Texts reveal teen who singer D4vd is accused of killing was pregnant, had abortion yr earlier than demise – Boston Information, Climate, Sports activities

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Textual content messages between singer D4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez proven in courtroom Friday point out she had gotten pregnant at age 13 and had an abortion greater than a yr earlier than she was killed.

In a single change in early January 2024, D4vd, whose authorized title is David Burke, apologizes for “placing her via this.”

“It’s okay,” she mentioned in a textual content, “neither of us are able to watching and taking good care of the infant. it’s for the very best no?”

He later apologizes once more earlier than asking if it’s his, and she or he replies, “in fact it’s yours David.”

The testimony got here throughout a preliminary listening to the place a decide will determine if Burke ought to go on trial in Rivas Hernandez’s killing. Prosecutors are searching for to show Burke started sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to demise when she threatened to disclose their lengthy sexual historical past and crater a profession that had earned him hundreds of thousands.

They allege he dismembered the physique in his storage, and a police analyst testified within the preliminary listening to that samples pulled from obvious blood stains there matched Rivas Hernandez’s DNA. Her physique was found within the trunk of a Tesla that had been towed from the Hollywood Hills in September, practically 5 months after authorities mentioned she was killed. The Tesla was registered to Burke.

Burke has pleaded not responsible to homicide, sexual abuse of a kid and mutilation of a physique, and his legal professionals have mentioned he’s harmless.

Prosecution provides proof of sexual abuse

Prosecutors spent Friday afternoon detailing the character of the connection between Burke and Rivas Hernandez. Pictures of the 2 of them kissing and mendacity in mattress have been proven in courtroom. The photographs confirmed that she had “David” tattooed in pink ink on a finger — one among two that had been minimize off when her physique was discovered.

Then Los Angeles police detective Corey Farrell described one-by-one greater than three dozen pictures of the 2 of them that would not be proven in courtroom as a result of they depicted express sexual abuse. Rivas Hernandez was 13 and 14 within the pictures.

Rivas Hernandez’s mom started crying and her father appeared down because the detective started describing the pictures.

Deputy District Legal professional Beth Silverman came to visit to consolation the mom, Mercedes Martinez, and the couple bought up and left the courtroom.

The photographs have been recovered from his iPhone that was seized throughout a search of his house. The textual content message conversations taken from his iCloud account typically mentioned contraception and being pregnant, and in early January 2024, they focus on the abortion.

Rigidity rises between Burke and Rivas Hernandez

In a textual content dialog months later, she says she regretted that she “took a harmless lifetime of a literal child.”

She asks Burke if anybody is aware of they’ve intercourse, and he replied “nope and that i need to maintain it that manner till we married.”

Rivas Hernandez turned 14 in September 2024 and shortly after traveled with Burke to London and to Texas to fulfill his household.

Messages after that present pressure rising between them.

In a single textual content in November 2024, she says: “i actually had intercourse with you for nearly a yr straight.” He tells her she’s performing prefer it’s their first breakup when it’s their eighth.

The detective returns to the stand Monday for the fifth and certain closing day of the preliminary listening to.

Post-mortem physician particulars outcomes of examination

Earlier within the day, the physician who carried out the post-mortem on Rivas Hernandez gave the tough particulars of her demise.

A lot of what Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Division of Medical Examiner mentioned on the stand was already recognized: She had been killed by two sharp pressure wounds to her higher physique.

However the particulars he shared of what the post-mortem confirmed — and tellingly, what it was unable to find out due to how degraded her physique was when it was discovered — have been a part of what made Friday’s proceedings maybe probably the most tough up to now.

Ho testified that he couldn’t say when the demise occurred — one among many challenges introduced on by the physique’s degradation.

“It’s extraordinarily tough to inform,” Ho mentioned.

He mentioned she had been useless for “no less than weeks,” later including that it additionally might have been months.

Authorities say Burke despatched a automotive to choose up Rivas Hernandez on April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles (129 km) exterior Los Angeles. They exchanged messages till she arrived at his house, after which her telephone went useless.

Her physique was discovered within the entrance trunk of the Tesla registered to Burke on Sept. 8, 2025 — the day after she would have turned 15.

“She didn’t make it to her fifteenth birthday, right?” Silverman requested. “Right,” Ho replied.

Ho mentioned there have been many “pores and skin defects” that would have been postmortem, however the two he recognized as potential stab wounds had associated inner trauma. One wound on the stomach penetrated her liver. One other, on the left chest, broken her ribs.

Protection seizes on inconclusive drug take a look at

He testified that toxicology exams, accomplished solely on her liver as a result of no blood was out there, initially confirmed positives for benzodiazepines — drugs sometimes used for anxiousness — and methamphetamine. He mentioned with additional testing the benzodiazepine was adverse. The methamphetamine was inconclusive, and consequently Ho mentioned “I can not say that it performed any position within the demise.”

Burke’s lawyer, Marilyn Bednarski, requested if decomposition might have an effect on the accuracy of drug take a look at outcomes, and Ho agreed it might.

“Within the toxicology report there’s not sufficient info to help an overdose demise, right?” Bednarski requested. Ho mentioned she was right.

Bednarski requested if it helps in an post-mortem examination to speak to the family and friends of the deceased about their life — if they’d a psychological well being challenge, have been suicidal, have been a frequent drug consumer or have been violent.

Ho answered “probably” to every of these however mentioned there have been no such conversations on this case.

Burke’s music profession was on the rise

Beneath the title D4vd (pronounced “David”), turned a web based musical phenomenon as a teen with a mix of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had big followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, the place his prime songs, together with his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Murder,” have greater than a billion performs.

He opened for SZA on tour in 2023 and in 2024 he performed the Coachella music competition and launched his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after when authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.