Platinum-selling singer D4vd allegedly stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas to death in his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, then later dismembered her body with a chainsaw in a blue inflatable kiddie pool in his garage before stowing her remains in his Tesla and lying to friends who noticed “the strong smell of decay.”
That’s the damning narrative Los Angeles prosecutors laid out over nine pages of a preliminary hearing brief filed Wednesday and released to the public over the objection of D4vd’s defense team. Prosecutors claim surveillance video shows the singer driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, before he parked it around the corner from his rental house and left on a concert tour. The Tesla was later towed and impounded, with investigators finding Rivas’ dismembered and badly decomposed remains in the front truck on Sept. 8, 2025.
“For several weeks, or possibly months, defendants left the victim’s body to decompose inside his Tesla. He lied to friends, business associates, and others who noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle,” the blockbuster brief, obtained by Rolling Stone, claims.
At a court hearing Wednesday, D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, sat quietly in an orange jail uniform as his lawyer, Blair Berk, argued that the evidence brief was so “entirely one-sided” it would taint the jury pool potentially needed for a future trial. Berk asked the court to seal it. After hearing from both sides, Judge Charlaine Olmedo denied the request, though she agreed to postpone Burke’s preliminary hearing several weeks, from May 1 to May 26, at the defense’s request.
The new brief, filed in anticipation of the preliminary hearing, claims Burke, 21, first met Rivas when she was 11 years old. Prosecutors allege Burke “began a sexual relationship” with Rivas when she was 13, and that Riverside County officials contacted Burke in February 2024 and informed him of her age after she was reported missing by her family.
Despite speaking with law enforcement, Burked “continued to pursue” Rivas, the filing states. He allegedly drove to her home in Lake Elsinore, south of Los Angeles, and “paid a junior high school student in the victim’s class $1,000 to give the victim a cell phone [that he] purchased so they could stay in contact,” prosecutors claim.
Recovered texts between Burke and Rivas “contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion, and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive,” the brief alleges. Burke and Rivas also exchanged “explicit photographs documenting and corroborating their sexual relationship,” it claims. One text purportedly sent by Rivas and obtained from Burke’s iCloud reads, “All we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself.”
According to prosecutors, Burke “broke up” with Rivas in November 2024, though they continued to communicate. The new filing alleges Burke and Rivas “engaged in a lengthy argument described in detail in their text messages” on the night before Rivas was last seen alive.
“The messages reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together,” the brief reads. Rivas purportedly became “extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” prosecutors claim. Burke sent an Uber to pick Rivas up from Lake Elsinore on April 23, 2025, the night she allegedly was murdered.
Prosecutors allege Burke texted with Rivas during her ride, and that the driver dropped the teen off at Burke’s Hollywood Hills address around 10:10 p.m. Burke then sent text messages to Rivas at 10:30 p.m., inquiring where she was, the filing states.
“The people contend this was part of defendant’s premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time,” the filing reads. “Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out.”
Prosecutors allege Burke left his home at 11:30 p.m. and texted and called Rivas’ phone, asking where she was. “Again, these acts were calculated and planned to set up his defense,” the filing states. Burke allegedly drove to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County to “dispose of her property,” returning home the next morning to attend a radio interview. He later ordered a shovel from Home Depot, which was delivered by Postmates on April 24, 2025, and two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags, and a blue inflatable pool, which were delivered by Amazon in early May, the filing claims.
Burke made the purchases under a fake name, Victoria Mendez, and returned to Santa Barbara County twice more, the brief alleges. He also ordered a “burn cage” to his home under the same fake name, “as part of his plan to incinerate evidence,” prosecutors contend. Burked allegedly used the chainsaw to dismember Rivas in his garage, using the blue pool “to prevent her blood from spilling” on the floor.
Blue plastic fragments found embedded in Rivas’ remains were later matched to the inflatable pool by the LAPD’s forensic laboratory, prosecutors say. The filing claims Burke amputated Rivas’ left ring finger because it contained a tattoo of his name.
When detectives searched Burke’s Doheny Place rental home after Rivas’ remains were found, blood samples found in the garage “matched the victim’s unique genetic profile,” the filing states. A Caltrans worker also found Rivas’ U.S Passport card off a highway in Santa Barbara County in January 2026, prosecutors claim..
“The circumstances and present state of discovery led us to conclude we need this additional time to review the discovery we just got or are about to get,” Burke’s defense lawyer Marilyn Bednarski said at the Wednesday afternoon hearing, requesting the probable cause hearing move to May 26.
