Extramarital affair ends with film executive’s death, years-long coverup

it looks like a postcard from the Pacific everyone looked like the quintessential California surfer the beach place the Smith family a living portrait of all things sand surf in Southern California sunshine they see each other it's an instant chemistry instantly in love I think so from the time he met wife Lisa to the birth of three handsome athletic sons all had become the center of Gavin's universe I've watched them grow up and almost to exhaustion like tirelessly effortlessly every night he came home would just constantly devote his time to the kids Gavin enjoyed an 18 year career with film studio 20th Century Fox but this larger-than-life figure six-foot seven to be exact had been making impressive strides dating all the way back to college when UCLA said how'd you like to play for us he was excited we grew up with UCLA basketball we'd watch it constantly it was a dream come true for him and what a dream it was playing for the iconic coach John Wooden did he win a championship he was on the last national championship team in 1975 next goal working tirelessly for a chance at the NBA he was the physical specimen worked out every day you know he just really took care of himself but the pros were not in the cards for Gavin Smith it was a crushing blow after he didn't get drafted you know when he was with UCLA he just went off into the mountains for about five or six days and then came back home with the brooding over Gavin was ready for his next move he becomes a caddy at a high-society golf club and finds his new career path but not as a golfer he met a lot of people there and a lot of movie moguls despite his movie star looks Gavin would ultimately find his place behind the scenes at Fox starting from the bottom up let somebody look him said oh you don't know much he says you have it in six months I'll know everything you know and I'll do it better and he did Gavin worked his way up the ladder to become an affable smart film distributor loved by all he was an honest caring person give the shirt off of his back but as it goes with many families the glow of the happy images can fade with the stress of daily life the real estate tumble put the family's home under water and financial problems were mounting Gavin suffered chronic back pain from a previous injury did he share any of his struggles with you oh yeah I mean he would tell me how much pain he was in and it's not good for me Greg I'm hurting bad like millions who have become part of the same national epidemic Gavin became addicted to painkillers as anybody who's been there will tell you is the meds stopped working so you take more can you take more and it got out of control we couldn't live without him and they weren't helping and so he's taken too many Gavin went to rehab to tackle the problem head-on he had to do something and he did it he took care of it that's the way he is he took care of things but truth be told the last few years of Gavin's marriage to Lisa had become a challenge can you give us a perspective of what was going on in the family well they weren't getting along we knew that he'd called me on my birthday and he had mentioned a couple of things it's not good he's a very dark place in regards to his marriage and the boys are feeling it he was very depressed and there was another dark damaging shadow cast over the Smith family it came in the form of an exotic young beauty named Chandrika Creech let's talk about how did Gavin Smith meet Chandrika Gavin Smith met Chandrika at the matrix drug rehabilitation facility and that's how they became friends and then later lovers that's when Gavin's troubles went from bad to catastrophic you see Chandrika was also married to the convicted drug dealer John Creech but according to the couple staying together was a matter of financial convenience they're separated but living together according to those parties John Creech has actually seen another woman 39 year-old Creech told Chandrika he was done with her in fact he had fallen in love with an 18 year old girl still in high school his lovesick text to the teenager read I don't want to come off as that guy to other people you know the older perv or something I like you because of you not your age I'm not giving you up meanwhile Gavin had managed to release the grip of pill addiction but Chandrika was a temptation he could not resist he moved out of the family home and was staying with a colleague it tore the heart out of his children his oldest son Evan tweeted my dad decided to leave the family last night real family sticks together Gavin was devastated by the broken bond with his sons his whole thought process was regaining the relationship of his voice dashing Gavin Smith could as they say charm the skin off a snake he walked into a room he filled it up pretty well women were attracted to him and the guys wanted to be here but Smith saddled with marital financial and health issues had suddenly vanished I think everyone was hopeful that he needed a breather you know he just decided to get off the grid for a while how does above six seven movie exact with dazzling looks and a blinding smile go unnoticed My partner and I would look at each other and we changed our minds oh he's a missing person he just left for a while maybe he started using drugs again and maybe he's in a hotel somewhere Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives begin an exhaustive search for Gavin and put a magnifying glass on his personal and professional life in a desperate search for clues it was a little bit out there