EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains graphic and disturbing particulars.
Los Angeles
A preliminary hearing has revealed new particulars on a few of the proof prosecutors say they’ve gathered towards d4vd in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez: testimony of blood stains on varied objects from his storage, chainsaw purchases and specific textual content messages with the woman.
The 21-year-old singer, whose authorized identify is David Burke, is accused of killing the woman after she threatened to show their relationship and harm his profitable profession as a rising music star. Testimony on Friday included textual content messages between them that prosecutors say present a sexual relationship with the sufferer who was simply 13 at the time, and that Celeste had an abortion the yr earlier than she was killed. A decide is weighing whether or not there’s sufficient to maneuver ahead with a trial.
Celeste’s dismembered physique was present in the trunk of d4vd’s Tesla in September 2025, which was parked close to his rented Los Angeles dwelling. The musician has pleaded not guilty to first-degree homicide, steady sexual abuse of a kid below 14, and mutilating human stays.
Body digicam footage of a search of d4vd’s dwelling was proven in court docket this week, in addition to graphic photos of Celeste’s dismembered physique. The court docket additionally heard dialogue of chainsaws and a burn field d4vd allegedly bought below totally different aliases.
D4vd sat at the protection desk in an orange jumpsuit and dark-rimmed glasses, listening as Los Angeles Police Department criminalists and detectives described blood stains on varied objects at his dwelling that they are saying had been a possible match for Celeste, and described sexually specific pictures they are saying are of him and the sufferer; and as a deputy health worker described the woman’s accidents.
His protection attorneys labored to problem the proof and its assortment, offering a window into what may grow to be a part of d4vd’s protection technique if the case goes to trial.
Here are the key takeaways from the preliminary hearing thus far:
The dad and mom of Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been current when ugly proof pictures had been proven in court docket. They depicted badly decomposed human stays in a number of baggage faraway from d4vd’s Tesla.
“There you see the head and torso minus the limbs,” LAPD detective Joshua Byers mentioned on the witness stand. Celeste’s mom dropped her head and was comforted by a county worker.
“She said, ‘I want to be here to show support for Celeste,’” the household’s civil legal professional Patrick Steinfeld later advised reporters outdoors the courthouse Tuesday.
It was the first time the dad and mom noticed these photos, he added.
Another picture confirmed blue plastic fragments embedded in a knee, which prosecutors keep are from an inflatable pool d4vd allegedly used whereas dismembering the physique.
Photos of Celeste’s severed hand had been additionally proven. In one, she is lacking a pinky and ring finger. The prosecution beforehand mentioned d4vd eliminated them as a result of they’d a tattoo of his identify, in line with a quick filed in court docket. Later, Byers testified that reserving pictures revealed d4vd had a tattoo of the identify “Celeste” on his left ring finger.
The household was not current Friday for the health worker’s testimony, which featured graphic post-mortem pictures together with two puncture wounds to the chest and stomach that the health worker decided triggered the sufferer’s dying.
D4vd’s cellphone and iCloud reveal sexually specific pictures
Dozens of pictures depicting what prosecutors labeled youngster sexual abuse materials had been mentioned in court docket – the photos weren’t exhibited to the public. LAPD detective Corey Farell mentioned the photos had been recovered from d4vd’s cellphone and iCloud information. Farell described to the courtroom practically 50 pictures that confirmed sexually specific pictures, together with ones the place he recognized d4vd and the sufferer.
Farell mentioned the first on-line messages between d4vd and Celeste hint again to August 2022, when she was 11 years previous. Their sexual relationship started when Celeste was 13 and was detailed in graphic textual content messages Farell learn aloud in court docket.
“They discussed past sexual liaisons and future sexual liaisons. They discussed their relationship, their future relationship,” Farell mentioned.
Text messages between d4vd and Celeste confirmed them discussing intercourse, in addition to Celeste speaking about taking Plan B emergency contraceptive, getting an abortion and probably having kids in the future.
Other texts revealed plans to maneuver in collectively in what the pair known as “Operation Awesome.”
Later texts present the relationship deteriorating, with Celeste saying she was upset about getting the abortion. “I killed my first kid for you,” she wrote to d4vd, in line with testimony.
Throughout the testimony, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman requested about the age of the sufferer.
“She was 13,” Farell mentioned on quite a few events. D4vd was 18 and 19 throughout the time interval mentioned.
Byers, the LAPD detective, testified that d4vd had objects despatched to his dwelling below two totally different aliases. Some of the objects, prosecutors allege, had been used throughout the dismemberment of the sufferer.
Under the identify “Travion Davis,” d4vd allegedly ordered from Amazon a fireproof mat, a shovel, an inflatable pool and several other chainsaws. Two of these chainsaws had been recovered at the dwelling and didn’t present hint proof for blood. A 3rd chainsaw, bought from Home Depot, was not discovered by legislation enforcement.
A shovel and mat had been additionally not discovered, Byers mentioned.
D4vd ordered a so-called burn field below the alias “Victoria Martinez,” Byers testified.
“A device that can be used to create a high enough temperature to burn items… It’s like a mini crematorium-type… to burn items to nothing,” Byers mentioned.
