D4vd Had Trove Of Child Porn On His Phone After Killing 14-Year-Old, Prosectors Claim

LOS ANGELES, CA — An iPhone owned by singer D4vd, who is accused with killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in the Trunk of his Tesla, contains "a significant amount of child pornography," a prosecutor told a judge Thursday.

The 21-year-old, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, pleaded not guilty Monday to murder in Celeste Rivas Hernandez's death, along with other charges. At his court appearance Thursday, Burke's lawyers pushed for an unusually quick timeline for prosecutors to present the evidence they have against Burke.

In a rare move, the singer is exercising his right to have the preliminary evidence hearing within 10 court days of his arraignment. The hearing typically comes many months after defendants have been arrested and charged: Burke's hearing is set to start May 1 and expected to take four or five days.

The evidence presented at the hearing will help a judge decide whether there is probable cause to send Burke to trial.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo the prosecution is "anxious" to being the preliminary hearing, noting it has "been one year since Celeste's death." Prosecutors said Monday they believe Celeste was killed by Burke in a Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025.

Silverman said the prosecution has voluminous evidence that will take time to share, including child sex abuse images taken from Burke's phone with a warrant that must be handled sensitively.

Silverman said the digital evidence in the case totals 40 terabytes, which has made uploading and transmitting materials to the defense difficult. She also revealed that police conducted a wiretap operation in the case, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Burke is also accused of sexually abusing Celeste over at least a year, starting when he was 18 and she was 13. Prosecutors claim he killed her on or around April 23, 2025 after she threatened to report the relationship. He's accused of dismembering her body about two weeks later.

Burke was brought into court wearing handcuffs that were removed when he sat. He spoke only to say “yes, ma'am” to a procedural question from the judge.

In an autopsy report unsealed Wednesday, the LA County Medical Examiner determined that she died from two penetrating wounds to her upper body. The decomposing body made the examination difficult. Investigators did not determine how she got the wounds, and no weapon was recovered, the report said.

• Read more: Celeste 'Threatened To Expose' Sexual Abuse By D4vd Before He Murdered Her: DA

Material from City News Service and the Associated Press was used in this report.