“Burke is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the brutal murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement after the ruling. “This has been a parent’s worst nightmare, hearing the ghoulish details of how their child was killed, dismembered and left as trash.”
He said that his office presented “a small but illustrative fraction of the evidence” they have against the defendant.
If convicted as charged, D4vd faces death or life in state prison without the possibility of parole, according to a news release from the D.A.’s office, which noted that a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date.
Dv4d’s attorneys did not comment on the judge’s ruling.
When he was arrested, defense lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said in a statement to E! News, “Let us be clear—the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”
Bednarski said in court during the hearing, per ABC 7 News, “There’s no evidence that Mr. Burke harbored a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez.”
The attorney said that their communications showed “no threat, no evidence of a history of violence,” and that he had “the opposite of homicidal malice” toward her.
Here are the biggest bombshells to come out in the murder case against D4vd so far:
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