US singer D4vd to go on trial for murder in death of 14-year-old

A judge has ruled that US musician D4vd will go on trial for murder over the death of a teenage girl.

The decision came after a five-day preliminary hearing, in which Los Angeles prosecutors questioned a dozen witnesses and displayed photographic evidence as 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s family watched on.

The star, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, is accused of killing the girl, whose remains were found last September in a Tesla registered to his address.

Burke, 21, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering and sexually abusing her.

Burke is scheduled to be charged on 31 August. The trial is to start within 90 days of that date.

Prosecutors have alleged Burke stabbed the teen before dismembering her body after years of alleged sexual abuse.

They allege he killed her because the teen had threatened to reveal his relationship with a minor and destroy his multi-million dollar music career.

Evidence read in court on Monday showed threats Hernandez made to Burke on 22 April 2025, stemming from arguments about his friendship with another girl.

“I swear to GOD I will kill u”, one expletive-laden text said, followed by a threat to strangle him and tell her dad lies about him. “i will end ur career and ur life I will damage anything,” the text went on.

The following day, Hernandez went to Burke’s Hollywood home in an Uber he had sent to pick her up.

Prosecutors alleged that Burke stabbed her once she arrived.

During questioning at the hearing on Monday, Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department said text messages indicated that the defendant and the girl had attended church with her family.

In response to the defence, the detective said he was aware the teen had misrepresented her age to the defendant, telling him she was 16 and 18 at different times.

Burke’s defence lawyers argued there was not sufficient evidence that he had committed the crime.

They said her parents were aware of what was going on between them and had even given written consent for her to travel to London with Burke for a week.

The defence highlighted texts on the 22nd and the 23rd of April that suggested Celeste had insisted on going to Burke’s Hollywood Hills home and that he had argued against her coming before agreeing to send her an Uber on the night of the 23rd.

He “repeatedly expressed love and care for Ms Hernandez after they broke up”, defence attorney Marilyn Bednarski said in court.

The medical examiner’s inability to prove how the two penetrating wounds found in the girl occurred and the lack of surveillance video capturing Burke being home on the night of 23 April showed a lack of evidence, the defence argued.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that evidence presented during the preliminary hearing provided probable cause for a trial.

Burke is charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

“The people have met their burden on all counts,” Judge Olmedo said.

She found that prosecutors met the threshold for the charge of murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, motive for financial gain and eliminating a witness.

Following the hearing, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office only presented a fraction of the evidence it had against Burke, and that it would present everything in the coming trial.

Hochman also said his office had not yet determined if it would pursue the death penalty against Burke.

Gruesome images of the girl’s dismembered corpse were shown in court during the preliminary hearing.

A homicide detective testified that Burke had ordered a body bag, chainsaws, an inflatable pool and a shovel online in the days after Celeste’s death.

Prosecutors highlighted records that revealed Burke ordered chainsaws and a shovel to his residence after April 23. They allege he used a chainsaw to dismember Hernadez’s body.

However, Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Lauren Wallace testified that the chainsaws found in his garage tested negative for the presence of blood and were not tested for DNA thereafter, a point the defence highlighted in their attempt to prove the evidence presented was inconclusive.

However, investigators were unable to locate a third, 10-inch Makita chainsaw, which prosecutors claim Burke also ordered following Hernandez’s death.

The BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast brings you the latest from inside the Los Angeles courtroom at the D4vd preliminary hearing.