In a heart-wrenching moment in court on Thursday, the mother of a 14-year-old girl who was found brutally dismembered in the trunk of singer D4vd’s Tesla last year broke down in tears. Despite the emotional scene unfolding around him, the singer remained unemotional.

Real name David Burke, the artist faces severe accusations, including first-degree murder, sustained sexual abuse of a minor below 14, and illegally mutilating a body, all tied to the tragic death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

According to the prosecution, after stabbing the teen to death, Burke dismembered her in his garage, allegedly driven by her threats to expose their illicit relationship and jeopardize his career.

Burke, aged 21, has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges, with his legal team committed to a rigorous defense strategy.

During Thursday’s session of the preliminary hearing—aimed at assessing if the evidence justifies a trial—Celeste’s mother was visibly overcome with emotion, needing tissues as the drama unfolded, according to a report by TMZ.

The emotional outburst came as a Los Angeles police criminalist detailed how blood stains in the garage of the singer’s Hollywood home were a strong DNA match for the young girl.

Hernandez’s parents then wound up having to leave the hearing early, before a Los Angeles Medical Examiner started to testify. 

Meanwhile, the singer sat emotionless during the testimony – but was also seen smiling, nodding and casually speaking to his attorneys, Marilyn Bednarski and Blair Berk, as the hearing continued, according to Los Angeles Magazine.

Hernandez’s remains had been found in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla on September 8, as it sat in an impound lot.

Disturbing images previously displayed in court showed Hernandez’s bloody head and torso inside a body bag in the trunk, as well as her severed arms and legs in a garbage bag underneath it. 

When authorities then learned the vehicle belonged to the singer, police technicians took samples from apparent blood stains on a rubber floor mat, a rowing machine and a Tesla charger in the garage.

Matches of several of those samples were ‘one septillion times more likely to occur if it originated from Celeste rather than anyone else in the population,’ criminalist Samantha Tosch testified on Thursday – pointing out that the number had 24 zeroes.

Testing was also done on a trash bag in the garage and stained cleaning wipes inside it that had tested positive for the presence of blood, Rolling Stone reports.

Tosch said the bag swab showed a mixture of DNA from four people, at least two of whom were male – including one she said was Burke’s.

Hernandez’s DNA was also found on the wipes but not the bag, while Burke’s DNA was not found on the wipes.

Another police criminalist testified that most of the garage stains were not visible to the naked eye and were uncovered by a chemical test that makes the area glow blue. A photo displayed in court showed the rubber mat cloaked in bright blue.

But under cross examination, Tosch conceded that she couldn’t say with certainty that the DNA profiles came from blood, and could’ve been from touch.

Tosch also acknowledged that it can’t be determined how DNA got on a spot, and that it’s even possible for it to transfer between people. 

The criminalist further admitted there’s no way to clearly establish how long the DNA had been there.

Defense attorney Blair Berk asked Tosch about the software the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) uses – which she suggested calculated only the likelihood that Burke’s DNA was present in the mixture from four people.

‘It’s not saying David Burke’s DNA was definitively found in the mixture,’ the lawyer argued.

Tosch then agreed that it was a ‘fair’ assessment, but it remained her professional opinion that the singer’s DNA was present on the outer trash bag.   

Burke’s lawyers have previously given little indication of any counternarrative they may present about how Hernandez was killed and how her dismembered body came to be found inside the trunk of Burke’s Tesla about five months later.

But they began giving glimpses into their defense strategy as they pressed various prosecution witnesses on why they didn’t conduct more DNA testing on items found in the singer’s home and car.

Berk dwelled on a pair of small chain saws found in Burke’s garage, where prosecutors say he dismembered the body. Lauren Wallace, another LAPD criminalist, testified that initial chemical tests showed no signs of blood on the saws, so the handles were not swabbed for any DNA left behind by someone who touched them.

‘If an item has somebody else’s DNA on it, you wouldn´t be able to see that at the time,’ Berk said.

‘No you’re not able to see touch DNA,’ Wallace admitted before reiterating that the blades had tested negative for blood.

‘But that doesn´t preclude at all that there could be somebody else’s touch DNA,’ Berk noted.

