homeschooled in Houston, Texas. He began making music for YouTube videos of the video game Fortnite, often writing and recording alone on his phone. He released two EPs in 2023, opened for SZA on tour, and released his first full-length album "Withered" in 2025, two days after the date authorities estimate Rivas Hernandez was killed.