plotting the rage-fueled killing for years to seek revenge on gavin smith for having an affair with his wife. but the defense was about to present a very different story. here s keith morrison with the conclusion of dark valley. 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 is the first witness you are going to call on behalf of the defendant? my client, john creech. his attorney began asking him about that meeting with gavin s son. at any point did you tell them you were going to kill their father? no, that s absurd. two years later when it happened, he and chandy were separated. though they lived in the same house. he still worried about her,
station to report gavin missing and waited and waited. days later, gavin s family went on nbc 4 in los angeles to plead for help. i m not going as to stop until i find him. so please help me find him. you guys want to pick one of these streets. now i m in panic mode. we got to do something. reporter: what did it feel like to be in that spot? oh, it was surreal. reporter: the smith family put together a $20,000 reward for any information leading to gavin s whereabouts. nothing turned up. i would think that every hour that went by, it would be more dire and darker for you, right? it s very dark. it s very, very dark. reporter: it wasn t just the family having dark thoughts. they don t normally call a couple seasoned homicide detectives to look into a missing person. ea they do when there is some suspicious circumstances. reporter: and in this case, they called in sheriffs detectives ty labay and his partner john o brien. his phone was missing.
of calls 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. reporter: so like three or four or five calls to the same person over and of? exactly. reporter: some of the calls were to creech s buddies from the power house gym. we did a multi-location search warrant. we hit everybody we believed might have helped on that evening. we hit all those houses all at once. reporter: one by one those buddies turned. they told detectives how a frantic creech showed up that night and persuaded one friend to get rid of gavin s cell phone. 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. reporter: prosecutor bobby graves. you don t normally find a body two years later after somebody is killed.
yes. did that include kissing? yes. and while you were kissing gavin, did something happen that caught your attention? yeah. what happened? just something popped up, like appeared. was that something the defendant john creech? yes. yes. reporter: gavin didn t have a chance, she said. he repeatedly punched him in the face. reporter: so then she ran back to her car terrified. i wanted to get away. i was scared. reporter: but before she drove away, she looked back. john had gavin pinned down. reporter: later, she said, creech wanted her to drive him back to the crime scene, to help 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? i was afraid of what i was
where months later the detective noticed one detail that saved the cover up. i was looking at the license plate, i see it s not there. should be a california license plate, that kind of thing, it s gone. i also see there is 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. raise your right hand. coming up. i was scared for my life. reporter: a dramatic tale from the stand. he punched me, pulled me in by my sweater. put his hand up on my throat, choking me on my throat. who attacked who? who would the jury believe ? my skin was just crawling. when dateline continues.