‘Significant amount of child pornography’ found on D4vd’s phone: Prosecutors

LOS ANGELES (TCN) -- Singer David Burke, known professionally as D4vd, appeared in court on April 23 for a status conference to set a date for his preliminary hearing.

The 21-year-old singer pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges on April 20 in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl who was found dismembered and decomposing in his abandoned car last September. 

KABC reports that a preliminary hearing had been scheduled for April 23; it did not go forward, and the time was instead used as a status conference. 

At the status conference, KTLA reports prosecutors said that during the course of the lengthy investigation into Burke, they collected more than 40 terabytes of evidence, including a “significant amount of child pornography” on a cellphone that belonged to him. 

According to Beth Silverman, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, the iCloud account on the phone contained eight terabytes of data and so far, only one terabyte of data has been downloaded, NBC News reports. The other 20 to 30 terabytes of evidence were found on other devices; NBC reports that the DA’s office is downloading the data onto drives to be used by Burke’s defense.

According to KABC, it will be determined on April 29 if the scheduled preliminary hearing, in which the judge will determine if there’s enough evidence for a trial, can move forward.

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