After five days of often grim and unsettling testimony, a judge in Los Angeles said on Monday that she would allow the murder case against the singer D4vd to go to trial.
The ruling by the judge, Charlaine F. Olmedo of Los Angeles County Superior Court, indicates that she found probable cause that D4vd, 21, had killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl whose severely decomposed body was discovered in the trunk of his Tesla last fall.
A trial date was not selected on Monday, but lawyers agreed to meet in the coming weeks to begin devising a schedule. Judge Olmedo ordered D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, to be held without bail.
Mr. Burke, who is perhaps best known for creating the anthem for the video game Fortnite, was charged in April with first-degree murder, as well as felony counts of lewd acts with a minor under 14 and mutilation of human remains. The murder charge came with what are known as special circumstances, making Mr. Burke eligible for a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Burke will next appear in court on Aug. 31, when, in something of a formality, he will be re-arraigned on the charges.
It is not unusual for a judge to allow a case to go to trial after a preliminary hearing. The standard of proof required simply to advance a legal proceeding is lower than during an actual criminal trial, when a jury must determine whether a defendant is guilty.
Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said after the judge’s determination on Monday that his office had not yet decided whether it would seek the death penalty against Mr. Burke, and that it would present “additional and significant evidence” at the trial.
“This was difficult evidence to even hear,” Mr. Hochman said of the sometimes graphic images and testimony presented at the preliminary hearing. “But also the crime that we were dealing with is incredibly horrific and barbaric.”
Celeste was reported missing several times in 2024 from Lake Elsinore, Calif., about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. At the time, she was 13.
Her remains were found in September 2025 inside Mr. Burke’s Tesla, which, after seemingly being abandoned on a city street, had been towed to an impound lot. Months of frenzied speculation about what had transpired ensued, but the police remained quiet until they arrested Mr. Burke this spring.
In preparation for the preliminary hearing, prosecutors sketched the outlines of their case in court documents. They said Mr. Burke met Celeste when she was 11 and began a sexual relationship with her when she was 13. In April 2025, when Celeste was 14, they got into an argument before Mr. Burke invited her to his home and fatally stabbed her, the documents said.
In the weeks that followed, prosecutors wrote in the documents, Mr. Burke placed Celeste’s body in an inflatable pool and cut off her limbs with a chain saw he had ordered online. He stuffed her remains into a bag and put the bag in the Tesla’s trunk.
During the preliminary hearing, which began on July 21, prosecutors broadened their narrative with new details. Investigators made clear that Mr. Burke had met Celeste through social media, and photos displayed in court showed that Mr. Burke had a tattoo reading “Celeste” on one finger, and one reading “shhh…” on another finger. The second tattoo appears to match a tattoo found on Celeste.
According to testimony from one detective, Corey Farell, Celeste’s family was aware of her relationship with Mr. Burke, and family members had interacted with him. Celeste lived for a time with a relative in Los Angeles, closer to Mr. Burke, Mr. Farell said.
Excruciating testimony sought to establish the sexual nature of their relationship. Mr. Farell spent much of an afternoon describing photograph after photograph of what investigators believe to be Mr. Burke and Celeste performing sex acts on each other, along with text messages between them that discussed birth control, pregnancy and abortion when she was 13 and 14 and he was 18 and 19.
Patrick Steinfeld, a lawyer for Celeste’s family, described members as “relieved” by the judge’s decision on Monday. Celeste’s parents sat in court for much of the preliminary hearing but left at a prosecutor’s encouragement during testimony about the sexual acts that had occurred between Mr. Burke and their daughter.
In testimony on Monday, Mr. Farell said Mr. Burke and Celeste had exchanged more than 8,000 text messages. They discussed plans to move in together. But in March 2025, Celeste wrote, “I don’t want anything to do with you in person anymore.”
At one point, Celeste threatened to leak information about their relationship, text Mr. Burke’s family, end his career and even kill him, the text messages showed.
During the hearing, Blair Berk, a lawyer for Mr. Burke, said Celeste had hit him and threatened to kill herself.
On April 22, 2025, Celeste repeatedly appealed to Mr. Burke, asking to see him, according to testimony during the hearing.
The next day, Mr. Burke arranged an Uber to drive Celeste to his home, the messages showed. According to the records, about 20 minutes after she arrived, he sent messages to her phone asking where she was.
She never responded.
Two days later, on April 25, 2025, Mr. Burke’s first album was released.
During the hearing, another detective detailed records that appear to show Mr. Burke taking a trip to Santa Barbara County after Celeste had been killed. A California Highway Patrol officer testified that he had recovered Celeste’s passport card from a worker with the state’s Department of Transportation, who had found it on a dirt shoulder off a highway in the county.
Forensics experts who examined Mr. Burke’s Tesla and the house in the Hollywood Hills where he had been staying found possible blood on many items. An analyst with the police department testified that the apparent blood stains matched Celeste’s DNA.
Lawyers for Mr. Burke cross-examined all of the witnesses, though they did not call any of their own.
Throughout the hearing, they sought to raise questions over why items discovered by the authorities were not more carefully handled, closely studied or tested. They forced Mr. Farell to acknowledge that the department did not speak with witnesses or review video footage showing Celeste exiting an Uber or entering Mr. Burke’s house on the night they say she was killed. And they argued that the blood evidence presented did not support the charges, and that prosecutors had not shown that Mr. Burke had acted with malice.
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