{"id":714,"date":"2026-04-30T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/04\/30\/gruesome-case-against-singer-d4vd-in-teens-killing-laid-out-by-l-a-prosecutors\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:05:00","slug":"gruesome-case-against-singer-d4vd-in-teens-killing-laid-out-by-l-a-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/04\/30\/gruesome-case-against-singer-d4vd-in-teens-killing-laid-out-by-l-a-prosecutors\/","title":{"rendered":"\u30ed\u30b5\u30f3\u30bc\u30eb\u30b9\u691c\u5bdf\u304c\u300110\u4ee3\u306e\u5c11\u5e74\u6bba\u5bb3\u4e8b\u4ef6\u3067\u6b4c\u624bD4vd\u306b\u5bfe\u3059\u308b\u51c4\u60e8\u306a\u8a34\u8a1f\u5185\u5bb9\u3092\u63d0\u793a"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tLos Angeles prosecutors indicated in a court filing that they plan to present an overwhelming amount of evidence showing singer-songwriter D4vd<\/a> is guilty of first-degree murder, sexual abuse and dismemberment in the gruesome killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in 2025.<\/p>\n

\tProsecutors with the Los Angeles District Attorney\u2019s Office have been investigating the Inland Empire teenager\u2019s death for months<\/a>. On April 16, the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Burke<\/a>, was arrested<\/a>. The missing girl\u2019s dismembered and decomposing remains were discovered inside a suitcase placed in a Tesla abandoned in an L.A. impound lot. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of<\/a> first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. \t<\/p>\n

\tBeginning May 26, prosecutors will walk through their findings at a public hearing expected to last five days and take on the feel of a condensed trial. Once the hearing concludes, a judge will decide whether the case against the 21-year-old singer will proceed to trial.<\/p>\n

\tBurke found early fame online as a teenager after sharing home-recorded tracks that went viral on TikTok, pointing to a promising future in the music business. But his rising-star status vanished in an instant when Hernandez\u2019s body was found months after her disappearance. The D4vd tour continued for a few dates after the discovery, but was canceled once it was widely reported that he may have had a connection to her death.<\/p>\n

\tThe District Attorney\u2019s office said that evidence \u2014 including text messages from their phones, the autopsy report and other materials \u2014 shows that Burke began sexually abusing Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18. Their relationship continued until her killing on April 25, 2025; Burke\u2019s phone, the filing states, contained child sexual abuse imagery. \t<\/p>\n

\tProsecutors said the relationship deteriorated quickly when she expressed jealousy over Burke\u2019s involvement with other girls and threatened to expose them.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cKnowing 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,\u201d the filing alleges.<\/p>\n

\tBurke then took what prosecutors described as \u201chorrifying measures\u201d to destroy and discard the victim\u2019s body, purchasing two chainsaws and dismembering her in an inflatable pool weeks later, on May 5, 2025, inside the garage of the Hollywood Hills home where she was killed. DNA evidence was later discovered in the garage, according to the filing. Burke drove to Santa Barbara County to dispose of evidence and returned on April 24, 2025; Hernandez\u2019s passport was found there in January. After returning to Los Angeles, he participated in a radio interview promoting his album Withered<\/em>, which was about to be released.<\/p>\n

\tHernandez was missing for nearly 18 months before her body was discovered at Hollywood Tow on Sept. 8. She was identified by her mother after the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner noted a tattoo on her right index finger that read \u201cShhh\u2026\u201d. Her body was found cut into pieces in two bags in the trunk of a Tesla SUV registered in Burke\u2019s name to a Houston, Texas, address, which was his parents\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

\tThe Los Angeles Medical Examiner\u2019s report on Hernandez was kept under wraps for months at the LAPD\u2019s request, but was unsealed this week by a judge responding to a request from prosecutors. The examination revealed \u201ctwo penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp-force injuries.\u201d The blade penetrated the girl\u2019s liver and ribs, the report states. \t<\/p>\n

\tHernandez\u2019s parents, who lived with her in Lake Elsinore, California, about 70 miles from Los Angeles, spoke publicly for the first time since their daughter disappeared. Hernandez was first reported missing in 2024 and stopped contacting her parents as she spent her time with Burke, traveling with him around the U.S. and to London. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cCeleste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night, and we spent wonderful times together,\u201d Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez said. \u201cWe love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe case grew in profile as it dragged on for months without an arrest after Hernandez\u2019s remains were discovered. Investigators in L.A. also made the unusual move of securing a court-ordered secrecy hold on the medical examiner\u2019s report, which increased interest in the case and raised questions about transparency.<\/p>\n

\tBurke canceled his tour as his name became associated with the case, and he soon became the focus of a sweeping probe by prosecutors, including three investigative grand juries. Three of his family members were subpoenaed in the secret investigation, and in February, his father, mother and brother succeeded in having those subpoenas unsealed via an appeal in Texas.<\/p>\n

\tWhile Burke\u2019s defense team, who did not return calls placed by The Hollywood Reporter,<\/em> has not detailed the version of events they say point to his innocence, they have indicated he will be vigorously defended. If convicted, Burke is eligible for the death penalty, though Los Angeles prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the case as a capital one.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles prosecutors indicated in a court filing that they plan to present an overwhelming amount of evidence showing singer-songwriter D4vd is guilty of first-degree murder, sexual abuse and dismemberment in the gruesome killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in 2025. Prosecutors with the Los Angeles District Attorney\u2019s Office have been investigating the Inland Empire teenager\u2019s death for months. On April 16, the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Burke, was arrested. The missing girl\u2019s dismembered and decomposing remains were discovered inside a suitcase placed in a Tesla abandoned in an L.A. impound lot. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[396,397,398,399,65,2,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celeste-ramos-hernandez","category-crime","category-d4vd","category-david-burke","category-general-news","category-hollywood","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}