A preliminary hearing started on Tuesday, July 21, in the murder case against singer David Anthony Burke, also known as D4vD, where prosecutors published horrific photos of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered body.
When gruesome photos were shown, the 21-year-old singer showed no visible emotions. LAPD Det. Joshua Byers testified about the disturbing findings inside the singer’s Tesla where Celeste’s remains were discovered in September 2025.
The car had been impounded from a Hollywood Hills street three days earlier.
Byers described how the investigators recovered a black vinyl body bag and garbage bag from the trunk of the Tesla car, which contained “various limbs of a body, arms, legs that had been severed.” The legs of the victim were sawed off near the knees and cut into four pieces.
The body of Hernandez was so decomposed that her face was “unrecognisable,” Byers testified, and recalled how there were insects, maggots and flies all over the trunk.
Burke is accused of killing Hernandez by stabbing her on April 23, 2025, then using the chainsaw to cut up her body inside an inflatable swimming pool in order to contain the blood, and to sever two of her fingers in order to remove any tattoos.
As per court filings, Burke and Hernandez met online in January 2022 when she was just 11. They began a sexual relationship in November 2023 when she was 13, and he was 18. Prosecutors claim that Hernandez threatened to expose Burke, prompting him to kill her.
It is anticipated that the preliminary hearing process will last for approximately four days, at which point a judge will determine if there is enough evidence to move forward to trial proceedings. Burke could face either life imprisonment without parole or death in the event that he is found guilty.
2026-07-22 00:50:00
