The two women who were drugged, raped and killed by a Hollywood wannabe were actually responsible for their own tragic demise, the convicted killer’s new lawyer claims.

A Los Angeles jury last month found David Pearce guilty of murder in the gruesome deaths – and sexual abuse – of friends Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, an interior designer, and model Christy Giles, 24.

Prosecutors argued he plied the two women with a lethal cocktail of drugs and booze at his Beverly Hills home before they fell unconscious and later died. 

Autopsies showed Giles died of a mixture of cocaine, fentanyl, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid and ketamine, while Cabrales-Arzola died of multiple organ failure with cocaine, ecstasy and other undetermined drugs found in her system. 

Pearce was also found guilty of a slew of brutal sex abuses on seven Jane Does – women he preyed on between 2007 and 2021 before his murder spree.

But now attorney Ronda Dixon claims the lifestyles of the two women were to blame for the their November 2021 deaths – and that there was no evidence to back up prosecution claims they were also raped by Pearce.

‘It’s my opinion that when you use drugs as heavily as those two young ladies did, it’s not a question of if you will overdose – it’s only a question of when you will overdose yourself,’ asserts Dixon. ‘Because you will take too much trying to chase the dragon.

Attorney Ronda Dixon insists her client did not murder Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola and Christy Giles

David Pearce, 43, pictured in court in July 2022 

The lifeless bodies of Giles (left) and Cabrales-Arzola were found outside of two separate Los Angeles hospitals after a night of partying with Pearce and his friends in Los Angeles

‘You will take too much trying to get that same feeling that you’re not going to get. Your tolerance gets higher and higher. And eventually you overdose yourself.’

She adds of Pearce, 43, ‘I’m not saying he’s the best person in the world, but I don’t think that he killed these two young ladies. They overdosed and that was unfortunate.’  

However, Dixon insists Cabrales-Arzola and Giles were used to ‘doing a lot of drugs’ before they ever met her client, adding it is ‘sad’ his previous defense attorneys did not ‘investigate into the two young ladies and their rave lifestyle.’

The women’s deaths, says Dixon, were ‘more likely an accidental overdose,’ rather than murder.

Furthermore, she says, ‘Of course the families are upset – but there’s no evidence that either of the girls were raped.’

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the LAPD presented rape allegations against Pearce at least three times between 2007 and 2020, but the District Attorney’s office ultimately chose not to prosecute.

Cabrales-Arzola’s sister exclusively told DailyMail.com ‘the criminal justice system failed,’ and that her beloved sibling and Giles would be alive today if action had been taken earlier against Pearce.

Pearce is seen with Cabrales-Arzola on the evening she and Giles died

‘They paid the highest possible price for a failure that never should have happened,’ said Fernanda Cabrales-Arzola, 28.

‘Had the system acted when it should have, he never would have crossed paths with them.

‘It’s painful to read that he had been arrested and yet the prosecution repeatedly chose not to press charges.

‘Those were critical opportunities to stop him and protect all the future victims. Coming forward in cases like these takes immense courage, and even when three women spoke up, it still wasn’t enough.’

She said of Pearce’s conviction, ‘We are relieved that it’s finally acknowledged what we’ve known for all these years that what happened was no accident. They were murdered and that we’ve known from day one.

‘We’re finally happy that that came true and the jury saw that as well and now Pearce will be in jail forever.’ 

Meanwhile, Dixon says her client is currently being held in ‘squalor’ at the notorious Men’s Central Jail in downtown LA while he awaits sentencing.

He is escorted in ‘waist chains’ by three guards when she visits him. Pearce is ‘basically in solitary confinement’ which ‘isn’t fair,’ adds Dixon, who likens the facility to a ‘dungeon.’

Sentencing for Pearce had been scheduled for March 13 but was delayed after he fired his trial attorney, Jeff Voll, and appointed Dixon. He is facing a possible 128 years to life in state prison.

During the trial, it was sensationally revealed that Pearce told a friend ‘dead girls can’t talk’ which prosecutors said indicated he wanted the two women to expire so they couldn’t report him to police after meeting them at a warehouse party a few hours earlier.

