D4vd's old fake-blood merchandise video resurfaces during his murder case

An old promotional video showing D4vd, legally David Anthony Burke, wearing a shirt splashed with fake blood is circulating again as his murder case moves toward trial, AllHipHop and HotNewHipHop reported on August 3 and 4. The clip, made to promote his 2025 album Withered, shows the singer inside a bodega holding a bottle of Tide laundry detergent. Asked what song he likes to listen to while sick at home, he answers "Romantic Homicide," one of his own indie songs.

D4vd faces charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains over the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were found inside his Tesla in September 2025. Prosecutors allege he stabbed and dismembered her; his attorney Blair Berk has said the evidence will show he did not cause her death, while defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski has argued there is no evidence of a deliberate intent to kill or a history of violence toward her. A judge ordered D4vd to stand trial and upheld special circumstances that could expose him to life without parole or the death penalty, which prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek.

A former friend told The Mirror US that D4vd grew increasingly withdrawn, secretive and defensive about personal questions in the months before his arrest, changes the friend says now read differently in light of the charges. "I considered David a friend, and it is difficult to reconcile the person I knew with the allegations that have now come out," the friend said, adding that there is "a special place in hell waiting for him" if prosecutors prove the case against him. The friend said he was not present for any of the events described in court and could speak only to the change in D4vd's demeanor, and said his own sympathy could not compare to what Rivas Hernandez's family is going through.

Court filings cited in the case describe messages between D4vd and Rivas Hernandez discussing sexual activity and a possible pregnancy when he was 18 and she was 13, and prosecutors allege he killed her to protect his music career after she threatened to expose the relationship. They also allege he was the last person known to have driven the Tesla in which her remains were found, that he purchased tools online under a false identity, and that he made multiple trips to Santa Barbara County in the weeks after her death; evidence presented at preliminary hearings pointed to possible bloodstains at his residence.

D4vd remains jailed without bail and is due back in court for arraignment on August 31, with trial potentially beginning within 60 days after that.