Singer D4VD charged with murder for death of 14-year-old

[0:00] Good morning. My name is Nathan Hochman. I'm the District Attorney of Los Angeles County. [0:04] With me up here is Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonald. Also at this podium on the [0:12] DA side are the Assistant District Attorney Maria Ramirez who oversees our special operations. [0:19] We have John McKinney who is our Director of Specialized Prosecutions. The Assistant Head [0:24] Deputy District Attorney is Habib Balian of the Major Crimes Division. Deputy District Attorney Beth [0:31] Silverman of the Major Crimes Division will be the lead prosecutor on this case. From the Los Angeles [0:38] Police Department we also have Captain Scott Williams who's the commanding officer of LAPD's [0:44] Robbery Homicide Division. The Chief of Detectives Alan Hamilton. The Director of Specialized Prosecutions [0:52] Mike Rimkunis and the LAPD detectives on this case Josh Byers and Corey Farrell. Today I am announcing [1:01] the charges against David Anthony Burke. The musician known as David spelled D4VD in connection with the [1:11] brutal and horrific murder of Celeste a 14 year old at that time. These charges include the most serious [1:20] charges that a DA's office can bring. That is first degree murder with special circumstances. The [1:27] special circumstances being lying in wait committing this crime for financial gain or murdering a witness [1:35] in an investigation. These special circumstances carry with it along with the first degree murder charge [1:43] a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. The determination on [1:51] whether or not the district attorney's office will seek the death penalty will be made at a later time. Before I get [1:59] into the actual charges and their additional charges against Mr. Burke including continuous sexual acts, lewd and [2:09] lascivious sexual acts with an individual under 14 years old and mutilating a human remains of a body. Before I get into the [2:21] description of these charges and their seriousness I want to look at this as a parent. I am a parent of three [2:28] children and a parent's nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes [2:36] back. As we will show in a court of law and what I also want to make sure about that the understanding of [2:43] these charges is clear is my description of these charges is not evidence that we are going to present in [2:49] court. These charges in fact will not be evidence in the court. Evidence will be the witness testimony, [2:57] the documents and different types of admissible testimony that we will admit into court in the [3:05] prosecution and if it leads to the eventual trial of Mr. Burke to convince a jury of 12 people beyond a [3:13] reasonable doubt that each and every one of these charges is true as well as the special allegations [3:20] and circumstances that have been alleged. Now back to this being a parent's nightmare. On April 23rd, [3:28] 2025, as been alleged by the complaint, Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke's house in the [3:38] Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again. On September 8th, 2025, as alleged in the complaint, [3:48] Mr. Burke, excuse me, Ms. Celeste's remains, her dismembered and decomposed remains, [3:58] were found in two bags inside of a front trunk of a car registered to Mr. Burke. [4:09] Thereafter began an investigation. The investigation was to determine who killed, who murdered Celeste months [4:18] and months before. That investigation was carried out in unison and in partnership between the LAPD's [4:26] robbery homicide division and the district attorney's office. At every point in the investigation, [4:33] through the arrest and the filing of charges, the LAPD and the district attorney's office have worked [4:40] in lockstep. There's been no disagreements amongst these entities in deciding how to proceed with this [4:47] case, ultimately leading to these charges today. So what you have as well with these charges is that, [4:55] again, there are three sets of charges that have been brought. The first degree murder with special [5:00] circumstances. And again, those special circumstances are lying in wait. That Celeste went to Mr. Burke's [5:08] home on the night of April 23rd, 2025, as alleged in the complaint, at his invitation, and again, was not heard [5:19] from again. The second is a special circumstance being that this murder was committed for financial gain. [5:27] As the evidence will show in court, the financial gain was for Mr. Burke to maintain his very lucrative [5:36] musical career that Celeste was threatening on that particular night. The third charge, in addition to [5:45] lying in wait and for financial gain, is murdering a witness to an investigation. In this particular case, [5:52] as the evidence will come out in court, the witness to the investigation was Celeste. And the investigation [6:02] was into the lewd and lascivious sexual acts committed by Mr. Burke that is the subject of count two of this [6:09] complaint with Celeste while she was under 14 years old. I had the chance to meet with some of the family [6:24] members of Celeste and their grief is uncalculable as to what happened to their daughter. What they have [6:32] demanded, what we have assured them that the district attorney's office working with LAPD would give them [6:39] is the proof beyond a reasonable doubt on who killed their daughter, on how their daughter was killed, [6:50] when their daughter was killed, and bring that killer to justice. That killer that we have now charged [6:59] is David Anthony Burke. We will have questions after I speak and Chief McDonald speaks. At this point, [7:09] I invite Chief McDonald to speak. Thank you very much. Good morning and thank you all for being here. [7:16] I want to begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the parents of Celeste Revis. No parent or any [7:23] human being