Suspect In Model Christy Giles' Death Is Charged With Sexually Assaulting Four Other Women
A suspect in the deaths of a Los Angeles model and her friend is now charged with sexually assaulting four women since 2010.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Friday that David Pearce, 39, is now facing two counts of forcible rape, one count of rape of an unconscious or asleep person and sexual penetration by a foreign object, according to a statement from his office.
Pearce was one of three men arrested last week by Los Angeles Police and an FBI task force in the death of model Christy Giles, 24, and her friend, Hilda Marcela Cabrales Arzola, 26. Both women were dumped at different Los Angeles-area hospitals on Nov. 13 after authorities said they attended an after-hours party at Pearce’s townhouse, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The district attorney’s office has yet to formally charge Pearce or the two other men arrested—42-year-old Brandt Osborn and 47-year-old Michael Ansbach—in connection with that incident but authorities have filed charges against Pearce for a string of other alleged sexual assaults over the last decade.
The 39-year-old has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in August of 2010, raping a woman in February of 2019 and raping two other women in separate incidents in 2020.
“My office takes violence against women very seriously,” Gascón said. “By aggressively prosecuting sexual assault cases, we make our community safer and protect others from becoming victims in the future.
The investigation into the allegations remains ongoing and police are still trying to determine whether there could be other victims.
“This case is evolving and we continue to work with law enforcement in developing evidence of other possible crimes,” he added.
Pearce, a former club promoter, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter.
Osborn and Ansbach were each arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to manslaughter, authorities said.
Just hours before authorities say the women were dumped at local hospitals, Arzola was seen in photos partying with Pearce, according to images obtained by local station KTTV.
The architecture project manager can be seen with her arm slung around Pearce during an after-hours warehouse party in the early hours of Nov. 13.
Authorities say the two women later went to Pearce’s townhouse to continue their night, but at some point, the women agreed it was time to go and called an Uber. They never got into the vehicle, according to The Los Angeles Times.
A few hours later, three masked men pulled up to Southern California Hospital in Culver City and dumped Giles’ body.
Arzola, who was still alive, was brought to Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles a few hours later. She spent days in critical condition before she died on Nov. 24.
Giles’ husband, Jan Cilliers, told People after news of the three men’s arrests that he breathed a “sigh of relief.”
“I also understand that this is just the beginning of the battle,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of stuff to get through in order to get these guys in prison.”
He encouraged other possible victims to come forward to “just add their voices to the case” and “help get these guys off the street.”
Gascón said anyone with information about the alleged crimes should contact the Los Angeles Police Department.