Singer D4vd Ordered to Stand Trial for Murder of 14-Year-Old Found in His Tesla

D4vd Ordered to Stand Trial in Teen's Death

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that musician David Anthony Burke, who performs as D4vd, will stand trial for murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, according to the BBC. Judge Charlaine Olmedo made the ruling after a five-day preliminary hearing where prosecutors questioned a dozen witnesses and presented photographic evidence.

Burke, 21, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering and sexually abusing Hernandez. Her remains were found last September inside a Tesla registered to his address, the BBC reported.

Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed the teen and dismembered her body after years of alleged sexual abuse. They claim the motive was self-preservation: Hernandez had allegedly threatened to expose his relationship with a minor and destroy his multi-million dollar music career.

Evidence presented in court showed a text exchange from April 22, 2025, in which Hernandez threatened Burke amid an argument about his friendship with another girl. "I swear to GOD I will kill u," one message read, followed by a threat to strangle him and lie to her father about him. "i will end ur career and ur life I will damage anything," another text said.

The next day, Hernandez traveled to Burke's Hollywood home in an Uber he had arranged. Prosecutors allege he stabbed her shortly after she arrived.

Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department testified that text messages indicated Burke and Hernandez had attended church together with her family. Farrell also told the court that Hernandez had misrepresented her age to Burke at different points, telling him she was 16 and, separately, 18.

Burke's defense attorneys argued the evidence falls short. Attorney Marilyn Bednarski told the court that Hernandez's parents were aware of the relationship and had even signed written consent for her to travel to London with Burke for a week. The defense pointed to texts suggesting Hernandez insisted on coming to the Hollywood Hills home that night despite Burke arguing against it, and said he "repeatedly expressed love and care for Ms Hernandez after they broke up," according to Bednarski's comments in court.

The defense also noted the medical examiner could not determine how two penetrating wounds on the girl occurred, and that no surveillance footage placed Burke at home the night of April 23, 2025.

Judge Olmedo found prosecutors met the legal threshold of probable cause, a lower bar than proof beyond a reasonable doubt required for conviction. Burke's arraignment is scheduled for August 31, with trial required to start within 90 days of that date.

Second Circuit Revives Death Penalty Factors Against Buffalo Shooter

A three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal prosecutors can present racial hatred as an aggravating factor in the death penalty trial of Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022, according to Courthouse News Service.

Gendron, 23, is already serving life without parole after pleading guilty to state murder charges in November 2022. He now faces a separate federal trial on hate crime and weapons charges that are death-penalty eligible, with jury selection that began in June ahead of a trial set for this fall in the Western District of New York, per Courthouse News.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo had struck three aggravating factors from the government's notice of intent to seek death: harm to surviving victims, Gendron's racist motive, and his stated goal of inciting further violence. Vilardo reasoned that a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3593(f), bars juries from considering race in weighing a death sentence, and that the First Amendment protected Gendron's stated intent to inspire copycat violence.

The Second Circuit disagreed on all three points. Writing for the panel, Judge Richard Sullivan, a Trump appointee, said the surviving-victims factor is "clearly relevant" because it directs jurors to the real-world scope of Gendron's rampage, according to Reason's summary of the ruling.

On the incitement factor, Sullivan wrote that prosecutors are "seeking the death penalty not because Gendron said terrible things or is an avowed white supremacist, but because he murdered people allegedly so as to inspire other shootings," per Courthouse News.

During oral arguments in May, Sullivan pressed prosecutors on how the racial-motive factor was worded, noting it risked inviting jurors to focus improperly on victims' race rather than Gendron's motive, and suggested the government could have drafted it more carefully to avoid tension with the statute barring race-based jury consideration.

Prosecutors can now argue all three aggravating factors when the case goes to trial this fall, giving jurors a fuller picture of the crime's scope and motive when deciding whether Gendron should face execution rather than a life sentence on the federal counts. No trial date beyond this fall has been finalized in the reporting reviewed.