narrator: A rising star in Atlanta's fashion scene
is executed in cold blood.
[gunshot]
- He was laying on the side of the road.
- He looks to have multiple defects that would
be consistent with gunshots.
narrator: But who would murder this beloved father of two?
- How did this happen? Why did this happen?
- I hope you know the damage you've caused.
We'll find you.
narrator: The team must determine if the victim's
business made him a target--
- George called me and said,
someone has stolen all my merchandise.
The street value was this exorbitant amount of money.
narrator: Or if the motive behind this
ruthless killing was personal.
- She knew people that she believed--
that either George had a problem with,
or they had a problem with George.
narrator: But a surprising tip turns the case inside out.
- He had gone to the gun range and purchased .45 ammunition,
the same type of ammunition that
was used to kill George Vela.
- Everyone was rallying to find these people.
- There really is evil in this world
because there's absolutely no reason
he should have been murdered.
[gunshot]
[dramatic music]
* *
[sirens wailing]
[upbeat music]
narrator: With its eclectic mix of styles,
Atlanta has rocketed to the top of the fashion world,
rivaling even New York and LA.
- Atlanta reflects a diverse style and culture
when it comes to fashion, and there's an increasing number
of celebrities and top influencers
and other people in the public eye.
Atlanta influences everything.
- You've got all these rappers and all these influential
people coming from Hollywood.
They wear all this nice stuff,
and people see them wearing this nice stuff,
and they want to look like them.
Just want to look cool.
* *
- Some of the hottest brands in the metro
Atlanta area right now would be Supreme,
Telfar, Fear of God.
It is quite challenging to get some of these hot items.
It can be almost like winning the lottery.
[siren whoops]
narrator: And sometimes the competition
can be downright dangerous.
- Some stores have actually been
burglarized of their merchandise
because it's so popular.
narrator: Still, savvy insiders know there's another
way to snag those trendy pieces--
if they're willing to go off the radar and spend the money.
- It's usually referred to as reselling.
If somebody wants it, somebody is going to get it first,
and they're going to sell it to you
for 10 times what it's worth just because you want it.
It's all about supply and demand.
That's how the game goes.
narrator: In July of 2019, one player pays the ultimate price
when he focuses too heavily on a potential fashion score
and not on the dangers in plain sight.
[phone rings]
narrator: The 911 caller is Leigh Ann Smith,
who lives just a few houses down from her 24-year-old son,
George Vela, in Mableton, Georgia, a quiet suburb
15 miles outside Atlanta.
- I heard the shots, and I ran to the door.
And I'm standing at the door, and, you know,
everybody has come outside.
The neighbors are outside.
And everybody's screaming, you know, he's been shot.
I went on to where George was,
and he was already deceased.
And I closed his eyes.
[somber music]
I just laid on the ground with him.
One of the neighbors came over and helped me up
and helped me to walk away.
And so that was the last time I saw my son.
[sirens blaring]
narrator: Within minutes, Cobb County officers
make their way to Hickory Trail,
a dimly-lit residential street.
- When police arrive on the scene, it's chaos.
They locate the victim's body, who is later identified
as George Vela by his mother,
Leigh Ann Smith, who was on the scene.
And also nearby is George Vela's girlfriend,
Yainerys "Yaya" Gil.
narrator: Responding officers check George's vitals
and confirm he's dead.
As police begin to cordon off the crime scene,
veteran Cobb County Detective Phillip Stoddard
and his partner, Detective Kelli Cook,
arrive on site.
- I spoke with the officers who were
manning the crime scene tape.
I got a rundown of what they had noticed,
what they had observed.
- And once we got that information,
we knew that obviously we needed to speak
with Leigh Ann Smith and Yaya.
However, the first thing we have to do is work the scene.
When we have a deceased victim on scene,
obviously, one of the first things you're going to look at
is the body itself.
What evidence can we see just from looking at the victim?
- When I first walked up to George,
he was laying on the side of the road.
His arm had a very serious injury to it.
- He's in sort of a leafy brush area.
He is face up.
He has got a lot of what looks to be blood all over his body.
He looks to have multiple defects that would
be consistent with gunshots.
narrator: Surveying the area, investigators notes
something else looks strange.
- It appeared that he had run out of his shoes.
Both of his shoes were off his feet,
however, in close proximity to where he fell.
And I believe his wallet was on him as well.
And that tells me that, assuming that George is
running away from where the gunfire is coming from,
that told me that nobody was running after him trying
to steal things from him.
