LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for D4vd began showing glimpses into their defense strategy Thursday, pressing police on why they didn’t conduct more DNA testing on items found in the singer’s home and in his car that authorities said were used in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The questioning came on the third day of a preliminary hearing where a judge will decide whether there is probable cause for D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, to be put on trial on charges of murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body.
He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have said they will vigorously defend his innocence, but have previously given little indication of any counternarrative they may present about how Rivas Hernandez was killed and how her dismembered body was found in the trunk of Burke’s Tesla.
Defense attorney Blair Berk dwelled on a pair of small chain saws found in Burke’s garage, where prosecutors say he dismembered the body. Lauren Wallace, a criminalist with the Los Angeles Police Department, testified that initial chemical tests showed no signs of blood on the saws, so the handles were not swabbed for any DNA left behind by someone who touched it.
“If an item has somebody else’s DNA on it, you wouldn’t be able to see that at the time,” Berk said.
“No you’re not able to see touch DNA,” Wallace said, then reiterated that the blades had tested negative for blood.
“But that doesn’t preclude at all that there could be somebody else’s touch DNA,” Berk said.
Under prosecution questioning, Wallace said testing for DNA at the suspect’s residence wouldn’t make sense because the suspect’s DNA would be everywhere.
Berk soon after asked her: “You were aware that multiple people lived at this residence, right?”
Wallace answered, “Yes, we were aware.”
Wallace testified earlier that throughout the garage, she found indications of blood that had been cleaned up.
She said Thursday that her team also found jugs of fake blood in the garage. Berk suggested through her questioning that Burke had used it in music videos.
An indie-pop singer whose music and online presence brought him a huge following, D4vd’s songs and videos often have dark and violent imagery often delivered through an alter-ego character he calls Itami. His breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify. His debut full-length album, “Withered,” was released two days after prosecutors say Rivas Hernandez was killed.
On Thursday, he wore orange jail clothes and glasses, sitting at the defense table calmly and intently watching the witnesses testify. He did not betray any emotion during the proceedings but was seen during the recess interacting with and smiling with his attorneys.
Rivas Hernandez’s parents were back in the courtroom Thursday afternoon, sitting in the front row. They did not have a visible reaction to the mostly technical testimony.
A police detective also testified that cell-tower tracking of Burke’s phone and a system in his Tesla showed he was at his Hollywood home on the night of April 23, 2025 – the time and place prosecutors say Rivas Hernandez was killed. The data showed that later that night, he traveled to a remote part of Santa Barbara County about 95 miles to the northwest. He made two subsequent visits to the area in May, including to a spot where Rivas Hernandez’s passport was found by a highway worker, the detective testified.
Prosecutors are seeking to prove Burke began a sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18.
They said in a court filing that she had grown jealous of his relationships with other women and threatened to expose him and ruin his multimillion-dollar career the night before she was killed. The court filing said he sent a car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, and stabbed her when she arrived at his home.
Prosecutors say he kept the body for weeks or months in the front trunk of the Tesla, where it was found after the car was towed 4 1/2 months later in September.
