Texts detail pregnancy in D4vd murder case

Text messages shown in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday indicated that Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl singer D4vd is accused of killing, had been pregnant and had an abortion before her death, as prosecutors argued the musician killed her to protect his career.

The messages were presented during a hearing to determine whether D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, should stand trial on murder and child sexual abuse charges. Burke has pleaded not guilty.

In a January 2024 exchange obtained from Burke’s phone, prosecutors said Burke apologized to Rivas Hernandez for “putting her through this.” She replied, “neither of us are capable of watching and taking care of the baby. it’s for the best no?” She was 13 at the time.

Burke then asked, “also my mother always told me to ask this question if I was ever in this situation … it is mine right?” According to testimony from a detective, Rivas Hernandez responded, “of course its yours David.”

Prosecutors also showed a June 2024 message in which Rivas Hernandez texted Burke, “What [if] the first abortion didn’t work?” In another message that month, Burke wrote: “Let’s let this abortion be the last one til we have the real one…”

The evidence came on the fourth day of a hearing focused on whether Burke will face trial in the death of Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors allege he fatally stabbed her in April 2025 to stop her from revealing the sexual nature of their relationship as his music career was rising. They say the two met online when she was 11, and that Burke began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18.

Prosecutors presented iCloud data recovered from Burke’s iPhone, showing messages between him and Rivas Hernandez dating to Aug. 8, 2022, when she was 11 and Burke was 17.

Los Angeles police found Rivas Hernandez’s remains last September in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke, five months after prosecutors say he killed her. The body was discovered the day after she would have turned 15. She had been reported missing by her family and was last seen at Burke’s Hollywood Hills home on April 3, 2025.

The court this week has also seen graphic photographs of Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered and decomposing body. On Friday, Grant Ho, the doctor who performed the postmortem examination, testified that the condition of the remains made the autopsy difficult. He said she had been dead for weeks when her body was found, but that it was “extremely difficult to tell” exactly when she died.

According to the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office, Rivas Hernandez died from multiple penetrating injuries. Ho testified that he identified two stab wounds: one to her abdomen that struck her liver and another to her left chest that damaged her ribs.

Defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski questioned what the autopsy could establish about the moments before Rivas Hernandez’s death. “You can’t rule out that she was holding an instrument that caused either of those wounds?” she asked. Ho said he could not rule that out, but said self-inflicted injuries typically have “hesitation marks” on the skin, which were not found on the teenager’s remains.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman filed seven criminal charges against Burke, including murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of remains. Burke, who rose to fame on TikTok with the songs “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” was on tour when the body was found. His worldwide tour was canceled, and he largely withdrew from public life and social media. Police announced his arrest in April.