Detective says D4vd's phone had photos of teen, talk of abortion

Dozens of photographs and text messages taken from D4vd’s cellphone show the singer impregnated a teenage girl and convinced her to have an abortion when she was just 13 — a year before he allegedly killed her and dismembered her body, according to evidence made public in court Friday afternoon. Los Angeles Police Det. Corey Farell laid out the alleged sexually abusive relationship between the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, and Celeste Rivas Hernandez in graphic detail, during what is likely the final segment of Burke’s preliminary hearing on murder and sex abuse charges. Burke has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing through his attorneys. Farell and Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman displayed hundreds of pictures and texts that show Burke and Hernandez discussing sexual interactions, fears of a pregnancy and ultimately, an abortion that supposedly took place in January 2024. The messages on the phone spanned from November 2023 to March 2025, the detective said. There were nearly 50 photographs that depicted either Hernandez naked or the pair engaged in sex acts, according to Farell. Burke’s cellphone lock screen was a picture of the pair, topless, locked in an embrace, the detective said. Other photos showed Hernandez touching hands with Burke while wearing a ring. At least one image captures a tattoo of the name “David” in red ink on Hernandez’s finger. Photos displayed in court earlier this week show the singer had the name "Celeste" tattooed on his own finger in the same color and script style. Prosecutors have alleged that Burke fatally stabbed Hernandez inside his Hollywood home last April after she threatened to expose the sex abuse and derail the singer's ascendant music career. Burke allegedly amputated two of Hernandez’s fingers after dismembering her body with a chainsaw to cover up evidence of the tattoo linking the two. According to text messages displayed in court, the two also discussed a plan to move in together in February 2024, which Hernandez dubbed “Operation Awesome.” Hernandez was reported missing to Riverside County authorities by her parents that same month. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies visited Burke's home to question him about Hernandez around the same time, but she wasn't there. When questioned by a deputy, Burke claimed he'd only met Hernandez once in person and didn't know she was under 18, according to body camera footage displayed in court earlier in the week. The text messages contradict those statements. Hernandez returned to her Lake Elsinore home two days later, but Burke allegedly paid a teenager to get her a new phone so they could stay in touch, according to a court filing by Silverman earlier this year. In January 2024, Burke and Hernandez had an exchange about the 13-year-old possibly being pregnant with his child, according to the messages shown in court. “wen u gonna get it done,” Burke asked, referencing an abortion appointment, according to Farrell. “two days,” Hernandez wrote back, according to the texts shown in court. “also my mother always told me to ask this question if I was ever in this situation … it is mine right?” Burke asked. “of course its yours David,” Hernandez replied, according to the detective's testimony. Months later, Hernandez expressed regret over the abortion. "I care abt u i killed my kid [for] you," she wrote to Burke in August 2024. "i don't like talking about it cause it gets [me really] upset but id do anything to have it back." Later, she lamented that she "took an innocent life of a literal baby.” When the two discussed a plan for Hernandez to move into Burke’s Los Angeles residence around Valentine’s Day 2024, Burke referred to the date as “the most important day of your life next to da wedding day,” according to the texts displayed in court. In another message, Burke expressed a desire to flee the country with Hernandez to get married in Italy, lamenting that they couldn't be together in the U.S. without being harangued by police or missing person fliers. “I just want no posters and u to be able to get on planes," Burke wrote. Another string of texts showed the two planned to travel to Las Vegas together in August 2024, where they discussed having sex inside the Trump Hotel. Before delving into the text messages and pictures — which were not displayed to the court because prosecutors said many of them constituted child sex material — a visibly emotional Silverman turned to Hernandez’s parents and pleaded with them to leave the courtroom, warning them “it’s too much.” Eventually, they stood up and exited. Hernandez’s mother could be heard softly crying as she exited into the hallway. Prosecutors say Hernandez was last seen alive at the 21-year-old's Doheny Place residence after she threatened to reveal their relationship. The singer has has rarely spoken or betrayed reactions to testimony. It is not clear whether his attorneys will call any witnesses before the proceeding ends. Farell is expected to be the final prosecution witness, meaning the proceeding should wrap up Monday. Silverman began this week's preliminary hearing by showing grisly photos of Hernandez's decomposing corpse, which was found in September 2025 in a Hollywood tow yard. Burke met Hernandez online when she was about 11 years old, court records have shown. Burke — a rising alternative music star who was on tour supporting his debut album and hit song "Romantic Homicide" when Hernandez’s body was found — began abusing the girl in 2023, prosecutors charge. The pair "broke up" in November of 2024, according to court records, but stayed in contact. Texts displayed Friday from that month showed Hernandez growing frustrated. “I literally had sex with you for almost a year straight," she wrote. "ur treating this like its the first break up … this is the 8th time," he replied. A month later, Burke seemed to suggest Hernandez, who was 13, was the one in control of their relationship. "u asked me if I wanted to have sex man and I folded," he said after they argued about a physical interaction following their breakup in December 2024. Burke went on to allege that Hernandez initiated their first kiss and asked him to be her boyfriend. Burke and Hernandez got into an argument the night before prosecutors say she was killed, with the teen expressing frustration and jealousy over Burke's relationships with other women. If convicted as charged, Burke would face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they intend to pursue capital punishment. Friday marked the fourth day of the preliminary hearing, in which Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take Burke to trial. After killing Hernandez, prosecutors allege, Burke purchased shovels, three chainsaws and an inflatable pool, a cadaver bag and a burn cage all under aliases as part of an effort to destroy her remains. Burke used one of the chainsaws to cut apart Hernandez's body, which he placed inside the pool hoping it would capture most of her blood, prosecutors have alleged. Earlier this week, prosecutors alleged Burke bought some of the packages under the alias "Trayvion Davis." In the texts displayed Friday, Burke said he sometimes used that name when placing orders for delivery at his Hollywood address. An LAPD DNA expert, Samantha Tosch, testified Thursday that evidence recovered from apparent blood stains in the garage of D4vd’s Hollywood Hills home had a strong DNA match to Hernandez. A separate LAPD expert testified she took the samples from a rubber floor mat, a rowing machine, a green tarp, cleaning items in a trash and a Tesla charger in the garage. On Friday morning, Burke's defense team tried to sow doubt about the conclusiveness of the autopsy conducted in the case. For more than an hour, attorney Marilyn Bednarski peppered L.A. County Deputy Medical Examiner Grant Ho with questions about whether the severely decomposed state of Hernandez's remains made it hard for him to ascertain key details, including time of death or the type of weapon that was used to kill the girl. Bednarski asked a number of questions suggesting the possibility that Hernandez was holding the weapon that killed her, that she injured herself or that the killing happened in the course of a struggle. “You can’t rule that out that she would have been holding the instrument that caused either of those wounds?” the attorney asked. While Ho said he could not, he also noted the autopsy did not uncover "hesitation marks," referring to lesser injuries caused in the process of committing self-harm. Police did not recover a murder weapon in Hernandez's death, nor have they presented exact evidence about the moment she was killed.