The singer known as D4vd was charged with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a missing teenage girl whose severely decomposed body was found in the trunk of his Tesla last fall, prosecutors in Los Angeles announced on Monday.
Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering a witness to an investigation.
Because of the special circumstances, the charge carries a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. Mr. Hochman said his office had not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
Mr. Burke, 21, was also charged with lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person under 14 years old and with the mutilation of a human body, Mr. Hochman said.
Mr. Burke created the anthem for Fortnite, and has millions of followers on social media and music platforms. In 2024, he was an opening act on SZA’s SOS Tour, and last year he released his major-label debut, “Withered.”
Lawyers for Mr. Burke have said he is innocent. He is expected to be arraigned on Monday afternoon, and has not entered a plea.
“The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” the lawyers, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, said in a statement last week after the singer was arrested.
The district attorney said that on April 23, 2025, Celeste, who was then 14, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills and “was not heard from again.” Mr. Hochman said Mr. Burke killed her for financial gain — “to maintain his very lucrative musical career that Celeste was threatening.”
“A parents’ nightmare,” Mr. Hochman said.
The case has captivated the public since the authorities announced in September that they had discovered human remains in a car registered to Mr. Burke. Officials said the car had been left on a public street for weeks before it was towed to an impound lot in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office identified the remains as those of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who in 2024 was reported missing from her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Her body was found on Sept. 8, a day after what would have been her 15th birthday.
Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said on Monday that detectives had learned that Celeste had “been involved in a sexual relationship with Mr. Burke when she was a minor and he was an adult.”
Chief McDonnell acknowledged that his department faced criticism for not providing more information about the case, which he called “extraordinarily difficult and complex.” He said his officers had taken the necessary precautions to avoid jeopardizing the investigation.
Because Celeste’s body was “dismembered and badly decomposed” when it was discovered, Chief McDonnell said, the county medical examiner’s office was delayed in its efforts to determine a cause of death, and significant evidence in the case had degraded or disappeared.
In December, a judge granted a request from the Los Angeles Police Department to place a security hold on a report from the medical examiner. In the news conference on Monday, Mr. Hochman said that report, which is expected to detail the medical examiner’s determination of Celeste’s cause of death, would be released soon.
Mr. Hochman said details of the investigation, including physical as well as “forensic and digital” evidence, would be presented in court, though he declined to detail that information on Monday.
Repeated efforts to reach members of Celeste’s family have been unsuccessful. Patrick Steinfeld, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement that family members were “committed to ensuring that Celeste’s voice is heard.”
The statement added that upon learning of Mr. Burke’s arrest, her father, Jesus Rivas, said: “Thank God … justice for Celeste.”
Emmanuel Morgan reports on sports, pop culture and entertainment.
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