The platinum-selling musician known as D4vd, accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and concealing her dismembered remains in the trunk of his Tesla, appeared in court Wednesday and received a third postponement of his upcoming probable cause hearing.
The “Romantic Homicide” singer, born David Anthony Burke, agreed to push the hearing from June 29 to July 21 after his defense team asked for more time. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo set a status conference for July 7.
“Thank you, your honor,” Burke said before he was led out of the courtroom in an orange jail uniform and waist shackles. His lead defense lawyer, Blair Berk, declined to comment as she left the courthouse. His other lead lawyer, Marilyn Bednarski, did not attend.
The judge said she found “good cause” to continue the hearing after reading a sealed declaration from Bednarski submitted with the motion to continue. The important hearing is expected to last several days with multiple witnesses. After the hearing, the judge will decide if prosecutors have enough viable evidence to warrant a jury trial.
Burke, 21, was arrested April 16 and charged a week later with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors added special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait, making him ineligible for bail.
In a chilling evidence brief unsealed April 29, prosecutors claim surveillance video shows Burke driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, before parking it near his rental home and leaving for a concert tour. The car was later towed and impounded, with investigators making the grisly discovery of Rivas’ remains on Sept. 8, 2025.
“For several weeks, or possibly months, defendants left the victim’s body to decompose inside his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates, and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle,” the brief, obtained by Rolling Stone, alleges.
The filing claims Burke met Rivas when she was 11 and started a sexual relationship with her when she turned 13. When Rivas’ family reported her as a potential runaway, authorities allegedly found Burke’s number in her phone records and informed him of her age. Burke “continued to pursue” Rivas after that, prosecutors say, allegedly paying a classmate $1,000 to deliver a secret phone so they could stay in touch.
Recovered text messages between Burke and Rivas allegedly reference sex, pregnancy, and abortion. Prosecutors say the pair argued the night before Burke allegedly paid an Uber driver to ferry Rivas from her family’s home more than an hour outside Los Angeles, in Lake Elsinore, to his rental house in the Hollywood Hills. They allege Burke killed Rivas almost immediately after she arrived because she purportedly had threatened to go public with details of the alleged sex abuse.
“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,” the filing says.
Prosecutors allege Burke later bought a shovel, chainsaws, a body bag, and a blue inflatable pool under a fake name online and used the items to dismember Rivas in his garage. They say blood evidence found in his rental home’s garage is a match for Rivas, and they claim he lied to people who noticed the smell of her decomposing remains.
Burke has pleaded not guilty and followed the Wednesday hearing intently, nodding along as the judge spoke.
