A Los Angeles producer convicted of fatally drugging a model and her friend in 2021 has been sentenced to 146 years to life in state prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed.
David Brian Pearce, 42, was found guilty in February on two counts of first-degree murder for the fentanyl overdose deaths of model Christy Giles, 24, and architect Hilda Cabrales-Arzola, 26. He was also convicted of rape and multiple s*xual assaults against seven other women spanning from 2007 to 2021, according to the district attorney’s office.
Pearce was formally charged in July 2022 in connection with the drug-related deaths.
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack told jurors that Pearce deliberately drugged the women “to facilitate the s*xual assault,” KNX News reported. “The defendant is a rapist and now he is a murderer,” Carmack said, according to the outlet.
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The Fatal Night
Prosecutors said Pearce met Giles and Cabrales-Arzola at a warehouse party in East Los Angeles around 3 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2021. Within a few hours, the women went with Pearce and others to his Beverly Hills apartment, where he allegedly provided them with GHB and fentanyl.
Authorities said Cabrales-Arzola called for a rideshare roughly 35 minutes after arriving but never got into the car.
Hours later, Pearce and his roommate, actor Brandt Osborn, allegedly dropped the two women at separate hospitals. Giles was found dead outside a Culver City hospital, with toxicology tests revealing a mix of cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine, and GHB.
Her mother, Leslie Giles, later told CBS’s 48 Hours that she received a heartbreaking call from hospital staff:
“I was just told, ‘I’m very sorry to inform you, Ms. Giles… But she was dropped off at our hospital on the outside, kind of like a bag of garbage,’” she recalled. “And I said, ‘What do you mean she didn’t make it?’… then I hung up and fell apart.”
Cabrales-Arzola was discovered unconscious outside Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. She was taken off life support after suffering multiple organ failure, with cocaine, ecstasy, and other undetermined substances in her system, according to KNX News.
Co-Defendant Awaits Retrial
A judge declared a mistrial for Osborn, who was charged with two counts of being an accessory, ABC7 reported. He is currently awaiting a possible retrial, according to the outlet.
