Burke

A preliminary hearing the murder case against David Anthony Burke, the 21-year-old singer better known as D4vd, will go forward at the end of June, setting a timeline for when more detailed evidence about the gruesome murder and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez will become public.

Burke — who prosecutors say sexually abused the teen for a year before stabbing her to death and mutilating her corpse last year — will face the hearing on June 29, attorneys said during a brief hearing Tuesday morning.

After the singer’s arrest in April, his legal team pushed for an immediate preliminary hearing — where a judge determines if prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a case to trial — but they backed off after prosecutors began turning over what they have described as a massive amount of digital evidence linking Burke to the teenager’s brutal slaying. Burke has pleaded not guilty in the case.

The hearing is expected to last at least five days. A status conference hearing will take place on June 17.

Questions about the singer’s connection to Hernandez’s grisly end have circled since last summer, ever since her badly decomposed and dismembered body was found in the trunk of a Tesla linked to Burke. Late last month, prosecutors filed a nine-page brief laying out what they believe to be Hernandez’s final moments and Burke’s alleged horrific actions after her death.

In the filing, prosecutors said Burke stabbed Hernandez to death inside a Hollywood Hills residence after she threatened to go public about the ascendant singer’s continual sexual abuse. After killing her, Burke ordered a chainsaw, a “burn cage,” a shovel and other implements he used to dismember her remains in his garage, prosecutors alleged last week.

The motion also laid out the dramatic steps Burke went to in order to continue his relationship with the teen. In February 2024, Hernandez was reported missing to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department by her parents, who were concerned about her involvement with Burke, according to the filing. Hernandez went home and had her phone taken away, but Burke allegedly paid a junior high school student $1,000 to give her a new device so they could stay in touch.

Prosecutors also said they found images of Hernandez naked and performing sex acts on Burke’s phone, according to the document. Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman said in court last month that search warrants turned up “a significant amount of child pornography” on Burke’s devices.

Burke’s lawyers have not commented on their defense strategy.

Evidence in the murder case against the singer D4vd — who is charged with the brutal killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez — will not become public until at least late next month, after his defense attorneys pumped the brakes on a preliminary hearing that was scheduled to take place this Friday.

David Anthony Burke, 21, was charged with murder, continuous sex abuse of a minor and mutilating a corpse earlier this month after Los Angeles police stormed a Hollywood Hills home and arrested him. He pleaded not guilty last week.

The singer has long been linked to Hernandez’s disappearance and death, after her badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of a Tesla he owned at a Hollywood tow yard last September. Authorities said Hernandez was last seen at Burke’s Hollywood residence on April 23, 2025.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said last week that Burke killed the 14-year-old because she threatened to expose the fact that he’d been sexually abusing her for nearly a year. An autopsy report made public last week revealed Hernandez died from a pair of stab wounds. Her body was dismembered when police found it in the trunk and two of her fingers had been amputated, the report said.

Burke’s lead defense attorney, Blair Berk, said she does not believe the prosecution’s case can hold up to scrutiny and pushed for an immediate preliminary hearing during his initial court appearance. Defendants have a right to a preliminary hearing, in which a judge determines whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a case to trial, within 10 business days. In Burke’s case, that would have put the preliminary hearing on track for May 1.

But on Wednesday afternoon, attorney Marilyn Bednarski asked that the hearing be pushed back to May 26, citing the voluminous amount of discovery in the case. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo agreed there was “good cause” to delay the hearing a few weeks.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman expressed some annoyance at Bednarski and Berk’s change of heart, noting she’d already warned the defense team that prosecutors had a trove of evidence to turn over.

Silverman said last week that discovery materials would include the results of a wiretap and searches of Burke’s cellphone and iCloud accounts, which prosecutors allege turned up “a significant amount of child pornography.” Law enforcement executed 54 search warrants in the case, according to court records.

The medical examiner’s report detailing how Hernandez died was not available to the defense until last week. Prosecutors also convened three secret grand juries between November 2025 and February 2026 to collect evidence against Burke, according to Silverman. Transcripts from those hearings were under seal as of last week.

