We analyze theoretically the $D^+to u e^+ rho bar K$ and $D^+to u e^+ bar K^* pi$ decays to see the feasibility to check the double pole nature of the axial-vector resonance $K_1(1270)$ predicted by the unitary extensions of chiral perturbation theory (UChPT). Indeed, within UChPT the $K_1(1270)$ is dynamically generated from the interaction of a vector and a pseudoscalar meson, and two poles are obtained for the quantum numbers of this resonance. The lower mass pole couples dominantly to $K^*pi$ and the higher mass pole to $rho K$, therefore we can expect that different reactions weighing differently these channels in the production mechanisms enhance one or the other pole. We show that the different final $VP$ channels in $D^+to u e^+ V P$ weigh differently both poles, and this is reflected in the shape of the final vector-pseudoscalar invariant mass distributions. Therefore, we conclude that these decays are suitable to distinguish experimentally the predicted double pole of the $K_1(1270)$ resonance.