Cinematographer Michael Ansbach, arrested in model Christy Giles’ murder, is just ‘a witness,’ says attorney
A cinematographer who was arrested — but not yet charged by prosecutors — in the deaths of model Christy Giles and her friend is nothing more than a “witness,” his attorney told The Post Wednesday.
Michael Ansbach, 47, was released on $100,000 bond after being arrested Dec. 16 in connection with the deaths of Giles and her pal Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, whose bodies were dumped at two separate hospitals on Nov. 13, 2021.
Two other men arrested along with Ansbach were each charged Tuesday by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Producer David Pearce, 37, was hit with a murder rap, and 42-year-old actor Brandt Osborn was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
Ansbach’s attorney Elliot Zarabi, however, said Wednesday that Ansbach “is nothing more than a material witness.”
Zarabi told The Post that Ansbach wants “to be an asset and a witness.”
Asked if his client has been cooperating with the prosecution, the attorney declined to comment.
LAPD investigators said the three men met Giles and Cabrales-Arzola at an after-hours warehouse party in Los Angeles on Nov. 13 before continuing to Pearce’s apartment on Olympic Boulevard.
The officials said two masked men driving a Toyota Prius without license plates dumped Giles’ lifeless body at a Culver City hospital later that night. Shortly thereafter, the men dropped Cabrales-Arzola at Kaiser Permanente in West LA.
Cabrales-Arzola died on Nov. 24 — five days before her 27th birthday — after she was pronounced brain-dead, her family said.
A picture of Cabrales-Arzola sandwiched between Ansbach and Pearce that was taken at the warehouse party also surfaced shortly after the men were arrested.
Ansbach’s attorney said that his client was at the bash on a job — having been hired by Pearce as a videographer for a documentary on electronic dance music. He had been filming that night during the warehouse party.
Zarabi declined to comment when asked if Ansbach left the party with Pearce, Osborne and the women, but said “Mr. Osborne was the only one who accompanied Mr. Pearce” to the hospital and “Mr. Ansbach was not in the Prius or any of the other vehicles” implicated by police in the murders.
Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the LA County DA’s Office, told The Post that, while Ansbach hasn’t been charged, his case “remains under review.”
Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
