and did that upset you? very much so. reporter: so weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer. and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? yes, i did. reporter: that, said prosecutor grace, is when they moved the mercedes into reina 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. it s not you d kinda 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. reporter: 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.
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 chandy 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? chandy opened the door. and what did she say to you? what the [ bleep ] are you doing here? reporter: he started to argue with chandy, 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. 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. he s choking me in my throat. reporter: it was gavin who threw that first punch, he said. so, of course, he fought back. do
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. reporter: and in june 2017, john creech went on trial. on the face of it, it looked like a solid case. the phone evidence, the coverup, 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. reporter: but what happened wasn t merely an outburst of rage, said prosecutor bobby grace. no, he said. creech had been
waiting to unleash a surprise. testimony from the defendant himself. here s keith morrison. 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 was a case of self-defense. he had to defend himself against this intruder, an intruder into his marriage. reporter: and, she said, only one person could tell that story. who is the first witness that you want to call on behalf of the defense? my client john creech. reporter: 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. reporter: and two years later, when it all happened, he and chandy 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
reporter: 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. reporter: coming up, an undercover sting and chandy s the target. i was like stop it! i was like screaming my head off. and then he comes out of the car and he says then a stunning moment in the courtroom. i wanted to get away. i was scared. i was afraid of what i would see. when dark valley continues. . so we re making it easier than ever to become part of our family. that s why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. the chevy price you pay is what we pay.