Image Source: LAPD | David Anthony Burke mugshot
The murder trial of 21-year-old rapper and singer D4vd continues in California after he pleaded not guilty to killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He is also charged with having a continued sexual relationship with her, a minor. In recent court proceedings text messages have shown that she sought multiple abortions during the alleged relationship with the adult singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke.
Her body was found decomposing in the boot of a car registered to Burke in an impound lot. Burke is alleged to have stabbed and dismembered the child’s body after she threatened to reveal their sexual relationship publicly due to her unhappiness over his infidelity.
The then 13-year-old Rivas texted the then 19-year-old Burke “What [if] the first abortion didn’t work?” in June 2024.
In the same chain of texts, the rapper replied “Let’s let this abortion be the last one til we have the real one…”
In earlier messages from January 2024 Burke told Rivas that he was sorry for “putting her through this,” to which she replied “neither of us is capable of watching or taking care of the baby. it’s for the best no?”
According to one policeman’s testimony, Burke followed this by saying “also my mother always told me to ask this question if I was ever in this situation … it is mine right?”
“Of course its yours David”, was Celeste’s quick response.
Images of the girl’s dismembered corpse have been shown during the court hearings in full view of her grieving family, where Burke continues to plead not guilty. Her mother says she had no idea of the extent of the relationship between the singer and her daughter.
If, as these texts insinuate, Burke and Rivas did have an illegal and long-term sexual relationship, then it is possible that the loose abortion restrictions in the State allowed an underage victim of sexual abuse to hide her dangerous relationship twice by aborting the child created as she was continually violated.
In California underage children have the right to consent to abortion. This means that there is no onus on the abortion provider to report statutory rape nor tell the child’s parents. California Family Code § 6925 gives under-18s certainty that medical practitioners cannot disclose any abortions. The proliferation of telemedicine makes these woefully lacking safeguards even weaker.
If the story that seems to be unfurling is true, a 13-year-old presenting with a baby would have been enough to raise eyebrows about worrying relationships in her life and likely sexual abuse. Instead, her abuse was hidden by coercive men and liberal abortion laws—her abortion decision has come to light too late; now Celeste Rivas Hernandez is dead.
SPUC’s Executive Director, Michael Robinson, has commented on this revelation: “Abortion is frequently marketed as a liberator of women and girls. It did not liberate Celeste Rivas Hernandez. It enslaved her. So often abortion is a tool used by rapists to cover up their crimes. If Burke has committed the crimes he is accused of, this case will be another example.”
He continued, “The underage sexual abuse of children is a horror, but it is far more common than people like to admit. Whether in this case or the grooming gangs across the United Kingdom, abortion has been used as a tool to keep young women and girls available for their abusers.
“The ‘freedom’ narrative around abortion in the West is wrong. It kills babies and keeps women in some of the most dangerous and vulnerable situations imaginable. SPUC hopes that Celeste Rivas gets justice, and whatever the full extent of the story is, we lament the abortion kept her in a situation that likely resulted in her murder.”
