The singer referred to as D4vd was charged on Monday with the homicide of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a lacking teenage lady whose severely decomposed physique was found in the trunk of his Tesla final fall.
Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district legal professional, stated at a information convention that D4vd, whose actual identify is David Burke, had been charged with first-degree homicide with the particular circumstances of mendacity in wait, committing the crime for monetary acquire and murdering a witness to an investigation.
Mr. Burke pleaded not responsible at an arraignment on Monday afternoon. He was ordered held with out bail, and a preliminary listening to was set for Thursday.
Due to the particular circumstances, the cost carries a most sentence of life with out the potential of parole, or the dying penalty. Mr. Hochman stated his workplace had not determined whether or not to pursue the dying penalty.
The felony criticism filed by prosecutors contains the allegation that Mr. Burke “personally used a lethal and harmful weapon, a pointy instrument” to commit the homicide, Mr. Hochman’s workplace stated in an announcement on Monday afternoon.
Mr. Burke, 21, was additionally charged with the continual sexual abuse of a kid underneath the age of 14 and with the illegal mutilation of human stays.
The singer, who has tens of millions of followers on social media and music platforms, created the anthem for Fortnite. In 2024, he was a gap act on SZA’s SOS Tour, and final yr he launched his major-label debut, “Withered.”
Legal professionals for Mr. Burke have stated they may “vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
“The precise proof on this case will present that David Burke didn’t homicide Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the reason for her dying,” the legal professionals, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, stated in an announcement on Monday.
In a separate assertion on Monday, a lawyer for Mr. Burke’s household, Kent Schaffer, stated: “The Burkes will not be shocked however are terribly disenchanted that the district legal professional selected to cost David. However, they assist and stand by him one hundred pc.”
In response to the district legal professional’s assertion, after Mr. Burke sexually abused Celeste, she “threatened to show his felony conduct and devastate his musical profession.” So Mr. Burke “allegedly murdered her, lower up her physique and stuffed her physique in two baggage that have been positioned within the entrance trunk of his automobile.”
The case has captivated the public for the reason that authorities introduced in September that that they had found human stays in a Tesla registered to Mr. Burke. Officers stated the automobile had been left on a public avenue for weeks earlier than it was towed to an impound lot in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County medical expert’s workplace recognized the stays as these of Celeste, who in 2024 was reported missing from her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif.about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The district legal professional stated that on April 23, 2025, when Celeste was 14, she went to Mr. Burke’s home within the Hollywood Hills at his invitation and “was not heard from once more.”
Her physique was discovered on Sept. 8, a day after what would have been her fifteenth birthday.
“A mother and father’ nightmare,” Mr. Hochman stated on the information convention.
Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Division, stated on Monday that detectives had discovered that Celeste had “been concerned in a sexual relationship with Mr. Burke when she was a minor and he was an grownup.”
Chief McDonnell acknowledged that his division confronted criticism for not offering extra details about the case, which he known as “terribly troublesome and sophisticated.” He stated his officers had taken the required precautions to keep away from jeopardizing the investigation.
As a result of Celeste’s physique was “dismembered and badly decomposed” when it was found, Chief McDonnell stated, the county medical expert’s efforts to find out a explanation for dying have been delayed, and important proof within the case had degraded or disappeared.
In December, a choose granted a request from the Los Angeles Police Division to position a security hold on a report from the medical expert. Within the information convention on Monday, Mr. Hochman stated that report, which is anticipated to element the medical expert’s willpower of the reason for dying, can be launched quickly.
Mr. Hochman stated particulars of the investigation, together with bodily in addition to “forensic and digital” proof, can be offered in court docket, although he declined to element that data on Monday.
Repeated efforts to achieve members of Celeste’s household have been unsuccessful. However Patrick Steinfeld, a lawyer for the household, stated in an announcement that relations have been “dedicated to making sure that Celeste’s voice is heard.”
The assertion added that upon studying of Mr. Burke’s arrest, her father, Jesus Rivas, stated: “Thank God … justice for Celeste.”
