The singer D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the “brutal and horrific” death of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his towed Tesla last year in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced on Monday.
D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose legal name is David Burke — was arrested last week in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a monthslong investigation, police said. He is being held without bail.
Singer-songwriter, David Burke aka D4vd sits in artist space at Coachella music festival on April 18, 2025 in Indio, Calif. (AP Photo)
The Associated Press
The charges come after the Los Angeles Police Department presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for filing consideration.
He faces a maximum sentence of life, without the possibility of parole, Hochman said.
In this file photo, photographs, notes, and flowers are among the items left at a memorial for slain teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez in Lake Elsinore, Calif, on Sept. 25, 2025.
Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE
Rivas Hernandez’s family is expected to attend the presser and court hearing, their attorney said.
“The Rivas Hernandez family is committed to ensuring that Celeste’s voice is heard and her memory is honored throughout this process,” the attorney, Patrick Steinfeld, said in a statement.
D4vd’s attorneys maintained his innocence following his arrest on Thursday.
“Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” his attorneys said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
Los Angeles Police Department officers work during the arrest of David Burke, a 21-year-old musician known professionally as D4vd, on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas, at an undisclosed location, April 16, 2026.
LAPD/Reuters
Rivas Hernandez, from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, had been missing for over a year when her badly decomposed, dismembered body was found in the trunk of D4vd’s abandoned, impounded Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard in September 2025, officials said.
Her head and torso were found in one bag, and her arms and legs in another, according to the court documents from Hochman filed in connection with a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation in connection with the teen’s death.
The Tesla had been at the impound lot for two days after being found abandoned on a Hollywood street, investigators said. The towed vehicle was registered to Burke.
Officers had responded to the impound lot “for a foul odor coming from a vehicle,” Los Angeles police said.
The teen may have been dead for several weeks before her body was discovered, police said. Her remains were found a day after her 15th birthday, according to her death certificate.
The “Romantic Homicide” singer’s arrest comes after months of compiling evidence, senior officials told ABC News. The grand jury that was empaneled didn’t play much of a role in getting to this point, they said.
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