Prosecutors painted a chilling final hour for 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez on Monday, displaying text messages that ended abruptly the moment she arrived at the Hollywood home of singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke.
The messages were introduced during a Los Angeles hearing to determine whether Burke, 21, will stand trial on charges of murder, child sexual abuse, and body mutilation. In her last text, sent shortly after 10 a.m. on April 23, 2025, as she pulled up in an Uber Burke had arranged, Rivas Hernandez wrote: "girly pop im almost there open ur door if ur home." Her phone went silent after that.
Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department testified that the texts, obtained through warrants on Burke's iPhone and iCloud accounts, showed a pattern of escalating conflict. The night before her death, Rivas Hernandez had sent Burke angry messages over his relationship with another woman, telling him she would "end ur career and ur life" by lying to her father about him.
Burke's defense team offered a starkly different narrative. No witness saw Rivas Hernandez enter the house, they pointed out, and no surveillance footage captured either her or Burke at the residence during the timeframe prosecutors say she was killed. Defense attorney Blair Berk also established that Rivas Hernandez had repeatedly demanded to visit Burke in the days before her death, pressing him until he finally agreed.
The defense presented multiple texts in which Rivas Hernandez threatened to expose Burke to his mother and friends. Farrell acknowledged under cross-examination that he found no indication she had threatened to contact police or take legal action against Burke. He also confirmed that both sets of parents knew about the relationship, that Burke had attended church with her family members, and that her parents had consented to a planned trip to London with him.
Farrell testified further that in their earliest conversations, when Burke was 17 and Rivas Hernandez was 11, she had misrepresented her age as 16, and later claimed to be 18 in various messages.
After her phone went silent, Burke sent her several messages expressing concern and asking where she was. Prosecutors argue these were sent to create a false appearance of innocence after he had already killed her. A police analyst testified earlier in the hearing that DNA samples from apparent blood stains in Burke's garage matched Rivas Hernandez's DNA. Her dismembered remains were discovered in a Tesla registered to Burke nearly five months later.
Burke, who shot to fame as a teenager blending indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop, has pleaded not guilty. His legal team maintains he did not cause her death. Judge Charlaine Olmedo is expected to rule on whether the case proceeds to trial after closing arguments conclude.
Burke amassed a massive online following through TikTok, Soundcloud, and Spotify, where his 2022 breakthrough "Romantic Homicide" has surpassed one billion plays.
Author James Rodriguez: "The texts paint a damning portrait of a final hour, but what's missing from this hearing is equally telling: no eyes on the house, no camera footage, no witnesses to the alleged moment it happened."
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