The teen’s dismembered body was found in the front trunk of d4vd’s Tesla on Sept. 8, 2025

Celeste Rivas Hernandez met d4vd in January 2022 when she was just 11 years old, according to a preliminary hearing brief released on Wednesday, April 29.

Prosecutors wrote in the People’s Brief Regarding Preliminary Hearing Evidence that the musician began a sexual relationship with Rivas in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18.

The 21-year-old singer, born David Anthony Burke, has been charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains after the remains of Rivas were discovered in the front trunk of his Tesla on Sept. 8, 2025.

He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail ahead of his trial.

According to the court document, detectives learned that Rivas was reported missing by her family in both February and April 2024.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which handled her missing person case, contacted Burke on Feb. 17, 2024 after they found his phone number in her phone records.

“During the call, defendant claimed he had spoken to the victim last on February 13 or 14, 2024, but stated he was unaware she was a minor or that she had been reported missing,” the brief states.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department later went to his home to conduct a welfare check and “informed him the victim was a 13-year-old runaway,” it adds.

Burke allegedly claimed again that he didn’t know she was a minor and had only met her once in person in November 2023. “However, [Burke] showed deputies a yearbook photo of the victim he had on his cellphone. Although he claimed to be unaware of where the victim was at the time, she returned home two days later,” per the court filing

Prosecutors allege that after Rivas returned to her parents’ Lake Elsinore home, Burke drove there and “paid a junior high school student in the victim’s class $1,000 to give the victim a cell phone [he] purchased so they could stay in contact.”

Rivas allegedly traveled with Burke to Las Vegas, London and Texas and spent summer weekends at his Hollywood Hills home in 2024, according to prosecutors.

“Text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion, and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive,” the brief states.

Burke is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or death. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has yet to decide whether to pursue the death penalty.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman has alleged that Burke killed the 14-year-old girl on April 23, 2025 and dismembered her, leaving her remains in two separate bags later found in the trunk of his impounded Tesla that September.

At the time, Rivas was a “witness” to a separate investigation into the “lewd and lascivious sexual acts” allegedly committed by Burke while she was under the age of 14, Hochman said.

Rivas had allegedly threatened that night to expose Burke and harm his music career, per the filing.

It was later made public that the girl died from “multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s)” according to a report previously obtained by PEOPLE. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Burke’s attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, said in a statement following his arrest on April 16 that he “was not the cause” of the girl’s death, adding they plan to “vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

Burke’s preliminary is scheduled to begin May 26. He’s expected back in court for a status conference on May 12.