Highlights
- D4vd allegedly bought chainsaws, a body bag & inflatable pool on Amazon after Celeste Rivas’ murder
- Purchases were made under fake name “Victoria Mendez” and delivered to his Hollywood Hills home
- A preliminary hearing is set for May 1 to determine if the case proceeds to trial
Singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, was back in court Wednesday as prosecutors unveiled a disturbing new evidentiary filing laying out the most detailed picture yet of how 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was sexually abused starting when she was 13, then fatally stabbed when she threatened to expose their relationship.
The singer’s first studio album was released days after the killing, and he took “horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” the filing says.
The 21-year-old has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Blair Berk, said after the arraignment that evidence “will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”
The Amazon Orders
Prosecutors allege D4vd stabbed Celeste to death at his Hollywood Hills home — and, the next day, ordered a shovel from Home Depot, which was delivered to his home through Postmates.
The shopping didn’t stop there. The court document alleges D4vd ordered two chainsaws, a body bag and an inflatable pool on Amazon using a fake name. D4vd orders a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags and a blue inflatable pool from Amazon under the fake name “Victoria Mendez,” according to prosecutors. D4vd is accused of mutilating Rivas Hernandez’s remains, according to the complaint. Prosecutors allege he cut up her body in the pool and stuffed her remains in a cadaver bag and a garbage bag that were then left in the front trunk of his car for months.
The star allegedly placed Rivas’ body into the blue inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling all over the garage floor.
Investigators say fragments of that pool were found in cut wounds on Celeste’s body. The Medical Examiner’s report noted there were blue plastic fragments — consistent with the blue pool material, according to prosecutors — found embedded in Celeste’s body parts.
The Night of the Murder
The next night, Burke sent an Uber to pick up Rivas Hernandez and bring her to his home. Celeste died of “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to an autopsy report released this month.
Prosecutors allege the motive was clear and calculated. “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,” the filing says. “At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to attempt to save her life.”
At 11:30 PM that night, one hour after the alleged murder, D4vd drove to Santa Barbara County “attempting to dispose of [Celeste’s] property and destroy evidence”… and returned home early on April 24 to do a radio interview to promote his album.
The Cover-Up Continues
On July 7, he ordered a “burn cage” from Amazon under the fake name as part of his plan to “incinerate evidence,” prosecutors allege.
In January, a California transportation worker found Rivas Hernandez’s U.S. passport card along a roadway in Santa Barbara County.
Rivas Hernandez’s body was found on Sept. 8, 2025, a day before she would have turned 15, in a Tesla registered to Burke that had been towed to an impound lot from the Hollywood Hills. Officers responded to the tow yard after someone reported smelling a strong odor coming from the vehicle. Inside the front trunk, detectives found a plastic bag containing “a decomposed head and torso,” according to court documents.
At the time Rivas Hernandez’s body was discovered, D4vd was performing in Minneapolis as part of a world tour in support of his first full-length album, Withered.
Reaction and Legal Status
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell addressed the public nature of the case. “Sadly, some treated this as if it was entertainment. It’s not entertainment. It’s a tragic life taken in a very brutal way,” McDonnell said.
A day after Burke was charged, Rivas Hernandez’s family issued a statement thanking investigators for “their hard work” on the case and “the people of Lake Elsinore for all their support.” “Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance,” the family’s statement read. “We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”
A judge on Wednesday denied Berk’s request to seal the evidentiary filing, which the defense attorney says is “one-sided” and “replete with hearsay” and has the potential to taint a future jury pool.
A preliminary hearing has been set for next month, where they will determine whether the 21-year-old should go to trial.
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