A Los Angeles judge has ruled that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for the musician D4vd to stand trial for murder.
The Romantic Homicide singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, is charged with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez when she was 14 years old.
“It appears to me, for the purposes of preliminary hearing, the people have met their burden of proof on all charges,” Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled. “I order that Mr Burke be held to answer.”
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman argued to the court before the ruling that D4vd was a “very clever adult” who sexually abused Rivas, “gaslit” the minor, and eventually murdered her after she threatened to expose the abuse.
Silverman was responding to a defence motion arguing that prosecutors had failed to present enough evidence to send Burke to trial on a first-degree murder charge.
Defence lawyer Marilyn Bednarski argued that Rivas had invited herself to Burke’s home on the night of 23 April 2025, and that Burke had been playing a virtual-reality game in the minutes before she arrived, not preparing to kill her.
Bednarski cited scores of text messages as showing “the opposite of homicidal animus” and that D4vd “repeatedly expressed his love and care even after they broke up”.
Burke also faces charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
His re-arraignment has been set for 31 August.
