The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenager whom singer D4vd is accused of sexually abusing and murdering before mutilating her body last year, is calling for justice as their attorney disputes the artist’s claim of indigence in a Los Angeles courtroom this week — a claim used to justify swapping his high-powered legal team for a public defender.
“We, as a family, only want justice for Celeste and for whoever is responsible to face the full force of the law. And we thank everyone for supporting our daughter in every way,” the Rivas Hernandez family said in a statement Monday afternoon, following the latest hearing in the case against the singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke.
Earlier Monday, Burke stunned the courtroom during a pretrial hearing when it was announced he was firing his legal team and switching to a public defender. The move, attorneys said, was because the rising star — who once opened for SZA — qualifies as indigent, a claim now being heavily contested.
Burke has swapped attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Pete for incoming public defender Walid Fouad Kandeel.
Prosecutors allege D4vd was in an illegal sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez, whom he met when she was 11 years old, and killed her after she threatened to expose the relationship and end his career — with the alleged murder occurring on April 23, 2025, just two days before the release of his debut album, Withered. A CBS Los Angeles report on his arraignment detailed the timeline further: Rivas Hernandez left her family’s Lake Elsinore home via rideshare and arrived at Burke’s Hollywood Hills residence at 10:10 p.m., with his phone and car departing north toward Santa Barbara County roughly an hour and 20 minutes later.
Dismembered remains were discovered in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer in Hollywood and were later identified through dental records and a matching “shhh…” finger tattoo the victim shared with D4vd. Burke is facing trial on murder, continuous sexual abuse and body-mutilation charges in connection with the April 2025 death.
The Los Angeles Police Department served a warrant at his home and found evidence in the garage consistent with dismemberment, and a worker later found the victim’s passport off a Santa Barbara County highway. His label, Darkroom/Interscope, dropped him, and he canceled the remainder of his tour. Burke was arrested in April 2026 and formally charged with first-degree murder among other counts.
Attorney Patrick Steinfeld, who is representing the Rivas Hernandez family, told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday that the singer has millions in three separate companies that he owns. Steinfeld sent documents from the state of Texas as evidence of his stake in the businesses
“David Anthony Burke is the owner and director of three LLCs, including entertainment, merchandising and publishing companies,” the attorney said in a statement sent to THR. “As owner, he controls the distribution of funds for these companies, so he should ‘direct’ one of his LLCs to distribute funds to him rather than claiming he’s broke and forcing taxpayers to reach into their pockets to pay for his defense.”
A five-day preliminary hearing in July produced some of the case’s most graphic disclosures — testimony about blood stains found on items in his garage, chainsaw purchases and explicit text messages with the victim, who was 13 at the time of their alleged relationship — and a judge ultimately ruled there was enough evidence to send the case to trial. L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said after the hearing that his office is undecided whether it will seek the death penalty in Burke’s case, and that two of his previous attorneys had been invited to submit a mitigation packet but had not done so as of the hearing.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His next court date is in October.
