The autopsy of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s body took center stage on Friday as a hearing continued to determine whether musician D4vd will stand trial for murder charges linked to her death. Grant Ho, who performed the postmortem examination, testified that he identified two stab wounds on the teenager’s body.
Prosecutors say the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, fatally stabbed Hernandez last April to silence her from divulging the sexual nature of their relationship as his career skyrocketed. He was 18 and she was 13 when the sexual abuse began, according to prosecutors.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to charges including capital murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
Last September, police discovered Rivas Hernandez’s remains in the front trunk of a Tesla, registered to Burke, five months after prosecutors allege Burke killed her.
The court has seen graphic photographs of Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered and decomposing body this week.
The degraded conditions of her remains posed challenges to the autopsy, Grant Ho, the doctor who performed the postmortem examination, testified on Friday. Rivas Hernandez had been dead for weeks when her body was found, but Ho noted it was
extremely difficult to tellwhen exactly she died.
In April, Rivas Hernandez’s autopsy report was unsealed amid mounting scrutiny and speculation over the circumstances of her death. According to the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s office, she died from multiple penetrating injuries.
On Friday, Ho said he had identified two stab wounds – one on her abdomen that struck her liver and another on her left chest that damaged her ribs.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
