A Los Angeles judge began hearing evidence on Tuesday in the case against d4vd, deciding whether the singer should stand trial for the killing and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The hearing puts the prosecution’s file in public view for the first time and could send the case to trial or stop it there.
Los Angeles hears first evidence
The preliminary hearing is expected to last about four days, with no jury and no cameras in the courtroom. Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether the prosecution has shown probable cause to move the case forward, a narrower question than guilt but enough to determine whether the charges keep advancing.
Burke, whose legal name is David Burke, has already pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. He has been held without bail in a jail near the courthouse since his arrest in April.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez timeline
Prosecutors say the evidence will show that Burke met Celeste Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, and that he began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. They also say he brought her to the Hollywood Hills house he was renting, then killed her after she threatened to report him.
The filing lays out a sequence that prosecutors say connects the fatal night to the later discovery of her remains. A car was sent to pick her up on April 23, 2025, from Lake Elsinore, California, and the two exchanged messages until she arrived at his Hollywood home, after which her phone went dead. Prosecutors say he stabbed her multiple times soon after she got there.
Tesla and DNA evidence
Prosecutors say they have records showing Burke ordered chain saws and wading pools that were used to dismember her body in his garage, and that Rivas Hernandez’s DNA was found on blood stains discovered when police served a search warrant. They also say he drove around for months with the body in the trunk.
About four months after her death, her decomposing body was found in the Tesla registered to Burke that had been towed from the Hollywood Hills in September. Blair Berk, his attorney, has said, “Burke is not responsible for Rivas Hernandez’s death.”
The hearing is the first public test of the prosecution’s case, and it is where the record either clears the way to trial or leaves the charges where they are. For a case this serious, the evidence now matters more than the headlines that built around it.
