Photo Credit:Getty Images
As the capital murder case against David Anthony Burke, the singer-songwriter known as D4vd, moves toward trial, new details have emerged regarding the collapse of his professional infrastructure. The Associated Press confirmed this week that Burke was quietly dropped by his label, Interscope Records, “at some point in 2025”, months before he was formally arrested for the sexual abuse and murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The timeline of the label’s departure aligns with a period of growing behind-the-scenes turmoil for the “Romantic Homicide” artist. While Burke’s career appeared to be on an upward trajectory with the release of his debut album, Withered, in April 2025, investigators now allege that the murder of Hernandez occurred during that same month. By September 2025, following the discovery of the teenager’s dismembered remains in a Tesla registered to Burke, his public-facing career began to disintegrate.
While Interscope has not issued a formal statement explaining the specific grounds for the termination of his contract, the move preceded the public unsealing of the grand jury investigation. In December 2025, Robert Morgenroth, an executive at Burke’s primary label, Darkroom (an Interscope partner), was reportedly questioned by a grand jury regarding his knowledge of the teenager’s disappearance and whether label staff had failed to notify authorities.
The decision to drop Burke appears to have been part of a broader “scrubbing” of the artist from industry platforms. Following the cancellation of his “Withered” world tour in late 2025, fans noted that planned deluxe reissues of his work were shelved indefinitely. More recently, in the days following his April 20, 2026, arraignment, Burke was also banned from Twitch, where he had built a significant following as a gaming partner. Prosecutors have used Burke’s professional standing as a central component of their motive, alleging that he murdered Hernandez specifically because her threats to expose their relationship would “devastate his musical career.”
The revelation that his label had already severed ties suggests that the industry may have been alerted to the ongoing investigation long before the public arrest. For the 21- year-old artist, who now faces the death penalty, the loss of his major label backing marks the end of a rapid ascent that began with viral lo-fi hits and ended in one of the most high-profile criminal cases in modern music history.