A preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court for David Anthony Burke, the 21-year-old musician known professionally as D4vd, in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. She was 14.
What a preliminary hearing is
This is worth stating clearly, because these proceedings are routinely reported as though they were trials.
A preliminary hearing determines one thing: whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to establish probable cause that a crime occurred and that the defendant committed it. If the judge finds they have, the case is ordered to trial. If not, charges can be reduced or dismissed.
It does not determine guilt. The standard is far below the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard a jury would later apply, the defense is not required to present a case, and Burke has pleaded not guilty. The hearing is expected to last several days.
The charges
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has charged Burke with murder, along with charges relating to sexual offenses against a child under 14 and to the treatment of the victim's remains. Prosecutors have attached special circumstance allegations, which are what make a case potentially eligible for a sentence of death or life without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty. That decision typically comes later.
Everything in the paragraph above is an allegation by the prosecution. None of it has been tested by a judge or jury, and that is precisely what Tuesday's proceeding begins to do.
What is established about the case
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was reported missing from her home in Lake Elsinore. Her remains were found in September in a vehicle registered to Burke, after workers at a Hollywood tow yard reported an odor coming from it. Burke was arrested and arraigned this spring.
The Herald is not republishing the more graphic particulars that have circulated about the condition of the remains. They are in the public record, they will be examined in court, and they are not necessary for a reader to understand what is happening.
A note on the coverage
This case has attracted an unusual volume of online speculation, much of it about a young musician with a large audience and some of it about a dead child.
A great deal of what circulates is not evidence. It has not been filed, tested, or attributed to anyone accountable for it. This newspaper will report what is presented in court and what the district attorney's office and the defense actually say.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was a 14-year-old girl from Riverside County. Her family will sit through the hearing this week. That is the appropriate frame for this story, rather than the career of the person accused of ending her life.
