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Grisly photos of the dismembered corpse of a teenage girl were made public Tuesday morning at a preliminary hearing in the murder case against the singer D4vd, who prosecutors say used a chainsaw to mutilate the body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez after he killed her to cover up years of alleged sexual abuse.
Hernandez’s body was found in September 2025 in Hollywood inside the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. The case immediately drew international headlines, but details of the crime scene had only been described in writing until the hearing against Burke began Tuesday morning.
Burke is charged with murder and continuous sexual abuse of Hernandez, a fan he met online when she was as young as 11 years old, court records have shown. Prosecutors said Burke — a rising alternative music star who was on tour supporting his debut album when Hernandez’s body was found — began abusing the girl in 2023 and killed her last year after she threatened to go public about their relationship.
Fearing the collapse of his burgeoning music career, Burke invited Hernandez to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, and stabbed her twice after she threatened to expose him, prosecutors said in a nine-page court filing in April. Burke dismembered his victim’s body with a chainsaw and amputated two of her fingers to erase evidence of a tattoo linking the pair, according to the filing.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied wrongdoing through his attorneys. He appeared in court Tuesday in an orange jail jumpsuit and remained shackled to his chair.
The photos published Tuesday were taken at the Hollywood tow yard where Hernandez’s body was found. Det. Josh Byers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division spoke calmly about the gruesome finds as Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman laid out images of Hernandez’s dismembered torso, displaying blood strewn across her remains and an image showing one of her arms cut off at the elbow.
Byers said detectives found a cadaver bag and a black plastic trash bag in the Tesla. Once the bag was opened, Byers said he saw “various limbs of a body, arms, legs that had been severed.” Byers said the victim’s legs had been sawed at the kneecap and cut into four pieces.
Prosecutors also displayed images of Hernandez’s disfigured left hand, which was missing two fingers when it was found in the trunk. Authorities alleged Burke was trying to erase evidence of a tattoo reading “Shhh...” on one of Celeste’s fingers.
When Burke was arrested at the Chateau Marmont earlier this year, Byers said he noticed a similar tattoo in black or blue ink on one of the defendant’s fingers. He also had the name “Celeste” tattooed on a finger in red ink, according to images displayed in court by Silverman.
As she displayed the images of their daughter’s body in court, Silverman turned to Hernandez’s parents in the front row. The prosecutor appeared to ask them “Are you OK?” During a break in the case, she checked in with Hernandez’s loved ones and tried to comfort them. Hernandez’s parents are not expected to testify, Silverman said in court.
Burke is charged with murder with special circumstances as prosecutors have alleged he lay in wait and killed Hernandez for financial gain. A former manager for D4vd testified Tuesday afternoon the singer raked in as much as $11.5 million through record contracts and other income between 2023 and 2025.
The New York-born singer gained fame by layering his own music over clips of the popular video game “Fortnite” and with the viral TikTok track “Romantic Homicide.”
If convicted of all charges at trial, Burke would face life in a California prison without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is also a possibility, although Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Hochman has not said whether prosecutors intend to seek it. Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on executions in the state years ago
Hernandez’s body rotted for months before it was discovered, according to medical examiner’s records and court filings. On Tuesday, Byers said her body was so badly decomposed that her face was “unrecognizable.” He said Tuesday he remembered finding insects, maggots and flies throughout the trunk on the day the body was discovered.
Hernandez’s family in Lake Elsinore reported her missing multiple times after she became entangled with Burke. Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigators questioned Burke about Hernandez in February 2024 and two L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched to a West Hollywood residence where he was staying that same month.
In court Tuesday, Silverman played body-worn camera footage showing Burke calmly answering questions about his relationship with Hernandez during a Feb. 17, 2024, interaction with the sheriff’s deputies. He told the deputies he’d only met Hernandez in person once at that time, in November 2023, after the two began speaking through either Instagram or on a Discord server.
Wearing what appeared to be a shower cap and chewing on a snack while speaking with the deputies, Burke appeared completely unbothered by their presence or questions. He turned over phone numbers for Hernandez, invited the deputies to search his home, and offered up information unprompted. At one point, L.A. County sheriff’s Deputy Juan Gonzalez actually told Burke he “didn’t need” as much detail as Burke was giving and just wanted to ensure Hernandez wasn’t at his place.
