D4vd I Did It took a sharper turn Friday when Los Angeles Police Det. Corey Farell told the court that cellphone texts and photos showed David Anthony Burke impregnated Celeste Rivas Hernandez when she was 13. The same evidence, presented during the preliminary hearing, also pointed to an abortion discussed in January 2024.
Farell said the phone held messages spanning November 2023 to March 2025, plus nearly 50 photographs that depicted Hernandez naked or the pair engaged in sex acts. He also said Burke’s lock screen showed the two topless and locked in an embrace, while one image showed Hernandez’s finger tattooed with “David” in red ink.
January 2024 texts
The January 2024 exchange is the clearest piece of the timeline. Burke asked, “wen u gonna get it done,” and Hernandez answered, “two days.” He then wrote, “also my mother always told me to ask this question if I was ever in this situation … it is mine right?” and she replied, “of course its yours David.”
Those messages put the alleged pregnancy and abortion inside a dated record rather than a vague accusation. Months later, Hernandez expressed regret over the abortion, adding another layer to a case already built on phone data and court testimony.
Burke and Hernandez
The hearing also tied the phone evidence to a broader timeline. The texts showed Burke and Hernandez discussing a move-in plan in February 2024, which Hernandez called “Operation Awesome,” and her parents reported her missing to Riverside County authorities that same month.
Around February 2024, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies went to Burke’s home to question him about Hernandez. When asked, Burke said he had only met her once in person and did not know she was under 18.
Hollywood case timeline
That account now sits against the phone record Farell described in court, along with earlier evidence that the singer had the name “Celeste” tattooed on his own finger in the same color and script style as Hernandez’s “David” tattoo. Prosecutors have alleged Burke fatally stabbed Hernandez inside his Hollywood home last April and amputated two of her fingers after dismembering her body with a chainsaw.
For Burke, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and sex abuse charges, Friday’s testimony pushed the case closer to the point where the hearing can wind down on the evidence already in the record. The unanswered question now is not whether the phone contained relationship evidence; it is how far that record will carry prosecutors when the case moves beyond the hearing and into the next stage.
