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Horrific details of Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s death have been shared in court as David Anthony Burke – known as D4vd – faces trial.
The 14-year-old girl’s parents were in court for the preliminary hearing, during which images of her dismembered corpse were shown.
In September last year, her remains were found in a Tesla registered to the rapper, 21, who was arrested and charged with her murder.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges of murdering and sexually abusing the teenage girl.
The evidence is being laid out for the first time as prosecutors seek to convince a judge there is enough to proceed to trial.
For Celeste’s parents, the ordeal was more than they had anticipated, with their lawyer, Patrick Steinfeld, calling it ‘extremely painful’.
The girl’s mum, Mercedes Martinez, reportedly sobbed through the hearing and ‘never recovered’.
Speaking to TMZ after the hearing, Steinfeld called the evidence ‘damning’, saying it seems to get ‘harder and harder’ for the still grieving family.
In a graphic reveal, he said her body had liquefied and ‘just looked like mush’, leaving even her head unrecognisable.
‘This is the first time they’ve heard this evidence in detail, and they’re horrified,’ Steinfeld also told the BBC after the court hearing.
‘There was an image of Celeste’s torso and her head in the trunk of the car, and the prosecutor had to ask what it was because you could not tell it was a head. It was absolutely deplorable.
‘They’re at a loss for words and they’re just trying to do the best they can.’
While he had told Celeste’s mum she didn’t have to be in the room, she had insisted on showing support for her late daughter.
The grieving parents were reportedly told they ‘won’t unsee’ those images, with Steinfeld calling it a ‘parent’s worst nightmare’.
During the hearing, a homicide detective reportedly testified that Burke had ordered chainsaws, an inflatable pool, a shovel, and a body bag online days after her death.
Detective Byers described opening a cadaver bag inside the Tesla to discover decomposing human remains, including a head and torso. The bag underneath contained her severed limbs.
The Tesla had been found abandoned in a tow yard, with the teenager’s remains discovered inside after employees complained of a foul smell coming from the car.
Celeste was said to have had a matching ‘Shhh’ tattoo with Burke on her right index finger, which was shown in pictures, while he also has a tattoo of her name.
She was last seen alive on April 23, 2025, when she went to the rapper’s home in the Hollywood Hills.
During a previous hearing in April at a court in LA, prosecutors claimed Burke possessed a ‘significant amount’ of child pornography on his phone.
He had eight terabytes of data in iCloud storage, with only one terabyte able to be downloaded so far.
It’s unclear if any of the images were of Celeste or how much of the storage was child pornography.
The charges Burke is facing could potentially make him eligible for the death penalty.
The charges are: first-degree murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain, murdering a witness to an investigation, lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person under 14 years old, and the mutilation of a human body.