After a five-day preliminary hearing that included graphic testimony, a judge in Los Angeles decided Monday that there is enough evidence to put singer D4vd on trial for murder. Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo said prosecutors had met the burden of evidence, CNN reports. She said the 21-year-old singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, will be held without bail. Burke has been charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains in connection with the killing and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Her decomposed body was found in the trunk of Burke's Tesla last year.
Prosecutors wrapped the preliminary hearing earlier Monday with an account of Hernandez's last hours alive, the AP reports. Text messages shown in the courtroom detailed a volatile back-and-forth in the 24 hours before her death as they argued about his relationship with a woman. In one message, she threatened to leak information about him online and "end ur career and ur life." Prosecutors say Burke summoned Hernandez to his Hollywood home by Uber the next night, stabbed her to death when she arrived, then dismembered her, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Prosecutors said her final text said, "girly pop i'm almost there open ur door if ur home." Phone records show Burke texted Hernandez after the Uber arrived, which prosecutors say was an effort to make it seem she never reached his residence. The defense, which called no witnesses, emphasized there were no eyewitnesses to the alleged killing. Burke could face life without parole or the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors said Burke met Hernandez when she was 11 and began abusing her when she was 13, the AP reports. Earlier in the preliminary hearing, prosecutors said messages indicated that she had an abortion at 13 after Burke got her pregnant.
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