Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s parents are suing the singer D4vd, accusing him of wrongful death after he was charged in the 14-year-old girl’s murder.Mercedes Martinez and Jesus Rivas are also suing D4vd’s mother and managers, accusing them of negligence.
D4vd’s real name is David Anthony Burke.The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, outlines much of the evidence presented at a multiday evidentiary hearing in July about the pair’s relationship, which prosecutors said began when Celeste was 13 and ended after she threatened to expose him.
Text messages revealed at the hearing showed that she had gotten pregnant by Burke and had an abortion.Her decomposed and dismembered remains were found in September 2025 in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla at a Los Angeles impound lot.
Prosecutors said the car had been left on a street near his home and impounded at Hollywood Tow after someone reported an abandoned vehicle.D4vd at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on April 20.Ted Soqui / Pool via Getty Images fileBurke, 21, was arrested in April at a house in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood, Los Angeles police said.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.He remains in custody awaiting trial.The lawsuit accuses Burke of using his position of authority to “influence and control” Celeste, “including by providing her a concealed cellular telephone to maintain contact outside her parents’ knowledge, using false identities, and arranging and paying for her travel.”The suit says that on the night she died in April 2025, Burke sent an Uber vehicle to pick her up from her family’s home in Lake Elsinore in Riverside County.
After she arrived at his home in the Hollywood Hills, Burke stabbed her, prosecutors allege.Prosecutors said he used chain saws to cut her body apart in his garage.
Celeste’s parents...