The singer D4vd has been charged with first-degree homicide in reference to the “brutal and horrific” death of a 14-year-old lady whose dismembered physique was present in his towed Tesla final yr, Los Angeles County District Legal professional Nathan Hochman introduced on Monday.
D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose authorized title is David Burke — was arrested final week in reference to the demise of Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a monthslong investigation, police mentioned. He’s being held with out bail.
The reserving picture for the singer D4vd — whose actual title is David Burke — is proven throughout a press briefing in Los Angeles on April 20, 2026.
LAPD
He faces a slew of costs and particular circumstances alleging he constantly dedicated “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” with the teenager whereas she was beneath the age of 14, and that he killed her for monetary achieve “to take care of his very profitable musical profession that Celeste was threatening” to reveal, Hochman mentioned throughout a press briefing on Monday. The fees additionally allege he unlawfully mutilated human stays, Hochman mentioned.
“There’s bodily proof, and there may be forensic and digital proof, that we intend to current in courtroom to show these costs past an inexpensive doubt,” Hochman mentioned.
Rivas Hernandez, a reported runaway from Riverside County, was final identified to be alive on April 23, 2025, when she arrived at D4vd’s residence within the Hollywood Hills, in response to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. She was by no means heard from once more, Hochman mentioned.
In September 2025, her badly decomposed, dismembered physique was discovered within the trunk of D4vd’s deserted, impounded Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard, officers mentioned.
On this file picture, images, notes, and flowers are among the many gadgets left at a memorial for slain teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez in Lake Elsinore, Calif, on Sept. 25, 2025.
Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Occasions by way of Getty Photos, FILE
Her head and torso had been present in one bag, and her legs and arms in one other, in response to the courtroom paperwork from Hochman filed in reference to a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation in reference to the teenager’s demise.
The Tesla had been on the impound lot for 2 days after being discovered deserted on a Hollywood road, investigators mentioned. The towed car was registered to Burke.
Officers had responded to the impound lot “for a foul odor coming from a car,” Los Angeles police mentioned.
The teenager could have been useless for a number of weeks earlier than her physique was found, police mentioned. Her stays had been discovered a day after her fifteenth birthday, in response to her demise certificates.
Singer-songwriter, David Burke aka D4vd sits in artist area at Coachella music pageant on April 18, 2025 in Indio, Calif. (AP Picture)
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“In the course of the course of our investigation, detectives realized that she had been concerned in a sexual relationship with Mr. Burke when she was a minor and he was an grownup,” McDonnell mentioned in the course of the press briefing.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has made a willpower on how she died, in response to Hochman. The medical expert’s findings within the D4vd case are sealed.
The fees come after the Los Angeles Police Division offered the case to the Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace on Monday for submitting consideration.
He faces a most sentence of life, with out the potential of parole, or the demise penalty, Hochman mentioned. The DA mentioned his workplace will determine whether or not to hunt the demise penalty at a later time.
Los Angeles Police Division officers work in the course of the arrest of David Burke, a 21-year-old musician identified professionally as D4vd, on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas, at an undisclosed location, April 16, 2026.
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D4vd is predicted to be arraigned on the fees on Monday. His attorneys maintained his innocence following his arrest final Thursday.
“Allow us to be clear — the precise proof on this case will present that David Burke didn’t homicide Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the reason for her demise,” his attorneys mentioned in an announcement. “We are going to vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
His mother and father mentioned in an announcement Monday that they’re “not shocked however are terribly dissatisfied that the District Legal professional selected to cost David.”
“However they help and stand by him a hundred percent,” they added.
Hochman mentioned he has met with members of Rivas Hernandez’s household, saying their “grief is incalculable.”
“The Rivas Hernandez household is dedicated to making sure that Celeste’s voice is heard and her reminiscence is honored all through this course of,” an lawyer for the household, Patrick Steinfeld, mentioned in an announcement following D4vd’s arrest.
The “Romantic Murder” singer’s arrest comes after months of compiling proof, senior officers instructed ABC Information. The grand jury that was empaneled did not play a lot of a job in getting up to now, they mentioned.
D4vd — who first went viral on TikTok, the place he has almost 4 million followers — had been on his “Withered” world tour when the teenager’s physique was found in his car. The previous couple of reveals of the tour, together with these in San Francisco and Los Angeles, had been canceled.
Tickets for the world tour had been launched on April 24, 2025 — the day after prosecutors say D4vd allegedly invited Rivas Hernandez to his residence.
