Preliminary Hearing for Singer D4vd Scheduled to Begin Tuesday in Los Angeles Court

The preliminary hearing for singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, is scheduled to begin Tuesday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo. The four-day proceeding will function as a mini-trial without a jury and will examine allegations that the 21-year-old lured 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez to a Hollywood Hills home he was renting on April 23, 2025.

Prosecutors state he sent a car to pick her up from Lake Elsinore, about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and that the pair exchanged messages until she arrived.

Her phone stopped communicating after that point. The filings allege Burke killed Rivas Hernandez because she had threatened to reveal their relationship and then dismembered her body in the garage using chain saws. Court records state he met her when she was 11 and began sexually abusing her when she was 13.

Prosecutors recovered sexually explicit text messages and photographs exchanged between Burke and Rivas Hernandez.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His attorney Blair Berk has stated that Burke is not responsible for Rivas Hernandez's death. Prosecutors say records show Burke purchased chain saws and plastic wading pools allegedly used in the dismemberment.

Investigators found Rivas Hernandez's DNA in bloodstains inside the garage during a search warrant execution.

Prosecutors state Burke kept the remains in the trunk of a Tesla registered in his name for months. The decomposing body of Rivas Hernandez was discovered after the Tesla was towed from the Hollywood Hills in September 2025. Surveillance footage shows Burke was the last person to drive the Tesla, prosecutors said. Authorities arrested Burke in April after completing their investigation.