Dateline NBC - Dark Valley

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

When film executive Gavin Smith vanishes, Los Angeles detectives search for clues amid reported sightings and suspicious circumstances. The case takes a dramatic turn when Gavin's wife reveals painful secrets. Keith Morrison reports. 

Striking, good-looking, tall, just so charismatic. He was so big in my life that the thought that anything bad could have happened to him, it didn't make sense to me. Perfect Southern California family. He completely dropped off the face of the earth. My dad is not just a missing person. He has three sons. He has a wife. I was in love with Gavin's life.

And I got scared. Completely covered in blood. And you could see the hand mark. There's no going back from that. There's no going back. I wanted to get away. I was scared. We didn't know if she set it up or if she had something to do with it. I would just fear for my family.

I don't want to lose my dad. It's dark. It's very, very dark. Like, who are these people? There is a kind of peace here, here in her own chosen exile, the vast Pacific for company. How else to live with what's impossible to understand or forget?

What began that sunny afternoon, far away in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, early May 2012. Something was really wrong, but a lot more wrong than I could imagine. It was the boy who knew at first, knew something was wrong. His dad was supposed to take him to school that morning. But after school? I was to go to the school and pick him up after basketball practice. When I showed up, he said, Daddy didn't pick me up this morning.

And I said, What? He said, Daddy didn't show up this morning. It can happen. Busy families, people forget. The boy got to school some other way. He said he called a friend from around the corner. Or sometimes, things fall apart. The situation sounded too crazy. Love affairs, love triangles, drug dealers. It just sounded too outlandish.

Once those stable, loving pieces have flown apart, how do they come together again? Somebody's going to walk away from this who maybe, maybe you wish wasn't going to walk away from. Exactly. How do people sleep at night? How do they live with themselves? But that afternoon, Lisa Smith knew instantly something must be wrong.

Her husband, Gavin, was a dedicated father. Nothing would keep him from picking up his kid ever. Because Gavin was so good at these things, said his sister, Tara Adeo, he was so impressive, so tall. You both got the tall gene, huh? We did. Whole family? Whole family.

Gavin was the tallest, 6 feet 6 inches. He walked in a room, you noticed him, you wanted to gravitate to him. He was a magnet. He played basketball for legendary coach John Wooden, UCLA 1975. He was a forward. It was Wooden's final championship team. Just to be on that team was pretty fantastic. It was a once in a lifetime. And then he drifted a bit, worked as a golf caddy. And this being Los Angeles, and he a good-looking, towering athlete, people noticed him. Movie people. They gave him a couple of roles, and he got the bug.

When he met Lisa, he was acting, but also waiting tables. He twinkled. He was just charming. I was thrilled that he asked me for my number. They married. Kiss your bride. Had three sons together. And with a growing family to support, Gavin gave up acting and took a job on the business side at 20th Century Fox, eventually as a film

distribution executive. Fox is a wonderful company to work for, and he loved it. It was film. First place Lisa called when Gavin failed to pick up their son. Was he at work that day? They told me he just hadn't shown up to work. Gavin, in 18 years, had never, ever not shown up to work. So then Lisa, very worried now, went to the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station to report Gavin missing.

And waited. And waited. Days later, Gavin's family went on NBC4 in Los Angeles to plead for help. I'm not going to stop until I find him, so please help me find him. If you guys just want to each pick one of these streets... Now I'm in panic mode. We've got to do something. What did that feel like, being in that spot? Oh, it was surreal. The Smith family put together a $20,000 reward for any information leading to Gavin's whereabouts.

Nothing turned up. I would think with every hour that went by, it would be more and more dire and darker for you, right? It's very dark. It's very, very dark. It wasn't just the family having dark thoughts. They don't normally call a couple of seasoned homicide detectives to look into a missing person.

