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The singer, now 21, is accused of murdering 14-year-old runaway Celeste Rivas Hernandez in 2025
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- D4vd is accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and dismembering her body in 2025
- Prosecutors allege the teen threatened to expose their sexual relationship, which began when she was 13 and he was 18
- Gruesome evidence, including body parts found in the singer’s Tesla, was presented during the preliminary hearing this week; Rivas’ mother could be seen crying as her daughter’s passport photo was shown in court Wednesday
The mother of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teen whose body was found in the front trunk of D4vd’s Tesla, broke down in tears as a passport photo of her daughter was shown on the second day of a preliminary hearing for the musician on Wednesday, July 22.
Mercedes Martinez immediately lowered her head and began crying when the photo was shown as a California Highway Patrol officer testified that a Caltrans worker found the 14-year-old runaway’s passport in the grass along the shoulder of Highway 154, east of Camino Cielo Road, in January.
D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, remained emotionless as he looked towards the photo.
After Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo called for a lunch break, Mercedes could be heard exclaiming, “Oh, my God” and “This is so hard,” as she left the courtroom in tears, shaking her head and leaning close to her husband, Jesus Rivas.
Burke, 21, is charged with multiple counts including murder and unlawful mutilation of human remains in the teen’s death.
He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail in a Los Angeles jail.
Prosecutors have alleged that Burke killed the Lake Elsinore, Calif. teen, on April 23, 2025 — one day after the two got into an argument over his relationships with other women and just days before the release of his debut album.
“She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” states a preliminary hearing brief obtained by PEOPLE. “Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened. Very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out.”
Prosecutors allege he then dismembered and disposed of her body parts with items he purchased online including a shovel, three chainsaws, two “City Morgue” cadaver bags, two heavy-duty laundry bags and a “Tornado Spin” mop and bucket combo.
At the hearing Tuesday, Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Detective Joshua Byers told the judge investigators found a “burn box” behind a piano after serving a search warrant at Burke’s Hollywood Hills home on Sept. 17, 2025.
“It’s a device that can be used as a mini crematorium type to burn items to nothing,” Byers said.
Rivas’ body parts were discovered in two bags in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla on Sept. 8, 2025 at a Hollywood tow yard — three days after the vehicle was impounded after being abandoned on a road.
Her severely decomposed head and torso were found in a cadaver bag. In a garbage bag, authorities discovered the girl’s arms and legs.
Multiple gruesome photos of the crime scene were exhibited on screen during the first day of the preliminary hearing Tuesday, showing a garbage bag with limbs inside, as well as Rivas’ bloody head and torso.
Burke appeared to show no visible emotion and stared intently at each photograph, continuing to look at them as they were displayed in the courtorom, PEOPLE previously reported.
Prosecutors allege Rivas met Burke in January 2022 when she was just 11 years old, and began a sexual relationship in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18.
Read the original article on People