Judge Olmedo then asked Burke if he agreed to the postponement of his preliminary hearing. “Yes, your honor,” he replied.
Burke was charged last week with the first-degree murder of Rivas. Prosecutors also charged him with continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. They added special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait, which make him eligible for the death penalty. (Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the death penalty.) Burke has pleaded not guilty.
Last week, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman revealed that Burke’s iCloud account, obtained by investigators, contained what she described as “a significant amount of child pornography.”
Bednarski and Berk pressed for an immediate preliminary hearing. Judge Charlaine Olmedo said it would begin this Friday, May 1.
Burke was arrested on April 16 at a house in the Hollywood Hills. Prosecutors said police served a simultaneous search warrant at the property not far from the iconic Chateau Maramont hotel. Silverman said the case involves a large volume of evidence, including material obtained through a wiretap, and that three grand juries were convened in recent months to investigate.
A long-awaited autopsy report released last week concluded Rivas died from “multiple penetrating injuries” to the upper abdomen. It described two stab wounds that perforated her liver and chest. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
The report also described the condition of her remains, noting dismemberment and advanced decomposition that made visual identification and fingerprinting impossible. Toxicology showed a low level of ethanol and presumptive positives for several drugs pending confirmation.
Prosecutors allege Rivas was last seen entering Burke’s Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, and was killed that day. They contend her body was mutilated weeks later. Burke’s lawyers have said he “did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez.”
If convicted as charged, Burke faces either life in state prison, without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. Prosecutors have said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date.
Born in New York and later raised in Texas, Burke first gained attention as a Fortnite gamer and musician with the self-produced song, “You and I.” He broke through to mainstream success in the summer of 2022 with the hit singles “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” after they garnered so much traction on TikTok, they jumped to spots on the Billboard charts. He released his debut EP, Petals to Thorns, in May 2023.
His debut studio album, Withered, was released in April 2025, two days after Rivas was seen for the last time.
At a press conference, LADA Nathan Hochman claimed that Rivas was only 13 years old when Burke allegedly engaged in repeated “lewd and lascivious sexual relations with her.”
“Burke’s actions did not allegedly stop there,” he said. “When she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career, Burke allegedly murdered her, cut up her body and stuffed her body in two bags that were placed in the front trunk of his car.”
‘Karma’s a Bitch’: Boy George on Why Culture Club Recreated Their Biggest Hit With AI
More than 40 years after its original release, Boy George and Culture Club have rerecorded their chart-topping hit, “Karma Chameleon,” using AI to recreate the vocal characteristics of the original 1983 recording. Alongside digital formats, the release will be available on vinyl in red, gold and green, the colors referenced in the song, featuring reimagined cover art. The rerecord marks the launch of Artist Included, a music technology company co-founded by Boy George’s manager, Paul Kemsley, and entertainment attorney and film producer Jeremy Rosen. Boy George serves as creative director.
Asked why he decided to recreate the song, Boy George has a simple answer: “Control!,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Having some say over where it goes. ‘Karma Chameleon’ is a secret weapon. It’s a song you starve the audience for because they want to hear it, and live, it’s always been a real pleasure to sing it. But in terms of what it does commercially, it’s like having something really powerful with your name on it, and you have no say about where it goes.”
The idea for the rerecord was prompted by a commercial sync license for “Karma Chameleon” involving Richard Branson for Virgin Voyages. Culture Club signed to Branson’s Virgin Records in 1982, and Boy George has maintained a close relationship with the entrepreneur ever since. According to Kemsley, Branson paid approximately $4 million for the deal ($2 million of which went to the master recording rights holders), while Boy George received only an appearance fee because he has never owned the masters for his biggest song.
“Karma’s a bitch,” Boy George states. “When we wrote that song, we weren’t looking 40 years ahead. We weren’t thinking of longevity. That song, because of the context of when it was recorded, the social feeling has stayed with people. It’s become part of people’s lives. Having control over it again, to a certain extent, is very exciting.”
The rerecord has a warmer vocal tone and sits slightly lower in the mix than the original, but is faithful enough to it that it plays like a remaster. The rerecording was produced by JJ Blair and Culture Club’s guitarist Roy Hay with additional production by song’s original producer, Steve Levine. Prior to the session, the AI was trained using archival demos licensed from Levine who had preserved them for decades. The instrumentation was newly recorded by Hay, Culture Club bassist Mikey Craig and session musicians. Only the vocal performance is AI-assisted.
