Prosecutors allege D4vd murdered teen, hid evidence with delivery purchases

Los Angeles prosecutors have sharpened their case against David Anthony Burke, better known as D4vd, with a new claim that he killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez because she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and ruin his music career. The April 30 filing does more than repeat the murder charge. It adds a motive theory built around witness silencing, and it frames the killing as part of a deliberate effort to control what Celeste could reveal.

In the new allegations, prosecutors say Burke and Celeste were romantically involved and that a ride-share driver dropped her at his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025. Soon after she arrived, Burke allegedly stabbed her multiple times, then texted and called her as if she were still alive. Prosecutors also said he tried to erase the trail with a string of purchases made through delivery services and online platforms, including a shovel, body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, two chainsaws, a blue inflatable pool and a burn cage. The district attorney’s office said the burn cage was meant to incinerate evidence, while the pool was used to contain blood as the body was dismembered.

That filing builds on charges filed earlier this month in case 26CJCF02399, where Burke was accused of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains, along with special-circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain and lying in wait. Prosecutors said Burke, who was born March 28, 2005, faces death or life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged. The Los Angeles County medical examiner ruled that Celeste died from multiple penetrating injuries.

The broader timeline is already grim. Prosecutors said Celeste’s body was found in the front trunk of Burke’s car on Sept. 8, 2025, after the vehicle had been reported abandoned and impounded, and that the remains had been there for more than four months. In court, Burke appeared in an orange inmate jumpsuit and shackles and answered only, “Yes, your honor,” when asked if he understood the proceedings. Prosecutors also said they had recovered more than 40 terabytes of digital evidence from his iPhone and iCloud account, including a significant amount of child pornography, and that three grand juries had already heard evidence.

Celeste, who was from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, had been reported missing multiple times in 2024. After the murder charge, her family thanked police and prosecutors and asked for privacy. Burke’s defense has denied the allegations and said the evidence will show he did not murder Celeste and was not the cause of her death. The new filing raises the stakes again, turning an already brutal homicide case into a witness-killing narrative that could shape how jurors understand the entire trial.