:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/Christy-Gile-Hilda-Marcela-Cabrales-Arzola-020425-621b1ecc7beb4129a7ebf320a9d0ce74.jpg)
NEED TO KNOW
- David Pearce, 42, was sentenced to 146 years to life in state prison for the 2021 fentanyl overdose deaths of Christy Giles and Hilda Cabrales-Arzola
- Pearce was found guilty in February 2025 of two counts of murder
- “The defendant is a rapist and now he is a murderer,” prosecutor Seth Carmack said during trial
A Hollywood producer who was convicted earlier this year of fatally drugging a model and her friend in 2021 was sentenced to 146 years to life in state prison on Wednesday, Oct. 29, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office confirmed to PEOPLE.
David Brian Pearce, 42, was found guilty in February of two counts of first-degree murder in the fentanyl overdose deaths of 24-year-old model Christy Giles and her friend, Hilda Cabrales-Arzola, a 26-year-old architect. Pearce was also convicted of rape and other sexual assaults against seven other women between 2007 and 2021, per the district attorney’s office.
He was charged in July 2022 in the drug-related deaths.
Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack told jurors during Pearce’s trial that he drugged the women “to facilitate the sexual assault,” KNX News reported.
“The defendant is a rapist and now he is a murderer,” Carmack said, per the outlet.
According to prosecutors, Pearce met Giles and Cabrales-Arzola at a warehouse party in East Los Angeles around 3 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2021. Around two hours later, the women accompanied Pearce and others to his Beverly Hills apartment where he provided the victims with GHB and fentanyl.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/david-brian-pearce-012125-1-faac52ac2b434db1918fedf613d9ebca.jpg)
Prosecutors said Cabrales-Arzola called a rideshare service within 35 minutes of arriving at Pearce’s apartment but never took the ride.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Hours later, Pearce and his roommate, actor Brandt Osborn, dropped off the two women outside separate hospitals, according to police.
Giles was found dead from a mixture of cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine and GHB outside a hospital in Culver City.
“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,'” her mother Leslie Giles told CBS 48 Hours. “And, um… ‘She didn’t make it.’… And I said, ‘What do you mean she didn’t make it?'” adding that she was told it was a police matter before she hung up and “fell apart.”
Cabrales-Arzola was found unconscious outside Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, according to police. She was taken off life support after suffering multiple organ failure with cocaine, ecstasy and other undetermined drugs found in her system, according to KNX News.
A judge declared a mistrial for Osborn, who was charged with two counts of being an accessory, ABC7 reported. He is now awaiting a possible retrial, per the outlet.
