To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Singer D4vd has been charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who was found dead last year.
The 21-year-old had been under investigation for months and was last week arrested after Hernandez’s remains were found in a Tesla registered to him in September.
Los Angeles County prosecutors formally charged the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, with murder on Monday.
The teenager’s cause of death remains unknown. She was last seen by her family in April 2024, when she went missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore. The then-13-year-old had said she was going to watch a movie.
Court documents show authorities had given her age as 14 when she was killed, after she was identified through forensics.
The Los Angeles district attorney held a press conference on Monday, in which they laid out the charges and displayed the singer’s mugshot.
Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman described it as a ‘brutal and horrific murder’ when announcing the charges, for which they can seek the death penalty.
D4vd faces charges that include the ‘most serious’ of first-degree murder, with ‘special circumstances of lying in wait’, as Hernandez went to his home.
The district attorney said: ‘A parent’s nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back.’
The LA police chief Jim McDonnell also took time during the press conference to address the swirling criticism for the lack of information since Hernandez was found seven months ago.
McDonnell said the condition she was found in and the substantial time between her death and her discovery delayed the force’s ability to identify a cause of death.
‘I want to be clear about something. My duty is not to fuel speculation. It’s to deliver justice, and that requires patience and discipline on everybody’s part,’ he said.
‘This investigation was driven by a single purpose to secure justice for Celeste Rivas and for those who loved her. We had to be certain that nothing we did or said would ever jeopardise this case.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow…
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.