“He basically said he just met her through that online chat,” the deputy said Tuesday. “Met one time in person. And from my conversation with him briefly, I took it as ‘I really didn’t know her.’”
During the conversation, Burke also told deputies he believed Hernandez was 18, according to the video played in court.
Two days after the investigators had their meeting with Burke, Hernandez returned home and her parents took away her phone. Burke, according to prosecutors, paid another teenager $1,000 to bring Hernandez a new device so they could stay in touch. Over the next year, Hernandez traveled with Burke to Las Vegas, Texas and London, where she met “his family,” Silverman wrote in the filing.
The two began a sexual relationship when Hernandez turned 13 but “broke up” in late November 2024, according to Silverman’s April 2026 court filing. Text messages between the two contained references to “sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive,” she wrote. A search of Burke’s phone also turned up images of the teen performing sex acts, the prosecutor’s memo said.
Hernandez was last seen alive at Burke’s residence in April 2025, when she took an Uber from Riverside County to his rented Hollywood Hills home, prosecutors have said. The night before, Hernandez and Burke got into an argument during which she expressed “jealousy” over his relationships with other women, according to the filing. The teen then “threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” Silverman wrote.
While prosecutors have not said exactly what happened when Hernandez arrived at Burke’s Hollywood Hills home, an autopsy report published in April showed the teen died of two stab wounds.
After the girl died, prosecutors allege Burke took extreme steps to cover up the crime.
Prosecutors say Burke had a shovel, chainsaws, body bags and an inflatable pool delivered to his home so he could destroy his victim’s remains. Authorities said in court filings that they believe Burke placed his victim’s body in the inflatable pool so it would prevent her blood from spilling on his property when he cut apart her body.
Byers testified Tuesday that Burke ordered a “burn cage” to his home under an alias, Victoria Mendez. On cross-examination, however, defense attorney Blair Berk got the detective to confirm the device was never used.
Byers also testified Burke used another alias, “Trayvion Davis,” to purchase cadaver bags, the inflatable pool used in the destruction of Hernandez’s body and heavy duty laundry bags. Burke ordered a shovel to his home April 24th, the day after Hernandez was killed, Byers said.
In the April court filing, Silverman said pieces of plastic from the pool were embedded in Hernandez’s remains when police finally found her body months later. Photos of Hernandez’s severed knee that were displayed Tuesday showed blue plastic flecks all over the hacked limb.
At a preliminary hearing, a judge decides whether prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed to trial. The hearings often result in displays of key evidence, including crime scene photos and items recovered after the execution of search warrants. In Burke’s case, a number of witnesses have already testified before multiple grand juries, but the records from those hearings are sealed.
It is unusual for a preliminary hearing to happen so fast. Burke was only arrested three months ago, and murder cases often languish in L.A. County courts for years before reaching a point where meaningful evidence is made public. But Burke’s attorneys pushed for an immediate hearing, claiming the prosecution’s case couldn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Legal experts said it appeared Berk was trying to stress test the prosecution’s case, but that strategy may have misfired as Silverman responded with a nine-page memo in late April that described Burke’s alleged crimes in detail.
“The defense thought the D.A. wasn’t ready, but I think Silverman is ready,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor.
Rahmani also noted celebrity clients often push their defense attorneys to fight a two-pronged battle: one in criminal court and the other in the media. Rushing into a preliminary hearing may have been part of a public relations strategy, rather than a wise legal move, Rahmani said.
“From a client control perspective, what D4vd may want is an aggressive attorney who will defend him in the press and push this to trial,” Rahmani said.
It is not clear whether Burke’s defense team intends to call any witnesses. Berk and her co-counsel, Marilyn Bednarski, did not speak to reporters outside the courtroom Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said the hearing could last up to five days. He expects Silverman to call 10 witnesses, most of them law enforcement officials or medical examiners. He did not take questions from the media.
The case has drawn international attention, and dozens of onlookers descended on the downtown L.A. courthouse Tuesday morning eager to get a seat in the ninth-floor courtroom where the hearing would take place. At least 50 people gathered in the courthouse lobby around 8 a.m. as staff and sheriff’s deputies held a public lottery for extra seats in the gallery.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