- When forensics or our crime scene technicians
arrive on scene, they have to document the scene.
- The main evidence that was collected from this
crime scene was seven .45-caliber shell casings
that were in the roadway.
narrator: The team also gathers samples
of blood, hair, and clothing,
and dusts for fingerprints.
The evidence is sent to the Georgia crime lab
for further analysis.
- The next thing is, a medical examiner clears the scene.
They have a transport service that will remove the body,
and it's then taken to the medical examiner's office
for an autopsy.
* *
- So the next thing we're going to do,
I call it the grind.
This is when you're canvassing neighborhoods.
You're looking for video.
You're looking for some sort of evidence
to send you in a direction.
We're always on the alert for any type
of surveillance cameras.
- We were disappointed to not find any video,
but it certainly didn't mean that
we couldn't still get good leads.
narrator: And to do that, Detectives Stoddard
and Cook need to begin building
a portrait of their victim.
- What type of lifestyle did they lead?
Who were they close to?
Is there anything troubling happening?
narrator: The team speaks with George's mother,
Leigh Ann Smith.
- George was my middle child.
He was a good kid, and he was a mischievous kid
at the same time.
I think he had a pretty good childhood.
You know, there was ups and downs.
But for the most part, there was a lot of fun.
narrator: When George turned 19, he settled down
with his high school sweetheart, Yaya Gil.
- Yainerys Gil was someone my brother had met in about--
I think it was ninth grade for him.
And I guess they clicked instantly.
- After high school, they settled down together.
The couple have two children, a six-year-old daughter
and a one-year-old son.
- They had everything they wanted.
One of the things that George was trying to do
was, like, give them a better life than he had.
- He finally found his calling with the reselling,
and that was where that became his dominant job.
- George was buying these--
these first-release items,
and he was reselling them using a website
where people could bid on it.
George's plan was to open a store
and sell the clothes that he had purchased online.
narrator: But in the flash of a gunshot,
George's dream is gone.
Now his loved ones are grappling
with the horror of his death.
- We're all very angry, very upset.
And everyone's just trying to
make sense of who did it, how did this happen,
why did this happen?
narrator: Back at the crime scene,
investigators ask Leigh Ann
what might have led to her son's murder.
- One of the main pieces of information
that Leigh Ann gave us was that there had been a burglary
earlier in the evening.
Her son George had called her to tell her about it.
- George and Yaya took their daughter
to see "The Lion King."
They had left my grandson with me.
They came to my house after the movie
and picked up my grandson.
It wasn't 10 minutes they were at their house
and George called me and said,
someone has stolen all my merchandise.
It's all gone.
And I said, well, this feels really personal.
Because they didn't take the family TV.
They didn't go in other parts of the house.
It was only the clothing.
I mean, he was just distraught.
I mean, the street value was this exorbitant amount
of money.
I dropped everything and I went to his house,
and he was very upset.
narrator: Leigh Anne tells detectives police came
to the house and took a report but found nothing suspicious
in the area at the time.
She then provides another surprising piece
of information about the murder.
- Leigh Ann gives us a lot of information.
She tells us Yaya had witnessed the incident,
and so she actually gave a very detailed description
of where the suspect vehicle had been parked
when George encountered it.
She was a priority to speak with.
I was very hopeful that she would be able to give us
useful information.
* *
Finding the possible drugs, it does make you wonder, OK,
is this possibly the motive for what happened?
- One of the names we got supposedly
stole money from Yaya, was a bad influence with George.
We got George's phone records back.
Then yes, so we started looking at his associates
that were customers of his.
* *
narrator: 24-year-old entrepreneur George Vela
has been brutally murdered near his home in a suburb
just outside Atlanta.
Detectives have learned that George's
longtime girlfriend, Yaya Gil,
allegedly witnessed the murder.
The team is hoping she can recall
key details about the killer.
[police radio chatter]
- She was visibly upset.
It appeared that she had been crying.
- She told us about the lead-up to the murder,
so what they'd been doing that evening.
- They returned home.
The door was unlocked.
When they entered the house, they obviously missed--
you know, missing the clothing.
- She told us that after they'd reported the burglary,
George started calling friends of his, business associates,
kind of as if to say, I'm going to eventually
find out who did this.
You need to come clean.
narrator: Yaya tells detectives that around
midnight, hours after the burglary,
George walked outside to check for any clues.
- He walks out in the carport, and he sees a clothing tag.
And so that's when he tells her,
hey, let's go walk up the street
and see if maybe they dropped some of my stuff.
- George was in front of her.
