Michael Ansbach said he and David Pearce had been snorting cocaine for hours, but the final jolt made him realize something was wrong.
After spending the day filming material for a documentary that Pierce is said to have produced, the pair went to a nightclub in Koreatown and then to a rave venue in an East L.A. warehouse, where Christy Giles and Hilda Marcella Ansbach said he met two young women named Cabrales Arzola.
The two women later died of drug overdoses, and Pierce is currently on trial for murder, in addition to several rapes committed between 2007 and 2021.
Mr. Ansbach testified Friday that Mr. Pierce generously handed out cokes to the women and that the group eventually returned to Mr. Pierce’s Olympic Boulevard apartment.
Mr. Ansbach testified that at one point Mr. Pierce offered him a vodka drink, which tasted “terrible” and “immediately made him feel dizzy.” Mr. Ansbach said Mr. Pearce then brought out a pack of coke that he deemed “good.” He said he tried the new supplies with Giles and Arzola, but his nostrils immediately started burning and he felt severe pain.
Mr. Ansbach said he asked Mr. Pierce what he just snorted about. In response, Ansbach said Pierce began laughing and looked “like the devil incarnate right in front of me.”
Hours have passed. Ansbach said he has lost count of how many times he threw up. He noticed that neither woman was moving and Giles “didn’t appear to be alive.” Ansbach said she begged Pierce to take the women to the hospital, but was ignored.
“‘Dead girls don’t talk,'” Pearce said, according to Ansbach’s testimony Friday. “Those are the words that echo in my nightmares and make me uneasy.”
Pierce has maintained his innocence, and his defense has argued there is no evidence he supplied the drugs that caused the women’s deaths.
Ansbach, who was originally arrested in connection with the murders of two women who were abandoned outside a hospital on a November night in 2021, has since become a key witness for the prosecution, who prosecutors say killed Giles and Arzola. He was the only person to survive after taking the drug.
Pierce is charged with two counts of murder and seven counts of rape in the deaths of the women. Prosecutors had previously declined to pursue sexual assault charges against Pierce in 2014, but after news of Giles and Arzola’s deaths made headlines, several women came forward with accusations dating back to 2005. came forward.
Prosecutors said in opening arguments last week that Pierce posed as a Hollywood A-lister and lured women to his apartment. In some cases, the women claimed that after Mr. Pearce served them drinks, they felt sick or “numb,” and when they woke up, Mr. Pearce sexually assaulted them.
Brant Osborne, who was Pierce’s roommate in the apartment where Giles and Arzola overdosed, is also on trial on two counts of contributing to the women’s deaths. Prosecutors argued that Osborne helped Pierce transport the dying women and destroy evidence at the residence.
Ansbach said he felt sick in the apartment and lost track of time, but claimed he urged Pierce to take the women to the hospital.
Describing her reaction to the drink Pierce was served, Ansbach said she was “incredibly debilitated…like she was being controlled…like a tranquilizer.” Toxicology tests detected gamma hydroxybutyric acid (a date rape drug commonly referred to as GHB) in Giles’ body.
After checking Giles’ pulse (Mr. Ansbach said he felt nothing), he became concerned that Pierce would not do anything to help the women.
Ansbach said Pierce “really only thinks about himself” and cited his fear of prison time due to his past criminal history.
“I have a criminal record, and this would never happen to me,” Pierce said, according to Ansbach.
The women were eventually taken to a medical facility nearly 12 hours later, according to court records, and driven to a car with no license plates, which Ansbach said he saw Pierce remove.
Mr. Pearce and Mr. Osborne deny all wrongdoing, and their lawyers were quick to point out that Mr. Ansbach’s account of the events inside the apartment changed significantly after his arrest in December 2021. .
Prosecutors did not offer Mr. Ansbach immunity in exchange for his testimony. Months after he was arrested along with Pearce and Osborne, he released a statement through his lawyer implicating other men.
Mr. Ansbach was never charged with a crime, and it was not immediately clear whether the Los Angeles Police Department had filed charges against him. The district attorney’s office has not responded to inquiries about the case, including requests for public records explaining why the charges were dismissed.
In cross-examination, Mr. Ansbach said during his initial interrogation with Los Angeles police that he had never seen the women doing drugs and that he had never painted a portrait of Mr. Pierce like the one he described on Friday. He admitted that he said no.
Ansbach said he did not have a lawyer at the time and was shaken up as he was taken away by what he described as a “SWAT team.”
“It was scary,” Ansbach said. “I had never been in a situation like that before and didn’t know what to do.”
“So you lied?” Vol asked.
“Yes,” Ansbach finally said.
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