to believe that this was a murder right at the get-go phone records from around the time of Gavin's disappearance reveal a number that was a glaring standout to Gavin's estranged wife Lisa on that list she noticed Chandrika phone number and instantly recognized it police had told detectives about her husband's cheating with Chandrika Creech so detectives paid a visit to the mistress was she helpful she never let us in the house we sat down on her porch and we talked to her for a good hour so and she admitted to the affair but Chandrika insisted she had no idea where Gavin was detectives also learn that her husband John Creech a drug dealer and avid bodybuilder was angry about his wife's tryst with the charismatic Gavin Smith when he finds out he gets very upset and begins sending threatening emails to Gavin Smith's saying you know I know what you're doing Gavin's wife Lisa told detectives she was so afraid of John Creech and his threats on her husband she had once done something unthinkable Lisa boldly drove two of her son's to John Creech's house to try and make things the way she describes it it was going to be like a family - family situation and that if she was able to get quote/unquote the families together then Gavin would back off and Chandrika would back off and there would be no need for John Creech to be angry Lisa waited in the car while her youngest and eldest sons took what must have seemed like an endless walk to the intimidating John creatures front door the two of them would go and talk to John Creech and basically in an effort to get John Creech not to hurt their father the boys basically said listen we know that our father is having an affair with your life and that we're very sorry about it according to reports Gavin's youngest boy Austin who was only 14 at the time told Creech I'm in the 8th grade I'm too young to lose my dad Gavin's sister Tara and brother Greg questioned Lisa's seemingly dangerous decision was it difficult when you heard that she and the boys went over to John Creech's house I was quite upset why would you send your own children who were underage to confront somebody who think you might murder your husband I don't get that John Creech was even floored by the gutsy move Creech was taken aback that they had come to his residence and then he was angry about having to talk to the boys but perhaps the plea for mercy worked ultimately John Creech makes the statement that you saved your father's life by coming here that was the way that everybody left it coming to the house had quote/unquote saved their father's life and the boys left feeling that their father wasn't going to continue having an affair with preacher's wife detectives were alarmed after hearing these stunning accounts from Gavin's mistress wife and sons they sensed Gavin's disappearance was no disappearance at all John Creech they believed could be a man with deadly potential and Chandrika Creech may have known more than she was telling we knew that we had to look at John Creech and his and his wife Chandrika Creech and we had to basically clear them from any type of allegation it turns out Chandrika was not honest when she first told cops she hadn't seen Gavin and didn't know what happened to him we did an undercover sting where we had an informant meet with Chandrika Creech and during that conversation she laid out exactly what happened and the devil is in the stunning details that Chandrika unwittingly spilled to the informant beginning with the last night Gavin was ever seen alive Chandrika and if you haven't make plans to meet up again this time in Chandrika is going to drive to a predetermined location where they're gonna meet kind of a lover's lane for kids Creech is suspicious and decides to track her down they all have this AT&T family map plan with their cellphone plan which allows you to be able to track up stencyl me where your kids are and your wife in this case and your wife in this case and he finds them Chandrika is in Gavin's car they're both seated in the passenger seat of Gavin's mercedes-benz Chandrika is sitting in Gammons minutes left Chandrika says Creech catches them in a lip-lock and becomes unhinged she jumps out of the car while her lover's towering frame remains trapped in the reclined passenger seat being beaten to a pulp by a jealous husband on steroids John Creech is straddling him according to Chandrika and being repeatedly punched by Creech Gavin Smith to the face the injuries to his face is equivalent to falling off a two-story building and landing face-first he was pummeled yes and those lethal weapons called fists we're still ready to punish according to Chandrika John Creech stops gets out of the car tells Chandrika you're next Gavin Smith is vanished and LA Sheriff's are getting a partial picture of what happened this was not just a missing person Gavin's mistress Chandrika Creech gave up nothing to detectives at first but spilled her guts to an informant revealing that her jealous bodybuilding drug-dealing husband John Creech gave the popular studio exec a world-class beating left him battered inside his black Mercedes and threatened to do the same to her John Creech stops gets out of the car tells Chandrika you're next the young adulteress told the informant that she was terrified and hightailed at home preach on foot arrived a few minutes later he spares Chandrika his physical rage but makes a demand tells her that if she doesn't drive him back to the location he's gonna tell the police that she was involved in Gavin Smith's murder but was Gavin Smith dead Chandrika gives in to her husband and drives him