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Shows Good Morning America ShopGMA Interest Successfully Added We'll notify you here with news about Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Off On Stream on D4vd murder case: Singer to stand trial on charges over 14-year-old girl's death He was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
A judge ruled that the murder case against the singer D4vd will head to trial, following at-times graphic testimony from investigators during a dayslong preliminary hearing in Los Angeles.
D4vd -- whose legal name is David Burke -- was arrested and charged in April with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a monthslong investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that include first-degree murder, sexual abuse of a child and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
He continues to face those three charges, with a post-preliminary arraignment scheduled for Aug. 31. A trial is expected to take place within 90 days of that date. He remains held without bail.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who had expressed confidence that his office would meet the evidentiary burden of probable cause on the three felony charges, said prosecutors presented a "small fraction of our evidence" during the preliminary hearing.
"We believe that the evidence at trial will be overwhelming to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the three charges with which Mr. Burke will be charged," Hochman told reporters outside the Los Angeles courthouse on Monday following the judge's decision.
"You got a small preview of some of that evidence, including the text messages and the video and photographic evidence that was also presented directly to the judge. This was difficult evidence to even hear, but also the crime that we are dealing with is incredibly horrific and barbaric," Hochman added.
He said his office has not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors allege that D4vd and Rivas Hernandez began a sexual relationship in 2023, when he was 18 and she was 13, and that she was threatening to expose their illegal relationship and ruin his career if he would not be exclusive to her.
Just as tickets for his world tour were set to go on sale, it is alleged that the "Romantic Homicide" singer ordered an Uber that brought Rivas Hernandez to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, prosecutors said. That was the last time she was seen alive, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors allege that D4vd stabbed the teen multiple times, watching her bleed out, and then undertook a series of events to dismember her body and get rid of evidence. Her badly decomposed remains were found in two body bags in the front trunk of D4vd's impounded Tesla in September 2025, according to prosecutors. Her passport was found on the side of a rural road in Santa Barbara County in January, authorities said.
Over the course of five days, prosecutors called a dozen witnesses as they set out to establish probable cause that D4vd committed the criminal offenses to move forward with a trial.
The hearing saw graphic testimony from police personnel as they described the scene after responding to the Hollywood tow yard where Rivas Hernandez's decomposing, dismembered body was found in D4vd's impounded vehicle. Throughout the Tesla, which had a strong odor emanating from it, were at least 11 air fresheners, a Los Angeles Police Department criminologist testified.
After seeing news coverage of the unidentified body in D4vd's vehicle, the teen's father called the LAPD concerned that it was his daughter who was in the trunk, an LAPD detective said. Dental records were provided, and the medical examiner identified the remains on Sept. 16, 2025. The following day, a search warrant was served at D4vd's residence, according to the detective.
The detective said multiple items -- including chainsaws, a mop system, cadaver bags and a blue inflatable pool -- were ordered to D4vd's home under the alias "Travion Davis" days after Rivas Hernandez was last seen alive. Two of the chainsaws were found in D4vd's garage and tested negative for blood, while a third was not found, the detective said.
A rubber mat on the floor of the garage had multiple cuts and red marks that tested positive for blood, according to a criminalist with the LAPD's forensic science division who worked on the scene. The DNA profile of the blood matched that of Rivas Hernandez, according to a DNA analyst for the city.
The inflatable pool was found in the garage damaged, with cuts from a blade and pieces missing, according to the criminalist. Blue plastic fragments that were found embedded in Rivas Hernandez's right knee were determined to be a physical fit with the pool, a criminalist assigned to the LAPD's trace analysis unit testified.
D4vd's phone and Tesla traveled to and from Santa Barbara County, to the desolate road where evidence in the case was found, three times -- first on the night of April 23, 2025, when prosecutors say Rivas Hernandez was last seen alive, and then two separate times in May, an LAPD detective who specializes in cellphone records testified.
Following D4vd's arrest in April, the detective said he observed a "Shhh..." tattoo on the singer's right index finger and a "Celeste" tattoo on his left ring finger. Rivas Hernandez also had a "Shhh..." tattoo on her right index finger and a tattoo of D4vd's name on her left ring finger, which was missing from her remains, prosecutors said. The Los Angeles County deputy medical examiner testified that the ring and pinky fingers on her left hand had been amputated.
Her body was discovered a day after her 15th birthday, though the teen had been dead for "at least weeks," possibly since April 2025, the deputy medical examiner testified. The dismemberment was "potentially" consistent with the use of a power tool such as a chainsaw, he said.
Witnesses during the preliminary hearing also included D4vd's financial manag...
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