They do when there are some suspicious circumstances. And in this case, they called in sheriff's detectives to look into a missing person. They do when there are some suspicious circumstances. And in this case, they called in sheriff's detectives Ty LaBey and his partner John O'Brien. His phone was missing. There was no use of it. We checked his bank accounts from the time that he was missing. We checked his medical insurance to see if he had checked himself into a hospital. That never showed any activity. He was completely dropped off the face of the earth. But then, out of nowhere, a sighting. Hundreds of miles north of Los Angeles, a businessman visiting California's central coast

said he saw Gavin Smith and a beautiful woman at a cash-only taco restaurant in Morro Bay. I happened to click on the link, saw the photo, and I said, oh boy. The waitress corroborated the story. He was sitting here, she was sitting right here. Gavin's sister, Tara, raced up the coast to the restaurant. And I said, here's my brother's picture. Did you see him?

And? No. That was truly heartbreaking to me. It was all a big mistake. But it wasn't the last of the sightings. People seemed to see Gavin Smith everywhere. Because he kind of stands out in the photo, you know, big white smile, tan face, tall guy. Pretty much every tall, tan, blonde-haired man was getting spotted as being Gavin Smith.

Weeks, months passed. No sign of Gavin. And with no answers, Lisa was forced to reveal something publicly. Something painful. And maybe crucial. What had happened to Gavin Smith? It didn't make sense to me.

We looked at each other and said, I think this is a suicide. And then we'd interview somebody or something would happen and we'd go, I think this is a murder. And our feelings and our gut instincts are going different ways. Very early on. You wondered if she had something to do with this. It crossed our minds all the time. very early on. You wondered if she had something to do with this. It crossed our minds all the time. Kevin Smith, as just about anybody could see, was his family's golden boy.

His sister Tara grew up in his aura, idolized him. He, of all people, should not just up and vanish. It didn't make sense to me. And so I just kept, no, it can't be, it can't be. I just kept hoping. I did everything I could. But even as she ran down leads herself, it seemed to Tara that Lisa, her sister-in-law, Gavin's wife, wasn't searching.

So he disappeared and you couldn't give up on the possibility he was out there somewhere, and Lisa could. And I wondered whether there were ever sort of dark nights of your soul where you thought, I wonder if she had something to do with this. It crossed our minds all the time. It just did. I mean, did I think that she could ever be the one responsible, the physical. No. But somehow it kept playing back. Why won't you search? Why? The only way somebody doesn't look for you

is if you already know definitively. Yeah. They're no longer living. And you must have a reason for knowing that. That's what I would assume. And it turned out Lisa did know something, just not what Tara suspected. There were secrets which Lisa and Gavin kept hidden. I was in love with Gavin's life.

He adored me. He adored... Our family was exactly what he wanted to have. He just got lost. Lost. It all started in the early 80s, even before she met Gavin, when he was a stuntman on the TV series Remington Steel. He played a shooting victim falling from a second-story window.

The stunt went wrong, and he broke his back. He would get pain pills for his back, so usually Percocet, something like that, for pain. When that didn't work anymore, he was prescribed OxyContin, and he was addicted to it. He went to a drug rehab center called the Matrix Institute, here in the San Fernando Valley. He clearly stopped using. He was feeling healthier than he'd felt in years. But when Detective John O'Brien and Ty LaBey learned about Gavin's addiction, they had to consider a raft of new possibilities.

He disappeared, maybe he overdosed. So we didn't exactly have any of those answers. Driving all over the valley, we would have moments in the car of where we looked at each other and said, I think this is a suicide. And then an hour later, we'd interview somebody or something would happen

and we'd go, I think this is a murder. And our feelings and our gut instincts are going different ways. Very early on, very fast. Yeah, it's gotta be pretty unusual. It was very confusing. Confusing for Lisa, too. Because here was another secret. The Smiths were underwater on their mortgage,

on the verge of losing their home. We were in a horrible position financially. Lisa discovered that before he disappeared, Gavin had been taking money from his retirement account and recklessly blowing through his six-figure salary. And there were other signs of strain in the family. In April 2012, a month before Gavin disappeared, his son Evan wrote this message on Twitter. Thoughts and prayers out to my amazing mom and brothers, please. My dad decided to leave the family last night. Real family sticks together. Sister Tara spoke with Gavin at the time.