Prosecutors have claimed Burke began a sexual relationship with Hernandez when she was just 13 years old and he was 18 in November 2023.

When she then went missing that year, Hernandez’s mother told police her daughter was dating a guy she had never met, named David.

Authorities then questioned Burke about his relationship with the teenager, to which he said he believed Hernandez was 18 because ‘she told me she was 18,’ LA County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Juan Gonzalez testified on Tuesday.

The singer then allegedly shared Hernandez’s phone number with the deputies and showed them photos from his phone of her yearbook picture.

When Hernandez later returned home, her family took her phone away. 

But prosecutors say Burke continued to pursue her – even paying a junior high school student in her class $1,000 so that the classmate could get Hernandez a new phone.

‘Throughout 2024, the victim spent a significant amount of time with defendant, including summer weekends at his home in the Hollywood Hills and traveling with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family,’ they alleged in court documents.

‘Text exchanges between the victim and defendant contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.’

Prosecutors further alleged that they broke up in November 2024, but they continued to communicate.

After they then broke up again last April, the teenager became jealous over Burke’s relationship with other women, the preliminary trial brief claims.

Hernandez then ‘threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,’ the documents state.

At that time, prosecutors say, Burke was set to release his first solo album and had a multimillion-dollar career at stake.

With that allegedly on his mind, Burke sent an Uber to pick Rivas Hernandez up at her home in Lake Elsinore, California, at around 8.40pm on April 23 last year, and she was dropped off at the home he was renting in Hollywood Hills at around 10.10pm.

That is when he allegedly killed the teenager. 

Prosecutors say he then kept the body for weeks or months in the front trunk of the Tesla, where it was found after the car was towed four and a half months later while the singer was on tour promoting his debut album. 

Eyewitness accounts painted a vivid and terrifying picture of two separate stabbings in New York City that authorities are examining as potential hate crimes. One observer described the chaotic scene as the “scariest thing” she has ever witnessed.

The suspect in question, Raul Morales, 51, allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” while attacking two men on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Thursday afternoon, officials reported.

The New York Police Department is actively probing the role bias may have played in these assaults. The victims were identified as a Jewish man and an Asian man, according to police.

Authorities highlighted that these stabbings seemed to be distinct incidents that took place in proximity. No connections have been found linking Morales with either of the victims or between the victims themselves.

Both men were taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Authorities are investigating whether a knife or screwdriver was used in the attacks.

A witness described seeing a knife sticking out of one of the victims following the stabbing.

“I just saw him sitting on his knees not moving at all, with this knife sticking out. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. The men who worked in the building are amazing and they just ran to get help,” the witness told Fox 5 New York.

Another woman, who said she was friends with one of the victims, said she was inside a synagogue when she heard that someone had been stabbed. When she reached the scene, the victim was already being taken to the hospital.

“I spoke to direct eyewitnesses who said that this man had yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and had taken a screwdriver and stabbed him directly in the chest … then the guy walked away and kind of pretended he was not culpable and said ‘maybe someone should call 911, it looks like someone’s hurt on the street,'” Nava Silton told the outlet.

Silton said she later visited the victim in the hospital and described him as brave and courageous.

“It is incredibly scary and he’s just praying the condition doesn’t get worse. He had to pull the screwdriver out of his body,” she said.

Initial NYPD findings suggest mental health may have been a factor.

“While the perpetrator has no known mental health history with the NYPD, the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Officials across the state denounced the attack, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“These hateful and despicable attacks have no place in our city,” Mamdani said.

Hochul said she was “disgusted by what appears to be another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish.”

Anyone who tries to tear that apart will be met with the full force of the law. New York will stand with our Jewish community today, tomorrow, and always,” she said.

In the wake of the high-profile inauguration of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, a major blow has been dealt to a subcontractor involved in the project. The company, which previously alleged that it was owed nearly $4 million, has now ceased operations, leading to the layoff of 25 union employees.

Mike Owen, who owns Adamson Plumbing Contractors located in Chicago, revealed to Fox News Digital that the financial strain left his company little choice but to relinquish nearly half a dozen ongoing construction assignments, putting the business on the brink of dissolution.

