Prosecutors Present Texts Showing Threats Before Teen's Death in Singer's Case
Court documents revealed that the teen threatened to ruin the singer's career hours before she was killed, and prosecutors allege the singer responded with violence.
Text messages introduced as evidence on Monday show that 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez warned singer David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, she would destroy his career and life roughly 24 hours before prosecutors say he killed her. The messages, exchanged on April 22, followed an argument about Burke’s relationships with other women and included threats to leak information and to physically harm him.
Prosecutors allege Burke arranged an Uber to bring Hernandez from her Lake Elsinore home to his Hollywood residence the next night, where she was killed, dismembered and later found in a vehicle registered to him. Burke has pleaded not guilty.
"I will kill you. I will tell my dad lies about you. I will end your career and your life," the teenager wrote, according to the court-presented texts.
Burke’s defense attorney, Blair Berk, noted that the two exchanged more than 1,200 messages in the 24-hour period and that no witness saw either of them between 10:10 p.m. and 10:31 p.m. on April 23, the time frame prosecutors say the murder occurred. Berk also attempted to raise prior alleged domestic-violence incidents, which the judge ruled irrelevant to the preliminary hearing.
Detective Corey Farell testified that phone records placed Burke sending texts while driving to Santa Barbara County, where Hernandez’s passport card was later found on a highway. He also confirmed that the relationship between Burke and Hernandez was known to family members, citing travel consent forms and photographs of the pair with the teen’s relatives.
The autopsy indicated Hernandez died from stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. Prosecutors contend the killing took place inside Burke’s home and that the body was later dismembered with a chainsaw. If convicted, Burke faces life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty, though the district attorney’s office has not yet decided whether to seek capital punishment.
The hearing concluded with prosecutors resting their case and the defense announcing it would not call witnesses. Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether the evidence is sufficient to move the case to trial.