A Los Angeles Superior Court judge found Monday that enough evidence exists for the singer D4vd to stand trial for the sexual abuse and murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, is charged with fatally stabbing Hernandez twice on April 23, 2025, then using a chainsaw to dismember her body before shoving it inside the trunk of his Tesla, where the girl’s remains were discovered months later.During the five-day preliminary hearing, prosecutors displayed gruesome crime scene images of Hernandez’s remains and produced hundreds of text messages between Burke and Hernandez that provided an in-depth look at their relationship.But while the lengthy hearing offered a trove of new information, it also offered a preview of potential defenses Burke’s lawyers might trot out at trial — and showed there are some questions prosecutors can’t seem to answer. What was the alleged motive?Until recently, the most detailed account of Hernandez’s death came from a nine-page court filing submitted by Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman in April. Evidence displayed at the preliminary hearing greatly expanded on that document, providing a lengthy and troubling account of Burke and Hernandez’s relationship.Prosecutors have alleged Burke killed Hernandez because she threatened to expose their relationship and destroy his career. Los Angeles Police Det. Corey Farell spent hours on the stand describing the contents of Burke’s cell phone, including dozens of pictures that seemed to indisputably show Burke engaged in sex acts with Hernandez while she was a minor. (The images were not made public as prosecutors said they constituted illegal child sex material.)Farell also described hundreds of texts between the pair spanning from November 2023 to the night of the alleged murder. The texts confirmed Hernandez was pregnant with Burke’s child in early 2024 and had an abortion. The decision seemed to haunt the young girl.“I care abt u i killed my kid [for] you,” Hernandez wrote to Burke in August 2024. “i don’t like talking about it cause it gets [me really] upset but id do anything to have it back.”The pair “broke up” in November of 2024, according to prosecutors, and subsequent text messages showed Hernandez became increasingly jealous of Burke’s involvement with other women, eventually sending a text that prosecutors believe led Burke to plot her death.“I will tell my dad so many f— lies about u dead ass i will end ur career and ur life I will damage anything,” she wrote in a text sent on April 22, 2025.Prosecutors believe Burke killed Hernandez the next day. His debut album “Withered,” the first record on a four-album deal that would have seen Interscope Records pay Burke up to $19 million, was set to release on April 25.What did Hernandez’s family know about D4vd?The text messages shown in court revealed Burke and Hernandez’s relationship was no secret to their families. Hernandez’s parents signed a travel waiver to allow their teenage daughter to travel to London with Burke, according to Farell. When Hernandez lived with her aunt in Los Angeles, Burke would frequently pick her up for dates, joined Hernandez’s family for church services and took a trip with them to Six Flags Magic Mountain, the detective testified.Hernandez also visited Burke’s family home in Houston and sat with his relatives in a VIP box during an L.A. concert, according to evidence shown in court. Patrick Steinfeld, an attorney for the family, declined to answer questions about what Hernandez’s parents knew about their daughter’s relationship to the singer. What remains a mystery?The exact nature of Hernandez’s death seems to be beyond the reach of investigators. Through five days of testimony, prosecutors were never able to describe the actual murder. Under cross-examination, Farrel and a deputy medical examiner admitted they couldn’t identify the type of weapon used to kill the teen or describe the circumstances of the slaying. It appears no one actually witnessed Hernandez die. No witnesses were called that could say they saw Burke or Hernandez between 10:10 and 10:31 p.m. on April 23, 2025, the window of time when prosecutors believe the killing occurred. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said “the evidence for the murder is circumstantial,” but noted that Silverman is an experienced prosecutor who has won homicide convictions before in cases where police had not recovered a body.“By comparison, this is a cake walk,” he said.Police did not recover a murder weapon in the case either, and none of the chainsaws they recovered during a search of Burke’s home tested positive for blood or DNA. While there is evidence that Hernandez’s blood was spilled in Burke’s garage, it seems police never found the actual tool used to cut up her body. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said Monday prosecutors only presented a “small fraction” of the evidence they’d collected. But Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor, warned that the lack of witnesses to the actual murder will give the defense an avenue to raise reasonable doubt at trial.“The defense will drive a big hole through the prosecution case as it stands,” Gorin said. “The government has to have additional evidence because D4vd has no history of violence.”What are D4vd’s possible defenses?During cross-examination of L.A. County Deputy Medical Examiner Grant Ho, who conducted Hernandez’s autopsy, defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski suggested the teen harmed herself the night of the killing. “You can’t rule that out that she would have been holding the instrument that caused either of those wounds?” Bednarski asked last week.Ho said it was unlikely Hernandez harmed herself but he could not rule it out. While cross-examining Farell, defense attorney Blair Berk also raised the idea that Hernandez had previously committed domestic violence against Burke and had mental health issues. Although neither would justify a homicide, experts believe the defense could be laying the foundation for a self-defense or crime-of-passion argument that could lessen the murder charge to manslaughter.What’s next in the case?Burke is due back in court Aug. 31 for a post-preliminary-hearing arraignment. He could elect to go to trial within 90 days of that date, but that seems unlikely given the massive amount of evidence in the case. Prosecutors must also decide whether to seek the death penalty in the case. Since Burke is charged with murder with special circumstances, he can only be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or capital punishment if convicted. When he was elected in 2024, Hochman said he would only seek the death penalty in limited cases, including “cold blooded assassinations” of police officers and mass shootings. He has yet to pursue a death verdict during his roughly 18 months in office.While the death penalty remains legal in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on its use in 2019, meaning that even with a conviction Burke likely would be spared execution.
