Singer D4vd pleads not guilty to murder of 14-year-old

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Singer D4vd pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge in the death of a 14-year-old girl who was last known to be alive nearly a year ago and whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in September in his apparently abandoned Tesla.

The charges revealed key details and were among the first concrete public moves made in a grisly and horrific case that had been under a largely secret investigation in the seven months since the body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14, and mutilating a body. His attorney entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to all counts.

The girls’ parents were in court for Burke’s first appearance in the case on Monday.

His lawyers said the evidence would show that he was innocent.

Authorities alleged that the Houston-born alt-pop singer killed Rivas Hernandez to protect a career on the rise after she threatened to report their sexual relationship. His debut album, Withered, was released just two days after they said she was last known to be alive. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. That was her age when, according to an allegation in a criminal complaint, the singer engaged in continuous sexual abuse of her for at least a year from September 2023 to September 2024. California law penalises abuse of a child under 14 especially harshly.

Authorities, who described her Monday as a “runaway,” said she was 14 when she was killed with a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, and was headed to the singer’s house in the Hollywood Hills.

Prosecutors allege that Burke mutilated her body about two weeks later.

The murder charges included special circumstances – lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain, and murdering the witness in an investigation – that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it.

The witness is alleged to have killed is Rivas Hernandez herself, who could have given testimony about the sex crime allegations.

Attorneys for Burke said he would be exonerated in a statement released after the charges were announced.

“The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” they said. “We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

Burke was arrested at a home in Hollywood Thursday.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence – and his designation as its target – was revealed in February when his mother, father, and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding that they testify. The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at their address, according to court filings. Authorities did not publicly acknowledge him as a suspect until his arrest.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odour of decay”, court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped a bag and found a head and torso.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body”, according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release of details of the autopsy. The court order was expected to be lifted after the charges.

The family of Rivas Hernandez has remained private and has not made any public statements on her death or the case.