D4vd allegedly amputated teen’s finger tattooed with his name as part of ‘horrifying’ attempt to cover up crime: Prosecutors

Prosecutors allege the singer D4vd dismembered the body of a 14-year-old girl using a chainsaw purchased a week after she was killed — including amputating a finger that had his name tattooed on it to “distance himself from the victim,” according to a graphic new filing in the murder case.

D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose legal name is David Burke — was charged last week with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a monthslong investigation.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys maintain his innocence.

The teen’s badly decomposed, dismembered body was found in his Tesla in September 2025 at a Hollywood impound lot, police said. Her head and torso were in a cadaver bag and her limbs in a garbage bag in the front trunk of his Tesla, prosecutors said.

In a nine-page brief, prosecutors revealed disturbing details in the murder case — alleging D4vd lured Rivas Hernandez to his Hollywood Hills home months earlier in a premeditated plan to kill her because she threatened to expose their sexual relationship and ruin his music career. They say he then dismembered her body and left her to decay in his Tesla.

According to prosecutors, the two allegedly began a sexual relationship in 2023, when Rivas Hernandez was 13 and D4vd was 18, and broke up in November 2024. The two are believed to have continued to have a sexual relationship, and that Rivas Hernandez grew jealous of D4vd’s relationships with other women, prosecutors said.

Text messages between D4vd and the teen allegedly reveal that during an argument on April 22, 2025, Rivas Hernandez “became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life.”

Prosecutors say D4vd invited the teen to his home the following day, ordering her an Uber to her home in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, according to the filing.

“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors said they believe Rivas Hernandez was killed on April 23, 2025 — two days before the release of D4vd’s debut studio album — when all her cell activity stopped.  

As part of the alleged plot, prosecutors say D4vd texted the teen several times, asking where she was, as part of his “premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time.” He never tried to contact her again after April 26, 2025, prosecutors said.

He allegedly disposed of her property at an isolated location in Santa Barbara County, where investigators would find the teen’s identification in January 2026, according to the filing.

Prosecutors say that in the days after the alleged murder, D4vd ordered two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags and a blue inflatable pool from Amazon. Some of the items were purchased under the fake name, Victoria Mendez, according to the filing. 

D4vd “took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” prosecutors allege. 

He is accused of using a chainsaw to cut off her limbs in the pool “to prevent her blood from spilling onto his garage floor.” Small blue plastic fragments that were found embedded in the victim’s remains matched the pool he purchased, and DNA evidence from blood stains collected from the defendant’s garage match the victim’s genetic profile, prosecutors said.

“In order to distance himself from the victim, he amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name,” prosecutors wrote, noting that her fingers have not been found.

Prosecutors allege he then placed her dismembered remains in the body bag and garbage bag and “left the victim’s body to decompose inside his Tesla.”

“He lied to friends, business associates, and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle,” prosecutors wrote.

D4vd was the last person to drive the Tesla, according to prosecutors. They say he parked it around the corner from his home on July 29, 2025, before leaving for his concert tour.

A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for May 26.

The briefing was filed to “assist the court in understanding the scope and relevance of evidence the prosecution intends to present at the preliminary hearing,” prosecutors wrote.

D4vd has been charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse and unlawfully mutilating a body and remains held on no bail.