He was struggling with losing what he had come to know and love for so many years, and that was his family unit. And he didn't want to hurt those boys, and that's what he kept saying. I don't want to be without them. But as much as he loved his boys, detectives learned, Gavin had been unfaithful to his wife, had been seeing a woman named Melanie. And now that Gavin had disappeared without a trace... He went to talk to her and to see if she had any information. Did she? No, their relationship had ended and she had not talked to him and she had no idea where he was at.

But though Melanie was the reason Gavin moved out of his house a month before he vanished, she was not his first affair. There had also been a woman named Chandy. That relationship was years in the past, but phone records showed Gavin called her on May 1st, the day before he disappeared. Cops tracked her down, too. What did she tell you?

She acknowledged the prior affair, and she said that she had not been in contact with him for some time, but then they started communicating via email. And that would explain the fact that he called her on the phone? Yes. But Shandy said she didn't see him May 1st, hadn't heard from him since. Last sighting, a colleague saw him driving his black Mercedes. We felt that the vehicle was still out there somewhere.

So, find the car and maybe find out what happened to Gavin. And nine months after Gavin vanished, they finally got the break they were looking for. I said, I'm here to talk to you about your daughter. And he started crying. And he said, she saw everything. She was very nervous startled a new witness and a game-changer of a clue I kissed my partner on the cheek it's pretty exciting there's a big piece of evidence

and it even got bigger when we were able to get closer and look at it huge moment when you already expect the worst you think that you can't be shocked, but you can be. Like it or not, it's a fact, an element of human nature. Some people have affairs. Some of them just flings. Others a lot more. And as Detective Ty LaBey poked through Gavin's life, one name kept popping up.

Chandy. Her full name? Chandrika Creech. She'd already told the detectives that she and Gavin had an affair years earlier and that he called her right before he vanished. But now, nine months after Gavin disappeared, the detectives got a tip. Her father knew more. Chandi's dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. And he said, well, you know Raina?

I go, yeah, I know the name. Raina Lim? She lived with Chandy. She took care of Chandy's grandmother. Chandy's dad said Raina knew something. Something important. And he goes, I think she knows where the car is. The elusive Mercedes. Detective LeBay and his partner John O'Brien drove out to see Raina. We just waited

until she showed up and we kind of surprised her. That's what you guys do, right? You know, sometimes it works better that way, yeah. She was very nervous and startled and wasn't quite sure what to do, but ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. Raina's storage locker. It was a big one, 10 feet by 20. We rolled the door up, and the only thing in it was a black Mercedes Benz with no license plates on it. Wow. Huge moment.

A black Mercedes sedan. Had to be Gavin Smith's. I kissed my partner on the cheek. That's a true story. That's a big piece of evidence. And we were able to get closer and saw that our entire crime scene, in our opinion, was inside that car. Crime scene? Yes.

Suddenly, all other theories seemed to fall away. The passenger seat was completely covered in blood. And at one point, it was very eerie where you looked at the blood and you could see the hand mark of Gavin Smith as he died in that seat. Soon, the news reached Gavin's family. Tara was devastated. There's no going back from that. There's no going back. You accepted it?

You know, you're forced. You know, trauma happens to people all the time. You don't think it's going to happen to you, but it does. You know, when you already expect the worst, you think that you can't be shocked, but you can be, is all I can say about that. But if Gavin was dead, and certainly it looked that way, where was his body? How did his car wind up in the storage locker? And above all, who would have wanted him dead? Raina Lim certainly seemed an unlikely suspect. She told them she had rented the storage unit for someone else.

Meanwhile, detectives looked further into Chandy's affair with Gavin and discovered the two had met in rehab. And in December 2010, less than two years before Gavin disappeared, Lisa found out about it. I was heartbroken. So she took an extreme step to save her family. She and two of her sons, then 14 and 20, went to the Creech's house to speak to them family to family.

