{"id":63734,"date":"2026-05-01T23:31:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/celeste-rivas-family-in-indescribable-pain-reject-claim-d4vd-paid-them\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:31:32","slug":"celeste-rivas-family-in-indescribable-pain-reject-claim-d4vd-paid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/celeste-rivas-family-in-indescribable-pain-reject-claim-d4vd-paid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Celeste Rivas Family in Indescribable Pain, Reject Claim D4vd Paid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tThe family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez is in \u201cunfathomable pain\u201d and is pushing back on rumors after prosecutors laid out a chilling account this week of how the 14-year-old California girl was allegedly murdered and dismembered by platinum-selling singer D4vd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement Friday, Celeste\u2019s father, Jesus Rivas, flatly rejected online speculation that the musician paid the family to gain their trust or silence.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI never had any contact with this guy, and we haven\u2019t received any money from him or anyone in his family,\u201d Jesus said in the new statement shared with Rolling Stone<\/em> by family attorney Patrick Steinfeld.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his own statement, Steinfeld said Celeste\u2019s parents, brother, and sister were left devastated by the flood of grisly details revealed by prosecutors in a court filing Wednesday. In the disturbing evidence brief<\/a>, prosecutors alleged D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, stabbed Celeste to death at his Hollywood Hills rental home on April 23, 2025, to cover up the sexual relationship he pursued with her when she was 13 and he was an adult.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had the heartbreaking responsibility of informing the Rivas Hernandez family of the horrifying allegations submitted in court,\u201d Steinfeld said. \u201cThat David Anthony Burke allegedly stabbed Celeste, \u2018stood by while she bled\u2019 to death, used a chainsaw to cut off her limbs, and bought a \u2018burn cage\u2019 with the plan to \u2018incinerate the evidence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said delivering the news \u201cwas the most difficult thing I\u2019ve had to do in 37 years as a lawyer.\u201d Though he initially encouraged the family to speak publicly after Burke was charged and appeared in court, the \u201cgruesome details emerging almost daily\u201d left the family so deeply \u201cshocked,\u201d they could not gather the strength to speak, he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now,\u201d he said. \u201cThey still have bills to pay and jobs they go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n\tBurke, now 21, was charged<\/a> last week with first-degree murder<\/a>, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors added special circumstance allegations of murder<\/a> of a witness, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait, which make him eligible for the death penalty. (Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the death penalty.) He has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Los Angeles judge allowed the public release of the evidence brief on Wednesday after Burke\u2019s defense lawyer, Blair Berk, argued it was so \u201centirely one-sided\u201d that it would taint any jury pool for a potential future trial. Berk asked that it be sealed, but the judge rejected the request.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the nine-page filing, prosecutors claim surveillance video shows Burke driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, before parking it near his rental home and leaving for a concert tour. The car was later towed and impounded, with investigators finding Rivas\u2019 dismembered, badly decomposed remains in the front truck <\/a>on Sept. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor several weeks, or possibly months, defendants left the victim\u2019s body to decompose inside his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates, and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle,\u201d the brief claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filing alleges Burke met Rivas when she was 11. When her family later reported her missing, authorities found Burke\u2019s number in her phone records and informed him of her age, it says. Burke \u201ccontinued to pursue\u201d Rivas after that, prosecutors say, allegedly paying a classmate $1,000 to deliver a secret phone so they could stay in touch.<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tRecovered text messages between Burke and Rivas allegedly reference sex, pregnancy, and abortion. Prosecutors say the pair argued the night before Burke allegedly paid an Uber driver to ferry Rivas from her home more than an hour outside Los Angeles, in Lake Elsinore, to his rental house in the Hollywood Hills. They allege Burke killed her almost immediately after she arrived.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKnowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors allege Burke later bought a shovel, chainsaws, a body bag, and a blue inflatable kiddie pool under a fake name online, and used the items to dismember Rivas in his garage. They say blood evidence found in his rental home\u2019s garage is a match for Celeste, and they claim he lied to people who noticed the smell of her decomposing remains.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\u201cFor several weeks, or possibly months, defendants left the victim\u2019s body to decompose inside his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates, and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle,\u201d the blockbuster evidence brief, obtained by Rolling Stone<\/em>, claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf convicted as charged, Burke faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez is in \u201cunfathomable pain\u201d and is pushing back on rumors after prosecutors laid out a chilling account this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":63735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63734","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\/63734","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=63734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}