A spurned husband tracked down his wife and a 20th Century Fox distribution executive during a late-night romantic rendezvous and beat the man to death in his Mercedes-Benz in 2012, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday, but the defendant’s attorney called the man’s killing “a case of self-defense.”
In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace told jurors that John Creech had made a threat against the victim, Gavin Smith, nearly two years earlier during a conversation with Smith’s two sons at Creech’s West Hills home.
“That threat that he made to the two sons was … a downpayment to murder,” the prosecutor told the eight-woman, four-man panel. “… This particular defendant had murder on the brain. He wanted to kill Gavin Smith.”
Defense attorney Irene Nunez countered that Creech had used a GPS app on the family’s cellphones to try to find his wife on May 1, 2012, because hewas worried about her in light of her previous drug and alcohol usage.