There was a silver car parked on the side of the road.
[heartbeat thumps]
And she heard George say, hey, that's my stuff.
George went into the backseat of the car.
She heard someone say, get out, or stop.
George then exited the car and was shot.
* *
- The story that Yaya told certainly
gives you a glimmer of hope that maybe
she will be able to provide a description of the suspect.
* *
She did say that she saw a light-colored,
she described as foreign-made car,
potentially fleeing the scene.
Again, it's a very vague description of a vehicle.
narrator: But Yaya isn't able to provide
a description of the driver.
Disappointed, detectives began focusing on the burglary
of George's coveted clothing.
- After the first interview with Yaya,
it struck me as odd from the beginning that a suspect
burglarizes a house, makes off with thousands of dollars,
potentially, in essentially merchandise,
and then would come back, having already gotten away
with the product they came for.
That I just thought was strange.
- Are they connected?
It's one of the questions that we have to answer.
Uh, there's a great possibility they were,
but I couldn't let that lead the investigation
at that time.
narrator: Investigators decide to search George's home
for anything unusual.
Could the killer have been looking for something
other than clothes?
- We obtained a search warrant for George's residence.
- The police wanted to make sure that if there was
a connection between the burglary and the homicide,
that they could make that connection
with any physical evidence that was still in the house.
- During that search,
they went into a locked crawl space.
When they went in there, there was a cabinet.
[door creaks]
And when that cabinet was opened, they found marijuana.
narrator: Based on the amount of product seized,
police quickly determine this is no personal stash.
- It does make you wonder, OK, is this possibly
the motive for what happened?
People will absolutely be murdered over owed drug money.
- We don't know the scale of the marijuana business
or what he had in the house.
We don't know if he just re-upped,
got his supply going again.
narrator: Detectives turned to George's family
to find out exactly what was going on inside his home.
- In interviewing George's sister,
she did confirm for us that she knew her brother
to be selling drugs of different types.
It's telling us that this is definitely a direction
that we need to look in.
- She was able to confirm that George was selling edibles
and some marijuana.
I was wondering, is this a possible drug deal gone wrong?
* *
narrator: Investigators look into George's involvement
in Atlanta's drug scene.
- We got George's phone records back,
and we started looking at his associates
that were involved in the drug trade
or that were customers of his.
narrator: Stoddard and Cook also reach out
to their local informants about their knowledge
of George's dealing.
- They would characterize George
as a small-time drug dealer.
I don't see where it took up that much of his life.
- So he's kind of operating out of his home.
He's selling product, I think, to probably
further his clothing business.
All of those people were either spoken to,
investigated, looked into, and ultimately none of them
were found to be a credible suspect in his murder.
We found out pretty quickly, selling drugs was not why
George had been killed.
- It was really his way of networking--
of getting a connection to someone who smoked weed,
and also had really cool shoes on, that he was like,
how did you get them?
And he would network with these people.
narrator: As investigators continue to look for leads,
George's partner Yaya makes a passionate public plea.
- Whoever did this,
I hope you know the damage you've caused.
* *
We'll find you.
- Everyone was in the same heartbroken state as me,
in disbelief, and I guess you could say rallying out
the village to go picket and torch
houses to find these people.
narrator: After three days and no new leads,
investigators check back in with Yaya to see
if she recalls anything new.
- It's normal for people not to remember
everything that occurred during the event and afterwards.
- And so in the days after,
that's why we stay in communication with her
because she might remember something
that she didn't before.
narrator: Detectives ask Yaya if there was
anyone in George's inner circle
who might have had it out for him.
- Yaya knew people that she believed
that either George had a problem with,
or they had a problem with George.
- One of the names we got was Jesus.
He supposedly stole money and possibly
stole a necklace from Yaya, was a bad influence with George.
narrator: And Yaya then mentions another one
of George's friends, Jamal Miller.
- There had been some sort of bone of contention,
if you want to call it that,
between him and George recently.
narrator: Detectives now have two new leads.
- Police have to determine, could either of these two guys
have been responsible for gunning
George down in cold blood?
- When you get a new piece of information,
you've got to put it into the puzzle.
You have to speak with them.
* *
narrator: While Atlanta's fashion community
is reeling over the murder of entrepreneur George Vela,
Cobb County detectives get a break in the case.
Three days after he was gunned down,
George's longtime girlfriend, Yaya Gil,
informs them that two of George's former friends
could have pulled the trigger.
Detectives hope that one of these men
will lead them to the killer.
