D4vd murder case: Teen victim's family 'shocked' by gruesome details revealed in court filing

Richard Winton and James Queally, Los Angeles Times on May 1, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — The family of the teenage girl who was killed and dismembered, allegedly by rising musician D4vd, said they were shocked and horrified by the details revealed in court this week, according to a statement released by the family attorney.

In a court brief filed Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman alleged that David Anthony Burke, who performs as D4vd, had covered up his lengthy sexual abuse of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, lured her to his Hollywood rental mansion, stabbed her and let her bleed to death, and then used “a chainsaw and perhaps other tools” to cut up her body and remove two of her fingers to destroy a tattoo linking him to her.

Burke, 21, is charged with murder, continuous sex abuse of a minor and mutilating a corpse. Prosecutors say he killed Hernandez because she threatened to expose his abuse and ruin his music career. Prosecutors say Burke bought a shovel, two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, a “burn box”, and a blue inflatable pool as part of a scheme to dispose of her body.

“There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now,” said attorney Patrick Steinfeld on behalf of the family. “They still have bills to pay and jobs they go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal.”

He said that informing the family of the gruesome details was the most difficult thing he’s done in his 37-year law career.

“I originally encouraged the Rivas Hernandez family to speak publicly throughout the criminal process. They agreed with the full support of Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. However, in light of the gruesome details emerging almost daily, the family has decided not to make any statements now or in the future,” he added.

Prosecutors’ nine-page brief detailed an abusive relationship between the singer and the girl that allegedly started when she was just 11 and ended with her slaying in April 2025. In the days after Hernandez’s death, Burke used an inflatable pool to contain Hernandez’s body as the singer dismembered her remains in the garage, according to a brief prosecutors prepared for Burke’s preliminary hearing, at which they will make their case to a judge that there’s enough evidence for Burke to stand trial. Bits of plastic from the pool were discovered embedded in Hernandez’s remains, the document said.

Hernandez’s badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of Burke’s Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard in September. Authorities said Hernandez was last seen at Burke’s Hollywood residence on April 23, 2025. The two got into a “lengthy argument” the night before, with Hernandez expressing jealousy over Burke’s relationships with other women and “threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” Silverman wrote.

On the night police believe Hernandez was killed, according to the court filing, the singer ordered an Uber to bring her from her Lake Elsinore home to Hollywood around 8:40 p.m.

An autopsy report made public last week revealed Hernandez died from a pair of stab wounds. Prosecutors allege that Burke cut off two of Hernandez’s fingers to remove evidence of a tattoo Hernandez had gotten of the singer’s name.

Hernandez was reported missing by her family multiple times in Lake Elsinore in 2024. Riverside County sheriff’s investigators questioned Burke about her whereabouts in February 2024, but Burke claimed he was “unaware she was a minor or that she had been reported missing,” Silverman wrote.

Two days later, she returned home and her parents took away her cellphone. But Burke allegedly drove to Lake Elsinore and paid a junior high school student $1,000 to give her a new phone so they could stay in touch, according to the document filed Wednesday. Over the next year, Hernandez traveled with the singer to Las Vegas, Texas and London where she met “his family,” Silverman wrote.

Burke’s lead defense attorney, Blair Berk, has not responded to the new filing or returned a request for comment. She has insisted her client did not kill the teen. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 26.