LOS ANGELES — California prosecutors gave a chilling account of how a Hollywood producer allegedly drugged two young women, watched them die — and told a witness that “dead girls don’t talk” before dumping their bodies outside Los Angeles hospitals.
In closing arguments on Wednesday, a state attorney described how 42-year-old David Pearce allegedly lured Christy Giles, 24, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales Arzola, 26, into his apartment in November 2021, plied them with fentanyl-laced cocaine, drugged their drinks and refused to call for help when they overdosed.
“He didn’t care if they lived or died at all. In fact, defendant Pearce wanted them to die,” prosecutor Catherine Ann Mariano told the jury.
Pearce has also been charged with counts of rape against seven victims who came forward after his arrest.
Mariano described Pearce as a calculating serial rapist who lured women by posing as a Hollywood bigshot and promising to help them break into the entertainment business.
Pearce met Giles and Arzola in 2021 at a warehouse rave party in LA.
He and a wingman, Michael Ansbach, brought the girls back to Pearce’s apartment. There, Pearce pushed all three guests to snort his cocaine, served wine to the women and handed Ansbach a foul-tasting cocktail that made him feel dizzy, pass out and become violently ill when he woke up, Ansbach told the court.
The women also passed out but never woke up. When Ansbach begged Pearce to call 911, his pal allegedly said, “Dead girls don’t talk.”
After Ansbach left, Pearce and his roommate Brandt Osborn, who is being charged with accessory, allegedly shoved the women’s lifeless bodies into his car, drove them to two different hospitals and dumped them on the curbs before driving away.
“They just get in the car and take off,” Mariano told jurors.
A toxicology test found fentanyl and the date rape drug GHB in Giles’ body. Prosecutors said the fentanyl was what killed them, and that Pearce knew his cocaine had been laced with it.
Pearce himself — who took the stand against the advice of his attorneys — claimed he had no idea they were in danger until it was too late.
People would party at his house all the time and often used it as a “crash pad,” he said in previous testimony reported by the LA Times.
When the women passed out, he helped them into a guest room bed and then went to sleep in his own room. When the women had been unconscious for 12 hours, Pearce administered CPR and drove them to hospitals because he thought it would be faster than calling an ambulance, he claimed.
Mariano told the jury not to buy it.
“The defendant is a guy that gets off in power and control. Exerting power and control over vulnerable women,” she said.
Since Pearce’s arrest, other women have come forward and claimed Pearce drugged and raped them.
In addition to two murder counts, Pearce is being charged with sexual assaults against seven victims over a 13-year period.
Pearce met his victims — who were not identified in court — at parties or on dating apps, served them drugged drinks and then forced himself on them, Mariano said.
Closing arguments continue on Thursday.