I was really upset when we were driving there. So I stayed in the car and I let my sons go in the house. But they didn't meet Chandy in there. They met her husband. His name was John. John Creech. Not pleasant. When they came out, they were both crying. They told their mom Creech threatened to kill Gavin if he didn't stay away from Chandy. So 17 months later, he vanishes after calling Chandy. Lisa had a very bad feeling. Everything changed right then for me.

Detectives were suspicious too. Remember, Chandy told them she didn't see Gavin that night. But there was evidence to the contrary. Cell phone records showed Gavin's phone and Chandy's were in the same place that night. A little triangulation narrowed down just where. We came upon this street here and we thought... This is a likely spot. A likely spot for a tryst, that is.

Parking lot that would be empty at night? Yes. So this is a pretty lonely spot. It is. So, it seemed that on the night he disappeared, Gavin Smith met Chandrika Creech for sex, or comfort, or just a talk, something. Quite a lot to learn from those phone records.

But there was more. A third phone. John Creech's phone, in the same spot on the same night. And this was eerie. Creech's phone seemed to be moving in sync with Gavin's. John Creech's phone and Gavin Smith's phone paralleled each other. Together, together? Together. Sometimes hitting off the exact same towers or parallel towers. Wow. What was that like? That was an eye-opening moment. But when they interviewed John Creech... He denied ever meeting Gavin Smith.

He said he knew who he was, that he was having an affair with his wife in the past. So, despite their suspicions, there was not much police could do, because... One thing we didn't have was Gavin Smith. That is, they had no body. No way to prove who killed Gavin, or that there was a murder at all. That is, until a dog named Buddy went for a walk. We're walking up this little area right here,

and he runs to a bush. And I go, Buddy, stop. This little area right here, and he runs to a bush. And I go, buddy, stop. A discovery on a deserted trail. And it's like, wow, that looks pretty strange. I was just totally amazed. I was without words, you know. And a young woman suddenly finds herself in the middle of this mystery. I discovered he had scrapes on his hands and on his arms. Rocky Ramos liked to drive his truck up to the outskirts of the Angeles National Forest,

a place where people tend to toss things like old TVs, maybe some furniture. Rocky liked to poke around up here, always with his dog Buddy by his side. He'd be mad if I didn't take him. In October 2014, they were just five minutes into their hike when something curious happened. We're walking up this little area right here, and he runs to a bush. And I go, buddy, stop. And he's just looking at the bush. He won't leave it or anything. So we go up there and we're looking and it's like, wow, that looks pretty strange. Buddy had made a grim discovery, a human skull. I was just totally amazed.

I was without words, you know. I didn't know what to think. When police arrived, they found a shallow grave nearby. That's where they found him. Him. The coroner soon confirmed it. After two and a half years, here was the body of Gavin Smith. The clothing was still intact, and he had been wrapped in his own blanket that he had in the trunk of his car.

The coroner also found the cause of death. And it was grim. Blunt craniofacial trauma. That is, multiple blows to his face. He was beaten to death. It was repeated hitting in order to do that much damage. Very violent. There were also fractures to the right forearm, possibly defensive wounds.

Gavin had tried to fight, but clearly he was no match for his killer. Whoever did this was strong, very strong. Powerhouse gym was very gossipy, so if you told the wrong person something, your secret would be all over the gym. Lauren, just 18 years old back then, asked us not to use her last name. Not after she found herself in the middle of a homicide investigation, when police came across her while doing surveillance on John Creech. Lauren used to work at the pro shop of the Powerhouse Gym in Chatsworth, California. And that's where she first met Creech. He was beautiful. He was tall and he was muscular and a lot of women especially wanted to date him. A lot of men wanted to be him. Lauren fell for him. He told her he was

separated from his wife, Chandy. But that didn't stop Chandy from calling Lauren. She texted and called me and was very belligerent and rude. Angry, perhaps, that her husband, then 39, was dating a high school girl. In fact, sheer coincidence, Lauren went to high school with Gavin Smith's sons. So she knew when he disappeared in May 2012, but made no connection between that and something she noticed about her boyfriend, John Creech. I discovered he had scrapes on his hands and on his arms.

