LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley drug dealer was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison for killing 20th Century Fox distribution executive Gavin Smith, whose remains were found in a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest in the Antelope Valley about 2 1/2 years after he disappeared.
John Lenzie Creech, 45, was convicted July 3 of voluntary manslaughter for the May 2012 beating death of Smith, a married father of three, according to Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace.
The nine-woman, three-man jury took less than an hour to convict Creech. The jury acquitted Creech of the original charge of first-degree murder, and also of second-degree murder, settling on the lesser count. Creech insisted the killing was an act of self-defense, but the jury appeared to believe he acted in the “heat of passion.”
“It was a very difficult case — with a lot of twists and turns,” Grace said outside court on the day the verdict was read.
Creech showed no reaction as the verdict was read. Smith’s wife cried in the courtroom audience, but she and her family declined to comment on the verdict outside court.
Grace said the jury appeared to have accepted a “heat of passion” argument, in which the defendant was said to have been provoked to violence by the knowledge of his estranged wife’s affair with Smith.
“There was an affair and he found out about it,” Grace said of Creech, adding that the “infidelity” aspect of the case probably helped explain the jury’s decision.
In his closing argument, Grace told the jury that Smith “was executed in cold blood by this defendant, who hit him repeatedly in the face” after using a cell phone with GPS to track down his estranged wife, Chandrika Cade, and sneak up on the two in Smith’s Mercedes-Benz.
“You don’t accidentally beat someone to death,” the prosecutor said in his rebuttal argument.
Defense attorney Irene Nunez told the panel that Creech had made “errors in judgment” by concealing Smith’s body and car after lawfully defending himself in a fight that he testified was initiated by Smith, but argued he was not guilty of first-degree murder.
Creech’s lawyer acknowledged her client is a “convicted drug seller” but said he “had to fight for his life” after the man who had “intruded” into his life and marriage approached him outside the Mercedes with a weapon following a fistfight between the two men inside the sedan.
“This was a tragic fight between two grown men, two flawed men, two imperfect men,” Nunez said. “There was no intention to kill. This was a spontaneous fight.”
Acquitting her client would be the “only just verdict,” she told the jury.
The prosecutor countered that Creech — who was taking growth hormones at the time and was an ex-con free on bail — could “kill with his bare hands” and “deliberately, viciously, intently delivered murderous blows to Gavin Smith repeatedly, which resulted in Gavin Smith’s death.”
Grace said Creech and Cade had an “unconventional marriage” in which the two “both cheated on each other,” and that it was “essentially a countdown to murder” when Creech “first uttered the threat” to Smith’s two sons in 2010 that he would kill Smith if he continued to see Cade.
Creech told the jury that he took “full accountability” for failing to call 911 after what he described as mutual combat or to seek help for Smith, who was a member of UCLA’s 1975 NCAA-winning basketball team under Coach John Wooden and had worked for 20th Century Fox for 18 years.
The defendant testified that Smith threw the first punch, choked him and tried to gouge out his eye as the two men struggled inside Smith’s car — with the prosecutor later telling jurors that the injuries to Smith and Creech were “not consistent with self-defense” and that Creech’s subsequent actions demonstrated a “stunning consciousness of guilt.”
Those attempts to cover up the killing included burning his and Cade’s clothes from that night in the family fireplace and hiding Smith’s body in various locations for nearly a week before dragging it up a hill to the remote area where he buried it, according to trial testimony.
Creech could have faced a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if he had been convicted of first-degree murder and if jurors had found true the special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait.
“The jury clearly decided that he will have to pay a penalty for killing Gavin Smith,” Grace said.
During the trial, Grace said Smith and Cade initially met 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 — which began in 2008 — broke off the following year after Smith was confronted by his own wife. But Smith and Cade began exchanging e-mail messages again in 2010, Grace said. When Smith’s wife found out, she drove with two of her sons to Creech’s house, where Creech told Smith’s two 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 to kill Smith, Grace said.
