A musician D4vd he was disbanded by a 14-year-old girl Celeste Rivas with a chainsaw after stabbing him to death, prosecutors said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed a brief statement on Wednesday, April 29, laying out its case against the 21-year-old singer – whose real name is David Anthony Burke – after a murder case in early April. He pleaded not guilty during his trial on April 20.
Rivas’ remains were found on top of Dv4d’s Tesla in September 2025. He was arrested on April 16 after a months-long investigation and later charged with murder, sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 and illegal mutilation.
In Wednesday’s briefs, obtained by Courthouse News and viewed by Us Weeklyprosecutors allege D4vd killed Rivas on April 23, 2025, one day after they had a “prolonged argument” over text messages.
“These messages reveal the victim’s jealousy of the defendant’s relationship with other women, as the defendant made her believe that they have a future together,” prosecutors said. “He became very angry and threatened to reveal damaging information about his relationship with the defendant in order to end his career and destroy his life. The defendant’s first studio album was scheduled to be released on April 25, 2025. He had a budding multi-million dollar career already underway. He also had multiple product endorsements, which were very lucrative.”
Prosecutors said the next day, Dv4d ordered Rivas to Uber to his home in the Hollywood Hills, where he “stabbed the victim multiple times and stood by while he bled.”
The singer alleges that the singer then called Rivas and sent a message to Rivas’ phone asking where he was, saying that he was “calculating and planning to defend himself shortly after the victim’s brutal murder.”
D4vd “then purchased tools to carry out her conspiracy to dismember and dispose of the victim’s body,” prosecutors said, including allegedly ordering a body bag, heavy-duty laundry detergent bags and a blue Amazon inflatable pool under the pseudonym Victoria Mendez.
Celeste Rivas
GoFundMeProsecutors allege that “the defendant took appalling steps to destroy and dispose of the victim’s body,” such as “putting her body in a green inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling into her garage,” before using “a saw and other tools to dismember the body.”
The prosecutor went on to say that D4vd “took off her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger had her name tattooed on them. Her fingers were never found. The defendant then put her head and body in a bag he bought, put her organs in a garbage bag, and put them on her front skin for a few weeks or more. Maybe months, the defendant left the victim’s body to rot inside his Tesla.”
Us has contacted D4vd’s lawyers for comment.
In a statement on April 16 following his initial arrest, D4vd’s lawyers, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski again Regina PeterHe denied being involved in Rivas’ death.
“Let’s be clear – the real evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not kill Celeste Rivas Hernandez and is not the cause of her death,” the singer’s lawyers told TMZ, vowing to “vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