She didn't think he had anything to do with the disappearance. But when Detective O'Brien heard about Creech's scrapes, he immediately thought of Gavin Smith's wounds. He needed to talk to John Creech again. And he found him in jail, serving eight years on a cocaine charge, his second conviction for dealing drugs. Not exactly an upstanding citizen. But could they prove he murdered Gavin Smith? We went to him, didn't ask him any questions, just put a picture down in front of him of the shallow grave with the wrapped up body. How did he react to that? Very wide-eyed, and the first phone call he made was to his attorney. That's

hardly a surprise. No. But other phone calls were surprising, like the record of calls the detectives found in Creech's cell phone from the night Gavin vanished. John Creech was on the phone a lot. He was calling multiple people very intensely. So like three or four or five calls to the same person over there? Exactly. Some of those calls were to Creech's buddies from the powerhouse gym. We did a multi-location search warrant,

and we hit everybody that we believed might have helped on that evening. We hit all those houses all at once. One by one, those buddies turned. They told detectives how a frantic Creech showed up late that night, how he persuaded one friend to get rid of Gavin's cell phone, got another friend to hide Gavin's car and body in his garage. And yet another told detectives she saw Chandy and John Creech burning their own clothes in the fireplace after Gavin was killed.

This was a strange case. Prosecutor Bobby Grace. You don't normally find a body two years later after somebody is killed. You don't normally have key witnesses who don't come forward until years later after somebody's killed, you don't normally have key witnesses who don't come forward until years later. In January 2015, nearly three years after Gavin Smith disappeared, Creech was charged with first-degree murder.

He pleaded not guilty. And Chandy? Well... We didn't know if she set it up or if she had something to do with it. An undercover sting and Chandy's the target. I was like, stop it. I was like screaming my head off. And then, a stunning moment in the courtroom.

I wanted to get away. I was scared. I was afraid of what I would see. Detectives John O'Brien and Tyler Bay had a problem. An important witness who wouldn't talk. Chandrika Creech had clammed up. But there's more than one way to get a story. They found an associate of John Creech's, someone who knew Chandy, and convinced him to wear a wire and meet with her. It worked. Do you want a little story? Yeah. Once Chandy felt safe, she spilled it, all of it. How she and Gavin met in secret at that secluded cul-de-sac got close in Gavin's car.

And then all of a sudden the door opens and John just goes like... And I just like, I pushed myself out this way, got out the driver's side. Creech burst in like a machine, said Shandy. Started slugging, wouldn't quit. And I was like, stop it, you're going to kill him. I was like screaming my head off. And then he comes out of the car and he's like, you're next. And then I drove off.

She was terrified, she said, afraid he'd kill her too. Or tell the cops she set the whole thing up. So, did she? Again and again, the detectives listened to the undercover tape. I believe 100% that she did not know that was going to happen, and she did not set it up. But, they wondered, did she help cover it up? It's a serious business covering for a crime that awful. But Chandy had a card to play. She agreed to testify. Members and alternate members of the jury. And in June 2017, John Creech went on trial. On the face of it, it looked like a solid case. The phone evidence, the cover-up, the truly appalling crime scene in Gavin's car.

But did it add up to first-degree murder? Gavin Smith had been dead five years. He was killed in his Mercedes Benz in an act of almost stunning brutality by the defendant, John Creech, who's sitting here in the courtroom. This became Gavin Smith's tomb. Stunning brutality by the defendant, John Creech, who's sitting here in the courtroom. This became Gavin Smith's tomb.

But what happened wasn't merely an outburst of rage, said Prosecutor Bobby Grace. No, he said, Creech had been plotting for two years, ever since he found out about Chandy and Gavin. After that day back in December 2010, when, at their mother's request, Gavin's sons met with John Creech at his house. We just wanted to make sure that my dad was not in harm's way. Were you sobbing and crying? Yes. And what were you saying to the defendant?

