Warning: this article contains distressing details
Text messages between D4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez – the 14-year-old he is accused of murdering – indicate she was pregnant and had an abortion more than a year before she was killed.
Earlier this year, the singer (real name David Anthony Burke) was accused by prosecutors of dismembering Hernandez’s body with a chainsaw in his garage after buying tools online, and on April 20, he was charged with her murder.
He has pleaded not guilty to murdering and sexually abusing the teen, whose remains had been found severely decomposed in the front boot of a Tesla registered to Burke last September.
Text messages between D4vd and Hernandez shown in court on Friday (July 24), indicate she had become pregnant at age 13, and had an abortion more than a year before she was killed.
Prosecutors presented iCloud data recovered from the defendant’s iPhone, showing texts between him and Hernandez dating back to August 8, 2022, when she was 11 years old and he was 17.
The device belonging to Burke also had photos of the teenager during the alleged sexual abuse, prosecutors and Los Angeles Police Detective Corey Farell said on Friday, per BBC News.
In one exchange in early January 2024, D4vd apologized for “putting her through this”.
“It’s okay,” she wrote in one text. “Neither of us are capable of watching and taking care of the baby. it’s for the best no?” He later apologised again before asking if the baby was his, to which she replied, “Of course it’s yours David.”
The court heard that in another text to the teen, sent in June 2024, Burke wrote: “Let’s let this abortion be the last one til we have the real one…”
The testimony came during a preliminary hearing where a judge will decide if Burke should go on trial in Hernandez’s killing. Prosecutors are seeking to prove Burke began sexually abusing Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, and that he allegedly stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal their sexual history and upturn a career that had earned him millions.
Dr Grant Ho, the Los Angeles County Department Medical Examiner who conducted the post-mortem examination on Hernandez, also testified on Friday, and told the court it was “extremely difficult to tell” exactly when she died, owing to the state of decomposition when her remains were found.
During the opening day of a preliminary hearing in the murder case on Tuesday (July 21), the court was shown a series of graphic and distressing photographs relating to the case, and Hernandez’s parents were in attendance at the hearing.
On that day, a homicide detective testified that Burke had purchased a body bag, chainsaws, an inflatable pool and a shovel online in the days after the victim’s death. The details of the murder had previously only been described in court filings, and the hearing marked the first time that evidence and photos were shown publicly in court.
According to prosecutors, Burke stabbed Hernandez before dismembering her body with a chainsaw to cover up the murder following years of alleged sexual abuse. It is alleged that he killed the teenager because she had threatened to speak out about his relationship with a minor and ruin his music career. He has denied the charges, and told police that he did not know Hernandez was a minor. He also claimed to have only met the then-13-year-old once in person.
Now, at the second day of the hearing, it has been heard that at least 11 air fresheners were found in D4vd’s Tesla alongside the human remains of the 14-year-old.
The court also heard about tattoos prosecutors claimed connected Burke and the victim. Images of a red-ink tattoo reading “Celeste” on Burke’s left ring finger, and a “Shhh…” tattoo on his right index finger, were shown to the judge. Another photo showed Hernandez with a similar “Shhh…” tattoo on her right index finger, while a separate picture showed a hand where the ring and little finger were cut off.
In a previous evidence filing, prosecutors alleged that the victim had sent text messages threatening to expose her relationship with Burke before she was allegedly murdered.
In April, the court heard that investigators had obtained access to Burke’s iCloud account, which they claimed contained “ a significant amount of child pornography”. His lawyers have vowed to “vigorously defend David’s innocence”, claiming that “evidence will show that David did not kill Celeste”.
The victim was first reported missing in April 2024, with the Tesla later being discovered after it had been moved to an impound lot in LA. The LAPD subsequently confirmed that the case was being treated as an “investigation into murder”.
