Singer D4vd Pleads Not Guilty In Girl's Killing

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Singer D4vd pleaded not guilty Monday to murder and other charges stemming from the death of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered and decomposing remains were found in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard.

The 21-year-old singer — whose real name is David Anthony Burke — appeared in a downtown courtroom Monday morning, and his new public defender asked that the arraignment be postponed, but a judge rejected the request. The singer's attorney then entered a not guilty plea on Burke's behalf.

Burke is due back in court Oct. 19 for a status conference.

Burke was previously represented by a trio of attorneys — Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter. They withdrew as the singer's attorneys Monday morning.

"This morning the court granted our request to withdraw as counsel and appoint the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, after it was determined D4vd qualified for appointed counsel," the lawyers said in a joint statement. "We continue to support D4vd in his defense against these serious charges. We are grateful that the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office has taken over the representation and that D4vd has a highly capable and committed team of attorneys and investigators behind him."

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo found sufficient evidence following more than four days of sometimes-graphic testimony during a hearing in July to allow the case against Burke to proceed to trial.

Burke was charged April 20 with capital murder in the 2025 death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, along with the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain and killing a witness in a criminal investigation.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has not yet announced whether it will seek the death penalty against Burke, who was arrested April 16 by Los Angeles Police Department officers and remains jailed without bail.

Burke is also charged with one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and mutilation of human remains.

Prosecutors contend the singer killed the underage girl to prevent her from damaging his burgeoning music career by going public about their lengthy sexual relationship.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman — who was in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom throughout portions of the hearing in July — has said the lying-in-wait allegation stems from D4vd's invitation to the teen to come to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, while the financial gain allegation stems from the singer's effort to maintain his lucrative music career, which was being threatened by his relationship with Celeste.

Celeste was considered the key witness in the investigation into Burke's alleged sexual activity with the underage girl, leading to the allegation of murdering a witness, the district attorney said.

The teen's body was found last Sept. 8 — just days after what would have been her 15th birthday, according to a court filing from the prosecution, which noted that the vehicle had been towed three days earlier while parked about 400 feet from his Hollywood Hills home.

Burke has pleaded not guilty through his attorneys, who have maintained his innocence.

One of Burke's attorneys, Marilyn Bednarski, insisted in July that there was insufficient evidence on all of the charges.

The defense lawyer argued that Burke had "repeatedly expressed his love and care" for the girl even after they broke up and that there was no evidence Burke had ever stated he intended to harm her. She told the judge Burke eventually relented on the girl coming to his home after she repeatedly insisted on seeing him.

Burke's attorney said the evidence "failed to establish" he was watching and waiting for her or that there was any advance planning, and contended prosecutors had no evidence the girl intended to inform police about their relationship.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman countered there was "nothing about this case that sounds like an accident" and the teen was "obviously dead" within 20 minutes of being dropped off by an Uber driver at Burke's rented Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025.

"We have an underage minor who was threatening to expose this relationship," Silverman told the judge, arguing later that the defense has tried to "dirty up" the girl.

During the preliminary hearing in July, the prosecution presented graphic photos of the girl's remains, along with sexually explicit photos of the two from Burke's cell phone and text messages that were stored on an iCloud account in which an abortion was discussed, suggesting Celeste had been impregnated by the singer when she was 13.

LAPD Robbery-Homicide Detective Corey Farell — one of the lead investigators on the case — testified in July that data from Burke's iCloud account showed communications with the girl that began in 2022 when she was 11 and ended April 23, 2025. The text messages exchanged between the two that involved sex-related content were written between November 2023 and March 2025, according to Farell.

The detective testified that Burke wrote in a December 2023 text message to the girl that he has different aliases and goes by the name Travion Davis, which is the alias the prosecution contends he used to buy items in the dismemberment of the girl's body.

In a January 2024 text exchange that was read in court, the two expressed their love for each other and talked about a pregnancy, with the teen writing that neither of them were capable of taking care of a baby, Farell testified.

Burke wrote to the girl that his mother always told him to ask in that situation if "it is mine," with the then-13-year-old girl responding, "Of course, it's yours, David," according to the detective, who said the pair exchanged messages about an abortion appointment.

Text messages between the two also showed a plan dubbed "Operation Awesome" in which the girl was to move in with Burke in February 2024, with Burke writing the girl that it was the most important day in her life next to her wedding day, according to the detective.

The pair also engaged in a series of sexually explicit text messages in June 2024, with Burke suggesting in one message that they get married the next year, according to the detective, who said the two were 13 and 19, respectively, at the time. The messages also reflect that the couple had broken up in November 2024, Farell said.

The detective testified that the teen sent a text message to Burke on the evening of April 22, 2025, in which she threatened to strangle him, tell her father "lies" about the singer and to "end ur career and ur life."

Farell acknowledged under cross-examination that the teen's parents had given their consent for Celeste to travel to London with Burke and that her adult sister was aware that she had traveled to Las Vegas with the singer.

The prosecution alleges in a court filing earlier this year that the two had "engaged in a lengthy argument described in detail in their text messages" a night earlier that "reveal the victim's jealousy over defendant's relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together."

The teen "became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with the defendant to end his career and destroy his life," according to the filing, which noted that his first studio album was set to be released a few days later.

In its court filing in April, the prosecution alleges that Burke sent an Uber to bring the girl from her Lake Elsinore home to his Hollywood Hills residence and then sent text messages to her inquiring where she was after the Uber dropped her off.

The prosecution contends in the brief that those messages were "part of defendant's premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time."

"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. At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to save her life. Despite knowing she was dead and her family was trying to find her, the evidence will show defendant lied and claimed he didn't know where she was," according to the filing.

"Moreover, defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim's body. After placing her body into the blue inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling onto his garage floor, defendant used a chain saw and perhaps other tools to cut off her limbs. Small blue plastic fragments were found embedded in the victim's remains, which were collected by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Department," according to the prosecution's filing earlier this year.

LAPD detectives served a search warrant last Sept. 16 at Burke's home and found "evidence consistent with the dismemberment of the victim's body in the inflatable pool, which contained multiple linear cuts," according to the prosecution's filing.

The filing alleges that Burke "amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name," and those fingers were not found in the Tesla.

The filing alleges that several biological samples, which tested positive for blood, were collected within the garage area. DNA analysis determined that various samples matched the victim's unique genetic profile.

"Surveillance video and other evidence confirm defendant was the last person to drive the vehicle on July 29, 2025, before he left Los Angeles on a concert tour," according to the prosecution's court filing.

A deputy county medical examiner told the judge during the hearing in July that the girl had likely been dead for weeks — possibly months — before her dismembered remains were found last September.

Dr. Grant Ho noted that it was "extremely difficult" to tell exactly how long the girl had been dead before her body was discovered, since it was "severely decomposed."

Ho testified that the teen had two penetrating wounds — one to the right side of her abdomen and the other to the left side of her chest — that were life-threatening and would have taken "minutes" to bleed out. He testified that the decomposed state of the girl's body made it impossible to tell whether there had been a struggle before the teen's death. He said he didn't see superficial "hesitation marks" to suggest that she was holding the weapon that caused her death, and concluded that her death was a homicide.

Shortly after the singer's arrest, his attorneys issued a statement denying that the singer killed the teenager.

"Let us be clear, 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," Bednarski and fellow defense attorneys Blair Berk and Regina Peter said. "We will vigorously defend David's innocence."