Celeste Rivas’ Mother Breaks Down During Gruesome Court Testimony

The mother of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered body was discovered inside singer D4vd’s Tesla last year, broke down in court Thursday as the artist again appeared largely impassive.

D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, has been charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains in connection with Hernandez’s death.

Prosecutors allege Burke fatally stabbed the teenager and later dismembered her body in the garage of his Hollywood home after she threatened to expose their sexual relationship and damage his music career.

Burke, 21, has pleaded not guilty. His defense team has said it intends to fight the charges aggressively.

The emotional moment came during a preliminary hearing meant to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to send the case to trial. Hernandez’s mother was seen crying in the courtroom and was handed a tissue, TMZ reports

Her reaction followed testimony from a Los Angeles Police Department criminalist, who told the court that blood stains found in the garage of Burke’s Hollywood residence were a strong DNA match to Hernandez.

Hernandez’s parents ultimately left the hearing before a Los Angeles medical examiner began testifying. 

Burke, meanwhile, sat through the testimony without visible emotion, though he was also observed smiling, nodding and speaking casually with his attorneys, Marilyn Bednarski and Blair Berk, as proceedings continued, according to Los Angeles Magazine.

Hernandez’s remains had been found in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla on September 8, as it sat in an impound lot.

Disturbing images previously displayed in court showed Hernandez’s bloody head and torso inside a body bag in the trunk, as well as her severed arms and legs in a garbage bag underneath it. 

When authorities then learned the vehicle belonged to the singer, police technicians took samples from apparent blood stains on a rubber floor mat, a rowing machine and a Tesla charger in the garage.

Matches of several of those samples were ‘one septillion times more likely to occur if it originated from Celeste rather than anyone else in the population,’ criminalist Samantha Tosch testified on Thursday – pointing out that the number had 24 zeroes.

Testing was also done on a trash bag in the garage and stained cleaning wipes inside it that had tested positive for the presence of blood, Rolling Stone reports.

Tosch said the bag swab showed a mixture of DNA from four people, at least two of whom were male – including one she said was Burke’s.

Hernandez’s DNA was also found on the wipes but not the bag, while Burke’s DNA was not found on the wipes.

Another police criminalist testified that most of the garage stains were not visible to the naked eye and were uncovered by a chemical test that makes the area glow blue. A photo displayed in court showed the rubber mat cloaked in bright blue.

But under cross examination, Tosch conceded that she couldn’t say with certainty that the DNA profiles came from blood, and could’ve been from touch.

Tosch also acknowledged that it can’t be determined how DNA got on a spot, and that it’s even possible for it to transfer between people. 

The criminalist further admitted there’s no way to clearly establish how long the DNA had been there.

Defense attorney Blair Berk asked Tosch about the software the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) uses – which she suggested calculated only the likelihood that Burke’s DNA was present in the mixture from four people.

‘It’s not saying David Burke’s DNA was definitively found in the mixture,’ the lawyer argued.

Tosch then agreed that it was a ‘fair’ assessment, but it remained her professional opinion that the singer’s DNA was present on the outer trash bag.   

Burke’s lawyers have previously given little indication of any counternarrative they may present about how Hernandez was killed and how her dismembered body came to be found inside the trunk of Burke’s Tesla about five months later.

But they began giving glimpses into their defense strategy as they pressed various prosecution witnesses on why they didn’t conduct more DNA testing on items found in the singer’s home and car.

Berk dwelled on a pair of small chain saws found in Burke’s garage, where prosecutors say he dismembered the body. Lauren Wallace, another LAPD criminalist, testified that initial chemical tests showed no signs of blood on the saws, so the handles were not swabbed for any DNA left behind by someone who touched them.

‘If an item has somebody else’s DNA on it, you wouldn´t be able to see that at the time,’ Berk said.

‘No you’re not able to see touch DNA,’ Wallace admitted before reiterating that the blades had tested negative for blood.

‘But that doesn´t preclude at all that there could be somebody else’s touch DNA,’ Berk noted.

Prosecutors have claimed Burke began a sexual relationship with Hernandez when she was just 13 years old and he was 18 in November 2023.

When she then went missing that year, Hernandez’s mother told police her daughter was dating a guy she had never met, named David.

Authorities then questioned Burke about his relationship with the teenager, to which he said he believed Hernandez was 18 because ‘she told me she was 18,’ LA County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Juan Gonzalez testified on Tuesday.

The singer then allegedly shared Hernandez’s phone number with the deputies and showed them photos from his phone of her yearbook picture.

When Hernandez later returned home, her family took her phone away. 

But prosecutors say Burke continued to pursue her – even paying a junior high school student in her class $1,000 so that the classmate could get Hernandez a new phone.

‘Throughout 2024, the victim spent a significant amount of time with defendant, including summer weekends at his home in the Hollywood Hills and traveling with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family,’ they alleged in court documents.

‘Text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.’

Prosecutors further alleged that they broke up in November 2024, but they continued to communicate.

After they then broke up again last April, the teenager became jealous over Burke’s relationship with other women, the preliminary trial brief claims.

Hernandez then ‘threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,’ the documents state.

At that time, prosecutors say, Burke was set to release his first solo album and had a multimillion-dollar career at stake.

With that allegedly on his mind, Burke sent an Uber to pick Rivas Hernandez up at her home in Lake Elsinore, California, at around 8.40pm on April 23 last year, and she was dropped off at the home he was renting in Hollywood Hills at around 10.10pm.

That is when he allegedly killed the teenager. 

Prosecutors say he then kept the body for weeks or months in the front trunk of the Tesla, where it was found after the car was towed four and a half months later while the singer was on tour promoting his debut album.