Owen described the closure as a difficult yet essential move to prevent the company from spiraling into bankruptcy.

“Having to lay off almost 30 employees is an agonizing decision no owner in our field wishes to make,” Owen remarked. “It’s especially tough when you know projects can be completed profitably, yet circumstances left us with no viable alternatives.”

Under the operational name Marsh-Adamson, Adamson had provided services for the center and has since taken legal action by filing a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the property, intensifying the payment controversy into a courtroom battle.

The company is one of several subcontractors to report financial trouble after working on the center, which was promoted as a transformative economic opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses.

A previous Fox News Digital investigation identified several subcontractors — including black-owned firms the project was specifically intended to support — that said they were owed money or had absorbed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions. The largest dispute involves the Concrete Collective, which is seeking more than $40 million in additional payment.

‘Final death blow’

Before the center opened, Owen said the project had left his company with $3.9 million in losses tied to delays, rework, labor overruns and changing project demands. He said he spent months negotiating with Lakeside Alliance, the project’s construction manager, before going public after failing to reach a resolution.

Against the backdrop of that larger dispute, Owen said the breaking point came around the time of the Obama Presidential Center’s opening celebration.

Owen said Adamson and Lakeside Alliance reached an agreement under which Adamson would provide two journeyman plumbers to perform last-minute “housekeeping” work on campus at premium nighttime rates.

In return, Owen said, Adamson was supposed to receive part of its outstanding payment days before the center opened on June 19. An email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows a Lakeside representative telling Owen that $100,000 would be released through Adamson’s May payment application.

Adamson completed the requested work, but the payment did not arrive on time, according to Owen, who said it was the company’s breaking point and left him with no choice but to suspend operations on June 25.

“We negotiated it in good faith,” he said. “Against my better judgment, I agreed [to do the work].”

“Not getting that large sum of money just kind of pulled the brakes on the train. It was just the final death blow to the company,” he added. “Rather than try to stretch it out and go bankrupt, I just decided the responsible thing was to shut it down. We’ll regroup, and we’ll see where we’re at come September.”

Owen said that the promised $100,000 retainage payment and around $35,000 for change orders payments have since arrived from Lakeside Alliance — more than two weeks after he suspended operations and laid off 25 workers.

Owen said the money helped reduce the company’s debt to one supplier but did not reverse the shutdown.

“It’s almost like too little, too late,” Owen said. “It probably would have just prolonged the inevitable at this point,” he said. “We’re still deep in the hole of what they owe us.”

Owen said Adamson has now moved out of its building and that he is working from home while turning the dispute over to his attorneys and determining whether the company has a future.

Legal battle begins

Owen has escalated his nearly $4 million payment fight.

Documents reviewed by Fox News Digital show that Marsh-Adamson filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the Obama Presidential Center property, alleging it remains owed money for plumbing work performed on campus. A mechanic’s lien is a legal claim filed against a property by a contractor or supplier alleging that it has not been fully paid for completed work.

The lien is considerably lower than the approximately $3.9 million Owen says Adamson lost over the course of the project. Owen said the lien covers the amounts he believes are most readily documented, including unpaid fees, logged change orders and labor overruns supported by company records.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pursue the $3.9 million in change that we lost overall,” Owen said. “I’m still working with my legal team on that $3.9 million figure because I feel that it’s only right that we still hold ownership at the presidential center accountable.”

Owen said he had initially avoided filing a lawsuit or lien while attempting to negotiate a resolution.

“I’m not a litigious person, but at the same time, our legal system is there to protect the small guy,” Owen said. “I’m just going to have to fight this out legally from here on out, and these aren’t cheap costs.”

Last week’s payment will be deducted from the $1.72 million, he said.

Lakeside Alliance, a joint venture led by Turner Construction and four black-owned Chicago construction firms, served as the project’s construction manager. The other firms are UJAMAA Construction, Powers & Sons Construction, Brown & Momen and Safeway Construction.

In a previous statement, Lakeside said approximately 475 contractors worked on the center. In its latest response, the alliance pointed to the project’s scale and said “contractual closeout continues long after the doors have opened” on major projects of such complexity.

