you don t normally have key witnesses who don t come forward until years later. reporter: in january 2015, nearly three years after gavin smith disappeared, creech was charged with first degree murder he pleaded not guilty. and chandy? 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. reporter: and then, a stunning moment in the courtroom. i wanted to get away. i was scared i was afraid of what i would see. when dateline continues it s just a cough. yeah right. and the earth is flat.
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 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
why didn t you take him all the way back to the scene? because i was afraid of what i would see. reporter: gavin was dead by then and the prosecutor told the jury creech wasn t going to any hospital he was setting out to recruit help for his cover-up. so the first person he calls is jorge valles. reporter: jorge valles was the first of a series of friends who told an incredible tale. did you ask any of these people a central question, what were you thinking? they all ultimately said that they were trying to help johnny. because he s such a nice man. because he was a nice guy reporter: nice? when creech showed up at jorge s house that night, he was driving gavin s black mercedes and jorge saw something in the passenger seat it looked like a body it was just stiff, like a stick, you know a long stick and you said it was wrapped up wrapped up in a blanket reporter: eventually jorge got rid of gavin s cell phone, but that very night, said the
do you recall how many times you hit him? four, five. and when you were doing that, what were you thinking i m just thinking how in the [ bleep ] that i get in this situation. you know, i was scared for my life reporter: and then gavin then got out of the mercedes, said creech and there was something in his hand it was like a ten to twelve-inch stainless steel thing that at the time i thought was a knife. we fell in the ground, and we went at it for about ten or fifteen seconds exchanging punches. at some point did you get that weapon? i kept punching him until he let go of it okay. and what d you do with the weapon i threw it over the back wall of my property reporter: such a weapon was never recovered, by the way. but creech insisted there was one, a multi-purpose tool of some kind, and it was gavin who provoked the fight i was defending my life i didn t go there looking for a fight. i was just defending mine. i think he lied about everything that he said.
black mercedes we felt that the vehicle was still out there somewhere. reporter: so find the car, and maybe find out what happened to gavin and, nine months after gavin vanished, they finally got the break they were looking for. i said, i m here to talk to you about your daughter. and he started crying. and he said, she saw everything. reporter: coming up she was very nervous and startled you think you can be shocked but you can be when dateline continues but as long as you re with jessica, there can never be anything between us. listen cassie, there s no need to cry. besides, i ve got really great news. you re leaving jessica? no. i just saved a load of money on car insurance by switching to geico.