The singer D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the “brutal and horrific” death of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his towed Tesla last year in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced on Monday.
D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose legal name is David Burke — was arrested last week in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a monthslong investigation, police said. He is being held without bail.
He faces a slew of charges alleging he committed “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” with the teen while she was under the age of 14, and that he killed her for financial gain “to maintain his very lucrative musical career that Celeste was threatening,” Hochman said during a press briefing on Monday. The charges also allege he mutilated human remains, Hochman said.
Rivas Hernandez, a reported runaway from Riverside County, was last known to be alive on April 23, 2025, when she arrived at D4vd’s home in the Hollywood Hills, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. She was never heard from again, Hochman said.
In September 2025, her badly decomposed, dismembered body was found in the trunk of D4vd’s abandoned, impounded Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard, officials said.
Her head and torso were found in one bag, and her arms and legs in another, according to the court documents from Hochman filed in connection with a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation in connection with the teen’s death.
The Tesla had been at the impound lot for two days after being found abandoned on a Hollywood street, investigators said. The towed vehicle was registered to Burke.
Officers had responded to the impound lot “for a foul odor coming from a vehicle,” Los Angeles police said.
The teen may have been dead for several weeks before her body was discovered, police said. Her remains were found a day after her 15th birthday, according to her death certificate.
“During the course of our investigation, detectives learned that she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Mr. Burke when she was a minor and he was an adult,” McDonnell said during the press briefing.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner has made a determination on how she died, according to Hochman. The medical examiner’s findings in the D4vd case are sealed.
The charges come after the Los Angeles Police Department presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for filing consideration.
Burke faces a maximum sentence of life, without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty, Hochman said. The DA said his office will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later time.
D4vd’s attorneys maintained his innocence following his arrest last Thursday.
“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,” his attorneys said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
Hochman said he has met with members of Rivas Hernandez’s family, saying their “grief is incalculable.”
The “Romantic Homicide” singer’s arrest comes after months of compiling evidence, senior officials told ABC News. The grand jury that was empaneled didn’t play much of a role in getting to this point, they said.
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