A detective testified D4vd ordered a body bag and chain saws after a 14-year-old girl died. The hearing will decide if the singer goes to trial for murder.
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LOS ANGELES – Singer D4vd ordered a body bag, chain saws and an inflatable pool online in the days after a 14-year-old girl died, a homicide detective testified Tuesday. The hearing will decide if the 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, should stand trial for murder.
Prosecutors say Burke stabbed Celeste Rivas Hernandez to death because she threatened to reveal their relationship and ruin his music career. One financial manager testified Burke earned between $10 million and $11.5 million from 2023 through 2025.
Detective Joshua Byers said Burke used the alias Trayvion Davis for the orders but paid with his own cards and had them delivered to his Hollywood home. Most items, including two of the three chain saws and the blue pool, were found in Burke's garage when a warrant was served. A blood stain in the garage matched Rivas Hernandez's DNA, prosecutors said.
Byers testified that the body bag Burke ordered matched one found with the girl's head and torso in the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke at a Hollywood tow yard on Sept. 8, 2025.
Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman showed photos of the dismembered body in court. Under the body bag, authorities found a garbage bag containing the girl's arms and legs.
Burke's lawyer, Blair Berk, pressed Byers on whether the body bag was tested. Byers said the medical examiner at the scene told him the bag could not be taken into evidence because the body was too decomposed to remove.
Rivas Hernandez's parents attended the hearing. Her mother looked down when the photos were displayed. Her father, Jesus Rivas, called police a few days after the body's discovery after seeing news reports and fearing it was his daughter.
The photos showed blue fragments on the body, which prosecutors say came from the inflatable pool.
Byers also testified that when he and his partner arrested Burke, they noticed a tattoo reading "Celeste" in red on his finger. Another finger had "Shhh" – identical to a tattoo on Rivas Hernandez's finger.
Body camera video from February 2024 showed Burke telling sheriff's deputies he had only met the girl once and did not know she was a minor. "She told me she was 18," Burke said in the video. "Everybody's telling me she was 13."
Prosecutors allege the sexual relationship began when he was 18 and she was 13. Burke said he met her online on Discord and Instagram in 2020 or 2021.
Deputy Juan Gonzalez, whose body camera video was shown, testified Burke was extremely cooperative. The mood in the video was friendly. One deputy said "Ohhh, that's pretty cool, good for you" when Burke described his music career.
The preliminary hearing is expected to last four days. Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether the prosecution offered enough evidence to demonstrate probable cause for trial.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside the hearing that his office has not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
Burke appeared in court in jail clothes, hands uncuffed but shackled to his chair. A court filing said he sent a car to pick up Rivas Hernandez from Lake Elsinore on April 23, 2025. After she arrived at his home, her phone went dead.
"Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened," the document said, "defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out."
Burke's financial manager Benjamin Gregor testified the singer earned $10 million to $11.5 million from 2023 through 2025. D4vd began making music for Fortnite YouTube videos. His songs blend indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. The 2022 song "Romantic Homicide" has more than a billion plays on Spotify. In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour. He performed at Coachella in 2024 and released a full album he was touring when the body was discovered.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His lawyers say he did not cause Rivas Hernandez's death.
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