Bednarski said Wednesday she needed “additional time to review the discovery we either just got, or are about to get, in order to have a full and free preliminary hearing.”

“We told them that this was what was going to be coming,” Silverman argued in reply. “As I said in my brief, we sent out subpoenas, we’ve been preparing, we’ve been telling witnesses to cancel planned vacations.”

Berk also sought to have Olmedo seal a filing that Silverman submitted early Wednesday that laid out evidence she plans to present at a preliminary hearing.

“The prosecution has appeared to file a rather unusual pre-preliminary hearing brief that appears to be a very one-sided view of what is anticipated as the evidence in this case. But no evidence has been presented by the prosecution in a courtroom. Certainly there has been no adjudication of the admissibility of that evidence,” Berk said, expressing worry that the publication of such materials would taint future jury pools.

Prosecutors normally file such briefs ahead of trial, which include a list of witnesses they plan to call and a summary of arguments they will make. Olmedo rejected Berk’s request to seal the motion. A copy of the document was not immediately available for review at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

A cellphone belonging to David Anthony Burke, better known as the singer D4vd, contained “a significant amount of child pornography,” a prosecutor said in court Thursday morning.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman made the claim during a court proceeding to schedule a preliminary hearing on murder charges in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The images were uncovered as part of a broad series of search warrants executed on Burke’s phone and iCloud account, Silverman said.

Burke’s attorneys have insisted he is innocent and are demanding his preliminary hearing begin next week, meaning evidence in the closely followed case could become public as soon as May 1. He appeared in court Thursday in an orange jail jumpsuit and walked into court with his hands in his pockets.

A status hearing was set for April 29. Silverman and a district attorney’s office spokesperson declined to comment outside the courtroom. The singer’s attorney, Blair Berk, also declined to comment.

The D.A.’s office spokesperson declined to say if the child sex abuse material allegedly found on Burke’s phone was related to Hernandez or another victim.

Burke was arrested by Los Angeles police last week and charged Monday with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child and corpse mutilation, according to a criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defendants have a right to have a preliminary hearing, in which a judge determines whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a case to trial, within 10 business days. But Berk’s push to move quickly is unorthodox. She has publicly grilled Silverman about needing access to more discovery materials, and the medical examiner’s report detailing how Hernandez died was not made public until Wednesday.

Joshua Ritter, a former L.A. County prosecutor, said Berk was playing a “hell of a game of chicken” but she may be aiming to pressure test the prosecution’s case.

“The defense might want to put the D.A. on their heels if they feel for some reason there was a rush to make an arrest. But this case is nearly the opposite of that,” he said. “They’ve had more than adequate time … this does not seem like a situation where the D.A. made a hasty decision to file.”

Silverman said police amassed “40 terabytes” of digital evidence in the case, which has made uploading and transmitting materials to the defense difficult. Silverman also said police had conducted a wiretap operation in the case, but did not disclose the nature of it. The veteran prosecutor said even she had “not received anything” related to that operation.

She also confirmed prosecutors convened three secret grand jury hearings after Hernandez’s death — two in November and December in 2025 and one in February. Those were investigative grand jury hearings, meaning prosecutors could use them to enshrine testimony against Burke, but could not use the proceedings to secure an indictment against Burke. Transcripts from all three hearings will also need to be unsealed.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo also warned Berk that if she does push for the immediate preliminary hearing, she may not have access to the entire compendium of evidence before May 1.

Ritter also mused that Burke could be pushing his attorneys to fight the case without delay. Beyond that, he said, the approach “makes no sense.”

“The defense is seven months behind the eight ball on this. They not only have the grand jury transcripts to catch up on but who knows what kind of digital forensics and wiretaps and everything else,” he said.

Silverman also seems intent on bringing the case to trial as soon as possible. Silverman noted Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the date prosecutors believe Hernandez was killed, and said she intended to put the case before a jury within 60 days of the completion of a preliminary hearing.