“Lakeside Alliance remains committed to working through all outstanding matters to successfully close out the project,” a spokesperson said. Lakeside Alliance did not directly address Owen’s allegations, the layoffs or the $1.72 million lien.

The Obama Foundation, former President Barack Obama’s private nonprofit organization that oversees the construction, said Lakeside was responsible for managing and paying subcontractors and that the foundation had no outstanding disputed charges with the alliance.

While it did not directly address Adamson’s allegations, the foundation said its financial support for firms working on the project exceeded industry standards.

“Our commitment began with a 15-day payment cycle, which is largely unheard of in major construction projects,” the foundation said in a statement, adding that it sometimes accelerated payment timelines or advanced payments months before work was completed.

The center has also faced scrutiny over its soaring price tag and promised taxpayer protections. Construction costs, initially projected at approximately $350 million, had climbed to $830 million by 2021 and have since reportedly surpassed $1 billion.

Meanwhile, just $1 million has been deposited into a promised $470 million reserve intended to protect Chicago taxpayers if the center encounters financial trouble.

Those questions have drawn added scrutiny because the Obama Foundation secured the 19.3-acre Jackson Park site through a 99-year lease requiring a one-time $10 payment.

‘They truthfully just don’t care’

Owen said the ordeal has left him financially and emotionally drained and uncertain whether he will ever restart Adamson Plumbing.

“This entire process really drained me out financially and emotionally,” Owen said. “So that’s where I’m at — just kind of in a holding pattern.”

Owen said the opening ceremony — which featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, John Legend and U2’s Bono and The Edge, among others — only sharpened his anger. Against that celebratory backdrop, he said, the struggles of the workers who built the center went largely unrecognized.

Owen argued that Chicago’s proud protest culture had been conspicuously absent — and that the reaction would have been markedly different if the project were associated with figures such as Elon Musk or Ken Griffin, the Chicago billionaire whose name adorns the neighboring Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

“There would be holy hell to pay,” Owen said. “They would be picketing. They would be storming the castle.”

Owen also singled out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, questioning why the pro-union governor had not addressed the layoffs or payment disputes.

“But he hasn’t said anything publicly about the union companies at the presidential center getting stiffed,” Owen said. “And it bothers me.”

Pritzker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Owen said he was not accusing former President Barack Obama of personal responsibility but believes the foundation should publicly acknowledge the subcontractors’ complaints and help seek a resolution.

“It’s become perfectly obvious to me that the ownership group there — they truthfully just don’t care,” he said. “I don’t know any other way to say it.”

Owen said contractors had held out hope that their disputes would be resolved once construction ended.

“But I think a lot of us out there, the main subcontractors, all still had this feeling that it was going to be worked out in the end — until it wasn’t,” he said.

Now, with Adamson’s future uncertain, Owen said the project has left him facing a personal turn he never saw coming.

“I mean, the only leverage I have now is just to continue speaking out and see where it goes,” he said. “But my career — it’s funny — I’m going to have to go find a job, which is fine. It’s just that I did not anticipate the completion of this project would take this turn.”

In a disturbing case that has left a community in shock, police are delving into the tragic murder-suicide of four young children along with their mother and grandmother. Authorities have yet to dismiss the possibility that the children’s mother, Sarah Myers, may have played a role in the heartbreaking event.

The grim discovery on June 23 revealed the lifeless bodies of Sarah Myers, 44, her children Harper, 13, Hudson, 11, and twins Gavin and Gracelynn, 10, alongside her mother, Amy Steadman, 64. The family members were found in Steadman’s apartment in Mechanicville, New York, bringing overwhelming sorrow to the neighborhood.

According to police, one child succumbed to a fatal ‘sharp injury,’ while the others showed signs indicative of poisoning, painting a chilling picture of the tragedy inside the home.

Evidence at the scene strongly pointed to Amy Steadman as the orchestrator of this horrific incident. A handwritten note coupled with numerous bottles of both prescription and over-the-counter medications suggested her involvement, according to Police Chief William Rabbitt.

