Singer D4vd Charged With First-Degree Murder

Singer D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez after her dismembered and decomposed body was found in a Tesla registered to the musician last year.

After D4vd, real name is David Anthony Burke, was arrested last week following a grand jury investigation, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that he had been charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating a body. The special circumstances include lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation.

The first-degree murder charge facing Burke, 21, could carry the maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, but the district attorney’s office has not yet determined whether or not it will seek the death penalty in this case, Hochman said.

“Celeste was just a child, under 14 years old, when David Burke allegedly engaged in repeated lewd and lascivious sexual relations with her,” Hochman said in a statement Monday. “But Burke’s actions did not allegedly stop there. When she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career, Burke allegedly murdered her, cut up her body and stuffed her body in two bags that were placed in the front trunk of his car. There the dismembered body sat for over four months decomposing until it was found at a tow yard on Sept. 8, 2025. This horrific and gruesome murder committed by the charged sexual predator is shocking and appalling. To Celeste’s loved ones, we will get the justice you seek and deserve.”

Following the “Romantic Homicide” singer’s arrest on Thursday, his attorneys insisted he was innocent in a statement. “Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” the lawyers said, as per the Associated Press.

Hernandez’s body was found on Sept. 8, 2025, after police responded to reports of a foul smell emanating from a car at the Hollywood Tow yard. Court records indicated that Hernandez’s body was found “severely decomposed” and “dismembered” in the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke.

Hernandez was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13 years old, as per the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell previously said that Hernandez was in a “sexual relationship” with Burke, and Hochman alleged that she was at Burke’s Hollywood Hills residence by his invitation on April 23, 2025.

“Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again,” Hochman said Monday.

When Hernandez’s body was initially discovered, Burke continued his d4vd Withered 2025 World Tour, but after her identity was released, he canceled the final two shows on the North American leg of the tour and his subsequent European tour.