D4vd arrested on suspicion of teen found dead in Tesla trunk
Singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of murder after 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered in his name.
Musician D4vd is facing murder charges following his high-profile arrest in the murder of teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday, April 20, that the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, will be charged with special circumstances of first-degree murder, persistent indecency with a person under 14, and mutilation of a corpse.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hockman said at a news conference that special circumstances for first-degree murder include “laying in wait, committing this crime for financial gain, and killing a witness during an investigation.”
“I never heard from her again,” Hochman said. Rivas-Hernandez’s “dismembered and decomposed body was found in two bags” in a car registered to Burke. “The investigation was about finding out who killed Celeste all those months ago.”
Murder, including special circumstances, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Hochman said a decision on the death penalty will be made in the future.
News of Burke’s criminal charges comes days after he was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 16, at around 5 p.m. Mr. Burke is jailed without bail.
USA TODAY has reached out to Burke’s attorney for comment.
District Attorney Celeste Rivas Hernandez says family’s grief is ‘immeasurable’
At a news conference Monday, Hochman said he had met with several members of Hernandez’s family.
“Their grief is immeasurable for what happened to their daughter,” Hochman said. “What they asked for, what we assured them, what the District Attorney’s Office working with the Los Angeles Police Department will give them is that we will provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt of who killed their daughter, how she was killed, and that we will bring that killer to justice.”
D4vd’s lawyer claims the singer was ‘not the cause’ of Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s death
Burke’s attorney maintained his innocence in a statement shared with media outlets including NBC News and People.
“To be clear, the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not kill Celeste Rivas Hernandez and that he was not the cause of her death,” said Burke’s attorneys, Blair Burke, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter. “We vehemently defend David’s innocence.”
Rivas Hernandez was 13 years old when she was reported missing in February 2024. On September 8, 2025, the day after she would have turned 15, she was found dead in the trunk of a Burke-registered car after Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a report of a strange odor coming from the car.
According to a statement shared with USA TODAY on Sept. 18, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office reported during the initial investigation into Rivas-Hernandez’s death that the boy’s body was “found in a severely decomposed state inside the vehicle” and that it appeared he had “been dead in the vehicle for an extended period of time before being discovered.”
Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s family says D4vd’s arrest is ‘justice for Celeste’
Rivas-Hernandez was added to the missing persons database after Riverside County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to her family’s Lake Elsinore, Calif., location on a report that she was a suspected fugitive.
The search for the girl reached a breakthrough on September 17, when the Los Angeles Police Department notified the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office that the missing girl’s body had been found and was identified as Rivas-Hernandez.
“The Rivas-Hernandez family is committed to ensuring that Celeste’s voice is heard and that her memory is respected throughout this process,” Patrick Steinfeld, an attorney representing the Rivas-Hernandez family, said in a statement shared with CNN and others.
“Thank God… for justice for Celeste,” Jesús Rivas Rivas Hernandez’s father said in a statement, according to the New York Times.
This story has been updated to add new information.
