LOS ANGELES – Angered over his wife’s repeated dalliances with a 20th Century Fox distribution executive, a spurned husband tracked down the amorous couple during a late-night rendezvous and beat the man to death in his Mercedes-Benz in 2012, nearly two years after threatening the man’s children he was going to kill their father, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
“That threat that he made to the two sons was … a downpayment to murder,” Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace said in his opening statement in the trial of John Creech, who is accused of killing 57-year-old Gavin Smith, who was missing for 2 1/2 years before his body was found in the Antelope Valley in 2014.
“… This particular defendant had murder on the brain. He wanted to kill Gavin Smith,” Grace said.
Creech, a 44-year-old convicted drug dealer, used a GPS phone app to track down his wife in the early morning hours of May 2, 2012, surprising her and Smith during a romantic interlude not far from the Creech home, the prosecutor told jurors. Creech then began beating Smith, a former UCLA basketball player, and continued pounding him even after Smith’s body went limp and Creech’s wife screamed at him to stop, Grace said.
The prosecutor told jurors Smith was killed inside his car “in an act of almost stunning brutality.” He showed jurors a picture of Smith’s damaged skull and said, “This particular defendant literally exploded Gavin Smith’s face.”
Grace outlined for jurors the on-again, off-again romance between Smith and Creech’s wife, Chandrika Cade, with the two meeting initially at a rehabilitation facility for prescription drug abuse. He said Smith became addicted after years of medication for a back injury suffered when he worked as a movie stuntman earlier in life.
Their affair broke off in 2008 when Smith was confronted by his own wife. But Smith and Cade began exchanging romantic messages again in 2010, Grace said. When Smith’s wife found out, she drove her two sons to Creech’s house, where the sons had an angry conversation with Creech, who initially indicated he was going to kill Smith but later backed off, telling the sons, “You saved your father’s life by coming here today,” according to the prosecutor.
Two years later, however, when the romance rekindled again, Creech made good on his threat, Grace said.
Smith was last seen between 9 and 10 p.m. May 1, 2012, leaving a female friend’s home off Kanan Road in eastern Ventura County in his black 2000 Mercedes-Benz 420 E. Prosecutors allege he was killed on May 2, 2012.
His car was recovered on Feb. 21, 2013, at a storage facility in Simi Valley that authorities said was connected to Creech.
Smith’s remains were found in a shallow grave by a man walking with his dog Oct. 26, 2014, in a rural area on the south side of Palmdale near the border with Acton.
According to grand jury testimony, Creech hid Smith’s car and body in a friend’s garage near Porter Ranch after the killing, returning later to retrieve the body. Creech came back about a week later and towed the car away, according to testimony.
Creech is already serving an eight-year term for his no contest plea in September 2012 to one count of sale or transportation for sale of a controlled substance.
The murder charge against Creech includes the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, but prosecutors opted against seeking the death penalty.
Previous related stories:
Man pleads not guilty to murdering missing Hollywood executive
Remains of missing Hollywood executive found near Palmdale
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Linda says
I think the two wives played their husbands off, as chumps. For both Chandrika Creech and Lisa Smith, their husbands became liabilities. Hopelessly upside-down on his newly purchased West Hills home, Gavin Smith’s wife, Lisa, discovered Chandrink wasn’t the Lone Ranger, that her husband had gone deep into his pension and corporate bonus, shacking up another girl, Melanie, and her two kids. Chandrika probably found out about Melanie and played two ends against the middle, knowing full-well she had absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain, from a Creech-Smith altercation. Odds are, Chandrink lured husband Creech to the rendezvous, and bated Gavin Smith to certain death. Wife Lisa had everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Should husband Gavin Smith disappear, she’d collect on the insurance, and bailed out from her underwater mortgage. Happily ever after, in the end, both women got everything they wanted –
Ruby says
If Creech’s defense can prove collusion, between his wife and Smith’s, then he stands a decent chance his murder charge could be dropped, to a somewhat lesser charge. The 64 thousand dollar question: were Lisa Smith and Chandrika Creech in communication? How extensively?
Kevin says
… I don’t care what reason the old guy had, for pissing in your Wheaties? You never-never-never risk hitting an older guy, especially one over 50. Even if the old guy’s bouncing on the mattress with your best gal, golden rule still applies: respect your elders. In horrible shape, badly damaged back from his stuntman days in Hollywood, Smith was in no condition for any type of physical conflict. I suspect the poor old guy was probably dead, about Creech’s second or third blow. As such, were I on Creech’s jury, I’d advocate a 50 year stretch, no possibility of parole. For setting him up, it’s only fair Creech’s spineless, airhead wife demerit a ten year stretch –
Yo daddy says
Let see if you’re singing the same tune when someone sleeps with your girlfriend/ wife. No one can truly have a final word unless you were in the guys shoes.
The old guy seems to have been a first class scum bag though . So you play with fire , you’re bound to get burned.