LOS ANGELES (Court TV) — A preliminary hearing scheduled to last several days began with prosecutors showing body camera video of recording artist David “d4vd” Burke eating chips and relaxing when investigators first approached him.
David ‘d4vd’ Burke is seen during his preliminary hearing on July 21, 2026. (Sketch by Bill Robles via AP)
Burke, 21, is charged with first-degree murder, continued lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 years old and mutilating a human body in the death of a missing 14-year-old girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found in the defendant’s car. He has pleaded not guilty.
Rivas Hernandez’s body was found on Sept. 8, 2025, after the manager of a tow yard called the police to report a strong odor coming from a car on his property. The Tesla, registered in Burke’s name, had been cited by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation on Sept. 3 and impounded on Sept. 5. Officers said the body was found in the front storage area of the Tesla. “I’ve been told it’s called a frunk,” LAPD detective Josh Byers testified on Tuesday. The parking citation was still on the car’s windshield when police arrived.
Inside the vehicle’s front trunk were two body bags. The first contained a partially dismembered torso and head, missing some extremities. Court TV’s reporter in the courtroom said that Burke sat without emotion as prosecutors showed the photos. The second bag contained two arms and legs in pieces that appeared to have been severed at the kneecaps. “It was very obvious that there were blue plastic fibers that appeared to be embedded in the cut surfaces of the body,” Byers testified, describing images of what first responders found.
Prosecutors previously said in court filings that Burke purchased a blue inflatable pool, later found at the defendant’s home with “evidence consistent with the dismemberment of the victim’s body.”
On Sept. 10, Rivas Hernandez’s father, Jesus Rivas, called LAPD about his missing daughter, saying that he thought, based on the media reports he’d seen, that the body found in the Tesla could belong to her. At that point, Byers testified, detectives confirmed the victim’s identity using her dental records and got a search warrant for Burke’s home.
At Burke’s home, investigators also found what they described as a “burn box,” which Byers said had been designed “kind of like a mini crematorium … used to burn items to nothing.” Burke purchased the item on Amazon under an alias, investigators said, saying he used the same name to buy two chain saws as well.
Months before the body was found, investigators contacted Burke at his home after being assigned to check whether Rivas Hernandez, who had been reported missing, was there. Burke answered the door by himself and told the officers that the 14-year-old was not there and that he hadn’t seen her since Nov. 12, 2023. Burke told officers that he’d only met Rivas Hernandez once and got to know her through “online chatting” on Discord in 2021. He claimed he “didn’t really know” her, but did share a contact number for her and one of her school photos from his phone.
Body camera footage showed Burke eating chips and speaking casually with the officers. “Somebody sent me a yearbook photo,” he said. “She says she’s 18…I heard she’s 13.”
Prosecutors have said they believe Rivas Hernandez and Burke began having sexual contact when the victim was 13 years old; they have previously suggested that she may have threatened to reveal the relationship before she was killed.
At a news conference during a court break, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said that his office had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Burke.
Burke is a Houston-born singer and songwriter whose song “Romantic Homicide” peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in 2022.
The prosecution plans to call 10 witnesses during the hearing, which is scheduled to last three to five days.