The burn field was discovered unopened in its unique field and was not examined by proof technicians. Defense attorneys questioned why it was by no means examined for “touch DNA,” or traces of proof left by somebody who could have dealt with the field, since different individuals had been out and in of the dwelling.
Several blood samples present in d4vd’s Tesla and his rented dwelling produced a statistically robust match to the sufferer, an LAPD criminalist testified.
Among the matches had been two purple stains present in the Tesla’s trunk and one in the inside of the automotive. At the dwelling, a blood stain on a mat masking the storage flooring and stains on a rowing machine and Tesla charger plug statistically matched Celeste’s DNA, mentioned Samantha Tosch, the LAPD criminalist who analyzed the samples.
But the protection sought to problem the certainty of a few of the LAPD findings. Namely, a black trash bag with DNA from 4 individuals, together with d4vd. In that pattern, some had been thought of to be extra possible contributors than others, and testing was unable to pinpoint d4vd’s actual chance, a distinction Tosch agreed with.
The protection additionally raised questions over the determination to not acquire and check chainsaws present in the dwelling that the criminalist decided on website to haven’t any traces of blood.
“You did not collect them to test for any… marks on the blade that could be consistent with dismemberment?” requested protection legal professional Blair Berk.
LAPD detective Byers mentioned, “if those chainsaws were used to dismember a body, there would be no way they couldn’t have blood” on them.
The line of questioning might be a window into a part of d4vd’s protection technique at trial.
“If he can somehow show the evidence is tainted or was collected in an improper manner, maybe it creates reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror,” legal professional and authorized analyst David Ring advised NCS.
A key piece of proof in the case is Celeste’s discarded passport ID card discovered practically 85 miles outdoors Los Angeles – and a stroke of luck could also be the solely motive it was discovered.
California Highway Patrol Officer Sean Buenrostro testified {that a} state worker doing site visitors management alongside Highway 154 north of Santa Barbara discovered the ID card when he stepped off the highway into the dust and brush past the shoulder.
“In the past he’s found several interesting things on the freeway shoulders, so he was just looking around,” Buenrostro mentioned. “Once he found the card he Googled the name… he began seeing articles of news stories. When he realized what he found, he called our dispatch.”
LAPD detectives arrived a number of days later to additional search the space however discovered no extra proof.
D4vd made three separate journeys to rural Santa Barbara County in the months following Celeste’s disappearance, together with on the final day she was seen alive, prosecutors allege.
Using mobile evaluation of a cellphone allegedly belonging to d4vd and a modem inside his Tesla, prosecutors allege that on April 23, 2025 – the day they consider Celeste was killed – d4vd drove to the identical space alongside Highway 154 the place her ID would later be discovered.
LAPD detective and mobile analyst William Roecker testified that on the evening d4vd allegedly made that journey, he made an outgoing name to Celeste’s quantity at 12:04 a.m. whereas driving north.
Prosecutors have maintained d4vd made the name, and different texts, to Celeste’s cellphone to seem as if he was involved for her whereabouts and “to set up his defense,” in line with a quick filed in court docket.
Two extra journeys to Santa Barbara County adopted: one between May 8 and 9, and one other on May 31, Roecker testified, citing mobile information. During a kind of journeys, Roecker mentioned, Tesla’s information present the car stopped at a charging station north of the space the place Celeste’s ID card was discovered.
The protection argued the mobile information shouldn’t be a precise science, and that regardless, there’s no proof d4vd was the one who truly made the journeys.
In physique digicam video performed in court docket from earlier than she was killed, d4vd advised a sheriff’s deputy he didn’t know Celeste was underage when he first met her.
“She told me she was 18, everyone is saying she’s 13,” he mentioned whereas exhibiting deputies pictures he had of Celeste on his cellphone, together with a lacking individual flyer that was posted in her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California.
The trade got here throughout a welfare verify in February 2024 at a West Hollywood dwelling d4vd was residing in. Deputies had been following up on the lacking individual report however didn’t discover Celeste at the dwelling and had been glad with d4vd’s degree of cooperation. Celeste returned dwelling shortly after the welfare verify.
In the physique digicam footage, a deputy advised d4vd “I hope they find her.”
“I do too,” he replied.
D4vd turned a viral gaming pastime into a bona fide music profession by creating songs for players to make use of in movies. His 2022 breakout hit “Romantic Homicide” hit the Billboard chart and primarily launched his stardom.
A profitable file contract may have paid d4vd as much as 19 million {dollars} if all elements of the contract, together with the launch of future albums, had been met, Louis Poimiroo, a finance government for Interscope Records, testified. Interscope had opted out of the deal in late 2025, he added, which was someday after a physique was present in the trunk of d4vd’s Tesla.
D4vd’s monetary supervisor Ben Greger testified the artist was paid between 10 million and 11.5 million {dollars} between 2023 and 2025.
The funds are related as a result of the prosecution alleges d4vd killed Celeste partially to guard his funds. That “special circumstance” tied to the homicide cost he’s dealing with is one issue that that permits courts to impose harsher penalties comparable to life with out parole or the dying penalty.
Prosecutors haven’t but mentioned if they are going to search the dying penalty. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a statewide moratorium on the death penalty, banning executions during his time in office, although prosecutors should still search capital punishment.