los angeles — Prosecutors said so on Wednesday Singer D4vd He killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez by stabbing her multiple times.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office shared what they said the evidence would show in a document filed Wednesday outlining their plan to hold a preliminary evidentiary hearing in the case.
She said D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, met Rivas Hernandez When she was 11, he began a sexual relationship with her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to reveal their inappropriate relationship.
“Knowing that he had to silence the victim before she would destroy his music career as she threatened to do, very shortly after she arrived at his home, the defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out.”
Her dismembered and decomposed body was found in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September last year.
Prosecutors obtained text messages between the two dated April 22, 2025, the night before they believe she was killed.
“The letters reveal the victim’s jealousy over the defendant’s relationships with other women, as the defendant led her to believe they had a future together. She became extremely upset and threatened to reveal damaging information about her relationship with the defendant to end his career and ruin his life,” the document says.
Prosecutors say they believe she was killed the next day, when all her phone activity stopped.
The document says Burke purchased two saws online that he used to dismember her body in an inflatable pool.
“The defendant took horrific measures to destroy and dispose of the victim’s body,” prosecutors said in the memo. Two of her fingers were missing when the body was found. They said they had Rivas Hernandez’s name tattooed on them.
Prosecutors have not previously described how they believe Rivas Hernandez was killed or provided details about their relationship. The autopsy report stated that she died from penetrating wounds.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges. His lawyers said he was innocent and did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death.
Defense attorneys asked Superior Court Judge Charlene F. Olmedo at a hearing Wednesday sealed the document, but she refused. They had no comment outside court.