Photo Credit: Wesley Tingey
Singer D4vd faces damning DNA evidence tying him to the remains of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez as his murder trial heats up.
Singer D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, is facing charges and a trial for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, allegedly to cover up his sexual abuse of her that began when she was at least 13. On Thursday, a police criminalist testified that the singer’s DNA was among the genetic material found on a trash bag that contained blood evidence linked to the victim—a detail that could be significant evidence in the case.
The bag was recovered from the garage of the singer’s Hollywood Hills rental during a September 17, 2025, search. The search followed the discovery of Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered and badly decomposed remains in the front trunk of a towed Tesla registered in Burke’s name. According to prosecutors, Burke stabbed the teen to death in the house on April 23, 2025, and dismembered her body in the garage, perhaps weeks later.
A swab taken from the trash bag during the search contained a mixture of DNA from four different people. At least two were male, according to Samantha Tosch, a Los Angeles Police Department criminalist, and Burke’s DNA was included in that profile. A sample from one of the wipes found inside the bag contained DNA that was “three trillion times more likely to have come from Rivas than from an unknown person.” However, Burke’s DNA was not detected on the wipe.
On Thursday, Tosch testified that other suspected blood evidence collected from various areas around the garage also matched the victim’s DNA profile. Samples were taken from a seemingly blood-stained rowing machine, as well as from a black rubber mat on the floor, a Tesla charger, and a green tarp. All were a match to Rivas’ DNA profile.
Prosecutors believe Burke had Rivas brought to the home in an Uber on April 23, 2025, and fatally stabbed her to cover up his sexual abuse of the teen. He then left on a promotional tour for his debut album, which was released only days later. When he returned to Los Angeles, he allegedly dismembered her body in an inflatable pool in his garage before concealing the remains in his Tesla.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His lawyers contend that the evidence will show that Burke did not kill Rivas Hernandez.
The hearing opened on Tuesday with graphic photographs of the teen’s remains, which were found across two black plastic bags in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla Model X. Flecks of blue plastic found on her knee are believed to have come from the inflatable pool that prosecutors allege Burke used to contain her remains as he dismembered her.
Burke faces life in prison without parole or even the death penalty if convicted as charged, but prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to seek a death sentence.
