D4vd Pleads Not Guilty, Denied Bail at Arraignment for Alleged Murder of 14-Year-Old Celeste Rivas Hernandez
The teen’s dismembered remains were found in the trunk of the 21-year-old singer’s impounded Tesla in September 2025
d4vd entered a not guilty plea during a recent court appearance related to charges connected to the death of a teenage girl. A judge also ruled to deny bail as the case moves forward through the legal process.
Los Angeles County prosecutors formally charged David Anthony Burke — the 21-year-old music star better known as D4vd — with murder on Monday, April 20 in the killing of a 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of his impounded Tesla in Hollywood in September 2025.
The singer was denied bail by Judge Theresa McGonigle at his Monday afternoon arraignment at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. His attorney’s request for a preliminary hearing on April 23 was granted.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman alleged that D4vd repeatedly sexually abused Hernandez and mutilated her body. According to Hochman, she was last seen at the singer’s home in April 2025 and was “not heard from again.” He also alleged the killing was committed for financial gain, claiming Burke acted to maintain his “very lucrative musical career.”
Hochman also alleged that the murder of the teen constituted the killing of a witness, as there was an active investigation into Burke’s alleged sexual abuse of Hernandez at the time of her death.
Burke was arrested by Los Angeles police on the evening on Thursday, April 16 at a residence in the Hollywood Hills as heavily armed officers stormed the street. Burke surrendered without incident and has denied all wrongdoing through his attorneys.
“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 legal team of Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, said in a statement to PEOPLE.
If convicted as charged, Burke faces life in prison or the death penalty. Hochman said his office had not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
Hernandez was reported missing in Riverside County last summer. One day after her 15th birthday, officers with the LAPD responded to an impound lot after others reported a foul odor coming from the vehicle. Her body was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke.
She had been dismembered, with her head and torso separated from her arms and legs, and her remains were found in two separate bags, according to a petition for attendance of an out-of-state witness filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Her cause of death has not been made public since police were granted a request to seal her autopsy findings amid the investigation.
In a news release, Hochman alleged that Burke “personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a sharp instrument, to commit the crime” and added that the girl’s “dismembered body sat for over four months” in the suspect’s trunk.
“The substantial amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery meant that crucial evidence had degraded or disappeared, and as detectives worked to uncover the truth, they also had to sift through and debunk a great deal of false information circulating publicly,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at the press conference.
The ascendant singer, whose music appears in the popular video game Fortnite and who has collaborated with Kali Uchis and 21 Savage, had just begun a national tour in support of his debut album “Withered” when reports emerged of his potential connection to the teen’s death.
After Burke canceled his tour, L.A. County prosecutors convened a secret grand jury to gather evidence in connection with Hernandez’s killing, the Los Angeles Times reported.
