D4vd charged with first-degree murder, including lying in wait and financial gain
Accused of lewd acts with minor and mutilating Celeste’s remains to protect career
Celeste’s body found in D4vd’s impounded car months after her disappearance
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges against D4vd at a press conference on Monday, April 20.
The music artist, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, was charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. This comes nearly 8 months after the missing teenage girl was found dead in the trunk of the singer’s impounded car.
At a press conference on Monday, April 20, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges against the 21-year-old music artist, whose real name is David Anthony Burke.
According to reports from People, Burke was charged with first-degree murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain, and murdering a witness to an investigation. Hochman added that Burke has also been accused by prosecutors of lewd and lascivious sexual acts with an individual under 14 years of age and mutilating human remains.
Due to the special circumstances, these charges carry a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Hochman’s office had not decided whether they would be pursuing the death penalty.
“I am a parent of three children, and a parent’s nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back,” Hochman said during the press conference. “Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again.”
The LA County District Attorney alleged that D4vd killed Celeste on April 23, 2025, and later dismembered her “to maintain his very lucrative musical career that Celeste was threatening on that particular night,” per People. Hochman also claimed that the girl was a “witness” to a separate investigation into the “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” allegedly committed by the artist when she was under the age of 14.
After months of online speculation, this is the first time authorities have alleged there was a connection between the two incidents.
Burke was arrested earlier this month in the Hollywood Hills and is currently being held without bail. He was on a North American tour at the time of the discovery and subsequently canceled the remaining dates, and has been the focus of a grand jury investigation since November 2025, two months after Rivas’ body was found.
D4vd’s attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, previously denied his involvement in a statement, saying:
“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.”
Rivas was found dead in the trunk of an impounded Tesla on Sept. 8, 2025, the day after her 15th birthday. According to a petition filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Rivas had been dismembered, with her head and torso separated from her arms and legs. Since police were granted a request to seal her autopsy findings amid the investigation, her cause of death has not been made public.
In a news release following the press conference, Hochman alleged that Burke “personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a sharp instrument, to commit the crime,” adding that the girl’s “dismembered body sat for over four months” in his trunk.
“The substantial amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery meant that crucial evidence had degraded or disappeared, and as detectives worked to uncover the truth, they also had to sift through and debunk a great deal of false information circulating publicly,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at the press conference.
Burke’s arraignment is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
