A HOLLYWOOD producer has been charged with murder over the deaths of a model and her friend who were found dumped outside separate LA hospitals following a night out.
Christy Giles, 24, and her friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, died from overdoses after a night out in LA in November, with a coroner finding a cocktail of drugs in their systems.
On Saturday it was revealed that producer David Pearce, 37, who was initially charged with manslaughter over the deaths, has now been charged with murder by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Pearce was initially arrested in December on suspicion of manslaughter and remains in jail on a $3.4 million bond for unrelated charges of the alleged sexual assault of multiple women.
Pearce intends to plead not guilty when he is arraigned July 11, his lawyer Jacob Glucksman told the LA Times,
Actor Brandt Osborn, 42, was allegedly charged as an accessory to the double-manslaughter.
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A judge issued a warrant for his arrest last week, but it’s unclear whether he has been taken into custody and whether he is represented by a lawyer, according to Times. He could not be reached for comment by the Times.
Michael Ansbach was initially arrested on suspicion of being an accessory, but officials have not charged him.
In an affidavit, a detective wrote that “Pearce and Osborn had driven the unconscious women to the hospitals, claiming to be good Samaritans who found them passed out on a curb,” reported the Times.
Giles, 24, was found outside the Southern California Hospital, unconscious on November 13 and died soon after.
Two hours later, her friend Cabrales-Arzola, 26, was left at Kaiser West Los Angeles and died on November 24 after being in a coma.
Both women were dropped off by three men wearing black face masks, who drove away in a vehicle with no license plates, according to multiple news sources.
According to LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, Giles’ cause of death was due to “multiple drug intoxication”.
She had a mix of cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine, and gamma-hydroxybutyrate acid (GHB), also know as the “date rape drug” in her system at the time of death.
Cabrales-Arzola also tested positive for cocaine, MDMA, and other drugs.
Giles and Cabrales-Arzola met the men at a rave held in a brick warehouse in East Los Angeles, according to authorities.
Cabrales-Arzola texted Giles around 4am asking whether she wanted cocaine, according to detective Vander Lee’s affidavit that the Times obtained.
Police say the text read: “I’m in the kitchen. Let’s do a line.”
A friend of the women claims that Pearce provided the women with what looked like cocaine, according to the affidavit.
Giles and Cabrales-Arzola later allegedly left with the men and went to Pearce and Osborn’s apartment.
Twenty minutes later, the women texted each other saying they wanted to get an Uber to leave Osborn’s apartment, police say.
Giles texted her friend: “Let’s go,” adding a wide-eyed emoji.
“Yes,” Cabrales-Arzola responded. “I’ll call an Uber. 10 min away.”
According to the affidavit, a vehicle arrived at the apartment and waited for five minutes at the apartment before leaving. Officials believe this was the ride they had ordered.
“One glaring fact is that both Giles and Cabrales-Arzola wanted to leave Pearce’s residence, as is evident by their texts and ordering an Uber.” said the detective.
The detective claims that security cameras caught Pearce around 4.20pm carrying Giles to his black Prius before he and Osborn drove her to Southern California Medical Center.
The affidavit claims that the pair then returned to the apartment and carried Cabrales-Arzola to the car and drove her to Kaiser hospital.
When detectives went to Pearce and Osborn’s apartment later that night they claim Osborn was “visibly nervous” and said that he didn’t see the women take any drugs.
According the affidavit, Osborn said, “I didn’t give them anything, OK, I don’t live like that.”
Osborn allegedly told authorities that when he woke up he saw that Giles and Cabrales-Arzola were not breathing, but “they were making noises,” the detective said.
The Times reports that Osborn told the detective, “I figured give them a couple hours and they’ll come out of it, but it seemed like they were getting progressively worse.”
Pearce allegedly told detectives he did not call an ambulance for Giles and Cabrales because “we didn’t know them” and that he didn’t bring them to the same hospital because “we didn’t know how that would look.”
Pearce’s lawyer told the Times that his client “adamantly and strongly denies any connection to these women’s unfortunate deaths.”
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Giles’ husband, Jan Cilliers, suspects that the girls were drugged and sexually assaulted.
“My preference is that these men are charged with murder rather than manslaughter,” Cilliers told The Sun in April.
