New details from a preliminary hearing have added another layer to the complicated case involving singer D4vd and the late Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
During cross-examination, Detective Corey Farrell testified that Rivas allegedly misrepresented her age when she first communicated with David Anthony Burke, known professionally as D4vd.
According to the testimony, Burke was 17 in 2022 when he first began communicating with Rivas. She was 11 at the time. However, investigators say she told him she was 16.
The detective reportedly confirmed that the claim appeared in their earliest online conversations. At other points, Rivas allegedly claimed she was 18.
Yes, the age gap in those messages is significant. And the details are now becoming a major part of the legal battle surrounding the case.
The defense has pointed to the alleged messages as evidence that Rivas misrepresented her age from the beginning of their contact. That argument appears aimed at challenging the prosecution’s account of what Burke knew about her age and when he knew it.
But prosecutors have offered a different perspective.
According to testimony presented in court, Burke was later informed by sheriff’s deputies in 2024 that Rivas was only 13. Prosecutors argue that contact between the two continued even after he was allegedly made aware of her actual age.
That detail has become an important part of the prosecution’s argument.
A February 2024 bodycam video played during the hearing also reportedly showed Burke telling deputies that Rivas had told him she was 18.
The competing accounts raise difficult questions about what Burke knew, what he was told and how that information may have affected his actions.
As expected, the courtroom testimony has sparked intense discussion online. Social media users have been dissecting every new detail, while others have urged people to wait for the legal process to play out.
And that is probably the wisest approach.
Court proceedings are not social media polls. They are complicated, and individual pieces of testimony do not automatically establish the full truth of a case.
The testimony about Rivas’ alleged claims about her age is now part of the evidence being examined by the court. The defense says it supports the argument that she misrepresented herself. Prosecutors, meanwhile, are focusing on what happened after Burke allegedly learned that she was younger than she had claimed.
