Watch: D4vd Arrested for Murder After Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 15, Found Dead in His Tesla
D4vd’s lawyers are speaking out.
One day after the singer (real name David Anthony Burke) was arrested for the murder of CelesteRivas Hernandez by the Los Angeles Police Department, his lawyers denied he murdered the 15-year-old.
“Let us be clear,” his attorneys BlairBerk, MarilynBednarski and ReginaPeter said in a statement to People April 17, “the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”
“There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed,” they added. “David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
D4vd is currently being held without bail, according to the LAPD.
E! News has reached out to reps for D4vd but has not heard back yet.
The 21-year-old’s arrest comes less than two months after he was named in a grand jury murder investigation into the death of Rivas Hernandez. He was referred to as a “target” of the grand jury case in a court petition for the attendance of an out-of-state witness obtained by E! News at the time
Rivas Hernandez’s body was found on Sept. 8 in the trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd’s Texas address. Police responded to reports of a foul odor coming from the car, which was in a Hollywood tow yard after having been reported abandoned in the Hollywood Hills.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed the remains belonged to the teen on Sept. 16, although her cause of death was deferred, according to records viewed by E! News on Sept. 17.
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Rivas Hernandez—who had been reported missing from Lake Elsinore, Calif., in April 2024 when she was 13 years old—had her date of death listed as Sept. 8, although officials noted her body appeared to have been in the car for an extended period of time before it was found and was “severely decomposed.”
After her body was discovered, detectives served a search warrant for the home the Tesla had been parked near in the Hollywood Hills, according to the Los Angeles Times. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that D4vd had been staying in the home before embarking on his Withered World Tour in August, which he later cancelled in September.
GoFundMe
Rivas Hernandez’s family also spoke out after the incident, remembering her as a “beloved daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.”
“As many of you know, Celeste Rivas Hernandez has been identified as the body found last week,” a statement shared to a GoFundMe page created Sept. 17 read. “Her family is heartbroken and devastated by this tragic loss. They are seeking help to lay her body to rest.”
For a deeper dive into D4vd and the ongoing investigation surrounding Rivas Hernandez’s murder, keep reading.
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