The pop singer known as “D4vd” has filed a motion requesting courtroom deputies remove his handcuffs and other restraints during his preliminary hearing, which is set to take place this week in downtown Los Angeles.
D4vd, whose legal name is David A. Burke, will be in the courtroom for each day of the hearing. Prosecutors will present the court with a summary of the case, and the judge will decide whether there’s enough evidence for a jury trial.
Burke, 21, faces charges he sexually abused Celeste Rivas Hernandez beginning when she was 13 years old, murdered her in April, 2025, when she was 14, and then dismembered her body in an alleged effort to prevent her from publicly exposing him and ruining his emerging singing career.
He’s pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorney Blair Berke told the court in the unshackling motion that her client has never attempted to escape, has never been disruptive and has made five uneventful appearances in court in this case. She cited legal rulings that restraints should be as minimal as necessary at jury trials, and that restraints shouldn’t be used absent a specific purpose.
As of mid-day Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo had not entered an order or response to the motion.
Burke was arrested on April 16 by Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide Division detectives, some of whom are expected to testify when the preliminary hearing begins Tuesday.
At that hearing, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told the court she’ll present witnesses and evidence that shows Burke began a sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and documented their encounters in photographs, which are considered child sexual abuse material.
The two had an argument on April 22, 2025, the day before Celeste Rivas Hernandez went missing, according to prosecutors. Darsha Philips reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
A brief filed by Silverman earlier this year said there are text messages that show Rivas Hernandez was communicating with Burke in the two days before all of her cellphone activity ceased on April 23, 2025, and had sent Burke messages, “where the victim threatened to expose defendant and destroy his career.”
Rideshare records show Burke sent a car to drive Rivas Hernandez from her family’s home in Lake Elsinore to his rented house in the Hollywood Hills on April 23, according to the prosecution brief, and that investigators suspect she was murdered that night, likely by being stabbed to death.
The brief says prosecutors will show evidence that Burke purchased chainsaws, a body bag, an inflatable pool and other equipment used to dismember and dispose of Rivas Hernandez’s body, and that the victim’s DNA profile could be linked to the dismemberment devices.
Rivas Hernandez’s remains were found in two bags in the front trunk of a black Tesla sedan registered to Burke on Sept. 8, 2025, after the car was impounded from a street close to the rental house.
The prosecution’s preliminary hearing brief says Burke was the last person to drive that car and was recorded on security video. It was parked on July 29, 2025, just before Burke began an international concert tour.