A Hollywood producer has been sentenced to 146 years to life in prison for the deaths of model Christy Giles and her friend, Hilda Cabrales-Arzola, as well as sexual assaults involving other women, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed.
David Brian Pearce, 42, was found guilty in February of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2021 fentanyl overdose deaths of Giles, 24, and Cabrales-Arzola, 26. He was also convicted of rape and sexual assault against seven additional women in incidents stretching from 2007 to 2021.
Prosecutors said Pearce targeted women by giving them drugs so he could assault them. “The defendant is a rapist and now he is a murderer,” Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack told jurors during the trial.
According to investigators, Pearce met Giles and Cabrales-Arzola at a warehouse party in East Los Angeles in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2021. The women later went with Pearce and others to his apartment in Beverly Hills, where prosecutors say he provided them with GHB and fentanyl.
Cabrales-Arzola reportedly tried to call a rideshare within 35 minutes of arriving but never left.
A few hours later, Pearce and his roommate, actor Brandt Osborn, dropped off the women outside two different hospitals. Giles was left outside a hospital in Culver City and was pronounced dead. Officials found cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine, and GHB in her system.
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Her mother, Leslie Giles, told CBS 48 Hours that she learned the news in a sudden and painful call. “She was dropped off… like a bag of garbage… and she didn’t make it,” she recalled.
Cabrales-Arzola was found unconscious outside a Los Angeles medical center. She was placed on life support but later died after suffering multiple organ failure. Tests showed cocaine, ecstasy, and other substances in her system.
Pearce was arrested and charged in July 2022. During the trial, prosecutors described a pattern of abuse, saying he had drugged and assaulted multiple women for years.
Meanwhile, Osborn, who was charged with two counts of being an accessory, had his case declared a mistrial. He is awaiting a possible retrial.
Pearce will remain in state prison for the rest of his life.
