California | Singer D4vd's preliminary hearing set for July 21 in killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Attorneys told a judge Tuesday they are ready to go forward with a multi-day hearing later this month for singer D4vd, who is charged with murdering a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard.

During the hearing set to begin July 21, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo will determine if there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against the 21-year-old singer—whose real name is David Anthony Burke—to proceed to trial.

One of Burke's attorneys, Blair Berk, indicated Tuesday the defense would be ready for the upcoming hearing, following a series of requested postponements.

Burke was charged on April 20 with capital murder in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

The teen's remains were found last Sept. 8—just days after what would have been the girl's 15th birthday—in the front trunk of the Tesla Model X that was registered to the singer, according to an April 29 court filing by the prosecution, which noted that the vehicle had been towed three days earlier while parked about 400 feet from his Hollywood Hills home.

The girl's severely decomposed head and body were found in a black cadaver bag, while her severed arms and legs were found in a plastic garbage bag underneath the cadaver bag, according to the filing.

"Surveillance video and other evidence confirm defendant was the last person to drive the vehicle on July 29, 2025, before he left Los Angeles on a concert tour," according to the prosecution's filing.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain, and killing a witness in a criminal investigation. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Burke, who remains jailed without bail.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said the lying-in-wait allegation stems from D4vd's invitation to Celeste to come to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, while the financial gain allegation stems from the singer's effort to maintain his lucrative music career, which was being threatened by his alleged sexual relationship with the underage girl, Hochman said. Celeste was considered the key witness in that investigation, leading to the allegation of murdering a witness, the district attorney said.

Burke is also charged with one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and mutilation of human remains.

He has pleaded not guilty through his attorneys.

The prosecution's filing alleges that he "purchased tools to carry out his plot to dismember and dispose of the victim's body," including ordering a shovel, two chain saws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, and a blue inflatable pool to be delivered to his home under a fake name.

"Moreover, defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim's body. After placing her body into the blue inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling onto his garage floor, defendant used a chainsaw and perhaps other tools to cut off her limbs. Small blue plastic fragments were found embedded in the victim's remains, which were collected by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Department," according to the filing.

The filing alleges that Burke "amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name," and those fingers were not found in the Tesla.

Los Angeles police detectives served a search warrant last Sept. 16 at his home and found "evidence consistent with the dismemberment of the victim's body in the inflatable pool, which contained multiple linear cuts," according to the filing.

The filing alleges that several biological samples, which tested positive for blood, were collected within the garage area. DNA analysis determined that various samples matched the victim's unique genetic profile.

According to the prosecution's brief, Burke and the girl met in January 2022 when she was 11 years old, and they began a "sexual relationship" in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18, and "text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion, and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive."

"There are also explicit photographs documenting and corroborating their sexual relationship," the prosecution alleged, noting that the two "broke up" in November 2024 but continued to communicate and that "text messages suggest they also continued to have sexual relations."

The prosecution alleges in the filing that the girl likely died April 23, 2025, and that the two had "engaged in a lengthy argument described in detail in their text messages" a night earlier that "reveal the victim's jealousy over defendant's relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together."

The teen "became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with the defendant to end his career and destroy his life," according to the filing, which noted that his first studio album was set to be released a few days later.

Burke allegedly sent an Uber to bring the girl from her Lake Elsinore home to his residence and then sent text messages to her inquiring where she was after the Uber dropped her off, the prosecution alleges.

The prosecution contends in the brief that it was "part of defendant's premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time."

"Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, the defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out. At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to save her life. Despite knowing she was dead and her family was trying to find her, the evidence will show the defendant lied and claimed he didn't know where she was," according to the filing.

D4vd was arrested on April 16 by Los Angeles Police Department officers.

His attorneys issued a statement at the time denying the singer killed Celeste.

"Let us be clear, the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, and he was not the cause of her death," defense attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said. "There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David's innocence."

