American singer D4vd did not blink on Tuesday when photos of the body of the teenager he is accused of killing and dismembering were shown in a Los Angeles court.
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In his orange inmate outfit, the 21-year-old artist remained chained to his chair on the first day of a preliminary hearing intended to assess whether there is enough evidence to justify a trial against him.
Behind his square glasses, David Anthony Burke, his real name, stared at the photos of the rotting body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old American girl found last September in her Tesla in Hollywood.
Police found a large black bag in the trunk of the vehicle after it was impounded last September, Inspector Joshua Byers explained on the stand.
Inside, officers discovered a torso with an unidentifiable face on top.
“There was a degree of decomposition such that the peeling of the skin (…) made it unrecognizable,” detailed this investigator.
In a second black bag, police found the victim’s arms and legs, cut up. Two fingers from her left hand, one of which bore a tattoo linking her to the singer, were missing after being severed.
D4vd is being prosecuted for murder, sexual assault on a minor and mutilation of a corpse in this case. He has pleaded not guilty and faces life imprisonment or the death penalty.
According to the prosecution, he stabbed Celeste Rivas Hernandez to death in April 2025, before dismembering her remains with a chainsaw, because the minor teenager threatened to ruin her musical career by revealing the sexual relations they allegedly had from the age of 13.
The teenager was reported missing in 2024 by her family.
In the days following the murder, D4vd ordered two chainsaws, as well as an inflatable swimming pool and body bags, through an Amazon account concealed under an alias, Inspector Byers traced.
The case aroused much interest in the United States, particularly because the artist’s work seemed to echo the murder in a prescient way.
The singer, who notably performed at the Coachella festival, became famous in 2022 when his song “Romantic Homicide” enjoyed dazzling success on TikTok.
In the afternoon, the prosecution called to the stand a former employee of the agency which represented the artist. A way of emphasizing everything he had to lose if Celeste sparked a scandal.
Between 2023 and 2025, the singer “earned between $10 and $11.5 million in gross income,” explained this ex-employee, Benjamin Greger.
The hearing should last “three to five days,” Los Angeles prosecutor Nathan Hochman told the press.
The magistrate assured that the prosecution would “largely achieve” the prerequisites to judge D4vd during a trial.
