D4vd sat stone-faced on Tuesday as his murder trial was once again delayed so that both sides can continue reviewing mounds of new evidence linking him to the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges in connection with the brutal slaying of the teenager, whose body was found in the trunk of his Tesla.
His defense team had originally pushed for an immediate preliminary hearing – in which a judge determines whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a case to trial.
But they backed off after prosecutors began turning over what they described as a massive amount of digital evidence linking Burke to the murder.
In total, prosecutors said Tuesday, there is more than 40 terabytes of evidence against the singer that they are in the process of sending to the defense.
‘We provided lab reports, all photos, numerous video recordings, a lot of forensic evidence,’ Beth Silverman said, adding that the prosecution began sending all of that data last Thursday.
However, she said, it will take ‘a few months’ for the evidence to be uploaded due to ‘the voluminous amount.’
Burke, 21, was dressed in an orange prison suit with his hands and ankles shackled and a chain around his waist. He sat silently during the hearing.
D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, sat stone-faced during a hearing on Tuesday
Singer D4vd’s murder trial was once again delayed on Tuesday as both sides work to sift through evidence
The singer is accused of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez (pictured) and dismembering her remains
He only nodded as Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo spoke and replied, ‘Yes, Your Honor,’ when he was asked whether he agreed with pushing the preliminary hearing back.
It is now scheduled for June 29, and is expected to last five days.
Prosecutors have alleged Burke knew Rivas Hernandez was underage as he continued to pursue a sexual relationship with her.
After they broke up last April, the teenager became jealous over Burke’s relationship with other women, according to a nine-page preliminary trial brief filed late last month.
Rivas Hernandez then ‘threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,’ the documents state.
At that time, prosecutors say, Burke was set to release his first solo album and had a multi-million dollar career at stake.
With that allegedly on his mind, Burke sent an Uber to pick Rivas Hernandez up at her home in Lake Elsinore, California, at around 8.40pm on April 23 last year, and she was dropped off at the home he was renting in Hollywood Hills at around 10.10pm.
‘Knowing he has to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, [the] defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,’ the brief alleged.
‘At no time did he call law enforcement… to take her to the emergency room to attempt to save her life.’
Burke was arrested after Rivas Hernandez’s mutilated body was found in a Tesla he owned
He was said to have known Rivas Hernandez was underage as he pursued a sexual relationship with her
Instead, Burke allegedly tried to cover up his tracks by sending a text message to Rivas Hernandez asking where she was.
‘After placing her body in the blue inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling onto his garage floor, defendant used a chainsaw and perhaps other tools to cut off her limbs,’ prosecutors alleged.
‘Small blue plastic fragments were found in the victim’s remains, which were collected by the LAPD’s Forensic Science Division, Trace Analysis Unit.’
Prosecutors said forensics matched those plastic fragments to the inflatable pool Burke had bought weeks earlier.
They also claim that in an effort to ‘distance himself from the victim, he amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name.’
Those fingers have never been recovered.
Once Burke was done mutilating the body, prosecutors say he put Rivas Hernandez’s head and torso in the cadaver bag and placed her limbs in a garbage bag, placing both in the front trunk of his Tesla.
He then allegedly lied to his friends and business associates when they started to notice a strong smell of decay around the house.
Before he left for his tour at the end of July, he parked the Tesla on the street around the corner from the house he was renting.
Burke was set to release his first solo album and had a multi-million dollar career at stake at the time he is accused of killing the 14 year old
Prosecutors claim Burke ‘amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name.’ Above, his own fingers featuring a ‘Shhh’ tattoo
The court filing also details how Burke first met Rivas Hernandez in January 2021, when she was just 11 years old.
The two then allegedly began a sexual relationship in November 2023 when Rivas Hernandez was 13 and Burke was 18.
The teenager’s mother, who reported her missing three different times that same year, had said her daughter was dating a guy she had never met, named David.
But Burke denied to deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office that he knew Rivas Hernandez was a minor, as he showed investigators a picture from Rivas Hernandez’s yearbook that was in his cell phone, according to the court filing.
Once Rivas Hernandez was discovered safe, authorities also allegedly found a phone number listed in her phone belonging to the singer.
Her family took the phone away, but prosecutors say Burke continued to pursue her – even paying a junior high school student in her class $1,000 so that the classmate could get a phone for Rivas Hernandez.
‘Throughout 2024, the victim spent a significant amount of time with defendant, including summer weekends at his home in the Hollywood Hills and traveling with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family.’
‘Text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.’
Prosecutors further alleged that they broke up in November 2024, but they continued to communicate.
The singer was formally charged last month with first-degree murder with special circumstances , continuous lewd acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating human remains of a body
The Tesla SUV, where police say Rivas Hernandez’s body was discovered on September 8
The singer was formally charged last month with first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous lewd acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating human remains of a body.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office explained the special circumstances for Burke’s first-degree murder charge, which includes ‘lying in wait, committing this crime for financial gain or murdering a witness in an investigation.’
The charges, filed in California, carry a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole and the death penalty.
