D4vd Stabbed 14-Year-Old Celeste Rivas Hernandez to Death

Photo Credit: Nellie Adamyan

Prosecutors say singer D4vd stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez multiple times and dismembered her to keep her quiet about their relationship.

On Wednesday, prosecutors claimed that singer D4vd, real name David Burke, killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez by stabbing her multiple times in order to keep her quiet about their relationship. He allegedly began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18, according to evidence provided by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, [Burke] stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the court filing read.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, which include first-degree murder. His attorneys assert that he is innocent and was not involved in Rivas Hernandez’s death.

Prosecutors said they obtained text messages that proved the sexual nature of Burke’s relationship with Rivas Hernandez, including child sexual abuse images of her on his phone.

“The messages reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together,” the court document read. “She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life.”

According to the filing, Burke sent a rideshare car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore—about 80 miles outside of Los Angeles. The two exchanged text messages until she arrived as his home in the Hollywood Hills; afterward, her phone went permanently silent. Prosecutors alleged that he sent her a late-night message asking where she was in an effort to cover up her death.

Burke then allegedly drove to Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, approximately 110 miles northwest of his home, to get rid of evidence on three separate occasions. In January, her passport was found there.

The parents of Rivas Hernandez reported her missing in February 2024, and at the time said she was involved with someone named David. Riverside County Sheriff’s detectives then contacted Burke, prosecutors said, but he told them he had only met Rivas Hernandez once and did not know that she was a minor.

When she returned home later that month, Rivas Hernandez’s parents took away her cellphone, but Burke allegedly drove to her hometown and paid a friend of hers $1,000 to give her a phone so they could continue to communicate.

She was reported missing again in April 2024. Documents claim that she spent much of her time at Burke’s Hollywood Hills home during this period, traveling with him to Las Vegas, Texas, and even London.

Burke was arrested on April 16, 2026, and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14, and mutilating a dead body. The body of Rivas Hernandez was found in September last year in the trunk of a Tesla registered in his name.