The parents of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl who prosecutors say was murdered by the singer D4vd, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against him on Thursday.
The lawsuit recounts many of the details in the criminal complaint against D4vd, whose real name is David Burke.
In the lawsuit, Celeste’s parents, Mercedes Martinez and Jesus Edgardo Rivas Alvarado, accuse Mr. Burke of continually manipulating Celeste while in a sexual relationship, including impregnating her and forcing her to have an abortion when she was 13. They say in the court papers that Mr. Burke set up transportation for Celeste to his Los Angeles home before killing her and severing her limbs.
Celeste’s parents also accuse Mr. Burke of human trafficking, saying in the lawsuit that he persuaded Celeste to engage in sex acts by giving her “money, food, shelter, designer gifts, travel, a ring and a promise of future marriage.”
“Burke engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct exceeding all bounds of decency tolerated in a civilized community,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The lawsuit also names Mr. Burke’s mother, two of his business managers and his live-in security guard as defendants. Celeste’s parents are seeking unspecified damages and legal fees for offenses including emotional distress, false imprisonment and childhood sexual assault.
It is unclear whether Mr. Burke, 21, has a lawyer in the civil case and what his estate is worth. He is known for having created the anthem to the video game Fortnite, and last year he released his debut studio album, “Withered.”
Mr. Burke has pleaded not guilty to felony first-degree murder and other criminal charges. Last month, he was assigned a public defender after the high-powered private lawyers who had represented him withdrew, saying he “qualified for appointed counsel.”
Celeste’s family said in a statement that “it is unfathomable that our justice system qualifies David Anthony Burke as indigent,” calling him a millionaire and pointing to what they say were 16 million monthly listeners on a streaming platform. The family added that “his assets are protected by his companies.”
Entertainment and merchandising businesses owned by Mr. Burke are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In a preliminary hearing in July, a man who acted as Mr. Burke’s finance manager testified that between 2023 and 2025, Mr. Burke brought in more than $10 million in gross earnings.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Burke exercised undue influence and control over Celeste “by providing her a concealed cellular telephone to maintain contact outside her parents’ knowledge, using false identities, and arranging and paying for her travel.”
Mr. Burke’s former defense lawyers presented evidence at the preliminary hearing that showed that Celeste’s family had been aware of their relationship, including that they consented for her to visit the musician in London in 2024 without their supervision.
Mr. Burke is accused of stabbing Celeste to death after she threatened to end his ascendant music career by exposing their sexual relationship, which prosecutors say began when she was 13 and he was 18. The authorities arrested Mr. Burke in April, months after Celeste’s severely decomposed body was found in the front trunk of his Tesla.
A trial date has not been set.
If convicted, Mr. Burke could be sentenced to either life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, has said his office has not decided which course to pursue. Celeste’s family, in a statement through their lawyer, Patrick Steinfeld, said they would support the death penalty.
“It would be perfect,” the family said in a statement, “for this kind of human being, devoid of feelings and emptiness inside, and without conscience, who only caused pain to our daughter, our family and the world that supports our precious daughter.”