Previous related stories:
Man found guilty of killing Hollywood executive found dead in AV
Trial begins in murder of Hollywood executive found dead in AV
Man pleads not guilty to murdering missing Hollywood executive
Remains of missing Hollywood executive found near Palmdale
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Roger says
… contemporary players like James Hardin and Steph Curry, are spot shooters. Move them off their spot, they can’t sink a 10 foot jump shot worth beans. Not Gavin Smith. Coached by John Wooden himself, that Smith could hit from anywhere on the court, anytime, posed a nuisance for opposing coaches. Smith’s uncanny ability to score from anywhere required opposing defenders to atrit themselves expending extraneous physical effort guarding him, and induced opposing coaching staff to juxtapose their bench, fumbling for fresh substitutes to guard him. Too frail for the NBA, he just wasn’t physically strong enough, athletic enough, nor fast enough to make the transition to professional ball. To this day, he still owns the shooting record at University of Hawaii. Notable copycat, affluent good looking tall guy with the long hair and the fancy car, the persona Tom Selleck portrayed on his 70’s television show Magnum PI, he lifted from UCLA’s Gavin Smith –
Alexis says
He was way in over his head.
Misquote AKA PoliticalPollution says
With all due respect, I believe your second sentence is incorrect. I wish Hardin and Curry could shoot 10-foot jumpers off their spots for my team.
They both were wrong says
You all know Smith was no angel. Smith was 57 thats not a senior citizen. The man was in better shape than Creech who at the time was 43. In my mind it kind of was a fair fight. Now im not defending Creech but you cant blame the guy Smith was doing his wife after Creech told him what would happen if he didn’t stop. In some areas Creech would have spent no time in prison. Now hiding the body and car was total prison time worth. If he would have called the cops his charge would have been a crime of passion. With a good lawyer that would have been time served with three years probation.
Jerry says
… here it comes, the incremental march, of the inevitable Mexiforniacation, of America: You can snuff the guy for doing your wife, so long as you don’t hide the body? America’s best days, well behind her, indeed –
Jennifer says
Ever notice how the mexifornians always side with the hoodlums, the punks, the gangbangers, and the drug dealers?
Steve says
… the dimwit posting under “they-were-both-wrong” is a poser. A former collegiate athlete, Gavin Smith’s condition is an opened book for sports therapists. Long before ascending to his role as a film exec, Smith was a trendsetting, standout collegiate basketball star at UCLA who severely injured his back having later became a Hollywood stunt man. Searing pain most every day of his life, his physicians hooked him on pain pills to such extent, he became institutionalized for chemical dependency, where he met and mentored Creech’s battered, deeply disturbed, hopelessly stung-out trophy girl wife. Precarious physical condition at best, Smith was extremely fragile, certainly in no condition for any type of physical combat; most certainly no match for mixed martial arts thugs like John Creech –
Thelma says
So, the worst thing that’s going to happen to you if you’re a drug dealer in Mexifornia, ditching the body of a senior citizen you’ve just beaten to death is going to be, 11 years. Time off for good behavior, tell the prison guards everything they want to hear, tell your case workers how terrific they are, and your prison counselors how you’ve found Jesus, probably more like 3 years, positive case scenario. So long as you didn’t use a gun, that you’ve just beaten the old guy up, fair-and-square, probably no more than 6 years, worse case scenario. Pretty smart guy this Jon Creech character, five gets to ten he’s out in three. Five gets you another 10, between now and his release, his wife somehow mysteriously disappears –
Dr. Robert says
World record for the most time ever dropped from a sentence, playing the Jesus card, my vote goes to television actor, Robert Blake. Stung for a paternity suit by his gold-digger wife, he decided she had to be snuffed. On trial, Blake played the Jesus card to such perfection, not only did he beat a capitol murder rap? Seven decades in Hollywood, Blake knew his way around television media; exactly what buttons he had to push, and how, and when. Playing the Jesus card like a heavenly harp, Blake was summarily acquitted from what would have otherwise been a certain death sentence. Had Creech the presence of mind to play the Jesus card, he would have walked, scoff-free.