Brandt Osborn (pictured in 2022), was arrested while shooting a scene for NCIS. He pled not guilty and the jury could not agree on a verdict

Cabrales-Arzola – described as a ‘big dreamer’ – pictured in 2019 while holding a colorful bouquet presented to her during her college graduation

Disgraced wannabe Hollywood producer David Pearce was found guilty of the murder of friends Giles and Cabrales-Arzola. They became unconscious at his Beverly Hills home after he gave them a fatal cocktail of drugs and alcohol – and later died

The jury failed to reach a verdict on whether Pearce’s actor roommate Brandt Osborn, 45, who pled not guilty, should be convicted on two counts of being an accessory after the fact.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on May 7 to hear if prosecutors will seek a retrial.

Prosecutors argued Pearce and Osborn, who were tried jointly, let crucial hours tick by before taking the women to hospital after they passed out. As doctors tried in vain to resuscitate the women, the two men ate a chicken meal at El Pollo Loco.

Dixon says her request for a retrial will likely focus on three main areas.

She will claim ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ and says there was a ‘breakdown in communications and cooperation between’ Pearce and Voll who she called ‘a bit rude and dismissive.’

Pearce, she says, ‘wanted to emphasize certain things’ as part of his defense but ‘Voll didn’t want to.’

She also says there was a conflict of interest because Pearce and Osborn jointly met with attorney Michael Artan, who ended up defending Osborn, prior to trial.

The pair ‘met at the same time and discussed their case,’ says Dixon, which ‘would create an automatic conflict of interest. Some of the things he (Artan) learned in the joint conference between the two could have been used against Pearce.

Dixon also intends to counter claims made by prosecutors – that Pearce and Osborn fled after callously dumping the lifeless bodies of the two women outside two LA area hospitals.

According to Pearce’s new attorney Dixon, ‘when you use drugs as heavily as those two young ladies did, it’s not a question of if you will overdose – it’s only a question of when’

Men’s Central Jail  in downtown Los Angeles where Pearce is currently behind bars while awaiting sentencing on June 30

‘One of the worst parts of this case is the district attorney’s characterization that there was somebody out there targeting models, overdosing them and dropping them off in front of hospitals like a piece of trash,’ she contends.

‘I reviewed the video and that’s not what happened. Pearce stayed with them for a long time waiting and knocking on the door.’

She says Pearce wasn’t wearing a mask at the time he and Osborn drove the women to hospital and wasn’t allowed inside due to Covid restrictions.

Staff ‘gave him a mask and he put the mask on and he was emphatically asking for someone to come and help.

‘He was there for quite a while. He and Brandt helped to put the body on the gurney or in the wheelchair and they handed over her purse and phone.

‘They didn’t run away. They didn’t shy away from questions that were asked either. They were asking “Is there anything we can do?’ The hospital employee said no, so they left.’  

Zealous prosecutors, say adds, used trumped up charges against Pearce and relied on previous sex-abuse claims by other women to ‘bolster’ their case – claims that were originally ‘rejected’ by the District Attorney.

She says prosecutors were looking to file ‘sensational charges’ against Pearce. ‘It’s gotta be something that’s heinous, that’ll blind people to really look for the truth because at the end of the day, two beautiful young women died.

‘The thinking was that somebody seems to be responsible for it  – and, unfortunately, he (Pearce) was there.’  

Dixon denies Pearce murdered the two women. Instead, she claims, they ‘took too much’ drugs ‘and they fell asleep.

‘And when they woke up later on, it had metabolized through their body too much to do anything about it.’

Referencing how Pearce and Osborn eventually drove the women to hospital, she said, ‘It sets a bad precedent to hold people accountable when they actually try to help.’

David Pearce (right) is pictured with disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy in 2009

Pearce (right) is pictured with his mother Ilene Pearce, 78

A friend of Pearce who was partying with the group hours before the women died, testified he told him ‘dead girls can’t talk.’ But Dixon claims the testimony should not have been allowed because it was ‘highly prejudicial’ and merely ‘hearsay.’

She says she told Pearce at the beginning of his legal troubles that his defense would cost ‘at least a hundred thousand’ but he told her the amount was ‘too much.’

‘David didn’t want to get taken advantage of but he chose his attorneys,’ Dixon recalls. ‘They just charged him money and didn’t really do anything.

‘When you have heinous charges like this, it makes people leery of being associated with you.’

Pearce’s mother, Ilene Pearce, 78, previously told DailyMail.com of her son after he was found guilty, ‘He’s not a monster. I still love him.’