LOS ANGELES (CN) – D4vd, the musician accused of killing a 14-year-old girl and dismembering her body, appeared in court Tuesday for the first day of his preliminary hearing.
The musician is loaded with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, as well as repeatedly sexually abusing her when she was under 14 and mutilating her human remains, which were discovered in the trunk of his black Tesla in a foreclosed city-owned parking lot in 2025. D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors presented in evidence gruesome photos of a bloody head and torso, her limbs removed, lying inside a long black body bag. Beneath it was a more conventional garbage bag containing severed arms and legs. According to LAPD Detective Joshua Byers, the legs were severed at the knee cap. The bloody body parts were covered in flies and maggots and were stained with small pieces of blue plastic, which prosecutors say came from an inflatable pool that was likely used to stretch the body during its dismemberment.
Another photo showed a close-up of a tattoo on the inside of Hernandez’s right index finger that read “Shhh…” The ring and pinky fingers on her left hand had been removed; are not found. Byers told the court that Burke had an almost identical “Shhh&mldr.” tattoo on right index finger. On the inside of his left ring finger, he had a tattoo written in red ink: “Celeste.”
Hernandez’s parents, who live in Lake Elsinore, a small town roughly 70 miles east of Los Angeles, reported him missing in February 2024. Acting on a tip, LA County sheriff’s deputies visited a home rented by Burke to conduct a welfare check. Hernandez wasn’t there, but Burke happily talked to the officers, appearing cooperative and helpful, even going so far as to offer them beer, which they declined.
“She said she was 18,” Burke told officers, as heard on body camera footage of the visit played in court during the preliminary hearing. “Everyone says she’s 13.”
Burke told deputies they met on Instagram, messaged each other through the group chat platform Discord and had only met in real life once. Hernandez returned home two days later. Although her parents tried to prevent her from seeing or talking to Burke, the two would spend “a significant amount of time” with each other, prosecutors said in a brief filed in April, “including summer weekends at his home in the Hollywood Hills and traveling with him to Las Vegas, London and Texas to see his family.” On his phone, prosecutors say they found text messages referring to sex, pregnancy and abortion, as well as explicit photos of Hernandez.
In their memo, prosecutors say that after the couple broke up, Hernandez “became extremely upset and threatened to reveal damaging information about her relationship with the defendant in order to end his career and destroy his life.”
Burke first gained attention as a YouTuber, posting videos of himself playing Fortnite, for which he composed his own music. He would later produce music for video games professionally, and one of his songs became the official Fortnite anthem. He had two multiplatinum singles in 2022, one of which was titled “Romantic Murder,” and his debut album was set to drop on April 25, 2025, just as Hernandez was threatening to expose, according to prosecutors.
“Knowing that he had to silence the victim before she destroyed his music career as he had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, the defendant stabbed the victim several times and stood by until she bled,” they wrote in their memo.
Prosecutors say that based on the evidence gathered, Burke appears to have taken his time with the gruesome business of disposing of Hernandez’s body. They say the musician used online shopping services such as Amazon and Uber Eats to order two chainsaws, another saw, a burn cage, a fireproof mat, a spade, a spade, two body bags and an inflatable pool. Byers told the court that police found many of those items when they searched Burke’s home, but that criminologists found no traces of blood on any of the saws.
Police are not believed to have recovered the gun used to kill Hernandez. This could be a key part of Burke’s defense.
Burke’s murder charge includes four “special counts,” which can be used to increase a sentence — including one that the killing was for financial gain. To that point, prosecutors subpoenaed the finance director of Burke’s management company, who said he believed Burke earned between $10 million and $11 million between 2023 and 2025.
Preliminary hearings are held to determine whether or not there is enough evidence to hold the defendant for trial, with a lower standard of proof than trials. They include witnesses and cross-examination, but not opening statements or the jury. The vast majority of them end with the defendants held for trial. They are also often the first glimpse of evidence prosecutors have gathered to make their case. Defendants often do not call their own witnesses, even though they are allowed to.
“We believe we will more than meet the burden of proof of probable cause,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters during a lunch break.
Burke’s preliminary hearing will continue Wednesday and is expected to last another two to four days.
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