D4vd’s defense team argues Celeste Rivas stabbed herself, but prosecutors’ gruesome evidence and medical testimony make the theory nearly impossible to believe.
D4vd is trying to plant seeds of doubt in court about how his alleged victim actually died, and his legal team’s latest move shows they’re building a defense strategy around alternative theories rather than denying the relationship itself.
During Friday’s preliminary hearing, his lawyers questioned whether 14-year-old Celeste Rivas could have stabbed herself, a claim that medical examiner Dr. Grant Ho quickly shut down by explaining that self-inflicted wounds typically show hesitation marks that weren’t present on Rivas’ body.
The defense is essentially asking the court to consider the impossible, which tells you everything about how weak their position really is.
The charges against D4vd paint a picture of calculated violence and cover-up.
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He’s facing first-degree murder with special circumstances including lying in wait, murder of a witness to an investigation, and murder for financial gain.
Prosecutors also charged him with continuous sexual abuse of a child and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
According to the NY Post, the prosecution alleges that D4vd ordered an Uber to bring Rivas from her Lake Elsinore home to his Hollywood Hills residence on April 23, 2025, then stabbed her multiple times and let her bleed to death.
The evidence prosecutors laid out during the three-day hearing this week was absolutely brutal.
Rivas’ body was found dismembered in the trunk of D4vd’s Tesla in September 2025, months after her death.
Medical examiners testified that her upper and lower extremities were cut into multiple pieces, with each leg showing two separate dismemberment sites, one below the thigh and one around the knee, possibly created by a power tool.
The court was shown photographs of her decapitated and mutilated remains, including arms and legs in trash bags, her head and torso in a body bag, and severed hands with missing fingers.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that D4vd purchased chainsaws, an inflatable pool, heavy-duty laundry bags, and a burn cage from various online retailers in the weeks and months following the murder.
DNA evidence collected from blood stains in his garage matched Rivas’ genetic profile, and investigators found small blue plastic fragments in her remains believed to be pieces of the inflatable pool where prosecutors say he initially placed her body.
The maximum potential sentence D4vd faces if convicted on all charges is life in prison without the possibility of parole, or potentially the death penalty, given the special circumstances allegations and the severity of the crimes involved.
