The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez is in “unimaginable pain” and defends himself against rumorsafter prosecutors this week described in chilling detail how the 14-year-old California girl was allegedly murdered and dismembered by platinum artist D4vd.
In a statement on Friday, Celeste’s father Jesus Rivas firmly rejected speculation circulating online that the musician had paid the family money to gain their trust or silence them.
“I have never had contact with this man and we have not received any money from him or anyone in his family,” Jesus said in the statement, which family attorney Patrick Steinfeld provided to Rolling Stone.
Lawyer about the family’s shock
In his own statement, Steinfeld said Celeste’s parents, brother and sister were devastated by the barrage of grisly details revealed by prosecutors in a court filing Wednesday. In the disturbing evidentiary document, prosecutors allege that D4vd – real name David Anthony Burke – stabbed Celeste to death in his rented home in the Hollywood Hills on April 23, 2025, to cover up the sexual relationship he had developed with her when she was 13 and he was already an adult.
“I had the heartbreaking duty of communicating to the Rivas Hernandez family the horrific allegations that have been made in court,” Steinfeld said. “That David Anthony Burke allegedly stabbed Celeste, ‘stood by while she bled to death,’ severed her limbs with a chainsaw, and purchased a ‘cremation cage’ with the plan to ‘cremate the evidence.'”
Making that announcement was “the hardest thing I’ve had to do in 37 years as a lawyer,” he said. Although he initially encouraged the family to speak out publicly after Burke was charged and appeared in court, the “horrific details coming to light almost daily” had “shocked” the family so deeply that they could not muster the strength to come forward.
No words for the pain
“There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing,” he said. “They still have bills to pay and go to work every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal.”
Burke, now 21, was charged last week with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. The prosecution added special aggravations – murder of a witness, murder for financial gain and murder from ambush – that qualify him for the death penalty. (Whether prosecutors will actually seek the death penalty has not yet been decided.) He has pleaded not guilty.
A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday allowed the evidentiary document to be released after Burke’s defense attorney, Blair Berk, argued it was so “completely one-sided” that it would bias any potential jury pool for a possible later trial. Berk requested that it be kept under seal – the judge denied the request.
Surveillance video and Tesla find
In the nine-page brief, prosecutors claim surveillance video shows Burke driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, parking the vehicle near his rental home and then leaving for a concert tour. The car was later towed and impounded; on September 8, 2025, investigators found Rivas’ dismembered, badly decomposed remains in the front trunk.
“Over several weeks, possibly months, the defendant left the victim’s body to decompose in his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates and others who noted the strong odor of decomposition in and around his home and vehicle,” the document states.
According to the pleadings, Burke met Rivas when she was 11 years old. When her family later reported her missing, authorities found Burke’s number in her phone records and informed him of her age. Burke then “continued to stalk” Rivas, according to prosecutors – he is said to have paid a classmate $1,000 to secretly give her a phone through which they could stay in touch.
Text messages as evidence
Secured text messages between Burke and Rivas are said to contain references to sex, pregnancy and abortion. Prosecutors say the couple argued the night before the alleged murder, before Burke allegedly paid an Uber driver to take Rivas from her home more than an hour outside Los Angeles, in Lake Elsinore, to his rental home in the Hollywood Hills. He is said to have killed her shortly after her arrival.
“Knowing that he needed to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, the defendant stabbed the victim multiple times very soon after she arrived at his home and stood by while she bled to death,” the document states.
Prosecutors further allege that Burke then ordered a shovel, chainsaws, a body bag and a blue inflatable kiddie pool online under a false name and used those items to dismember Rivas in his garage. Blood evidence in the garage of his rental home matched Celeste’s DNA; He is said to have lied to people who smelled the smell of decay.
Life sentence or death penalty
“Over several weeks, possibly months, the defendant left the victim’s body to rot in his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates and others who noticed the strong smell of decomposition in and around his home and vehicle,” says the explosive evidence document obtained by ROLLING STONE.
If Burke is convicted on all counts, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.