A Beverly Hills man has been charged with murder in connection with the November overdose deaths of a model and her friend -- both of whom were dumped outside Los Angeles-area hospitals, District Attorney George Gascón said at a news conference Tuesday.
David Brian Pearce was arrested in December but wasn't charged in the deaths of Christy Giles, a 24-year-old model and aspiring actress, and her friend, Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26. He was, however, charged with unrelated alleged sexual assaults. Gascón says Pearce has now been charged in the deaths.
Three men were initially arrested in connection with the deaths after the LAPD began investigating claims from the family of Christy Giles that the model and her interior designer friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola were drugged during a night of partying in Los Angeles on Nov. 12.
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The next morning, Giles' body was dropped off at a hospital in Culver City and Cabrales-Arzola was left unconscious outside Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles hospital, police said. Giles did not survive and police called her manner of death undetermined. Cabrales-Arzola was declared brain dead and died on Nov. 28 at the age of 26, according to the LA County Coroner's online database.
The LAPD had previously said three masked men dropped the women off at the hospitals. They were in a black Toyota Prius without license plates.
The men were later identified by police as David Pearce, 37; Michael Ansbach, 47; and Brandt Osborn, 42.
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Ansbach and Brandt, an actor from New York, were arrested on suspicion of accessory to manslaughter.
Police said both women were given drugs and overdosed at a residence in the 8600 block of Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles.
"Three suspects were identified and arrested with the assistance of the LAPD-FBI Fugitive Task Force and Metropolitan Division," the LAPD statement said. "Based on the investigation, the LAPD is concerned that there could be other victims in our community who could have been drugged by one or more of these men."
Giles' husband, Jan Cilliers, told NBC4 that his wife lived life to the fullest, and she had been out doing just that with her friend Marcela, party-hopping around LA's night scene.
Cilliers said he was told by another friend who was with them the night they were drugged, that the woman linked up with a group of men to go to an after party.
"We assume that the way the girls got in the car with them was that they were all going to go to the after party, that everyone wanted to go to together," Cilliers posited. "And they never ended up making it there."
He said he and his wife shared locations on their phones for safety. The morning after her night out, he checked for her location and it was pinned at the ER in Culver City where she died.
Cabrales-Arzola moved to LA from Mexico earlier this year after taking a job as interior designer, E! News reports. Her family traveled to the U.S. to be by her side while she was hospitalized. Cabrales-Arzola's father shared the family decided to take her off life support once she was declared brain dead, and that her organs would be donated, according to E!.
"We're all devastated but grateful that God let us have her with us for almost 27 years and allowed us to come here and say goodbye to her," Luis Cabrales Rivera said. "I'm grateful that with her last breath she will be able to give life to others and that she will live on in the heart, eyes, lungs, of someone else."
Cabrales-Arzola was days shy of turning 27.
Cabrales' father and mother said she was loving and a protector to her younger siblings.
"Put them in jail for the rest of their lives," said Luis Cabrales, her father. "They don’t respect any life. They don’t respect our children … my baby."
Added Cabrales' mother, Hilda Cabrales Arzola: "Maybe it's the wrong decision to go with these guys, but you know — we trust in people. That's the problem."
City News Service contributed to this report.
