Late La Mesa police officer Lauren Craven has been named as one of many victims of a Hollywood producer who has been sentenced to 146 years to life in jail.
David Brian Pearce, 43, was convicted of first-degree homicide for the drug overdose deaths of a mannequin and her pal in Los Angeles, together with costs that he sexually assaulted seven different ladies.
The Los Angeles Times and the New York Post reported that prosecutors acknowledged that Craven, a graduate of Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles, was among the many sexual assault victims. Based on the L.A. Instances, she crime occurred in February 2020 whereas she was a scholar.
Craven, 25, and one other man had been struck and killed Oct. 20 when she left her automobile to help him after a wreck on Interstate 8.
Craven was laid to relaxation Tuesday after a prolonged funeral procession in her honor; in the meantime sooner or later after Wednesday’s sentencing within the Pearce case, one other courtroom listening to befell in San Diego, this time involving the officer’s accused killer.
Antonio Alcantar, the Navy police officer who allegedly drove drunk and killed Craven, together with De’Veonte Morris, 19, pleaded not responsible to costs of homicide and gross vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated.
Alcantar, 38, nevertheless, has but to be charged in Morris’ dying. Based on Deputy District Lawyer Spencer Sharpe, the investigation into the motorist’s dying continues “because of the complexity of the accident.”
Alcantar was hospitalized for accidents sustained within the crash and later arrested. The prosecutor mentioned his blood-alcohol-level was measured at twice the authorized restrict greater than an hour after the crash.
In Los Angeles, a few of the surviving victims of Pearce, together with the family members of a mannequin and her pal he was convicted of killing, appeared in courtroom Wednesday or supplied sufferer influence statements. They known as him a con artist, a manipulator and a wolf.
Los Angeles Superior Court docket Choose Eleanor J. Hunter imposed the utmost sentence on Pearce saying he’s “the worst sort of felony.” Concerning the labels the victims and their family members used to explain him, she added, “all of them apply to you.”
Jurors deliberated about 2 1/2 days earlier than discovering Pearce responsible Feb. 4 of the homicide costs stemming from the deaths of mannequin and aspiring actress Christy Giles, 24, and her pal Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, who had been taken to separate hospitals about two hours aside on Nov. 13, 2021.
Giles was already lifeless when she was taken to Southern California Hospital in Culver Metropolis, whereas Cabrales-Arzola, an architect, was taken to Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital in vital situation. Her household took her off life assist later that month.
The seven-man, five-woman jury additionally discovered Pearce responsible of three counts of forcible rape, two counts of sexual penetration by use of power and one rely every of rape of an unconscious particular person and sodomy by use of power. The sexual assault costs concerned crimes in opposition to seven ladies between 2007 and 2020.
Jurors additionally heard from 5 different ladies who alleged that they had been sexually assaulted by Pearce along with the seven victims named within the sexual assault costs.
Craven’s father, David, had instructed NBC San Diego that his daughter’s drink was spiked,” resulting in a criminal offense that required help from detectives and different members of regulation enforcement.
“I need to be that particular person for different ladies, and others, anyone in bother that wants me,” he recalled her saying. “She determined proper then and there, ‘I’m going to grow to be a police officer.”
One of many sexual assault victims instructed the decide that Pearce is a “predator” whose “actions have precipitated irreversible hurt to so many,” and mentioned he ought to by no means have an opportunity to stroll free.
One other mentioned Pearce’s actions have “modified my life endlessly,” including that “no sentence can un-do the hurt.”
Pearce, who denied sexually assaulting the seven ladies and giving the 2 ladies the medicine that killed them, has remained behind bars since he was arrested in December 2021.
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this report.