Nevertheless, Chief Rabbitt, in a statement to NBC 5 this week, clarified that investigators have not excluded the possibility that Sarah Myers could also have been complicit in the tragic deaths of her children.

The police chief refused to elaborate, stressing that the case remains active and there is ‘still a great deal to be said’ before investigators could properly explain what happened inside Steadman’s apartment that day. 

‘We are still awaiting final toxicology results and the completion of other forensic testing,’ he noted.

However, the stunning revelation comes as the children’s father, Brady Harmon, claims he had received 10 letters from Saratoga County Child Protective Services, notifying him it was investigating the living conditions at his children’s home.

The last letter he received stated that Myers was being investigated for Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Harmon told the Albany Times-Union. 

Harmon said a therapist concluded at the time that Myers was negligent in her care of the children, but they were not in any danger.

‘Nothing happened after that,’ the now-grieving father said, noting that when he went to collect his children’s belongings from Myers’ apartment earlier this month, he found the unit a mess, with cat urine and feces throughout.

The cat has since been rescued by Mechanicville Housing Authority management and has found a permanent home.  

Harmon also told the outlet he does not know who contacted Child Protective Services on behalf of his children.

But he believes officials at Mechanicville City School District may have alerted the agency as the letters stopped coming once Myers pulled the children out of the district in 2024 to be homeschooled.

Harmon is now trying to obtain the children’s school records.

He had been separated from his four children since 2019, and accused his ex-wife of keeping the children away from him to maintain a sense of ‘control’ in an interview with the US Sun.

Still, he kept in contact with the children – and had reached an agreement with his ex in which he would have custody from July 1 through September 1.

Harmon then spoke with the children on June 7, hoping to get them excited for their trip to Utah.

Days later, on June 10, he said he received a text from Myers that they were sick. 

‘She messaged me, “Hey, the kids are sick, we’ll talk to you on the 11th,” Harmon previously told the US Sun.

That same day, he said his lawyer sent her paperwork regarding an upcoming custody hearing on the 29th. 

After he learned his children were sick, Harmon said he called police multiple times to ask for welfare checks. 

Steadman’s neighbor, Stephanie Sweeney, then also called police after she noticed an unusual number of flies and a smell coming from the apartment.

That is when police made the gruesome discovery.

‘I went from “I’m seeing my kids” to “I’ll never see my kids again,”‘ Harmon lamented. 

It is now believed that Steadman was resentful over Harmon gaining custody of them for the summer.

Harmon also suggested that his decision to involve a lawyer may have pushed Steadman and Myers ‘over the edge.’

He speculated that the mother and daughter may have thought, ‘We don’t know a way out of this, so let’s do the next best thing. He’ll never have access to these kids…” and then do what they did.’ 

A resident in the apartment complex, Megan Reed, 38, previously told the Times Union that Steadman was ‘with [Myers] every single day to help her.’ 

Another neighbor told the outlet that the grandmother and mother were ‘inseparable’, and were ‘like best friends.’

Steadman’s Facebook profile also shows that in 2022, she shared a GoFundMe for her daughter to ‘help get a domestic violence lawyer.’

The fundraiser, which has since been deleted, showed Myers with her children in matching outfits as they pleaded for support. ‘Please help my daughter and grandchildren,’ Steadman captioned her post at the time.

But Harmon has denied the accusations, calling Myers the ‘culprit’ rather than a ‘victim’ as he claimed that his ex-wife once stabbed him in the face with a medicine dropper during a fight in 2019.

As questions now remain about the children’s deaths, Harmon has said he retrieved their cremated remains and flew them home for a funeral earlier this month.

‘We could not bring their bodies home due to the horrific state they were in,’ he noted to the Times-Union.

So, Harmon said, he spread his children’s ashes at the same place where his father’s ashes ‘were laid to rest,’ on top of a mountain.

‘It is devastating,’ Harmon said of the loss. ‘The only thing I can keep as a peace of mind is that my kids are safe in the arms of my father and other family members who loved them and not those who would hurt them.

‘There is some relief, but there is a hole that could never be filled,’ he continued.

‘I know at least I will eventually see them again.’