The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez seek the death penalty if singer D4vd is found guilty of the murder of their 14-year-old daughter.
ABC7 reports on Sunday, the eve of what would’ve been her 16th birthday, the family released a new photo of the deceased, along with a statement directed to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman saying the death penalty for D4vd “would be perfect for this kind of human being, devoid of feelings and emptiness inside, and without conscience.”
“…But that’s not in our hands, but rather in God’s, and the California justice system,” the family statement continued.
The last execution in California came two decades ago.
As AP reported, singer D4vd is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez who was last known to be alive nearly a year ago and whose dismembered and decomposed body was found last September in an abandoned Tesla allegedly registered in the artist’s name.
A picture of singer D4vd is seen during a press briefing on the case against him in Los Angeles on April 20, 2026. Rising star D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, was arrested in connection to the murder of a teenage girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of a car registered in the artist’s name, police said on April 16. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)
The murder charges include special circumstances — lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty, the AP report notes.
Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it.
The 21-year-old defendant is also charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body.
Attorneys for the Houston-born alt-pop singer, whose legal name is David Burke, said he was innocent in a statement released after homicide detectives arrested him back in April at a home in Hollywood.
D4vd’s breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify.
His debut full-length album, “Withered,” was released two days after prosecutors say Celeste Rivas Hernandez was killed.