LOS ANGELES (AP) — The doctor who performed the autopsy on 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez gave the difficult details of her death Friday at a hearing to determine whether singer D4vd should go on trial in her killing.
Much of what Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said on the stand was already known: She had been killed by two sharp force wounds to her upper body and her dismembered, decomposing body was found in the trunk of a Tesla.
But the details he shared of what the autopsy showed — and tellingly, what it was unable to determine because of how degraded her body was when it was found — made Friday's proceedings perhaps the most difficult so far. Photos shown from the autopsy brought uncomfortable shifting in seats and murmurs in the courtroom.
The defense seized on the uncertainties to suggest there might have been other causes of death, including an overdose or self-inflicted injuries.
The preliminary hearing began on Tuesday, and will be used by a judge to decide if the case should go to trial.
Rivas Hernandez's parents were in the building but stayed outside the courtroom for the autopsy testimony. D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, sat next to his lawyers in orange jail clothes and glasses, and did not show any emotion during the testimony.
Rivas Hernandez's body was discovered in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September, nearly five months after authorities said Rivas Hernandez was killed.
Autopsy conclusions were hard to reach
Ho testified that he could not say when the death occurred — one of many challenges brought on by the body's degradation.
“It’s extremely difficult to tell,” Ho said.
He said she had been dead for “at least weeks.” Asked by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman whether it could have been four to five months, he said “potentially.” Authorities believe she was killed in April 2025; her body was discovered last September.
Rivas Hernandez was found the day after she would have turned 15.
“She didn’t make it to her 15th birthday, correct?” Silverman asked. “Correct,” Ho replied.
Ho said there were many “skin defects” that could have been postmortem, but the two he identified as potential stab wounds had related internal trauma. One wound on the abdomen penetrated her liver. Another, on the left chest, damaged her ribs.
Ho said, “it would take minutes, at least,” for someone to lose enough blood to die from the injuries. The prosecution has asserted in a court filing that Burke “stood by while she bled out.” When pressed, he said it could have potentially taken an hour, but wouldn't commit to that.
Defense seizes on inconclusive drug test
He testified that toxicology tests, done only on her liver because no blood was available, showed a low level of alcohol that may have been caused postmortem by bacteria. He said the tests initially showed positives for benzodiazepines — medications typically used for anxiety — and methamphetamine. He said with further testing the benzodiazepine was negative. The methamphetamine was inconclusive, and as a result Ho said "I cannot say that it played any role in the death.”
Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski, asked if decomposition could affect the accuracy of drug test results, and Ho agreed it could.
"In the toxicology report there is not enough information to support an overdose death, correct?" Bednarski asked. Ho said she was correct.
Bednarski asked if it helps in an autopsy examination to talk to the friends and family of the deceased about their life — if they had a mental health issue, were suicidal, were a frequent drug user or were violent.
Ho answered “potentially” to each of those but said there were no such conversations in this case.
Ho said he could not tell if there had been a struggle before death, or where the wounds came from.
“You can’t rule out that she was holding an instrument that caused either of those wounds?” Bednarski asked.
Ho said self-inflicted injuries usually include surrounding superficial “hesitation marks” — and those were not found — but otherwise he could not say.
Burke could stand trial for murder, mutilation and sexual abuse
Prosecutors are seeking to prove Burke began sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal their long sexual history and crater his career. They allege he dismembered the body in his garage, and a police analyst testified in the preliminary hearing that samples pulled from apparent blood stains there matched the DNA of Rivas Hernandez.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body, and his lawyers have said he is innocent.
An indie-pop singer whose music and online presence brought him a huge following, D4vd's songs and videos often have dark and violent imagery often delivered through an alter-ego character he calls Itami. His breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify.
