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Prosecutors laid out text messages and explicit photographs recovered from singer D4vd’s devices during the fourth day of his preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on July 24 2026. A Los Angeles police detective testified that nearly 50 images from the phone showed Celeste Rivas Hernandez naked or engaged in sexual acts when she was between 13 and 14 years old along with matching tattoos of each other’s names on their fingers. According to the detective’s account reported by the Los Angeles Times the material also included discussions of contraception pregnancy and abortion that began when the girl was 13 and the musician who was then 19 was already a rising star.
Texts from January 2024 shown in court captured D4vd apologising for putting Hernandez through the pregnancy while she replied that neither was capable of caring for a baby and that it was for the best the Associated Press reported from the hearing. The singer then asked whether the child was his and she confirmed it was of course his the testimony detailed. In subsequent messages she expressed regret writing that she cared about him and had killed her kid for him while lamenting that she had taken an innocent life of a literal baby according to the detective’s evidence.
The pair first connected online in August 2022 when Hernandez was 11 and David Anthony Burke who performs as D4vd was 17 with the alleged sexual abuse beginning the following year court records indicate. Hernandez was last seen alive on April 23 2025 after Burke sent a car for her from Lake Elsinore California about 80 miles from Los Angeles and her phone activity ceased prosecutors stated. Her dismembered remains were discovered five months later in the trunk of his Tesla on September 8 2025 the day before she would have turned 15 the New York Times reported.
Los Angeles County medical examiner Dr Grant Ho testified that the 14-year-old died from multiple penetrating injuries including two identified stab wounds one to the abdomen that struck her liver and another to the left chest that damaged her ribs. The heavily degraded condition of the body made it difficult to establish the precise time of death or any role played by substances found in toxicology screening including inconclusive methamphetamine results Ho told the court. Burke who has pleaded not guilty faces charges of murder continuous sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of remains that prosecutors say followed Hernandez’s threat to expose their relationship and destroy his career.
D4vd gained prominence through TikTok with tracks such as Romantic Homicide and Here With Me that have together exceeded one billion streams according to music tracking services. He had been on a worldwide tour supporting his debut album Withered which was released two days after the alleged killing when police located the body prompting cancellation of remaining dates multiple news outlets reported. The artist subsequently withdrew from public life and social media in the wake of the discovery.
Hernandez’s parents left the courtroom in tears during presentation of the photographs and messages while her father looked down in apparent shock the Guardian noted from the proceedings. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman used the evidence to argue that Burke should be held for trial on all counts. The preliminary hearing before the judge is set to resume on Monday with a decision expected on whether the case proceeds to full trial.
