Both online and in person, David Pearce portrayed himself to women as a talent manager, music mogul, or some other version of a high-level Hollywood player, someone who could help them realize their L.A. dreams. prosecutors said.
But it was all a front to lure them back to the Olympic Boulevard apartment, the deputy chief said. Atty. Catherine Mariano, Pierce became a “nightmare”.
“He’s the guy you’re afraid to run into while your daughter is out celebrating her birthday. He’s the guy you’re afraid to run into at a bar. He’s a man I’m afraid of,” Mariano said in court Thursday morning.
Prosecutors say Pierce drugged and raped women throughout Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, and that in November 2021, Pierce and Christie Giles and Hilda Marcela Cabrales Arzola met up with Pierce after an East LA rave. After returning home with some friends, he said his actions became fatal. The next day, authorities said the women were dumped at the hospital in a car driven by Pierce and her roommate, Brandt Osborn. Within two weeks, both women died of drug overdoses.
Their deaths prompted law enforcement to investigate numerous sexual assault allegations against Pierce, 42. His trial on two counts of murder and seven counts of rape began Thursday morning in downtown Los Angeles. Osborne, 45, is charged with two counts of cooperating in the deaths of Giles and Cabrales after he allegedly helped Pierce destroy evidence.
Prosecutors allege Pierce caused the women’s deaths by supplying them with drugs laced with fentanyl and withholding medical attention when they needed it. Toxicology tests also detected gamma hydroxybutyric acid (a date rape drug commonly referred to as GHB) in Giles’ system.
Seven other women have accused Pierce of rape between 2007 and 2020, and nearly all came forward after the highly publicized deaths of Giles and Cabrales. Many of the women said Mr. Pearce served them drinks and when they woke up, Mr. Pearce sexually assaulted them before losing consciousness. At least two people said that after what began as a consensual romantic encounter, Pierce became belligerent with them and raped them, but did not allege that they ingested GHB.
Mariano said Pierce assaulted a woman on the couch and forced her to apologize to her roommate, Osborne, for making too much noise. Prosecutors said the man threatened to harm the woman’s family.
Mr Pearce and Mr Osborne have denied all wrongdoing. Pierce’s attorney, Jeff Voll, said in opening statements that the woman and the other man all used other drugs at the rave, and that there was no way to conclusively prove that Pierce administered the fatal dose. insisted.
The deaths of Giles and Cabrales immediately aroused the suspicions of law enforcement authorities after the women were dropped off at the hospital on November 13, 2021.
A Toyota Prius with no license plate left Giles, a 24-year-old model, unconscious at the entrance to a Southern California hospital in Culver City. She died soon after. Cabrales was found at a Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles, where he remained in a coma for 11 days before dying of organ failure and cocaine intoxication.
Pierce, Osborne, and a third person, Michael Ansbach, were arrested a month later in connection with their deaths. But Mr. Ansbach has never been charged with a crime and will now serve as a witness for the prosecution, Mr. Mariano said Thursday. Prosecutors say he is expected to provide important insight into what happened in the apartment that night, including why Pierce waited so long to seek medical help. .
Mariano said Ansbach heard Pearce say to Osborne on the night of the overdose, “Dead girls don’t talk.” Mariano said a search of Pearce’s cellphone revealed that he began researching non-extradition countries after the women became ill, and police said that at the time of Pearce’s arrest, police Police say $30,000 and a passport were found in the car.
“That’s not something an innocent person would do,” she said.
An hour after arriving at the Olympic Boulevard apartment, the women texted each other to say they wanted to leave and called an Uber, according to a search warrant affidavit. Security video showed the vehicle arriving, but the women never got into it.
Pierce and Osborne claimed they were good Samaritans who found the women unconscious on the curb, and drove them to the hospital about 12 hours later, according to the affidavit. He said he had sent her by car.
However, according to court records, Pierce was seen giving what appeared to be cocaine to Giles and Cabrales at the rave. Mariano said Pierce knew Giles had no pulse in the apartment and Cabrales was in dire condition.
According to court records, Pierce told detectives during interrogation after the women’s deaths, “At the end of the day, I didn’t do anything wrong. Of course I wasn’t going to say anything that would incriminate me.” No,” he said.
He went on to say, “I was just trying to do something about the situation because I was watching people participate in things that had nothing to do with me.”
“There was no foul play or anything like that, and I didn’t do anything,” he said.
The arrest prompted investigators to re-examine a series of previous sexual assault allegations against Pierce. Pearce is a former club promoter described in court documents as a “freelance entertainment planner.” He was charged with rape in 2014, but prosecutors declined to press charges. Representatives from the district attorney’s office did not respond to inquiries about the case this week.
Five other women whose complaints did not result in criminal charges are also expected to testify that Pierce set up a pattern of drugging and assaulting his victims. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks, Mariano said.
Osbourne, a native of Staten Island, New York, who has appeared in bit roles in several films and television series, most notably “Nurse Jackie,” was charged with acting as a follow-up for her role in transporting women to the hospital. Ta. Osbourne’s attorney, Michael Artan, argued Thursday that Osbourne drove the rest of the group to the rave venue, but was asleep before starting the party at his apartment. Mr. Artan said he had no idea that Mr. Pearce or anyone else had administered drugs to the women, so he had no way of knowing they were in mortal danger.
Pierce’s attorney, Vol, said the women had been using ketamine and cocaine at the rave before meeting his client. He also pointed to the discovery of a hollow locket (an elaborate ornament that can be used to hold small amounts of the drug in powder form), which he called a “sno-go,” and suggested fentanyl was the cause of death. . The woman may have come from drugs stored in her body. He did not say who the locket belonged to.
Cabrales studied architecture in Mexico and worked as a project manager until his death, according to his employment profile. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Monterrey in Nuevo León, Mexico in 2019, concentrating in interior design. She became friends with Giles when she moved to Los Angeles.
Giles was born in Alabama and moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling. Joshua Ritter, a victims’ rights attorney for Giles’ family, said she met her husband, Jean Cilliers, several years ago and the two met at a ceremony at the Burning Man festival in Nevada. They got married soon after.
“She was a fun person, still young and figuring things out. She tried her hand at modeling, but that may not have been her ultimate goal in life. She certainly “He was not involved in the Hollywood underworld that led him to lead a high-risk lifestyle,” Ritter said. “She went out for a night out and encountered this perfect predator.”
Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.
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