back to the scene of the beatings Creech checks Gavin's pulse there was none there's no doubt in her mind that dick Gavin was dead John Creech eventually gets into the vehicle drives a mercedes-benz back to his residence and then begins making calls to people who he thinks will help him in terms of trying to hide the body and the car both Chandrika and Creech had blood on their clothes Chandrika claiming hers somehow transferred from her husband she threw it in the fireplace to burn them shortly after that John Creech threw his clothes into the fireplace in burn down so the evidence of what they were both wearing that evening was gone Creech is getting panicked and makes his first call for help to friend Jorge vy8 we agrees to help John Creech - hi Kevin Smith's body but he's not gonna let him hide the car at his residence the men searched for a suitable spot in the hills but Creech isn't satisfied with the location enter Stan McQuaid a championship bodybuilder and friend of John Creech McQuaid up sensibly without asking any questions lets him park the mercedes-benz inside the garage with the body with the body the team of willing cohorts grows even larger next on board to lend a hand is this woman Rena Lim Rena took care of Chandrika grandmother well she was terminally ill living in the house the creature preached convinced limb to rent a large storage locker and a van in her name then he heads back to Stanwyck quays garage where the Mercedes in the body have been sitting for five days John Creech arrives in a rented u-haul van removes the body and takes the body up to Palmdale where he buries it all by himself all by himself Creech had other plans for Gavin's blood stains Mercedes so the car then is not driven its towed to the storage facility storage yes how is it possible that they all stayed so quiet as far as making sure information was never leaked to the police I think it was self-preservation they just felt that at that point if they came forward they were gonna be charged with something and so they wanted to keep their mouth shut as for Chandrika cops say she witnessed the murder but knew little else of the aftermath she only knows her husband was responsible for getting rid of Gavin his car in the body but she doesn't know exactly where they are she said John told her that he buried the body underneath power lines believing that would affect our investigation we would not be able to locate him it's a precarious situation for Sheriff's homicide detectives who are building a case but not ready to make an arrest we were confident we knew what happened but you didn't have the car yet did not have the car and we did not have Gavin and detectives can't compromise the investigation by going public we were guarded on releasing information because if we give out too much information we don't know if somebody's telling us what they heard on the news or what they witnessed or what they know for as a fact even the anguished Smith family believed Gavin could still be a missing person he was missing we didn't know anything other than that that he was missing we did so many searches they don't know that whether he's dead or alive they can't get life insurance proceeds because there's been no legal determination that he's dead and every day we were in agony but almost a year after Gavin's disappearance cops get an important lead when does the break in the case really come the break in the case comes when the police get a tip as to a storage facility that has a Mercedes Benz and there it was in all its tainted glory of blood-spattered Mercedes - a body but with plenty of pay dirt in the way of evidence so we found some DNA from John Creech on the key fob and also on the front license plate screw the Smith family was able to declare Gavin Smith diseased I would imagine it's very painful for you and your family to know that John Creech was driving around with your poor brother wrapped in a blanket in the car I try not to think about it but I do how can you not Gavan sister Tara was crushed I remember that day she cried on the couch for probably an hour and a half you know I just as she was inconsolable sheriff's begin interrogation round ups for everyone they believed knew about or assisted in Gavin's murder and coverup but the case was far from closed for detectives and Gavin's family we know it was a homicide and and then we had to find the body just to get some kind of closure and incredibly it would take another year and a half before Gavin's family would finally get that closure detectives would get the most critical pieces of evidence we have Gavin's remains the discovery was thanks to a hiker named rocky Ramos and his dog buddy we looked down and Regina what appeared to be a skull it didn't have no lower jaw no eye socket or nothing he just had like the top and close by the most devastating scene of all they find a shallow grave which turns out to be the resting place of Gavin Smith which his body is now skeletal because of the time period that's passed between his disappearance cops make their move but they don't have to go far to find John Creech during the investigation of Gavin Smith John Creech was imprisoned for drug dealing now he's got a murder rap by the time John Creech went to trial for the murder a fox executive Gavin Smith Los Angeles deputy district attorney Robert grace was ready to pack his own punch on the accused killer by bare fist prosecutors had an arsenal of evidence against Creech and he began to physically attack Gavin Smith who's seated in the front there was cracks in his skull all leading from the front facial