By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES, July 27 (Reuters) – Prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence for the indie pop vocalist known as D4vd to stand trial on charges he fatally stabbed and dismembered a 14-year-old girl who threatened to expose their clandestine relationship, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Monday.
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Judge Charlaine Olmedo found there was probable cause for a jury to decide the fate of David Anthony Burke, 21, whose breakout major-label music success as a recording artist named D4vd (pronounced “David”) was cut short by his arrest last year.
He spent five days in a packed downtown courtroom shackled to his seat as prosecutors presented graphic testimony and crime-scene photos in support of their case.
The parents of the victim, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, were present for most of the proceedings.
In the end, Olmedo found that prosecutors had demonstrated a reasonable probability of Burke’s guilt, the minimum legal standard to order him held for trial, and she ordered him to remain jailed without bond.
The judge rejected defense arguments that the largely circumstantial prosecution case fell short on various technical grounds. Burke, wearing orange jail garb and black-rimmed eyeglasses, was escorted out of the courtroom moments later.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said afterward that his office had yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
Convicting the defendant at trial requires a 12-member jury to unanimously find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, a much higher burden of proof that Hochman said he was confident his office would meet.
“There will be additional and significant evidence presented at trial that wasn’t presented at this preliminary hearing,” he told reporters outside the courthouse.
FROM TIKTOK TO INTERSCOPE
Burke began his career as a viral TikTok sensation with songs produced for Fortnite gaming videos in 2022, and his first hit single, “Romantic Homicide,” paved the way for a multimillion-dollar deal with Interscope Records.
His debut studio album was released in April 2025, in the week that prosecutors say his underage girlfriend went missing and was stabbed to death.
Her decomposing remains were found five months later crammed into the trunk of a Tesla sedan that authorities say was registered to Burke. The car had been towed to an impoundment lot where workers noticed the stench of decay emanating from the vehicle and called police.
The singer-songwriter was arrested in April of this year and charged with first-degree murder, mutilation of human remains and child sexual abuse.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges during an April 20 arraignment in which his lead attorney, Blair Berk, vehemently professed her client’s innocence.
“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, nor was he the cause of her death,” Berk said then.
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CHAIN SAWS AND SWIMMING POOL
In a court brief filed the following week, prosecutors first detailed the gruesome manner in which they said Burke killed the victim and disposed of her body, as well as his alleged motives.
The DA’s office said Burke acted in fear that she would destroy his burgeoning livelihood in showbiz after she threatened out of jealousy to go public with damaging information about their sexual relationship.
“I will end your career and your life,” she wrote in one of a series of emotionally heated text messages entered as evidence. In another singled out by the defense on Friday, she wrote, “I will straight-up mutilate your penis.”
Financial manager Benjamin Greger testified that Burke, his sole entertainment client, had grossed earnings of $10 million to $11 million from 2023 to 2025, following his Interscope deal.
The accusation of murder for financial gain is among the special circumstances included in the charges making Burke potentially liable for the death sentence. Another alleges he did so because the victim was a witness to a crime.
On April 23, 2025, a day after Burke and the girl had quarreled over her threats to expose him, prosecutors said, he hailed her an Uber ride to his Hollywood Hills home, then stabbed her to death within 20 minutes of her arrival.
During their evidentiary hearing, the prosecution displayed photos of three chain saws, a shovel, and other items they said Burke had purchased online under a fictitious name and had delivered to his home after the killing.
Among these was a plastic blue inflatable swimming pool that prosecutors said the victim’s body was placed in to prevent blood from spilling onto his garage floor when she was dismembered.
The victim’s torso and head were found inside a black vinyl cadaver bag stuffed into the front trunk of the abandoned Tesla, on top of a plastic garbage bag containing the victim’s limbs, police homicide detective Joshua Byers testified last Tuesday.
Shreds of blue plastic from the swimming pool were found embedded in the flesh of the severed limbs, Byers said.
Two fingers on the girl’s left hand had been amputated but were not recovered, while the girl’s right index finger bore a cryptic tattoo reading, “SHHH…,” which matched a marking Burke was later found to have tattooed on his own right index finger, according to Byers.
The remains had to be positively identified through dental records, the detective said.
Several biological samples collected from Burke’s garage tested positive for blood, and DNA analysis of various specimens matched the victim’s unique genetic profile, according to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)
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