Singer David Anthony Burke, better known as D4VD, had “a significant amount of child pornography” on his cell phone, a prosecutor said in court Thursday morning.
Los Angeles County Subdist. Atty. Beth Silverman made the claim during court proceedings to set a preliminary hearing on murder charges in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Silverman said the images were uncovered as part of a wide-ranging search warrant executed on Burke’s phone and iCloud.
Burke’s lawyers insist he is innocent and are asking for a preliminary hearing to begin next week, meaning evidence in the closely scrutinized case could become public as soon as May 1. He appeared in court Thursday in an orange prison jumpsuit and walked through the courtroom with his hands in his pockets.
A status hearing was scheduled for April 29.
Burke was arrested by Los Angeles police last week and charged on Monday with murder, persistent sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a corpse, according to a criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty.
The singer allegedly started sexually abusing Hernandez in September 2023, when she was just 13 years old. Burke’s lawyers have said the case is not worthy of investigation and have pressed for an immediate preliminary hearing.
Hernandez was reported missing from her family’s Lake Elsinore neighborhood three times in 2024, and was seen at some of D4vd’s concerts during that time frame.
Prosecutors allege Hernandez was last seen on April 23 at Burke’s Hollywood Hills residence. According to the LA County District, he “threatened to expose her criminal conduct and ruin her music career.” Atty. Nathan Hochman, although the prosecutor did not answer questions about whether Hernandez was going to report Burke to the police.
Burke’s popularity increased when one of his tracks was included in the hugely popular video game “Fortnite”, and he has also worked with artists such as 21 Savage. He was beginning a tour in support of his debut album, “Withered”, when reports emerged linking him to Hernandez’s death. He immediately canceled all the shows.
The details of the crime echo some of the violent imagery associated with Burke’s lyrics. The Queens-born singer has come forward in a music video Filled with violent imagery: a young woman with an apparent wound to her chest lies in bed and the singer hovers over her, blindfolded, his white shirt stained with blood. in the other Video, In “One More Dance,” D4vd pulls a man – who resembles the singer – into a car, where a couple crams the man into the trunk.
Hernandez’s badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of a Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard last September. An autopsy report made public this week revealed that he died from two stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. According to the medical examiner’s report, when police arrived at the scene they found that Hernandez’s body had been “dismembered” and two of his fingers had been cut off.
Prosecutors charged Burke with murder under special circumstances, including allegations that Hernandez was a witness to a crime – her own sexual abuse – and that Burke murdered her for financial gain to protect his burgeoning music career. If convicted as charged, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