“When I went into the studio to record it, I was like a pub singer imitating myself,” says Boy George. “You listen to where you pace things [sings the first line of ‘Karma Chameleon’]. You listen to where you put the voice: in your nose or your throat or chest. What you do instinctively as a 22-year-old, you don’t do as a 40-year-old or a 65-year-old. There’s a clipped way of singing it, which you forget through playing it live so many times. It was very European-sounding and youthful. I’ve taken it somewhere much more blues-y over the years, dragging out the notes. It’s about the nuance. When you sing something live over 40 years, it changes shape. It’s interesting to take it back to the original recording and recapture that feeling.”
Getting close to the original vocal is a hurdle for most musicians whose voices change over time. It took 18 months for Artist Included’s AI to work out the kinks. In the first iteration, Boy George sounded like “Pinky and Perky, two pigs on helium in a cartoon,” says Kemsley, referring to a children’s television series where the titular characters sing in high-pitched, fast-paced voices. The technology is now refined, and the plan is to rerecord Culture Club’s and Boy George’s entire back catalogs. Kemsley claims this will take two weeks, or as long as it takes Boy George to sing every song.
“I was a naysayer,” admits Boy George. “I was like, ‘This will never work.’ But I actually prefer this version [of ‘Karma Chameleon’]. For me, as the person that sang it originally, and re-sang it, what I love about this version, it has the sound of that time, but the warmth and experience and integrity of everything I’ve learned in my life.”
Kemsley, who has managed Boy George since 2014, frames the project as an attempt to rebalance longstanding industry economics. “This record has been making millions of dollars for [almost] 45 years, and George hasn’t,” says Kemsley. “The whole thing seems terribly unjust. You sign your life away at the age of 22, then have to wait 35 years to get the reversions, but you still don’t get any master recording income. Over the years, bands try to get their masters back and they never get them, with the major labels claiming they are work-for-hire.”
To put this in context, a record company often owns or controls master recording rights, a term stipulated when it signs an artist. That covers the music; the lyrics and composition are an entirely separate right known as publishing, which, by contrast, follows the composition, and therefore the song through every new recording. As a result, rerecords create a new master recording, and can benefit publishing by re-engaging the artist and generating renewed interest in the underlying work.
When it comes to rerecords, many artists are restricted to a certain length of time during which they are forbidden from releasing a new, faithful version to the original. Longstanding artists sometimes use Section 203 of the U.S. Copyright Act to reclaim rights to their masters after 35 years. They are rarely successful, as record companies often argue the masters were created as work made for hire.
The way Artist Included is structured, the artist receives the lion’s share of revenue. “The industry I was in no longer exists,” Boy George points out. “Artists like me are expected to carry on following that model. I haven’t done that for years. I used to say I’m the only person who realizes the ‘80s are over. You want to keep the spirit of that moment to some extent, but you move on. AI is not going anywhere, so having that conversation is exciting. And being ahead of the game in terms of how people use it, is also quite exciting for me.”
Considering Culture Club’s acrimonious split with their former drummer, Jon Moss, which resulted in a hefty settlement, rerecords of their songs also have the benefit of bypassing the need for his approval to use the original master recordings, which have four-way songwriting credit between its members.
“He still gets something from it,” clarifies Boy George. “Jon is a part of what we did [originally as a band].” But Kemsley is quick to point out that Moss is not a part of what they’re doing now with the rerecords, and is not entitled to any percentage of it. The band will see an increase in publishing, and as a credited songwriter, Moss will continue to receive publishing income, while the new master revenues do not involve him.
The next song queued up for rerecord is another signature Culture Club hit, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” and Artist Included’s AI is primed, having retained Boy George’s voice for training purposes. The company has also been in conversations with publishing companies and other artists, mainly from the Eighties and Nineties, though no names are being disclosed yet. Kemsley says the conversations have not been a hard sell.
“People will react to what they see and hear,” says Boy George. “It’s much more powerful when people see it released and see what can happen.”
Kemsley notes Boy George turns 65 the day before the release of the new “Karma Chameleon,” which is the retirement age in the UK. “We’re not retiring,” Kemsley clarifies. “Far from it. We’re going back to the beginning, and we’re going to do it all again. We’re going to change the way revenue flows through to the artist. And we’re going to have some real fun with it.”