Prosecutors on Monday gave a moment-by-moment account of the last night of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, showing that after a stream of text messages with the singer D4vd, her phone went permanently silent when she arrived at his home.
The texts were shown in court on the fifth and probably final day of a Los Angeles hearing to determine whether he will go to trial in her killing.
Final Text and Allegations
As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10am on 23 April 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”
Prosecutors allege D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, stabbed her to death when she came through the door.
The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profane text saying she would tell her father so many lies about him and “i will end ur career and ur life.”
Defense Arguments
Defense attorneys established that no witnesses saw and no cameras captured Rivas Hernandez entering the house or Burke being at the house in the time frame prosecutors say she was killed.
The defense showed several other texts from Rivas Hernandez threatening him about their relationship, and saying she would go to Burke’s mother, talk to his friends and “leak” information about them.
Under questioning from defense attorney Blair Berk, Detective Corey Farrell said he saw no indication that she ever threatened to go to police or pursue any legal action against him.
The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he agreed only after she demanded it.
Relationship Background
Farrell also said under questioning from Berk that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he had attended church with members of her family and that her parents had given their consent to go to London with him for a week.
The detective also agreed that Rivas Hernandez in her earliest conversations with Burke when he was 17 and she was 11, she had told him she was 16, and at other times said in messages she was 18.
Post-Death Messages and Evidence
After her phone went silent, Burke sent her several other messages that night asking where she was, and expressing concern. Prosecutors allege those messages were sent as cover after he had killed her.
Both sides finished their questioning of Farrell, the hearing’s final witness, and were preparing for closing arguments before Judge Charlaine Olmedo makes her decision.
Prosecutors allege Burke dismembered the body in his garage. A police analyst testified earlier in the hearing that samples pulled from apparent blood stains there matched her DNA.
Her body was found in a Tesla registered to him nearly five months later.
Background on D4vd
D4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough Romantic Homicide, have more than a billion plays.