The singer allegedly began sexually abusing Hernandez in September 2023, when she was just 13. Burke’s attorneys have said the case cannot stand up to scrutiny and pushed for the immediate preliminary hearing.

Hernandez was reported missing from her family’s Lake Elsinore neighborhood three times in 2024, and she was spotted at some of D4vd’s concerts during that time frame.

Prosecutors allege Hernandez was last seen at Burke’s Hollywood Hills residence on April 23. She “threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career,” according to L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, though the prosecutor has not answered questions about whether Hernandez was going to report Burke to police.

Burke surged in popularity after one of his tracks was included in the wildly popular video game “Fortnite,” and he has also collaborated with artists like 21 Savage. He was beginning to tour in support of his debut album, “Withered,” when reports surfaced linking him to Hernandez’s death. He quickly canceled all shows.

The details of the crime echoed some of the violent imagery associated with Burke’s songs. The Queens-born vocalist has appeared in a music video filled with violent imagery: a young woman with an apparent chest wound lies on a bed as the singer hovers over her, blindfolded, his white shirt spattered with blood. In another video, “One More Dance,” D4vd drags a person — who bears the singer’s likeness — to a car, where a couple stuffs the person into the trunk.

Hernandez’s badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of a Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard last September. An autopsy report made public this week revealed she died from a pair of stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. When police arrived on the scene, they found Hernandez’s body was “dismembered” and two of her fingers had been amputated, according to the medical examiner’s report.

Prosecutors charged Burke with murder with special circumstances, including allegations that Hernandez was a witness to a crime — her own sexual abuse — and that Burke killed her for financial gain to protect his ascendant music career. If convicted as charged, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have yet to decide if they will seek capital punishment in the case.

The U.S. Navy has handed Lockheed Martin a formal contract to integrate the Patriot PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) surface-to-air missile with the Aegis Combat System. The Navy’s main Aegis-equipped ships today are its Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The service is also seeking just over $1.73 billion to order its first-ever tranche of PAC-3 MSEs, 405 in total, as part of its proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year.

The idea of combining PAC-3 MSE and Aegis, as well as the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS), first emerged in 2023. Since then, TWZ has highlighted how this offers the Navy a valuable alternative source of anti-air interceptors, and maybe even eventually a replacement for the venerable Standard Missile-2 (SM-2).

Lockheed Martin announced it had received the PAC-3 MSE/Aegis integration contract, said to be a multi-million dollar deal, earlier today, around the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space exposition, at which TWZ is in attendance. The Navy has separately shared more details about its PAC-3 MSE acquisition plans as part of the full rollout of the Pentagon’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2027, which also occurred today.

Per the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget request, the service sees PAC-3 MSE integration with Aegis as providing an additional means of intercepting “a wide range of threats, including tactical ballistic missiles, air-breathing threats, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial systems.” As mentioned, Arleigh Burke class destroyers make up the vast majority of American warships equipped with the Aegis Combat System today. There are also a steadily shrinking number of Ticonderoga class cruisers with this combat system.

PAC-3 MSE has been in full-scale production since 2018. Pairing it with Aegis “has been in the works, I probably think, close to 10 years,” Chandra Marshall, Vice President and General Manager of the Multi-Domain Combat Solutions business unit within Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems division, told our Jamie Hunter on the floor of Sea Air Space. She added that the goal now is for the Navy to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) with this combination in approximately 18 months, or by the end of 2027 if the clock starts now.

“So, there’s two pieces of it. So the PAC-3 missile, there’s a small update to it to be able to communicate with S-band radar. So, currently it communicates with X-band [radars]. So, now with this update, it will be able to communicate both with S and X-band,” Marshall explained. “And then we have to integrate PAC-3 as a missile type with the Aegis Combat System.”

“We have a very open architecture [with Aegis], so the way that we componentize everything, we feel like it’s a very short putt for the Aegis integration of the PAC-3 missile,” she added. “So, it’ll just be another missile in the inventory for the Navy to be able to diversify based on the threat.”

