Chilling details of how D4vd allegedly killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez released

A court has heard that D4vd allegedly used chainsaws to dismember Celeste Rivas Hernandez and used a ‘burn cage’ to destroy evidence.

Last week police charged the American rapper, 21, with the murder of the 14-year-old, whose remains were found in the boot of a car registered to him in September last year.

Prosecutors have alleged D4vd- real name David Anthony Burke – had engaged in a sexual relationship with the teenager before her death.

He has been charged with lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating a body in the killing of Hernandez.

After Burke pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance, the court has now heard additional chilling details of the case.

On Wednesday prosecutors provided a nine-page preliminary trial brief, with the rapper also appearing during the 40-minute hearing.

After they broke up last April, Hernandez ‘threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life’ the documents stated.

At the time Burke had been set to release his first solo album, with prosecutors saying his career was at stake if details of their relationship were to have been made public.

In the days following her death, Burke allegedly attempted to hide his tracks by texting the teenager’s phone several times asking where she was.

Prosecutors also said he ordered a ‘burn cage’, with plans to incinerate evidence before taking ‘horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body’.

‘After placing her body in the blue inflatable pool to prevent her blood from spilling onto his garage floor, defendant used a chainsaw and perhaps other tools to cut off her limbs,’ the document continued.

It’s also been claimed that in an effort to ‘distance himself from the victim’, he amputated her left ring and pinky fingers as one ‘contained a tattoo of his name’.

These fingers have never been recovered.

After Burke mutilated Hernandez’s body he allegedly put her head and torso in the cadaver bag and placed her limbs in a garbage bag, placing both in the front trunk of his Tesla.

When Hernandez’s body was discovered in September, Burke had been on tour – which was later cancelled.

Police have said that Burke first met Hernandez in 2021 when she was just 11 years old.

They then allegedly began a sexual relationship two years later – when she was 13 and he was 18.

At the time her mother reported her missing three different times in the same year, telling police her daughter was dating a guy she’d never met, but who she knew was called David.

When questioned by police at the time, Burke denied he knew Hernandez was a minor, but ‘continued to pursue her’.

‘Text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.’
Although they broke up in November 2024, they stayed in touch.

The charges Burke is facing carry a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole and the death penalty.

His defence lawyer entered not guilty please to all counts during his first court appearance last week.

Burke will next appear in court on May 12.

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