D4vd appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday and agreed to push his next evidentiary hearing back another month, moving the start date to June 29. The hearing had been set to begin May 26.
He is due back in court on June 17 for another status conference. The delay came after prosecutors released a nine-page evidence brief on April 29 that laid out the most detailed version yet of the case against David Anthony Burke, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
Prosecutors allege Burke lured Celeste Rivas Hernandez to his Los Angeles rental home, killed her on April 23, 2025, dismembered her body with a chainsaw and concealed her remains for months. They have also added special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain and lying in wait. Blair Berk has said her client is presumed innocent, and an unnamed defense attorney said the same in court on Tuesday.
The filing describes what prosecutors say was a long-running relationship between Burke and Rivas. Investigators say the brief alleges he met her when she was 11, started a sexual relationship with her when she turned 13 and paid a classmate $1,000 to deliver a secret phone so they could keep in touch. Prosecutors also say Burke and Rivas argued the night before she was ferried from Lake Elsinore to his rental house in the Hollywood Hills, and that he paid an Uber driver to bring her from her family’s home more than an hour outside Los Angeles.
That version of events places the alleged killing almost immediately after Rivas arrived. Prosecutors claim surveillance video shows Burke driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, before the vehicle was later towed and impounded. Investigators made the discovery of Rivas’ remains on Sept. 8, 2025, after the Tesla had been taken in.
The prosecution’s filing says that for several weeks, or possibly months, the victim’s body was left to decompose inside the Tesla and that Burke lied to friends, business associates and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle. That allegation is the heart of the case now headed toward June 29, when the hearing is scheduled to begin unless it is delayed again.
