Texts recovered from singer David Anthony Burke’s phone and displayed in court show that Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old from Lake Elsinore, California, once demanded ten thousand dollars from him with the exact message “Give me 10 bands right now,” after which he transferred nine thousand dollars through Apple Cash.
The details surfaced during detective testimony on Friday, July 24, 2026, as part of the ongoing preliminary hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Prosecutors and an LAPD detective presented the digital records extracted from Burke’s iPhone and iCloud data, including the full text exchange and the accompanying Apple Cash interface that confirmed the nine-thousand-dollar transfer. Screenshots of those messages and the payment confirmation were shown in open court and later circulated widely after the session.
Burke, known professionally as D4vd, a Houston-raised singer whose 2023 single “Here With Me” went viral on TikTok, is now 21 years old and has been charged with first-degree murder along with continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and related counts stemming from the death of Celeste Abigail Rivas Hernandez. He has pleaded not guilty. The recovered messages form one portion of a larger set of communications spanning from late 2023 through early 2025 that also include discussions of a pregnancy and an abortion that took place when Rivas Hernandez was 13, plans for shared living arrangements, and expressions of frustration about the relationship itself.
Financial transfers of this scale appear against the backdrop of Burke’s rising career. Court testimony from money managers placed his earnings between 2023 and 2025 in the following range:
- More than ten million dollars in total from streaming deals and performances.
- Income that prosecutors say was threatened once concerns about publicity arose, supplying the alleged motive connected to the events of April 2025.
- A nine-thousand-dollar Apple Cash payment to Rivas Hernandez, illustrating the concrete economic exchanges that occurred alongside the personal messages.
The presentation of these specific records highlights the power imbalance visible in the digital trail between an established adult artist and a minor who repeatedly requested substantial sums. While the defense continues to contest the broader narrative and the weight of other evidence, the authenticated phone data offers a direct window into the pattern of contact and support that prosecutors say lasted for years. Full context of the phone extractions and hearing exhibits can be examined through detailed testimony accounts from the Los Angeles Times and CNN’s coverage of the preliminary hearing, with investigation timelines compiled in ABC7’s procedural overview.
The preliminary hearing is expected to wrap within days, after which the judge will rule on whether the evidence meets the threshold to proceed to a full trial. All allegations remain unproven until a final adjudication occurs.