Source: abc7.com, Staff, July 8, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

What Tennessee wants to do next to Christa Pike is beyond grim

Christa Pike, the woman who survived two execution attempts in Tennessee earlier this week, remains hospitalized in critical condition, where presumably medical staff is at work trying to keep her alive. If she wakes from the coma she had entered, Tennessee officials want to start anew to inject lethal drugs into her seemingly too-small veins to kill her and carry out the state death warrant. Pike also is being treated for “significant injuries to both arms” sustained when two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her. If she dies, there will be no need to try again. As we know by now, Tennessee tried to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.

Tennessee | Republicans legislature to investigate other execution methods after failed lethal injections

Republican leaders in Tennessee’s legislature say they will investigate the reliability of lethal injection as an execution method after the state failed to execute two death row inmates in the span of five months. Gov. Bill Lee stopped the May execution of Tony Carruthers after a physician unsuccessfully attempted to insert intravenous lines to begin the lethal injection process for over an hour. Death row inmate Christa Pike survived two failed rounds of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol on Sept. 30 before the execution was halted. Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, is receiving medical care in a Nashville hospital.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

Opinion | I Know Christa Pike’s Medical History. What Tennessee Did Is Unforgivable.

Dr. Zivot is an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician. He consulted on Christa Pike’s case before her attempted execution. On Wednesday night, Christa Pike lay strapped to a gurney at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville while the State of Tennessee injected pentobarbital, a sedative that is lethal in high doses, into her veins. When the 1st dose did not kill her, the execution team gave her a 2nd. At one point, she told the room her arm felt as if it were about to burst. She was nearly correct. More than an hour after the procedure began, an ambulance was called. She was severely injured but still alive.

Indiana plans to proceed with execution after botched Tennessee attempt

Indiana prison officials plan to proceed with Jeffrey Weisheit’s Nov. 5 execution after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee prompted that state’s governor to halt executions and order an independent review. The Indiana Department of Correction said Thursday that it remains confident in its procedures despite using the same protocol as Tennessee. Agency officials offered no additional details about the training of those administering lethal injections, the role of medical personnel, or safeguards for execution drugs.

Christa Pike's Survival Wasn't a Miracle. That's What Should Scare Us.

What happened in Tennessee's execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine Christa Pike is awake. A week after Tennessee strapped her to a gurney and gave her two doses of pentobarbital , she is off the ventilator and speaking from a hospital bed, still shackled to it. Her lawyers call her recovery " medically unprecedented. " Legal scholars say she is the first person in American history to survive a lethal injection after the drug was actually given. I understand the impulse to make such claims. I consulted for Pike's legal team, but I have also spent three decades in operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), and I want to resist the word "unprecedented" and the word "miracle" that hovers just behind it.

USA | Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed. It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain", said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.

Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

The Ministry of Home Affairs says discussions with the Israeli government involved the sharing of best practices in emergency response, crime prevention, and forensics. Issues relating to the death penalty “were never part of the meeting and were not discussed." SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Sep 11) refuted claims by an Israeli media outlet that the death penalty was discussed during a visit by an Israeli delegation in May. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sep 7 that a delegation comprising representatives from the Israel Prison Service and National Security Ministry made a “secret visit” to Singapore that month.

Florida executes Curtis Beasley

A 77-year-old man convicted of killing a woman with a hammer has become the 16th person executed this year in Florida A 77-year-old Florida man was put to death Tuesday for his conviction in a deadly hammer attack on a woman decades ago, becoming the 16th person executed to date this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber. Curtis Wilkie Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft auto in the 1995 hammer attack on Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando.

I’ve Covered Death Row Cases for Nearly a Decade. What Happened to Christa Pike Wasn’t an Anomaly.

Over the course of two hours, witnesses watched and listened as Christa Pike cried, whimpered and snored through Tennessee’s attempt to execute her. By the end of it, executioners had given her two doses of the state’s lethal injection drugs. Her arms were swollen and blistered, and one had turned purple, her attorneys said. And she was still alive, marking what legal experts say is the first time a prisoner in the U.S. has survived one dose—let alone two—of lethal injection drugs.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog