{"id":62868,"date":"2026-04-20T17:13:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/d4vd-charged-with-first-degree-murder-of-celeste-rivas-hernandez\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:13:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:13:35","slug":"d4vd-charged-with-first-degree-murder-of-celeste-rivas-hernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/d4vd-charged-with-first-degree-murder-of-celeste-rivas-hernandez\/","title":{"rendered":"D4vd Charged With First Degree Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tD4vd<\/a> has been charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez<\/a>, the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s office announced Monday, April 20.\u00a0The charge could carry a sentence of life in prison and is eligible for the death penalty if convicted. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the first-degree murder charge, L.A. County DA Nathan Hochman said the singer \u2014 real who\u2019s real name is David Anthony Burke \u2014 would faces charges of sexual acts with a person under 14 and mutilating the remains of a body. The special circumstances tied to the first-degree murder charge, Hochman added, were lying in wait, murdering a witness in an ongoing investigation, and financial gain.<\/p>\n

\n\tA lawyer for Burke did not immediately return Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s request for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe DA\u2019s office announced the charges after Burke was arrested<\/a> last Thursday (April 16) on suspicion of murdering Rivas. Seven months<\/a> ago, the Los Angeles police found Rivas\u2019<\/a> dismembered and severely decomposed body in the front trunk of an impounded Tesla belonging to Burke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing his arrest, Burke\u2019s lawyers issued a statement denying he was a killer. \u201cLet us be clear, 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,\u201d lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter said in the statement at the time, adding, \u201cWe will vigorously defend David\u2019s innocence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRivas\u2019 body was discovered last September after the LAPD responded to a call from a tow yard in Hollywood about a \u201cfoul odor\u201d coming from an impounded Tesla. At the time, Rivas\u2019 body was so decomposed that police were unable to immediately identify her. However, it was determined at the time that the 2023 Tesla Model Y with Texas license plates was registered to Burke. While Burke was on tour at the time, his reps issued a statement saying he was \u201ccooperating\u201d with authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tA little over a week after her body was discovered, authorities were officially able to identify Rivas<\/a>, a teenager from Lake Elsinore, California, who\u2019d been reported missing by her family in 2024. Over the coming months, the police remained tight-lipped about their investigation, with updates often emerging in tangential court documents. <\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tFor instance, an effort to force the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office to seal Rivas\u2019 autopsy findings contained the first description of the case<\/a> as \u201can investigation into murder.\u201d And Burke was formally identified as the \u201ctarget\u201d<\/a> of a grand jury investigation into the alleged homicide of Rivas in unsealed court documents linked to an effort to subpoena Burke\u2019s family for grand jury testimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut while official updates were rare, tabloid speculation and internet sleuthing were rampant. After Rivas was identified, rumors swirled around Burke\u2019s alleged links to the teenager. For instance, TMZ shared<\/a> a photo of Burke in Lake Elsinore, close to where Rivas lived before her disappearance.\u00a0They also\u00a0highlighted<\/a>\u00a0an allegedly leaked and unreleased D4vd song floating around the web called \u201cCeleste.\u201d And they\u00a0uncovered<\/a>\u00a0a photo of Burke that appeared to show him with a \u201cShhh\u2026\u201d tattoo on his finger similar to one Rivas had.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":62869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}