A judge on Thursday, Dec. 23, ordered a Beverly Hills man who was arrested in connection with last month’s deaths of a model and her friend and subsequently charged with sexually assaulting four women in alleged attacks dating back as far as 2010 to remain jailed in lieu of $3.4 million bail.
Superior Court Judge Victoria B. Wilson ordered David Brian Pearce, 39, to return to a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for arraignment Jan. 12 facing multiple sex-assault charges stemming from alleged attacks in August 2010, February 2019, February 2020 and October 2020.
Prosecutors have “asked for further investigation” into the Nov. 13 death of Christy Giles and the subsequent death Nov. 27 of Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, according to Greg Risling, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“That’s currently an ongoing investigation so I can’t say too much about that, but that investigation is absolutely still ongoing,” Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano told reporters outside court.
Giles, a 24-year-old model and aspiring actress, and her friend were last seen at an apartment in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood before their bodies were dumped outside Southern California Hospital in Culver City and Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital.
Giles was already dead when she was found outside the hospital on Nov. 13. Cabrales-Arzola, an architect, was in critical condition and her family took her off life support a day before her 27th birthday.
“It is believed that both women were given drugs and overdosed at a residence in the 8600 block of Olympic Boulevard in the city of Los Angeles,” police said in a statement earlier this week.
“Three suspects were identified and arrested with the assistance of the LAPD-FBI Fugitive Task Force and Metropolitan Division. 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,” police said, calling it an “active and ongoing investigation.”
Pearce — who was booked on suspicion of manslaughter — has remained behind bars since his arrest Dec. 15 by the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Bureau, jail records show.
Prosecutors have asked for further investigation involving the two other men, Michael Ansbach, 47, and Brandt Osborn, 42, whom police said were each booked on suspicion of being an accessory to manslaughter.
Anspach was released last Thursday on $100,000 bond, while Osborn was released from custody late Friday afternoon, according to jail records.
In a statement announcing the sexual assault charges against Pearce, District Attorney George Gascon said, “This case is evolving and we continue to work with law enforcement in developing evidence of other possible crimes.”
Gascon urged anyone with any information to immediately contact Los Angeles police.
“We have a good faith belief there may be other victims, but again, based on the ongoing investigation of this case I can’t comment as to whether there are, in fact, additional victims at this point,” Mariano told reporters outside the courtroom after Pearce’s second court appearance on the case.
Giles’ husband, Jan Cilliers, said earlier that police contacted him about the arrests last week.
“Even if they get charged to the fullest extent of the law, no amount of legal justice will bring back Christy and Hilda,” Cilliers told Fox 11.
Cilliers had been quoted in previous published reports as saying video exists of three masked men dressed in black who pulled up to the hospital and pushed the model’s body out of a Toyota Prius without license plates.
Giles and Cabrales-Arzola exchanged text messages hours before they were found, appearing to have called an Uber to leave the apartment.
The women’s family members have claimed they were possibly drugged against their will at some point before they were found.
