Kriti Mehrotra
It was on October 26, 2014, when the decomposed remains of Fox Studios Executive Gavin Smith were recovered from near Palmdale in Antelope Valley, California, shocking the nation to its core. After all, as explored in Netflix’s ‘Homicide: Los Angeles: A Hollywood Affair,’ he’d gone missing nearly 2½ years ago in early May 2012 upon leaving a friend’s house where he’d been staying. It turned out John had actually been having an on-again-off-again extramarital liaison with Chandrika Cade-Creech, unaware it would result in him losing his life at the hands of her estranged husband.
John Lenzie Creech Went Too Far in His Passion
While it’s unclear precisely when John first came across, fell in love with, or tied the knot with Chandrika, we do know it was 2008 when she initially met the film studio executive in a rehab facility. As per records, he had become addicted to prescription pills following years of medication for a back injury he’d suffered while serving as a stuntman earlier in life, and she had a similar addiction. They, hence, got to know one another before beginning a romance, just for the latter to break it off around a year later upon being confronted by his own wife and the mother of his three young sons.
However, Chandrika and Gavin could not stay away from one another and began corresponding again via e-mail in 2010, that is, until his wife Lisa learned the truth and went directly to John. She had actually driven to the Creech household alongside two of her sons, so they vividly remember his threat toward their father’s life upon himself getting to know of the illicit relationship. According to the boys’ official testimonies, he had told them they had “saved” their “father’s life by coming here today,” indicating he could have gotten more than violent if they weren’t present.
Little did anyone know that things would take a turn all over again a mere two years later — around the spring of 2012 — as Chandrika and Gavin rekindled their long-term, love-filled liaison. That’s because, this time around, John could not control his anger and used a cell phone with GPS to track this couple before sneaking up on them in the 57-year-old’s parked Mercedes-Benz. What ensued was a physical altercation between the two men as Chandrika ran while screaming for help, but it was too late — even though John allegedly did not mean to kill, he did.
John Lenzie Creech Made No Effort To Call For Help
As per court documents, John initially did not believe Gavin was fatally injured, so he drove them in the executive’s luxury vehicle to a friend’s nearby ranch and then began frantically covering up. Instead of immediately contacting the emergency services after figuring out something was awry or coming forward to the Smith family following their filing of a missing person’s report, all he did was dispose of the body. Not only did he wrap the father of three in a bloodied sheet prior to burying him in a shallow grave in Antelope Valley, but he also tried ridding of the car by abandoning it at a public storage facility.
It was only in January 2015, three months after the discovery of Gavin’s body, that the authorities were finally able to connect all the dots and arrest John on the felony count of first-degree murder. That’s when he pleaded not guilty on the basis of self-defense — he actually later testified that while he had stalked his estranged wife and her lover, it was the latter who went way too far during their altercation first. He claimed the executive had come at him with a shiny object (which he had long thrown away), had choked him, and had even tried to gouge his eyes out, so he let the “heat of passion” take over.
John Lenzie Creech is Currently Incarcerated
John did testify in his own defense when he ultimately faced trial in 2017 while conceding he should have called 911 as soon as he had realized Gavin’s life was in serious trouble, but to no avail. On July 3, following less than an hour of deliberations, the jury convicted this 44-year-old of voluntary manslaughter — they did not believe his self-defense assertions but thought his actions were in the “heat of passion.” That’s why they went with the charge of voluntary manslaughter despite the fact they also had the choice of convicting him of first-degree murder or second-degree murder; he was acquitted on these.
Two months later, in September 2017, John was sentenced to 11 years in a California state correctional facility — this was added to the eight years he was already serving on unrelated charges. According to reports, mere months after Gavin’s death, in September 2012, he had faced court and was handed down this unrelated term for the sale or transportation for sale of a controlled substance. Therefore, today, following his murder conviction being upheld upon appeal in 2019, as well as the federal drug convictions against him, the 51-year-old is incarcerated at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution-Victorville, where he’s expected to remain until at least February 17, 2029.
Read More: Where is Gavin Smith’s Wife Now?
