D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday, April 20. The charge could carry a sentence of life in prison and is eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
UPDATE: D4vd Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering 14-Year-Old Celeste Rivas Hernandez
Along with the first-degree murder charge, L.A. County DA Nathan Hochman said the singer — whose real name is David Anthony Burke — would face charges of sexual acts with a person under 14 and mutilating the remains of a body. The special circumstances tied to the first-degree murder charge, Hochman added, were lying in wait, murdering a witness in an ongoing investigation, and financial gain.
A lawyer for Burke did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
The DA’s office announced the charges after Burke was arrested last Thursday (April 16) on suspicion of murdering Rivas. Seven months ago, the Los Angeles police found Rivas’ dismembered and severely decomposed body in the front trunk of an impounded Tesla belonging to Burke.
Regarding the special circumstances tied to the first-degree murder charge, Hochman revealed that prior to her death, Rivas was a witness in an ongoing investigation into Burke for “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” with a person under 14. Hochman added that the “financial gain” part of the murder charge was “for Mr. Burke to maintain his very lucrative musical career that Celeste was threatening.”
Speaking after Hochman, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said that during the investigation, officers “recovered and analyzed a substantial amount of digital and forensic evidence,” though he did not provide exact details. A press release issued by the DA’s office gave some hint as to how the crime may have been committed, noting an additional allegation that Burke “personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a sharp instrument, to commit the crime.”
Hochman later revealed that the coroner’s report on Rivas will soon be released to the public. The results of Rivas’ autopsy have been kept under wraps for months because of the ongoing investigation, with the LAPD and the Medical Examiner’s Office even sparring over their release last year.
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The DA also addressed why it took so long for Burke to be arrested and charged. “In a situation where you don’t have an eye-witness account, or you can’t point to a video that shows the killer killing someone, you have to go through the very rigorous and thorough investigation to look at all the digital and forensic evidence. You have to speak with witnesses, often who are cooperative, and some who are not cooperative, in order to obtain all the information necessary to decide who did what, when, how, and what their mental state was at the time. That is what we’ve been doing.”
Following his arrest, Burke’s lawyers issued a statement denying he was a killer. “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,” lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter said in the statement at the time, adding, “We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
Rivas’ body was discovered last September after the LAPD responded to a call from a tow yard in Hollywood about a “foul odor” coming from an impounded Tesla. At the time, Rivas’ body was so decomposed that police were unable to immediately identify her. However, it was determined at the time that the 2023 Tesla Model Y with Texas license plates was registered to Burke. While Burke was on tour at the time, his reps issued a statement saying he was “cooperating” with authorities.
A little over a week after her body was discovered, authorities were officially able to identify Rivas, a teenager from Lake Elsinore, California, who’d been reported missing by her family in 2024. Over the coming months, the police remained tight-lipped about their investigation, with updates often emerging in tangential court documents.
For instance, an effort to force the Medical Examiner’s Office to seal Rivas’ autopsy findings contained the first description of the case as “an investigation into murder.” And Burke was formally identified as the “target” of a grand jury investigation into the alleged homicide of Rivas in unsealed court documents linked to an effort to subpoena Burke’s family for grand-jury testimony.
But while official updates were rare, tabloid speculation and internet sleuthing were rampant. After Rivas was identified, rumours swirled around Burke’s alleged links to the teenager. For instance, TMZ shared a photo of Burke in Lake Elsinore, close to where Rivas lived before her disappearance. They also highlighted an allegedly leaked and unreleased D4vd song floating around the web called “Celeste.” And they uncovered a photo of Burke that appeared to show him with a “Shhh…” tattoo on his finger similar to one Rivas had.
From Rolling Stone US