You can read more about the Aegis Combat System and how it has evolved to adopt a modular, open architecture approach, specifically to make it easier to add new capabilities and functionality, in this previous TWZ feature. Lockheed Martin has already demonstrated the ability of a modular and scalable version of the system, called the Virtualized Aegis Weapon System, to fire a PAC-3 MSE from a containerized Mk 41-based launcher on land.

Aegis: Capable. Proven. Deployed.

No changes to the Mk 41 VLS – another Lockheed Martin product – are planned or required as part of the PAC-3 MSE integration. Work has been ongoing on adapting the interceptors into launch canisters, allowing them to slot right into existing Mk 41 cells. At just over 17 feet long, PAC-3 MSE should fit in shorter so-called tactical length versions of the Mk 41, as well as one with longer strike-length cells.

Lockheed Martin has said in the past that each canister will contain a single PAC-3 MSE missile. At around 11 inches wide, the PAC-3 MSE is just over half the maximum diameter available in a Mk 41 cell. This raises the question of whether future canisters could be designed to hold multiple interceptors, which would give ships valuable additional magazine depth.

From a capability standpoint, PAC-3 MSE is generally discussed in comparison to SM-2 surface-to-air missiles in the Navy’s arsenal today. In terms of missiles that can be fired via the Mk 41, SM-2 is a middle-tier anti-air capability that sits between shorter-range RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM; which can also be quad-packed into a single cell) and upper-tier SM-6s and SM-3s. The SM-6 is a multi-purpose weapon that can also be employed against targets on land and at sea. SM-3s, of which there are multiple variants in service today, are specifically designed as anti-ballistic missile interceptors.

“A lot of places the Navy has said ‘I got red or yellow challenges that I can’t deal with.’ This missile does a really good job at that. When you marry them all together, it is very complimentary to SM-6,” Chris Mang, Vice President of Strategy & Business Development at Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control, told TWZ at last year’s Sea Air Space conference. “You’d always want a layered defense, right? I’ll pick the longest shot I can get, but then at a certain point, MSE really starts to outperform in certain envelopes.”

For the Navy, PAC-3 MSE also presents important logistics, cost, and supply chain benefits. The latest conflict with Iran has only underscored now long-standing concerns about U.S. munition expenditure rates, especially when it comes to anti-air interceptors. A large-scale, high-end fight with a near-peer adversary like China would put much more pressure on munition stockpiles and the U.S. industrial base working to restock them. As such, it would be a boon for the Navy to have an additional stream of interceptors to arm its warships.

As noted, the Navy is already moving to buy hundreds of what documents currently refer to as the “PAC-3 MSE / Navy” missile, as well as launch canisters. The service’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget request puts the unit cost for each missile at $4.05 million. The canister adds another $200,000 to the price tag. The Army’s Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget says the unit cost for standard PAC-3 MSEs has risen now to $5.3 million. The exact reasons for the cost discrepancy between the Army and Navy versions are unclear.

“Both quantities and unit cost are estimates based on U.S. Army contract pricing. Both quantities and unit cost will adjust based on award of DoN CLINs [Department of Navy Contract Line Item Numbers] on ARMY contract in execution and final cost of the Navy components (radio, canister, etc),” per the Navy’s latest budget request.

At $4.05 million, the Navy’s PAC-3 MSEs will be slightly cheaper per missile than the Block IA version of the SM-6. The service’s latest budget request puts the unit cost of the latter missiles at $4.348 million. The cost of a current-generation Block IIICU variant of the SM-2 is unclear, given that they have often been procured as upgrades of existing Block IIICs rather than new-production missiles. Historically, the average price point for an SM-3 Block IIIC has been around $3.6 million.

“By leveraging the high-volume Army PAC-3 MSE production contract, the Navy achieves significant cost avoidance through economies of scale, as unit price decreases with larger quantities,” the Navy’s latest budget documents also note.

Lockheed Martin announced in January that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. government to ramp up annual PAC-3 MSE production, for domestic and foreign customers, from 600 to 2,000 missiles. Last week, the company received a contract to help further accelerate production of these missiles. This could all help drive down the unit cost of the missiles going forward, as well as speed up their delivery.

