Hollywood producer David Pearce has been charged with the murder of model Christy Giles and her architect friend Hilda Cabrales-Arzola, who were left unconscious outside separate Los Angeles hospitals last year after suffering drug overdoses.
Mr Pearce, 37, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter last year in connection with the deaths, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against him last week, according to The Los Angeles Times.
“Finally! Justice is coming,” Ms Giles’ family wrote in her Instagram Stories.
Mr Pearce has been held in custody since December on unrelated rape charges.
His attorney Jacob Glucksman told The LA Times that he “adamantly and strongly denies any connection to these women’s unfortunate deaths”.
He plans to plead not guilty to murder when he is arraigned on 11 July.
Actor Brandt Osborn, 42, has also been charged with being an accessory to murder.
A third man who was arrested last year has not been charged.
What happened on the night Ms Giles died?
Ms Giles, 24 and Ms Cabrales-Arzola, 26, attended a warehouse party in downtown Los Angeles with the three suspects in the case on 13 November last year, according to police.
Ms Cabralez-Arzola was pictured with Mr Pearce at the warehouse party on the night she died.
According to a police search warrant affidavit obtained by the LA Times, surveillance footage from the warehouse shows the two women leave the party with Mr Pearce, Mr Osborn and a third man Michael Ansbach.
They arrived at Mr Pearce’s apartment at about 5am.
At around 5.30am, Ms Giles reportedly messaged Ms Cabrales-Arzola to say: “Let’s get out of here”, with a wide-eyed emoji.
She replied: “Yes. I’ll call and Uber. 10 min away.”
The Uber was spotted on video footage arriving at the address, and leaving five minutes later, The LA Times reported.
Mr Pearce is seen carrying Ms Giles’ body to a Prius vehicle on the video footage, according to the police affidavit.
Detective Jonathan Vander Lee wrote that it was a “glaring fact” that both of the women had wanted to leave the property.
“The next time they are seen, they’re dead.”
Detectives said they believe both women were given drugs and overdosed.
Ms Giles was found dead outside Southern California Hospital in Culver City after being dropped there by three masked men in a black Toyota Prius with no license plates nearly 12 hours after leaving the warehouse party, police said.
Ms Cabrales-Arzola was dropped at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital two hours later, where she was put on life support because she showed no brain activity. Her family took her off life support on 28 November, the day before her 27th birthday.
Both died of “multiple drug intoxication” and their deaths were ruled homicides by the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Medical officials say Ms Giles tested positive for cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine and the date rape drug GHB.
Ms Cabrales-Arzola suffered multiple organ failures and had cocaine, MDMA and other drugs in her system.
Who was Christy Giles?
Ms Giles was a model, social media influencer and aspiring actress. She worked as a model for Nomad and Fox modeling agencies.
Mother Dusty Giles said she was signed by Wilhelmina modelling agency at the age of 14, and worked in London for a couple of months.
In 2013, she was a runner-up in Alabama Teen USA.
Dusty Giles told The Sun her daughter was “a free spirit”.
She grew up playing soccer and running every day, and was a “rugged outdoors type” who rides horses, and liked to fish and shoot guns with her father, Dusty Giles said.
Her mother added that her daughter was tough, explaining her father Leslie served as a military police officer in Iraq.
“My daughters have been taught literally how to kill a person with a ballpoint pen,” she said.
Ms Giles’ husband Jan Cilliers insisted in an interview last year that neither of the women would have voluntarily taken the drug.
Who is David Pearce?
David Pearce has been described as a freelance events planner and “wannabe” film producer and actor.
After his arrest on suspicion of manslaughter last year, he was charged with four sexual assaults dating between 2010 and 2020.
He is accused of two counts of forcible rape and one count each of rape of an unconscious or asleep person and sexual penetration by a foreign object, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.
Mr Pearce allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in 2010, raped another woman in 2019 and raped two more women in February and October 2020, prosecutors said.
He has been held in custody since his arrest and has denied the allegations.
Who was Hilda Cabrales-Arzola?
Ms Cabrales-Arzola grew up in Mexico and graduated cum laude from the Universidad of Monterrey in 2019.
In an online professional profile, Ms Cabrales-Arzola studied in South Korea before moving to the United States in 2020.
She was working as an architectural project manager at RADCO management in Los Angeles at the time of her death, according to an online profile.
Ms Cabrales-Arzola had been planning to migrate to Canada.
“I love the country and the opportunities it offers,” she wrote.
