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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Back issues
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Murder charges for LA man who dumped two drugged women at hospitals

The district attorney brought murder charges against David Pearce, who was already facing a slew of sexual assault charges following his arrest in December.

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Los Angeles man was charged with murder in the deaths of two young women he left outside separate hospitals last November, the day after he had provided them with drugs at his home.

David Brian Pearce, 40, faces two counts of murder and two counts of furnishing drugs that caused great bodily harm in the deaths last year of Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola and Christy Giles, who were 26 and 24 years old when they died. Pearce was already jailed on $1 million bail after he was charged with seven counts of sexual assault, including rape of an unconscious person, dating as far back as 2010.

“I recognize that these charges are a small consolation to the friends and family members of Ms. Arzola and Ms. Giles,” LA District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m sure that they want to know what happened to their loved ones and why. Today we are one step closer in the search for that truth.”

Jacob Glucksman, an attorney representing Pearce, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the new charges.

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Pearce and two other men in December. The police began investigating after masked men dropped off Giles at Southern California Hospital in Culver City on Nov. 13, 2021. The men drove a black Toyota Prius without license plates. Christy was unconscious and was pronounced dead soon afterward.

A short time later the same day, the same men had dropped off Arzola at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital. She was also unconscious and in very critical condition. She was declared dead on Nov. 24, 2021.

The LAPD said at the time that both women, one a model and the other an architect, were given drugs and overdosed at Pearce’s LA home just east of Beverly Hills.

Media reports said the two women had met Pearce and his companions — Michael Ansbach, 47, and Brandt Osborn, 42, who appeared to have some ties to the entertainment industry — at a warehouse party on LA’s Eastside. The women reportedly went back to Pearce’s home with the men and at some point texted each other about wanting to leave and getting an Uber. They did not leave until hours later, when Pearce and his accomplices dumped them at the hospitals.

One of Pearce’s companions was charged as an accessory after the fact in both murders, the district attorney announced Tuesday.

Follow @edpettersson
Categories / Criminal, Regional

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