I was just begging him not to harm my family. But, they testified, Creech told them they did the right thing. He ended up saying that we saved his life by coming that day. But there were rules. That's what Chandrika, now divorced from John Creech, said when she finally took the witness stand. As long as their father stayed away from me and had no communication whatsoever, their father would be fine. Do you say what would happen if he didn't? That he would kill Gavin Smith. The affair ended, but Chandy said the threat remained. He did not want me to see Gavin ever.

Still, attraction is a powerful thing, isn't it? Early in 2012, John and Chandy were separated, but still living together. And Gavin and Lisa were separated too. And that old magnetic force. Gavin met Chandy on that secluded road. Did the two of you become romantic? Yes. Did that include kissing?

Yes. become romantic yes did that include kissing yes and while you were kissing Gavin did something happen that caught your attention yeah what happened just something I just popped up like a beard it was that something the defendant, John Creech? Yes. Yes. Gavin didn't have a chance, she said. He repeatedly punched him in the face. So then she ran back to her car, terrified. I wanted to get away. I was scared. But before she drove away, she looked back.

John had Gavin pinned down. Later, she said, Creech wanted her to drive him back to the crime scene, help him take Gavin to the hospital. A block and a half away, she refused to go closer and dropped Creech off. Why didn't you take him all the way back to the scene? Because I was afraid of what I would see. Gavin was dead by then. And the prosecutor told the jury Creech wasn't going to any hospital. He was setting out to recruit help for his cover-up.

So the first person he calls is Jorge Valle. Jorge Valle was the first of a series of friends who told an incredible tale. Did you ask any of these people that central question? What were you thinking? They all ultimately said that they were trying to help Johnny. Because he's such a nice man? Because he was a nice guy. Nice? When Creech showed up at Jorge's house that night, he was driving Gavin's black Mercedes, and Jorge saw something in the passenger seat. It looked like a body. It was just stiff,

like a stick, you know, a long stick. And you said it was wrapped up? Wrapped up in a blanket. Eventually, Jorge got rid of Gavin's cell phone. But that very night, said the prosecutor, Creech called a friend from the powerhouse gym, Stan McQuay. He asked if he can come over and if he can park his car in my garage.

Was the body still in it at that point? Yes. McQuay allows Creech to keep the body and the car at his house for five to six days. Really? Yes. And that's when Creech turned to Raina Lim, the nurse who lived with him and took care of Chandy's grandmother. Creech got Raina to rent a van. And then he uses the van to drive up to the

Angeles National Forest, and he finds a secluded area to bury Gavin Smith's body. Where Buddy the dog later found it. But the Mercedes-Benz was still in Stan's garage. And did that upset you? Very much so. So, weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer. And did you watch them take the Mercedes out of your garage? Yes, I did. That, said Prosecutor Grace, is when they moved the Mercedes into Raina's storage locker, where, months later, Detective Labbe noticed one crucial little detail

that survived the attempted cover-up. I was looking at the license plate, and I see that it's not there. There should be a California license plate. You kind of think? It's gone. And I also see that there's one screw missing and one screw screwed back in halfway. And that screw came back positive DNA to John Creech. Bingo. The unassailable link to pull together all that

evidence. Phone records, Chandy's testimony, the friends, the DNA, and it all condemned John Creech. But a surprise was coming for everyone. I was scared for my life. A dramatic tale from the stand. He punched me for everyone. Raise your right hand. I was scared for my life.

A dramatic tale from the stand. He punched me, pulled me in by my sweater, put his hand up on my throat, he was choking me in my throat. Who attacked who? And who would the jury believe? My skin was just crawling. It was really hard.

It was really hard. It was really hard. How to defend a man like John Creech. Well, said defense attorney Irene Nunez, it was all very simple. Creech never intended to kill Gavin Smith. This was a case of self-defense. He had to defend himself against this intruder, an intruder into his marriage. And, she said, only one person could tell that story. Who was the first witness that you're going to call

on behalf of the defense? My client, John Freach. His attorney began by asking him about that meeting with Gavin's sons. At any point, did you tell them that you were going to kill their father? No, that's absurd. And two years later,

when it all happened, he and Jandy were separated, he said, though they still lived in the same house. And he still worried about her, thought she might be drinking and driving. So he installed an app on his phone, he said, that allowed him to track her phone and followed her only because he was worried, he said.

