{"id":18718,"date":"2026-04-21T04:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/18718\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T04:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:35:20","slug":"d4vd-pleads-not-guilty-to-teens-murder-sex-crimes-seeks-fast-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/18718\/","title":{"rendered":"D4vd Pleads Not Guilty To Teen’s Murder, Sex Crimes; Seeks Fast Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSeeking a quick trial, D4vd<\/a> entered a not guilty plea Monday in a brief appearance in a downtown Los Angeles criminal court.<\/p>\n

\n\tFacing first-degree murder and continuous sexual abuse charges with the death penalty<\/a> over the dismembered killing last year of teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 21-year-old singer (whose real name is David Anthony Burke) sat behind a glass barrier this afternoon in L.A. Superior Court Judge Theresa McGonigle\u2019s courtroom.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,\u201d defense lawyer Blair Berk told the judge and attendees after entering pleas for her client. \u201cWe would like to have the evidence come into the light of day, at the earliest opportunity,\u201d Berk added, requesting a fast-tracked preliminary evidentiary hearing. Berk made a point of wanting everything open in court, noting \u201cthere have been four months of secret grand jury proceedings.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn response, Deputy DA Beth Silverman said that her boss Nathan Hochman<\/a> and the prosecution\u2019s office would be \u201cvery happy to put on the evidence we\u2019ve collected against Burke. A formal felony complaint (read it here<\/a>) against D4vd was filed at the same time in LASC. <\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the judge, Berk lamented the lack of discovery the defense has received so far, and at the same time, as Silverman objected that the evidence collected so far was \u201cvoluminous\u201d noted the DA\u2019s office had the time for a detailed press conference on the case earlier Monday. As Silverman cast doubt on there being much material available for a planned follow up hearing later this week, Berk asked the prosecution to endeavor with \u201cconscientious earnestness\u201d to get as much discovery as possible to her team. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAmidst all that, Hernandez\u2019s parents were seated nearby in the the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center during the arraignment proceedings.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe booking photo of D4vd aka David Anthony Burke, revealed before the start of a press briefing Monday<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the day at a press conference on the case, LA County DA Hochman said the \u201cRomantic Homicide\u201d singer could be executed if found guilty by a jury due to \u201cspecial circumstances\u201d that permit the rare use of the death penalty in California.<\/p>\n

\n\tPart of that special circumstance, according to the DA, is for D4vd \u201clying in wait, murder for financial gain and killing a witness in a criminal investigation\u201d last April. That witness was the then-13-year-old Hernandez, who was allegedly the victim of sex crimes perpetrated by the TikTok sensation. Hernandez was last seen April 23, just before she went over to D4vd\u2019s L.A. home.<\/p>\n

\n\tD4vd is also facing charges of \u201clewd and lascivious sexual acts\u201d with an individual under 14 years of age. Similar to the alleged murder of Rob and Michelle Reiner last year by their youngest son Nick, the DA has not made public whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty or go for life without parole for D4vd.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter months of investigation, D4vd was arrested last week at his rented Hollywood Hills residence<\/a>. The arrest came almost eight months after Hernandez\u2019s decomposed and mutilated body was discovered in the trunk of an impounded Tesla registered in the singer\u2019s name. At that time, D4vd was on tour and out of L.A. Through representatives, he promised to cooperate with the LAPD<\/a> and other law enforcement on the matter.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow behind bars without bail, D4vd is scheduled to be back in court Thursday. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlso in court today, Judge McGonigle (who is overseeing the Reiner case as of right now) ordered the L.A. County medical examiner\u2019s office to release the autopsy report for Hernandez. The report is not available because \u201cthe Department of Medical Examiner has not yet received notice the court order sealing the case has been lifted,\u201d the department told Deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat paperwork is expected to arrive in one form or another at the medical examiner\u2019s office by Tuesday morning, I\u2019m told.<\/p>\n

\n\tDenise Petski contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seeking a quick trial, D4vd entered a not guilty plea Monday in a brief appearance in a downtown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10687,8,2958,11379,11279,9,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-18718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-d4vd","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-lapd","11":"tag-los-angeles-district-attorney","12":"tag-nathan-hochman","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116440840434922905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}