A cell phone belonging to David Anthony Burke, better known as the singer D4vd, contained \u201ca significant amount of child pornography,\u201d a prosecutor said in court Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman made the claim during a court proceeding to schedule a preliminary hearing on murder charges in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The images were uncovered as part of a broad series of search warrants executed on Burke\u2019s phone and iCloud account, Silverman said. <\/p>\n
Burke\u2019s attorneys have insisted he is innocent and are demanding his preliminary hearing begin next week, meaning evidence in the closely followed case could become public as soon as May 1. He appeared in court Thursday in an orange jail jumpsuit and worked into court with his hands in his pockets. <\/p>\n
A status hearing was set for April 29. Silverman and a district attorney\u2019s office spokesperson declined to comment outside the courtroom. <\/p>\n
The singer\u2019s attorney, Blair Berk, could not immediately be reached for comment. The spokesperson declined to say if the child sex abuse material allegedly found on Burke\u2019s phone related to Hernandez or another victim. <\/p>\n
Burke was arrested by Los Angeles police last week and charged Monday with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child and corpse mutilation,<\/a> according to a criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty. <\/p>\n Defendants have a right to have a preliminary hearing, in which a judge determines whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a case to trial, within 10 business days. But Berk\u2019s push to move quickly is unorthodox. She has publicly grilled Silverman about needing access to more discovery materials, and the medical examiner\u2019s report detailing how Hernandez died was not made public until Wednesday. <\/p>\n Silverman said police amassed \u201c40 terabytes\u201d of digital evidence in the case, which has made uploading and transmitting materials to the defense difficult. Silverman also said police had conducted a wiretap operation in the case, but did not disclose the nature of it. The veteran prosecutor said even she had \u201cnot received anything\u201d related to that operation.<\/p>\n She also confirmed prosecutors convened three secret grand jury hearings after Hernandez\u2019s death \u2014 two in November and December in 2025 and one in February. Those were investigative grand jury hearings, meaning prosecutors could use them to enshrine testimony against Burke, but could not use the proceedings to secure an indictment against Burke. Transcripts from all three hearings will also need to be unsealed. <\/p>\n L.A. County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo also warned Berk that if she does push for the immediate preliminary hearing, she may not have access to the entire compendium of evidence before May 1. <\/p>\n Silverman also seems intent on bringing the case to trial as soon as possible. Silverman noted Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the date prosecutors believe Hernandez was killed, and said she intended to put the case before a jury within 60 days of the completion of a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n The singer allegedly began sexually abusing Hernandez in September 2023, when she was just 13. Burke\u2019s attorneys have said the case cannot stand up to scrutiny and pushed for the immediate preliminary hearing. <\/p>\n Hernandez was reported missing from her family\u2019s Lake Elsinore neighborhood three times in 2024, and she was spotted at some of D4vd\u2019s concerts during that time frame.<\/p>\n Prosecutors allege Hernandez was last seen at Burke\u2019s Hollywood Hills residence on April 23. She \u201cthreatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career,\u201d according to L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, though the prosecutor has not answered questions about whether Hernandez was going to report Burke to police. <\/p>\n Burke surged in popularity after one of his tracks was included in the wildly popular video game \u201cFortnite,\u201d and he has also collaborated with artists like 21 Savage. He was beginning to tour in support of his debut album, \u201cWithered,\u201d when reports surfaced linking him to Hernandez\u2019s death. He quickly canceled all shows. <\/p>\n The details of the crime echoed some of the violent imagery associated with Burke\u2019s songs. The Queens-born vocalist has appeared in a music video<\/a> filled with violent imagery: a young woman with an apparent chest wound lies on a bed as the singer hovers over her, blindfolded, his white shirt spattered with blood. In another video,<\/a> \u201cOne More Dance,\u201d D4vd drags a person \u2014 who bears the singer\u2019s likeness \u2014 to a car, where a couple stuffs the person into the trunk.<\/p>\n