And then he saw her car parked near Gavin's and thought it best to talk to them. But he didn't sneak up on them, he said. So I knock on the hood of the car. Was Chaney sitting on the lap of this guy? She was sitting on his lap. They just kept talking, so I walked over to the passenger side door and I knocked on the window.

What did they do? Chaney opened the door. What did she say to you? What the f*** are you doing here? He started to argue with Chaney, he said, and then Gavin joined in. I walked around the door and I'm leaning down to tell him to mind his own business. And as I'm leaning down to tell him that is when he leaned up and punched me.

He punched me, pulled me in by my sweater, put his hand up on my throat, choking me in my throat. It was Gavin who threw that first punch, he said. So, of course, he fought back. Do you recall how many times you hit him? Four or five. And when you were doing that, what were you thinking? I'm just thinking, how in the f*** did I get in this situation? I'm just, you know, I was scared for my life.

And then Gavin got out of the Mercedes, said Creech, and there was something in his hand. It was like this 10 to 12-inch stainless steel thing that at the time I thought was a knife. We fell on the ground and we went at it for about 10 or 15 seconds, exchanging punches. At some point, did you get that weapon? I kept punching him until he let go of it. Okay, what'd you do with the weapon? I threw it over the back wall of my property. Such a weapon was never recovered, by the way.

But Creech insisted there was one, a multi-purpose tool of some kind, and it was Gavin who provoked the fight. I was defending my life. I didn't go there looking for a fight. I was just defending mine. I think he lied about everything that he said. On cross-examination, the prosecutor went straight for that so-called multi-purpose tool. So tell us why in the world when you get rid of this weapon that Gavin Smith had used to attack you with, why would you get rid of that?

Well, I didn't get rid of it. I threw it behind my house where I knew it would be all right. Why would you do that, sir? Why wouldn't you just leave it where it was? I could play armchair quarterback all day about things, but at the time it seemed like the right decision. Creech admitted he made some wrong decisions too, like asking friends to help him dispose of Gavin's phone and car and body.

I take full accountability for everything after fact. If I could change it, I would. Sir, actually, you never took full accountability because you never came forward to the police, did you? Not on advice of counsel, no. And I still take accountability for that. Lisa Smith was in the courtroom to hear Creech's testimony. She knew that the soft-spoken man on the stand was a known criminal,

a convicted drug dealer. My skin was just crawling. It was really hard. It was really hard. He's a cruel man. Jury deliberations stretched across two days. Then, the verdict. We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, John Creech, not guilty of the crime of first-degree murder of Gavin Smith.

Not guilty of first-degree murder. But the jury wasn't done. Guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter of Gavin Smith. The verdict, guilty of voluntary manslaughter. In other words, they believe John Creech killed Gavin Smith in a moment of blind passion. I was devastated by the verdict. I am still devastated by the verdict because he did absolutely plan on murdering my husband and thought about it for years and did it.

What about Creech's friends, Jorge and Stan, who helped Creech cover up the killing? They both had significant criminal liability. So why weren't they charged? Because we needed them to be able to tell the story about how this man was killed and what happened to him. So they both got immunity. Same thing with Chandrika, who helped burn bloody clothing and never called the police.

It seems to me that everybody got deals and everybody got off, and that Gavin was a victim long after he was murdered. And so were we. John Creech was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the maximum for manslaughter. He faced additional charges as well.

The DEA in Detroit, Michigan, indicted Mr. Creech on federal drug trafficking charges. In June 2019, John Creech was convicted of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He was given 10 years, 10 months, a sentence he'll serve concurrently with his remaining time for manslaughter in a California state prison. And Lisa Smith has done her best to restart life. She lives in Hawaii now, far from the wreckage of that California life that never was quite as perfect as it looked. It's painful to remain there, so it's starting fresh. It feels like sanctuary.