should have to endure what you've gone through. Today, alongside DA Hockman and our partners [7:30] at the LA County District Attorney's Office, and thanks to the tireless and hard work of our investigators at [7:36] the LAPD were announcing the arrest and prosecution of David Burke for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste [7:44] Revis. Throughout the seven-month investigation, this department has faced criticism for how we [7:50] handle the case and for our decision not to provide details. I want to be clear about something. My duty [7:58] is not to fuel speculation. It's to deliver justice, and that requires patience and discipline on everybody's [8:05] part. This investigation was driven by a single purpose, to secure justice for Celeste Revis and [8:12] for those who loved her. We had to be certain that nothing we did or said would ever jeopardize [8:19] this case. Ms. Revis was a reported runaway from Riverside County. During the course of our [8:26] investigation, detectives learned that she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Mr. Burke [8:32] when she was a minor and he was an adult. On April 23, 2025, Ms. Revis arrived at Mr. Burke's home in the [8:40] Hollywood Hills. That's the last time she was known to be alive. On September 8, 2025, Ms. Revis' dismembered [8:49] and badly decomposed body was discovered in the front trunk of Mr. Burke's impounded Tesla. From that [8:57] moment forward, our investigators face an extraordinary difficult and complex case. The condition of her [9:04] remains delayed the medical examiner's ability to be able to determine cause of death. The substantial [9:11] amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery meant that crucial evidence had degraded [9:17] or disappeared. And as detectives worked to uncover the truth, they also had to sift through and debunk a [9:24] great deal of false information circulating publicly. These challenges were real and they [9:31] required patience, precision, and an unwavering commitment to the facts. Despite these obstacles, [9:38] and despite intense public pressure, our robbery homicide division detectives remained steadfast in [9:44] their duties. They recovered and analyzed a substantial amount of digital and forensic evidence. They stayed [9:52] focused, disciplined, and committed to uncovering the truth. Their work in close collaboration with the [9:58] district attorney's office has brought us to this moment today. I want to thank the district attorney and [10:04] his team as always for their partnership. This case demanded coordination, persistence, and a shared [10:11] commitment to justice. Also, thank you to our media partners for showing up today and for sharing this [10:17] important message with the public. And finally, to Ms. Rivas' family, we cannot undo the pain you were [10:24] feeling. Our hope is that today brings some measure of accountability and a step in the journey toward [10:31] healing. Please know that the Los Angeles Police Department remains fully committed to seeking justice [10:37] on behalf of your daughter. Thank you. So at this point, we'll take questions. Anything more you can tell us about [10:46] the fact that she was a witness in the coming investigation, that she reported the abuse when [10:51] you're doing that? The details of the allegations that have made, particularly with that special [10:57] circumstance, will be produced in court. Did you determine cause of death and the difficulty it was to [11:03] determine both the matter of cause and death? So with respect to the coroner's report, we will be seeking [11:09] quite quickly to provide an order to the court that now allows the coroner to release that report to the public. [11:16] Do you believe that he acted? Mr. Hoffman, what about you from the BBC? Between the finding of the body of Celeste? [11:22] All right, let's bring in our legal analyst, Brian Buckmeyer, who's been listening also to this press [11:27] conference. First-degree murder charges now filed against Singer, the singer known as David, after he was [11:34] arrested in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. We learned a lot of new information here, [11:41] Brian, not only the charges, but some pretty gruesome descriptions here of how this all went down, [11:50] and also the fact that this murder was committed, apparently, for financial gain. [11:55] Yes, Kira, and excuse me for looking down on my notes, because the special circumstances that we're [12:01] hearing in these three different variations of murder charges, I think, give us a lot of information [12:06] that we're not going to get more of, at least, until the arraignment of David or maybe thereafter. [12:12] So when you talk about first-degree murder and the special circumstances being lying in wait to [12:18] maintain a career that Celeste was allegedly threatening, that's the financial gain they were [12:22] talking about, and then murdering a witness into an investigation that is predicated on the lewd and [12:28] lascivious acts with a person under the age of 14, that tells us a lot about what potential evidence [12:34] could be coming up in this case. The prosecution would have to have some sort of evidence that [12:40] there was a sexual relationship between David and Celeste. The prosecution would have to have some [12:44] level of information to suggest that that information was about to be public and that David put together [12:50] a plan in order to silence that information from coming out. This is what those special circumstances [12:55] are alluding to, and these are very serious crimes. As the prosecutor, district attorney Hawkins said, [13:02] these are crimes where the sentence could be life in prison or as high as the death penalty, [13:07] which there's a moratorium in California, but you can still be sentenced to the death penalty, [13:10] so these are very serious allegations. We'll track it. Brian Buckmeyer, thank you.