PoliticalMalpractice says
Bobr:
Re: Your comment “It’s a shame we can not be as smart as Tim Scott”.
Listen, at times I vehemently disagree with Tim, and you can say a lot of things about him, but you can’t question his intellect.
So your comment was meant as an insult, but I find it to be a true statement. The level of discourse would be much higher here.
Ruby says
I’m sorry. But, you’re incorrect. Tim Scott’s an intellectual fraud, as eager as everyone else, here, to stoop to ad hominems, name-calling, penny-ante psychobabble and personal slights, whensoever he’s running low on his intellectual go-go juice
PoliticalMalpractice says
I’m usually incorrect. The only time I open my mouth is to change feet. But didn’t you just engage in that type of behavior? With all due respect, your argument didn’t have much substance.
Tim Scott says
I’ll be meeting for coffee with Mr Malpractice pretty soon Ruby. Would you like to suggest some sort of evidence he should check regarding my “intellectual reality”?
Sean says
Hallmark characteristic of a sanctuary city, (1) different laws for different people, and (2) soft on crime. Where else but the sanctuary state of Mexifornia could a career criminal, a convicted drug dealer, get his murder-I rap knocked down, to Man-I?
Tim Scott says
Hallmark characteristics of wild bombastic commentary:
(1) States assertions as if they were facts, making no effort to support them.
(2) Uses meaningless made up terms picked up from extremist gatherings and/or websites.
(3) Throws together events/ideas as if they have a causal connection that supports the point without demonstrating that they are connected at all, or even accurate.
Sonny says
… trial by judge, that would have been a certain murder I rap, with special circumstance. His jury stacked with schoolmarms, wallflowers and plain Jains certain to be green-eyed jealous, and wholly devoid sympathy for Creech’s drop dead gorgeous wife, Creech’s jury selection was a masterclass. The best possible sentence he could have exploited from a hopelessly defective Mexifornia judicial system, figure with time off for good behavior, he’ll be back out on the streets dealing drugs in less than 6 months, enjoying his favorite pastime, stalking young women; performing martial arts beat-downs on senior citizens –
I'm Mexican and what?! says
You mad bro? You sound like a wall flower yourself lol
Tim Scott says
That would depend on the judge…which is why we have a jury system. Perhaps you would be more comfortable under some totalitarian regime?
alex says
John Creech, breathed a sigh of relief.
Kay says
Life sure doesn’t seem to be worth much anymore. Only 11 years for murdering someone?
Tim Scott says
The conviction was for voluntary manslaughter, not murder.
aManOfTruth says
Smith was not alive to tell his side so Creech and his lawyer looked at the case and said “ok, here is what we are going to SAY happened”, to fit the evidence the DA had. I would bet Creech was guilty of a lot more.
Tim Scott says
I wouldn’t bet either way, but I usually accept what the jury system says in cases like this. Just pointing out that he didn’t get 11 years for murder, he got 11 years for manslaughter.
Bobr says
It’s a shame we can not be as smart as Tim Scott.
Tim Scott says
But it’s a good thing that so few people are dumb enough to leave a pointless comment like yours Bobr, so take heart.
alex says
Yes, (ManOfTruth), John Creech was already serving an eight-year sentence for the sale of a controlled substance, when he was charged in the slaying. He’s been in the illegal business for a long time as a middle-man. He breathed a sigh of relief when he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. A big sigh.
PoliticalMalpractice says
Yeah, Kay, and Thelma makes a very good argument that he’ll be out in three, along with innumerable other predators and violent criminals. And the state wants to take the guns away from law abiding citizens. Sometimes I feel like a US expatriate and stranger in the strange land of Mexifornia.
I know guys, if I don’t like it just leave. Can I take the weather and mountains with me?
PoliticalMalpractice says
PS: And unless you’re a veteran or currently serve our country (USA, lol), don’t you dare tell me to leave.