Warning: this article contains distressing details

A judge has ruled that D4vd will go on trial for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

It comes after a five-day preliminary hearing, in which Los Angeles prosecutors questioned a dozen witnesses and displayed photographic evidence as the teenager’s family attended court.

D4vd (real name David Anthony Burke) has been accused by prosecutors of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and dismembering her body with a chainsaw in his garage after buying tools online. On April 20, he was charged with her murder.

He has pleaded not guilty to murdering and sexually abusing the teen, whose remains had been found severely decomposed in the front boot of a Tesla registered to Burke last September.

The singer is set to be charged on August 31 with the trial set to start within 90 days of that date.

During the opening day of a preliminary hearing in the murder case on Tuesday (July 21), the court was shown a series of graphic and distressing photographs relating to the case, and Hernandez’s parents were in attendance at the hearing. On that day, a homicide detective testified that Burke had purchased a body bag, chainsaws, an inflatable pool and a shovel online in the days after the victim’s death.

Prosecutors alleged that Burke stabbed Hernandez before dismembering her body with a chainsaw to cover up the murder following years of alleged sexual abuse. It is alleged that he killed the teenager because she had threatened to speak out about his relationship with a minor and ruin his music career.

He has denied the charges, and told police that he did not know Hernandez was a minor. He also claimed to have only met the then-13-year-old once in person.

On the second day of the hearing, it was heard that at least 11 air fresheners were found in D4vd’s Tesla alongside the human remains of the 14-year-old, and also that his DNA was found on garbage bags related to the case.

Over the weekend, text messages between D4vd and Hernandez were read out, indicating she was pregnant and had an abortion more than a year before she was killed.

Evidence read in court yesterday (July 27) via BBC News showed threats Hernandez made to Burke on April 22, 2025, stemming from arguments about his friendship with another girl.

“I swear to GOD I will kill u”, one expletive-laden text said, followed by a threat to strangle him and tell her dad lies about him. “i will end ur career and ur life I will damage anything,” the text went on.

The following day, Hernandez went to Burke’s Hollywood home in an Uber he had sent to pick her up. Prosecutors alleged that Burke stabbed her once she arrived.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that evidence presented during the preliminary hearing provided probable cause for a trial.

She found that prosecutors met the threshold for the charge of murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, motive for financial gain and eliminating a witness.