Houston-born alt-pop singer<\/a> killed Rivas Hernandez to protect a career on the rise after she threatened to report their sexual relationship. His debut album, \u201cWithered,\u201d was released just two days after they said she was last known to be alive. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. That was her age when, according to allegation in a criminal complaint, the singer engaged in continuous sexual abuse of her for at least a year from September 2023 to September 2024. California law penalizes abuse of a child under 14 especially harshly. <\/p>\nAuthorities, who described her Monday as a \u201crunaway,\u201d said she was 14 when she was killed with a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, and was headed to the singer’s house in the Hollywood Hills. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege Burke mutilated her body about two weeks later.<\/p>\n
The murder charges included special circumstances \u2014 lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation \u2014 that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven\u2019t announced whether they will seek it.<\/p>\n
The witness he is alleged to have killed is Rivas Hernandez herself, who could have given testimony about the sex crime allegations. <\/p>\n
Defense says D4vd \u2018did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,\u201d lead defense attorney Blair Berk said. \u201cWe would like to have the evidence come into the light of day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berk told the judge that after media reports of months of secret grand jury proceedings, she would like a public preliminary evidentiary hearing to take place as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
Burke is entitled under California law to a public preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether there\u2019s enough evidence for trial, within 10 court days of his arraignment. Nearly all defendants waive their right to have it happen that fast, but he didn\u2019t. A hearing to work out what will happen next was scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n
Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, the lead prosecutor, said, \u201cWe\u2019ll be very happy to put on the evidence that we\u2019ve collected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke was arrested at a home in Hollywood Thursday. <\/p>\n
A missing child and the grisly discovery of a body<\/p>\n
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the case \u201ca parent’s nightmare.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cCeleste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke\u2019s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again,\u201d Hochman said at Monday’s press conference. <\/p>\n
The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found inside a Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 8, when Burke was on tour in support of his album. It was a day after she would have turned 15. <\/p>\n
Her family had reported her missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence \u2014 and his designation as its target \u2014 was revealed in February when his mother, father and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify. The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer\u2019s name at their address, according to court filings. Authorities did not publicly acknowledge him as a suspect until his arrest. <\/p>\n
Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag \u201ccovered with insects and a strong odor of decay,\u201d court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped a bag and found a head and torso. <\/p>\n
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office removed the bag and \u201cdiscovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,\u201d according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release details of the autopsy. The court order was expected to be lifted after the charges.<\/p>\n
The family of Rivas Hernandez has remained private and has not made any public statements on her death or the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the chance to meet with some of the family members of Celeste and their grief in incalculable as to what happened to their daughter,\u201d Hochman said.<\/p>\n
D4vd was a social media-savvy singer making breakthroughs <\/p>\n
D4vd, pronounced \u201cDavid,\u201d gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit \u201cRomantic Homicide,\u201d which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard\u2019s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP \u201cPetals to Thorns\u201d and a follow-up, \u201cThe Lost Petals,\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was dropped by Interscope last year.<\/p>\n
When the body was discovered, the singer continued his North American tour, but when reports of his possible involvement spread widely, he canceled the final two shows and a European tour that was to follow. <\/p>\n
On April 11, about two weeks before the killing, he made his debut appearance at the Coachella music festival, where he talked to the AP. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,\u201d he said. \u201cMy neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.\u201d <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed reporting from New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.click2houston.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Singer D4vd pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge in the death of a 14-year-old girl who was last known to be alive nearly a year ago and whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in September in his apparently abandoned Tesla. The charges revealed key details and were among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2382007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[464041,21741,30188],"class_list":["post-2382006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-david-burke","tag-entertainment","tag-u-s-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Singer-D4vd-pleads-not-guilty-to-murder-in-death-of.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2382006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2382008,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382006\/revisions\/2382008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2382007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2382006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2382006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2382006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}