D4vd Faces Ultimate Punishment as Family Demands Death Sentence

Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s relatives speak out on the eve of her 16th birthday, revealing what justice should look like for the singer accused of her murder.

On what would have been Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s 16th birthday, her family delivered a chilling message about the man accused of killing her. Relatives of the 14-year-old say they back the harshest possible sentence for singer D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, should he be convicted of her murder.

The timing was hard to ignore. Instead of marking a milestone birthday, Celeste’s loved ones spent the day publicly weighing in on the fate of the man accused of ending her life before it truly began, a detail that has only intensified attention on an already high-profile case.

No Forgiveness, Just Faith

The family’s stance, first reported by the New York Post, paints Burke as someone without empathy or remorse, describing him in terms that leave little room for leniency or sympathy. Their words carry none of the ambiguity often seen in high-profile cases; there is no hedging, no room read as forgiveness, only a flat and unambiguous judgment of the man they hold responsible for Celeste’s death.

Even so, the family was careful to note the decision isn’t theirs to make. They framed their support for the harshest possible sentence as a matter of faith as much as law, acknowledging the outcome ultimately rests with a higher authority and with California’s justice system, not with them personally.

The Penalty Question

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has confirmed his office has not ruled out seeking capital punishment, though a final decision hasn’t been made. That confirmation, delivered just last week, is the clearest signal yet that prosecutors are seriously weighing the maximum possible consequence rather than dismissing it outright.

Because Burke faces first-degree murder charges with special circumstances, he is legally eligible for the death penalty under California law, a threshold prosecutors only reach in the most severe cases. Reaching that threshold required months of investigation and a preliminary hearing before a judge agreed there was enough evidence to send the case to trial.

Who Decides, and When

Exactly how and when Hochman’s office will decide remains unclear. Capital case determinations in California typically involve extensive internal review, weighing factors like the severity of the alleged crime, the strength of the evidence, and input from the victim’s family, whose stated support for the death penalty could carry real weight in that internal calculus, even though it isn’t determinative on its own.

Prosecutors allege the killing was tied to a secret and illegal relationship between Burke and the teenager, one she allegedly threatened to expose, a motive that has helped shape the special-circumstances charges now on the table. Rivas Hernandez was killed in April 2025, and her case has since moved through the courts on a track that now puts the death penalty squarely in play.

A judge ordered Burke to stand trial in July following a five-day preliminary hearing. Last week, he entered a fresh not-guilty plea, this time represented by a public defender after his private attorneys withdrew from the case, a shift that adds another layer of uncertainty heading into trial.

Two Threads, One Outcome

Hochman’s office has offered no timeline for when a final call might come, and legal observers note that such decisions often aren’t made until closer to trial, once prosecutors have finished building out their full case. That leaves the family and the public following the case in a holding pattern of their own, watching for any signal from the district attorney’s office about which way it’s leaning.

For now, the two threads driving the story forward are distinct but connected: a grieving family that has made its wishes known in the starkest possible terms and a district attorney’s office still weighing whether to act on the maximum option the law allows. Whichever way Hochman’s office ultimately decides, the family’s public stance ensures that decision will be measured against a demand for the harshest penalty available under California law, keeping the case squarely in the public eye as it heads toward trial.

Source: rollingout.com, Dempsey May Ayuco, September 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

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