area to the back was John Creech capable of such violence his wife Chandrika had the evidence to prove it she came armed with photos of previous alleged assaults based upon the testimony of Chandrika and evidence that was presented in court he committed domestic violence and he was described as being a angry guy there were John creatures haunting words to Gavin Smith sons the day they came to plead for their father's life John Kriss States you see today and even though Creech was dating an 18 year old high school student at the time of the murder his ego was crushed by his wife's affair with the strapping Gavin Smith like a rabid dog Creech was protecting his turf his version I guess of street justice yes you want to see my wife I told you to stay away from my wife I'm going to show you who's boss prosecutors handed a seemingly solid case to jurors parading to the stand each and every person who had a hand in helping cover up the crime the individuals that were involved in helping Creech to hide none of them had prior criminal records not Stan McQuaid not Jorge ye not Rena limb and not Chandrika we gave them immunity in order to testify against John Creech there was the DNA on Gavin's Mercedes belonging to Creech the cellphone records putting the accused killer and victim together the night of the murder they all are in the same location where ultimately the assault took place desperate for a defense Creech tried to convince the jury he was attacked first he's got a long reach just putting my head up against the ceiling and at that point is when I pressed off I was just like you know I just wanted to you know fight or flight mode and at that point especially when he bit down my thumb I really tripped out then the jury here is that Gavin Smith was wielding a deadly weapon that night approaches John's with this hammer that's on the top is a hammer and then the end is an ice pick and he approaches and he runs at John with this weapon no weapon was ever discovered the jury had much to consider once it went into deliberation but it took less than an hour for nine women and three men to come back with a verdict generally a very good sign for prosecutors and the family of Gavin Smith who want to first-degree premeditated murder conviction potentially putting creature away for life I think was deliberate I think it was calculated what prosecutors got instead would cause a collective jaw drop in the courtroom we the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant John Creech guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter of Gavin Smith not guilty of first-degree murder not even second-degree murder but guilty of voluntary manslaughter in this case the jury saw nothing more egregious than a crime of passion what was the family reaction to the jury verdict it was so much proof for a premeditated murder I just don't know how they could come to that conclusion I was extremely frustrated by their verdict in my opinion is that they didn't like the fact that Gavin and Chandrika had an affair I think the jury felt that he went back even after he'd been warned so in a way he kind of got what was coming to him I don't even understand that logic because there's no right to kill somebody and adding insult to injury for the Smith family not a single person involved in the cover-up will face a single charge or do a day of time what should have happened to the people who helped to cover up the killing I think they should get prison sentences they see and hear they're walking they're skating and it's just wrong for two and a half years those same people kept the crime a secret while detectives poured out blood sweat and tears trying to solve it and the family suffered with the unknown a lot of people could have saved our families a lot of pain if they just came forward right out of the gate yes they were all in what they did in the cover-up hiding of evidence but ultimately there was only one man who caused the death of Gavin Smith and he was our main focus and I think they made better witnesses than they did suspects Creech faced up to 11 years for the crime on sentencing day Gavin's wife and oldest son unleashed a seething wrath on John Creech [Music] even the judge expressed disgust your actions after beating Gavin Smith or egregious heartless callous you failed to render aid you failed to be compassionate and all you cared about was yourself Creech was sentenced under the limitations of California law the court selects the high term of 11 years for the involuntary manslaughter so at the end of the day was justice served any time that you're able to get a verdict and if you respect our jury system then yes justice was done in the eyes of the jury that was hearing the case the larger-than-life Gavin Smith left a positive indelible mark on the lives of so many who would have guessed a fall to temptation would topple this vivacious towering figure nobody deserves to be killed because they had an affair and if if that's the case there'd be a lot of people that would be dead in America he wasn't some adulterer having flings here and there and that just wasn't him okay unfortunately this lays on cost him his life how would you like Gavin to be remembered smiling always happy he was buried in life I loved him and I missed but he'll always be here [Music]

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,027,928

Rating: 4.640554 out of 5

Keywords: Gavin Smith, John Creech, Chandrika Creech, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: bzVCIhP7Gmk

Length: 28min 46sec (1726 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 23 2019