In a court brief filed Wednesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman alleged that David Anthony Burke, who performs as D4vd, had covered up his lengthy sexual abuse of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, lured her to his Hollywood rental mansion, stabbed her and let her bleed to death, and then used “a chainsaw and perhaps other tools” to cut up her body and remove two of her fingers to destroy a tattoo linking him to her.

Burke, 21, is charged with murder, continuous sex abuse of a minor and mutilating a corpse. Prosecutors say he killed Hernandez because she threatened to expose his abuse and ruin his music career. Prosecutors say Burke bought a shovel, two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, a “burn box”, and a blue inflatable pool as part of a scheme to dispose of her body.

“There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now,” said attorney Patrick Steinfeld on behalf of the family. “They still have bills to pay and jobs they go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal.”

He said that informing the family of the gruesome details was the most difficult thing he’s done in his 37-year law career.

“I originally encouraged the Rivas Hernandez family to speak publicly throughout the criminal process. They agreed with the full support of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman. However, in light of the gruesome details emerging almost daily, the family has decided not to make any statements now or in the future,” he added.

Prosecutors’ nine-page brief detailed an abusive relationship between the singer and the girl that allegedly started when she was just 11 and ended with her slaying in April 2025. In the days after Hernandez’s death, Burke used an inflatable pool to contain Hernandez’s body as the singer dismembered her remains in the garage, according to a brief prosecutors prepared for Burke’s preliminary hearing, at which they will make their case to a judge that there’s enough evidence for Burke to stand trial. Bits of plastic from the pool were discovered embedded in Hernandez’s remains, the document said.

Hernandez’s badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of Burke’s Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard in September. Authorities said Hernandez was last seen at Burke’s Hollywood residence on April 23, 2025. The two got into a “lengthy argument” the night before, with Hernandez expressing jealousy over Burke’s relationships with other women and “threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” Silverman wrote.

On the night police believe Hernandez was killed, according to the court filing, the singer ordered an Uber to bring her from her Lake Elsinore home to Hollywood around 8:40 p.m.

An autopsy report made public last week revealed Hernandez died from a pair of stab wounds. Prosecutors allege that Burke cut off two of Hernandez’s fingers to remove evidence of a tattoo Hernandez had gotten of the singer’s name.

Hernandez was reported missing by her family multiple times in Lake Elsinore in 2024. Riverside County sheriff’s investigators questioned Burke about her whereabouts in February 2024, but Burke claimed he was “unaware she was a minor or that she had been reported missing,” Silverman wrote.

Two days later, she returned home and her parents took away her cellphone. But Burke allegedly drove to Lake Elsinore and paid a junior high school student $1,000 to give her a new phone so they could stay in touch, according to the document filed Wednesday. Over the next year, Hernandez traveled with the singer to Las Vegas, Texas and London where she met “his family,” Silverman wrote.

Burke’s lead defense attorney, Blair Berk, has not responded to the new filing or returned a request for comment. She has insisted her client did not kill the teen. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 26.

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SAN JACINTO, CA — A man accused of gunning down a 31-year-old San Jacinto woman and trying to kill her companion in a premeditated attack nearly seven years ago pleaded not guilty Friday to first-degree murder and other charges.

Daniel Antonio Cortez Acevedo, 27, of San Jacinto allegedly killed Anna Meza for undisclosed reasons in 2017.

Along with murder, Acevedo is charged with attempted murder, a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

The defendant was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Francisco Navarro, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 7 at the Banning Justice Center.

Acevedo is being held on $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jesse Martinez said the identity of Meza’s alleged killer required a “lengthy investigation” by Central Homicide Unit detectives.

The victim was walking with a man identified in court documents only as “J.M.” in the 100 block of North Dillon Avenue, near Main Street, on the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2017, when Acevedo allegedly approached them and pulled a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol, opening fire, according to investigators and prosecutors.

Meza was shot to death in the street. J.M. was not wounded.

The assailant, then unknown, fled the scene.

Investigators initially had little information on the circumstances and asked for the public’s assistance, but few clues surfaced.

Martinez did not disclose what detectives uncovered that finally led them to Acevedo, or why he allegedly targeted the victims.

He was taken into custody without incident following a traffic stop in San Jacinto on April 12.

Court records show the defendant has a prior misdemeanor conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.

The post RivCo Cold Case: Suspected Killer Answers Charges 6 Years Later appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.