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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Beverly Hills man -- who was arrested in connection with the deaths of a model and her friend last year and was subsequently charged with sexually assaulting four women -- pleaded not guilty Tuesday to sex-related counts involving three other women.
The latest round of charges against David Brian Pearce, now 40, accuse him of forcibly raping a woman in July 2007, sexual penetration by use of force involving another woman in July 2019 and sodomy by use of force involving another woman in June 2020.
He was already facing two counts each of forcible rape and one count each of rape of an unconscious or asleep person and sexual penetration by a foreign object stemming from alleged attacks against other women in August 2010, February 2019, February 2020 and October 2020.
Defense attorney Jacob Glucksman said the new charges are similar to the earlier allegations, noting that they all stem from alleged incidents years ago.
Pearce has remained in jail since his arrest last December. He was taken into custody then in connection with the deaths of Christy Giles, a 24- year-old model and aspiring actress, and her friend, Hilda Marcela Cabrales- Arzola, 26.
Prosecutors asked for "further investigation" into the two deaths, said Greg Risling of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in December, after the first round of sexual assault charges were filed against Pearce.
The deaths of the model and her friend, who were dumped outside separate hospitals last year, have subsequently been classified as homicides by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, with toxicology reports finding multiple drugs present in both victims' systems.
According to the coroner's office, Giles died of a mixture of cocaine, fentanyl, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid and ketamine, while Cabrales-Arzola died of multiple organ failure with cocaine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy) and other undetermined drugs found in her system.
Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid -- or GHB -- is also known as the "date rape drug," according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
The two women were last seen at an apartment in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood before their bodies were dumped -- Giles outside Southern California Hospital in Culver City and Cabrales-Arzola outside Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital.
Giles was already dead when she was found outside the hospital last Nov. 13. Cabrales-Arzola, an architect, was alive but in critical condition, but her family took her off life support later that month, a day before her 27th birthday.
Giles' mother, Dusty, wrote on Facebook that she hoped the coroner's findings would lead to criminal charges being filed over the women's deaths.
"While we her family all along knew and felt strongly our baby was murdered, it is now officially listed as her cause of death!" Dusty Giles posted. "With this our prayers are the L.A. County D.A.'s Office will move quickly and swiftly on re-arresting ALL parties involved and this time PRESS THE CHARGES! Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers."
Two other men, Michael Ansbach, 47, and Brandt Osborn, 42, were each booked on suspicion of being an accessory to manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Giles and Cabrales-Arzola, but were later released from custody while the investigation continued.