D4vd is facing a week-long preliminary hearing for a judge to determine if there’s sufficient evidence to sustain the counts of first-degree murder and other crimes against him.
The 21-year-old Romantic Homicide singer, also known as David Anthony Burke, was charged in April with killing Celeste Rivas after she threatened to derail his music career by exposing their illegal relationship.
Prosecutors kicked off the hearing on Tuesday with gruesome photos of the crime scene, Rolling Stone reports.
They claim D4vd met Rivas when she was 11 years old, and that they began having a sexual relationship when she was 13 and the singer was 18. He allegedly sent an Uber to bring her to his house in Los Angeles on 23 April, 2025, and killed her that night. His debut album, Withered, dropped two days later.
D4vd has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“Let us be clear,” the singer’s lawyers said in a statement following his April arrest, “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.”
The preliminary hearing will continue on Wednesday. A judge is tasked with testing the prosecution’s evidence and determining whether there’s probable cause to believe he could be guilty.
During a news conference on Tuesday, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his team will present more than 10 witnesses during the hearing, including police officers and coroners.
“At the end of the presentation of all this evidence, the question will be, will D4vd be held to answer on the three felony charges,” Hochman explained. “We believe we will more than accomplish the evidentiary burden of probable cause at this point.”
D4vd’s murder charge includes a “special circumstances” enhancement, which makes the maximum sentence life in prison without parole, or the death penalty.