Lockheed Martin Receives Contract to Accelerate PAC-3® MSE Production

It is worth pointing out here that PAC-3 MSE’s performance in the Middle East, as well as in Ukraine in recent years, has also prompted a significant increase in demand from the U.S. Army, as well as foreign Patriot operators. The overall Patriot user base is also expanding.

Adding the Navy to the mix will add to that demand, even with the production ramp-up, and could add to already growing concerns about production backlogs now. Integrating PAC-3 with Aegis and the Mk 41 VLS could also spur additional interest from other navies globally that have ships with that combat system and/or launchers.

Reuters reported just last week that U.S. officials had informed allies and partners in Europe that deliveries of unspecified munitions could now be delayed due to American needs in relation to the war with Iran. When it comes to PAC-3 MSE, the budget documents the Army released today, at least, do not appear to show any changes to the delivery schedule for foreign customers.

Regardless of any of these issues, the Navy is now pushing full steam ahead on integrating PAC-3 MSE with Aegis and the Mk 41 VLS.

Jamie Hunter contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

For the first time, BBC will air the first ever full-length series of the show – six episodes filmed across six weeks – as the celebrities will face a range of weekly business challenges set by the business mogul

The Celebrity Apprentice line-up has been confirmed, with TV presenter Gethin Jones, singer Alexandra Burke and Love Island star Toni Laites all set to face Lord Sugar.

For the first time ever, BBC will air the first ever full-length series of the show – six episodes filmed across six weeks – as the celebrities face a range of weekly business challenges set by the business mogul.

Competing for the chance to win a £100,000 donation to a charity of their choice, they will each be hoping to prove their business acumen and ultimately be crowned The Celebrity Apprentice winner.

There will be another change to this star-studded series – the boardroom will relocate to a London City skyscraper, providing a distinctive new setting for Lord Sugar’s final deliberations.

The full line up includes Alexandra Burke, actor Danny Miller, presenter Gethin Jones, dancer and presenter Jordan Banjo, journalist Kay Burley, actress and online personality Maddie Grace Jepson, presenter, podcaster and content creator Max Balegde, Gladiator Sheli McCoy, UK garage legend DJ Spoony, TV and BBC Radio 2 presenter Richie Anderson, comedian and writer Laura Smyth and television personality Toni Laites.

Lord Sugar said: “We’ve not done anything like this before, and it’ll be entertaining to see these 12 celebrities being put through six weeks of some brilliant business challenges. But just because they’re celebrities, it doesn’t mean they’re going to get an easy ride, especially when there’s £100,000 at stake for their chosen charity.”

Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC says: “This brand-new full-length series of The Celebrity Apprentice takes everything audiences love about the format and turns the pressure right up. This year’s celebrities arrive with strong reputations – but in the boardroom, status counts for nothing.

“They’ll be tested on leadership, teamwork and commercial instinct, and only those who can truly deliver will make it through. It’s bold, unpredictable and hugely entertaining – and viewers are in for a brilliant ride.”

Broadcast details for The Celebrity Apprentice will be confirmed in due course. The announcement comes after Karishma Vijay was crowned the winner of the BBC business show last week after an all-female final, which saw her battle it out for Lord Sugar’s coveted investment against Pascha Myhill.

Karishma, from Surrey, recounted the moment Lord Sugar told her she had won and would be receiving his £250,000 investment, and said: “I was so blown away, so shocked – but I kept it very cool. Then, I got in my car and I was screaming. It was just insane – I can’t believe I’ve gone and done it after not having watched the show, I feel like that’s so cheeky.”

Explaining his decision on the hit BBC show, Lord Sugar said: “As always, it was close competition in the final after two outstanding pitches by two brilliant young businesswomen. But Karishma really impressed me throughout the process and has proven why she deserves my investment. She’s a proper grafter and she’s got that entrepreneurial spirit that I always look for. The cosmetics industry is one I know a lot about, and I know our partnership will pave the way for a bright future.”

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