Hollywood producer sentenced in overdose deaths of 2 women he drugged, dumped at LA hospitals

LOS ANGELES – A Hollywood producer convicted of first-degree murder in the overdose deaths of two women, along with multiple charges of sexual assault involving seven other victims, was sentenced Wednesday to 146 years to life in prison.

What we know:

Jurors deliberated about 2 1/2 days before finding David Brian Pearce, now 43, guilty Feb. 4 of the two murder charges stemming from the deaths of 24-year-old model and aspiring actress Christy Giles and her 26-year-old friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, who were taken to separate hospitals about two hours apart on Nov. 13, 2021.

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Giles was dead upon arrival at Southern California Hospital in Culver City. Cabrales-Arzola was alive but in critical condition outside Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital and was later taken off life support by her family, a day before her 27th birthday.

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner classified the deaths as homicides, with toxicology reports showing multiple drugs in both victims’ systems. Giles died of a mixture of cocaine, fentanyl, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, and ketamine. Cabrales-Arzola died of multiple organ failure with cocaine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), and other undetermined drugs found in her system.

The jury found Pearce guilty of: two counts of first-degree murder; three counts of forcible rape; two counts of sexual penetration by use of force; one count of rape of an unconscious person; one count of sodomy by use of force.

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These sexual assault charges involved crimes against seven women between 2007 and 2020. Jurors also heard from five other women who alleged sexual assault by Pearce.

What they’re saying:

Giles’ mother, Dusty, said after the verdict that she was “so proud” of the prosecution and the Los Angeles Police Department detectives, saying “they listened to us way back from Alabama” pleading not to “rule them just as accidental overdoses or party girls (who) did this to themselves, ask why it’s in their system, why they were dropped off.”

She said she was glad that “as much as it hurts to lose my baby girl, who was a fighter and stood up for anti-bullying and everything else her whole life that in this death her body was able to tell the story.”

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She called her daughter and her daughter’s friend “very reputable women that happened to meet the wrong man and that’s it.”

The victim’s mother said the “man who killed my daughter I hope is going away forever,” and said she was glad that the sexual assault victims “finally had their day in court” too.

Giles’ husband, Jan Cilliers, said he was “very happy that the jury saw what we were seeing all along.”

Timeline:

• 2007 to 2020: The period during which the seven charged sexual assaults took place.
• November 2021: Pearce met Giles and Cabrales-Arzola at an after-hours rave in downtown Los Angeles, according to Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano.
• November 13, 2021: Giles and Cabrales-Arzola were left at separate hospitals hours after becoming unresponsive at the residence Pearce shared on Olympic Boulevard in the Pico-Robertson district.
• Later that month: Cabrales-Arzola’s family took her off life support.
• December 2021: Pearce was arrested. He has remained behind bars since his arrest.
• February 4: The jury found Pearce guilty of two murder charges and seven sexual assault charges.
• Last month: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter denied the defense’s motion for a new trial.
• Oct. 29: Pearce sentenced to 146 years to life in prison.

The other side:

During the trial, Pearce’s attorney argued that the prosecution had not met its burden of proof. His attorney, Jeff Voll, suggested the drug may have been “accidentally ingested” after being mistaken for cocaine.

The defense attorney countered that his client “didn’t give them drugs,” and urged jurors to acquit Pearce, questioning why Pearce would have given fentanyl to both women and his friend, key prosecution witness Michael Ansbach, who was “his buddy of 20 years.”

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Voll also told reporters after the verdict that it was “truthfully not surprising given the overwhelming amount of incriminating evidence,” but added he thought the jury would deadlock on the murder counts. He acknowledged that his client’s testimony in his own defense “didn’t help.”

Pearce himself denied giving the two women the drugs that killed them and maintained that they were fully clothed when he moved them to his house and then to the car. He denied sexually assaulting either of the two women, as well as the seven victims named in the charges and the five other women who testified.

Co-defendant Brandt Walter Osborn, who was facing two counts of being an accessory after the fact, is awaiting a potential retrial after Judge Hunter declared a mistrial when the jury was hopelessly deadlocked on the charges against him. Osborn’s attorney, Michael Artan, told jurors that the “just outcome would be that Brandt Osborn would be found not guilty on the two counts.” Osborn denied hearing Pearce tell Ansbach, “dead girls don’t talk.”

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What’s next:

Osborn is awaiting a potential retrial on the two counts of being an accessory after the fact, after the judge declared a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury.

The Source: Information for this report is from official court records and public statements delivered by key participants in the judicial process. We draw confirmed facts from the jury’s February 4th verdict, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner’s homicide classification and toxicology reports, and direct quotes from the prosecuting deputy district attorneys, defense attorneys, and the victims’ families. The information detailed, including the charges, timeline, and potential sentence, comes from these documented legal and public sources.

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