Hollywood producer convicted of murder in deaths of model and her friend
A Hollywood producer is facing a life sentence after a drug-fueled night of partying resulted in the deaths of two women in Los Angeles.
David Brian Pearce, 42, was convicted earlier this week of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of 24-year-old Christy Giles and 26-year-old Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Pearce had also previously been charged with rape and sexual assault involving seven women between 2007 and 2021. He was found guilty on all counts.
“A serial rapist was held accountable for the deaths of [Giles] and [Cabrales-Arzola], who tragically died from fentanyl poisoning, as well as for victimizing seven other women across Los Angeles,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman stated. “This office will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who illegally supply fentanyl and commit sexual assaults.”
On November 13, 2021, Giles, a model, and Cabrales-Arzola, an architect, met Pearce, along with Brandt Osborne and Michael Ansbach, at a warehouse party, according to Los Angeles police. They later returned to Pearce’s home, where he provided GHB—commonly known as a “date rape drug”—and fentanyl.
Hours later, surveillance footage captured masked men dropping the women off at separate hospitals in a car without license plates, prosecutors said.
Giles was found unresponsive outside Southern California Hospital in Culver City and was pronounced dead. Cabrales-Arzola was resuscitated after being left at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital but died 11 days later.
The suspects were arrested a month later, according to the LAPD.
Pearce’s co-defendant, Brandt Osborne, faces two counts of accessory after the fact and is scheduled for a retrial next month after a mistrial was declared due to a deadlocked jury.
An investigation following the murders revealed that Pearce was a habitual offender, using drugs to commit numerous sexual assaults against multiple women, authorities said. Seven of Pearce’s victims took the stand at the trial to testify to his sexual depravity and violent tendencies, according to prosecutors.
Pearce faces 148 years to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 13.
