A Los Angeles judge on Monday concluded prosecutors offered sufficient evidence to send David Anthony Burke - the 21-year-old artist who performed as D4vd (pronounced "David") - to trial on charges that he killed and dismembered a 14-year-old girl who had threatened to reveal a secret sexual relationship, according to court proceedings.
Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled there was probable cause for jurors to decide Burke's fate after a five-day preliminary hearing in a packed downtown courtroom. Burke sat shackled during the proceedings as prosecutors introduced graphic witness testimony and crime-scene photographs. The victim's parents attended much of the hearing.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters on the opening day of the hearing that the DA's office will later determine whether to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors say Burke's music career had surged after viral success on TikTok, where he posted songs produced for Fortnite gaming videos in 2022, and that his first hit single, "Romantic Homicide," led to a multimillion-dollar record deal with Interscope Records. His debut studio album was released in April 2025, the same week prosecutors allege his underage girlfriend, identified as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, went missing and was stabbed to death.
Authorities located the girl's decomposing remains five months later stuffed into the trunk of a Tesla sedan that police say was registered to Burke. The vehicle had been towed to an impound lot, where workers detected a strong odor and alerted law enforcement.
Burke was arrested in April of this year and has been charged with first-degree murder, mutilation of human remains and child sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty at an April 20 arraignment, where his lawyer, Blair Berk, forcefully asserted his innocence. "We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, nor was he the cause of her death," Berk said during that hearing.
In filings and testimony during the preliminary hearing, prosecutors laid out what they described as a gruesome sequence of events and an alleged motive. They say Burke feared the girl would ruin his emerging career after she threatened - out of jealousy, prosecutors say - to disclose damaging information about their sexual relationship, which prosecutors allege began when she was 13.
Financial manager Benjamin Greger testified that Burke, his only entertainment client, generated gross earnings of $10 million to $11 million from 2023 through 2025 following the Interscope deal. Prosecutors included an allegation that Burke committed murder for financial gain among the special circumstances in the indictment, a charge that could expose him to a potential death sentence. Another special circumstance alleges the victim was a witness to a crime.
According to prosecutors, on April 23, 2025 - one day after a dispute over her threats to go public - Burke arranged for the girl to take an Uber to his Hollywood Hills residence and then stabbed her to death after she arrived.
During the evidentiary phase of the hearing, prosecutors showed photographs of tools and items they say were ordered online under a false name and delivered to Burke's home after the killing. The inventory included three chain saws, a shovel and other implements. Among the items was a blue plastic inflatable swimming pool that, prosecutors say, was used inside Burke's garage so blood would not spill onto the floor.
Homicide detective Joshua Byers testified about how the victim's body was found. The torso and head were located inside a black vinyl cadaver bag stowed in the front trunk of the abandoned Tesla, positioned above a plastic garbage bag that contained the severed limbs. Byers said fragments of blue plastic consistent with the inflatable pool were embedded in the flesh of the amputated limbs.
Detective Byers also testified that two fingers on the girl's left hand had been amputated and were not recovered. The girl's right index finger bore a tattoo that read, "SHHH...," which Byers said matched a marking later found tattooed on Burke's right index finger.
Because of the condition of the remains, they were positively identified through dental records, Byers said. Prosecutors' court documents state that several biological samples taken from Burke's garage tested positive for blood and that DNA analysis of various specimens matched the victim's genetic profile.
The preliminary hearing provided prosecutors the opportunity to present detailed forensic evidence and witness accounts to meet the legal threshold for trial. With Judge Olmedo's finding of probable cause, the case will move forward to a jury, where the ultimate question of Burke's guilt will be decided.