D4vd pleads not guilty in Celeste Rivas Hernandez murder case as defense team withdraws
Pop Star Faces Murder Trial After Defense Team Walks Away Mid-Case
Wertynews.com – In a courtroom packed with media cameras and anxious onlookers, singer-songwriter David Anthony Burke — known to millions of streaming listeners as D4vd — entered a not-guilty plea on Monday in downtown Los Angeles, formally launching the prosecution's case against him over the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The arraignment, however, was overshadowed by a dramatic procedural twist: Burke's hired defense team filed its withdrawal from the case just hours before the hearing, leaving the 21-year-old musician without private counsel and forcing the court to assign public defenders to take over his representation. No explanation for the abrupt departure has been made public.
The new public defenders immediately requested additional time to review the record before entering a plea. The judge denied that request, and Burke was required to answer the charges that day. The decision means the case will move forward on the prosecution's schedule rather than pausing while a new team familiarizes itself with the file.
What Burke Is Charged With
The indictment carries three counts. The most severe is first-degree murder with special circumstances — a designation that elevates the offense above ordinary premeditated killing and opens the door to capital punishment. The special circumstances alleged by prosecutors include lying in wait for the victim, committing the act for financial gain, and killing a witness during an ongoing investigation. Two additional counts allege lewd and lascivious acts with a person under age 14 and mutilation of a corpse.
A judge had already ordered Burke to stand trial the previous month, meaning the arraignment was a procedural formality rather than a contested hearing. Yet the stakes could not be higher: if convicted on the murder count with its special circumstances, Burke faces the possibility of death by lethal injection under California law.
The Discovery and Medical Findings
Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains were located on September 8, 2025, inside cadaver bags stowed in the front trunk — the frunk — of a Tesla parked at a Hollywood tow yard. The vehicle was registered to Burke. By the time workers opened the bags, the body had been dismembered and was in an advanced state of decomposition.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was multiple penetrating wounds, consistent with stabbing. The examiner's determination placed the time of death several weeks before the September discovery, aligning with the prosecution's theory that the killing occurred in April 2025.
Prosecution's Theory of the Case
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters Monday morning that his office is actively weighing whether to seek the death penalty should a jury return a guilty verdict on the murder count.
"I am sure the public defender who will represent David Anthony Burke will give him a zealous representation," Hochman said. "We anticipate that on behalf of the prosecution and we are ready for it."
The district attorney's office has built its narrative around a private relationship between Burke and Rivas Hernandez that, prosecutors say, began when the girl was 13. During that relationship, Hernandez underwent an abortion. In the days before her death in April 2025, text messages between the two — read aloud in court by Los Angeles Police Department Detective Corey Farell during a preliminary hearing — show the teenager growing alarmed. She threatened to tell her father "lies" that would destroy his music career and ruin his life, according to Farell's testimony. She also expressed irritation over Burke's interactions with another woman around that period.
Prosecutors allege that Burke stabbed Rivas Hernandez before she could expose what they characterize as his criminal conduct, effectively silencing a witness who was close enough to implicate him in matters beyond the killing itself.
The Night of April 23
The prosecution's timeline centers on April 23, 2025. That evening, Burke agreed to dispatch a rideshare vehicle to collect Rivas Hernandez from her family's home in Lake Elsinore and transport her to his residence in the Hollywood Hills. Uber trip data, presented by Detective Farell, shows the teen arrived at Burke's location at 10:10 p.m. Roughly an hour and twenty minutes later, Burke's phone and vehicle departed the Hollywood Hills heading north toward Santa Barbara County — a direction inconsistent with any known obligation or appointment, according to the prosecution.
His former private attorneys, before withdrawing, had argued that no physical evidence confirms Rivas Hernandez ever stepped out of the rideshare car at Burke's door. They contended the prosecution's timeline rests on inference rather than direct proof of entry.
What Comes Next
A status conference is calendared for October 19. Under California's speedy-trial rules, Burke's trial must commence within 90 days of that hearing unless the parties agree to an extension or the court grants a continuance for good cause. Given the volume of digital evidence — phone records, Uber data, text-message transcripts, tow-yard surveillance — and the prospect of a capital-phase trial, both sides will likely use the status conference to negotiate discovery deadlines, jury-selection parameters, and whether the death-penalty question will be bifurcated into a separate sentencing phase.
For Burke, whose catalog of synth-pop singles has accumulated billions of streams worldwide, the case has transformed a career built on catchy hooks and viral dance videos into a courtroom spectacle watched by millions. For Celeste Rivas Hernandez's family, the next several months will determine whether justice takes the form of a life sentence, a death sentence, or an acquittal — outcomes that hang on whether a jury believes the prosecution's account of a teenage girl's final night in the Hollywood Hills.
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