David Burke, a 21-year-old singer known by his stage name D4vd, has been charged with murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla last year.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the filing of charges at a news conference on Monday.

Burke was charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, murder committed for financial gain and murder of a witness to an investigation, Hochman said.

The singer was also charged with lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person under 14 years old and the mutilation of a human body.

According to Hochman, Burke engaged in a sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez and murdered her to “maintain his very lucrative musical career” when she threatened to expose him. The charges include a special allegation that Burke personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon — a sharp instrument — to commit the crime.

If convicted, Burke faces a maximum sentence of death or life without the possibility of parole. The district attorney said his office had not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

Burke is expected to be arraigned on the charges on Monday afternoon.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Burke was arrested on Thursday by members of the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division at a home in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on suspicion of murder in the killing of Rivas Hernandez. He was held over the weekend without bail.

In a statement following his arrest, Burke’s attorneys said they were prepared to “vigorously defend David’s innocence."

"Let us be clear ​​— the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” they said.

Rivas Hernandez was reported missing in April 2024, when she disappeared from her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

On April 23, 2025, Burke invited Rivas Hernandez to his house in the Hollywood Hills, according to police.

“She was never heard from again,” Hochman said.

Her body was found on Sept. 8, a day before she would have turned 15, in a Tesla registered to Burke that had been towed to an impound lot from the Hollywood Hills, where it had been parked for several weeks after seemingly being abandoned.

Officers responded to the tow yard after someone reported smelling a strong odor coming from the vehicle.

Inside the front trunk, detectives found a plastic bag containing “a decomposed head and torso,” according to court documents. A second bag containing dismembered body parts was also found inside the vehicle.

Forensics later determined the remains were those of Rivas Hernandez. Hochman said Monday that investigators believe the dismembered body “sat for over four months decomposing until it was found.”

David Anthony Burke was born in Queens, N.Y., and moved to Texas in his early teens. He rose to fame as D4vd, pronounced “David,” on TikTok, amassing more than 3.6 million followers.

The singer's blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi alt-pop produced a string of viral hits, including 2022's “Romantic Homicide,” which has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify. He signed with Interscope Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

At the time of the gruesome discovery, D4vd was performing in Minneapolis as part of a world tour in support of his first full-length album, Withered.

After the medical examiner identified the body as being that of Rivas Hernandez, the tour was canceled.

At Monday's news conference, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell defended the length of time it took to build the “extraordinarily difficult and complex case,” saying investigators were hampered by unusual circumstances.

“The condition of her remains delayed the medical examiner's ability to be able to determine the cause of death,” McDonnell said. “The substantial amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery meant that crucial evidence had degraded or disappeared.”

The coroner’s report has yet to be made public.

At the same time, McDonnell said investigators had to deal with rumors and misinformation about the lurid case. In November, the LAPD released a statement saying that the teen's body "was not frozen when it was discovered" and that she "had not been decapitated."

Hochman said it took months to develop “physical, forensic and digital” evidence tying Burke to the killing.

On Sept. 17, police served a search warrant at the Hollywood Hills home where Burke had been staying.  TMZ reported that LAPD homicide detectives walked out of the house with a computer and several evidence bags.

At that point in the investigation, a spokesman for the singer said he was “fully cooperating with authorities.” By November, he had stopped cooperating, according to NBC News.

According to the Associated Press, Burke had been under investigation by an L.A. County grand jury looking into the death of Rivas Hernandez since at least February.

But he was not officially named a suspect until his arrest on Thursday.

In a statement after Burke was taken into custody, a lawyer for the Rivas Hernandez family said that family members were “committed to ensuring that Celeste’s voice is heard.”

“We cannot undo the pain you are feeling,” McDonnell said in a public message to the family members on Monday. “Our hope is that today brings some measure of accountability and a step in the journey toward healing.”