- When we first start the investigation,
you are worried that it's not going to be solvable.
You worry that it's going to become a cold case quickly.
But as long as you're getting names,
you have to speak with them.
Are they involved, are they not involved,
or is this something that we're going to put
on the back burner for now?
narrator: As investigators look into George's
alleged enemies, his family and friends come together
to send him off in style.
- The city of Atlanta was shocked,
especially the resell industry who worked with George
and knew him.
They were shocked that this could
have happened to him, and--
such a nice guy who didn't seem to have an enemy in the world.
* *
- George's funeral was a little different than most.
He was decked out with all his Supreme brand clothing,
and the shoes he had on were shoes
that he, you know, had gotten on one of these pop-ups.
He had a white casket with pink lining.
We had Palace and Supreme stickers.
We got a huge bag of Sharpies, you know,
hundreds of Sharpies, and so everybody
wrote messages on the casket.
We tried to have a celebration of who he was.
* *
narrator: As George's family mourns,
Detectives Stoddard and Cook
begin searching for the two friends
Yaya claims may be responsible for George's murder.
- At that time, any name we were given,
we were going to track that person down
or try to talk to them if they would talk to us.
And Jamal Miller was someone who
possibly had a problem with George,
or George had a problem with him.
narrator: According to Yaya,
Jamal and George had a heated argument
and stopped speaking to one another.
- When you, as the police, show up to people's door,
there's a multitude of reactions you can get.
- They ask me if I've heard anything
about what happened to George.
And of course, I'm clueless because
I don't know what happened to George.
I haven't talked to George in over a year at this point.
They're like, George was murdered
in front of his house.
And I just instantly start crying.
- I remember he was upset to hear what had happened,
and he had no problem answering any of our questions.
narrator: Despite Jamal's emotional reaction,
investigators press him about his falling out with George.
- I went over there to buy some weed off of him,
and he was playing "Fortnite."
But I'm like, dude, don't play "Fortnite."
Focus. Like, I'm trying to get out
of here and get to the movies, too.
Like, come on, man. Let's do this.
I kind of got a little frustrated at him,
and I guess he got frustrated at his game.
So when I left, I slammed the door because I was pissed off.
He followed me outside the door and was
yelling and talking crap.
And I was at that point, like, George,
you don't want to do this, bro, you don't want to fight.
We ain't fought ever before.
We're not going to do it right now.
I'm just going to leave. And that's what it was.
I didn't see him again after we fought.
I didn't ever see him again.
I was so confused about who would try and do something
like this to George because he'd never had
any problems with anybody, you know what I'm saying?
He was never a bad guy.
He didn't ever step on anybody's toes.
narrator: Jamal provides police with an alibi,
which checks out.
- I did not walk away from that interview thinking
that we were going to find out that he had done this crime,
and we were able to rule him out as a suspect.
narrator: After hitting a dead end with Jamal,
investigators tracked down Jesus,
another one of George's friends who Yaya singled out.
- Yaya had basically stated that there
was an issue over him possibly having
stolen a chain from George and then also some cash.
- When police went to go speak with Jesus,
they learned that Jesus hadn't stolen anything from George--
that he and George were actually very good friends.
They got along very well.
- When we met him, he was very much about George.
He was very much about, this is a really good guy.
Very much about the clothing.
Knew a lot about what George was doing and the business
that he was trying to create.
- To me, Jesus came across as very believable.
He came across as someone who was
very sad that his friend has died
in such a horrible manner.
narrator: Investigators quickly verify Jesus
was nowhere near George's home the night of the murder.
But before they wrap, Jesus drops a startling
piece of information.
- What Jesus ends up telling us is that George had confided
in him that he believed Yaya
might have been cheating on him.
* *
- So Jesus explains that in the weeks
leading up to the murder,
George became very skeptical of Yaya.
And Jesus believed that George started to piece these things
together that Yaya may be involved in a relationship,
essentially an affair.
And George started to explain to Jesus that he was very
skeptical about what Yainerys was doing when she wasn't
at home, and George was explaining to Jesus
that he caught Yainerys in a lie
about who she was with when she really was supposed
to be watching the kids.
- All of a sudden, we learned this information.
It brought more suspicion upon her as a person of interest.
- I do remember thinking to myself,
we're just running all over based on, you know,
what Yaya's telling us.
There was kind of a question there of,
how valid is the information she's given us?
narrator: Detectives now have to ask, has Yaya's sorrow
and distress simply been an act?
Could she have been involved in George's murder?
- Whoever did this, I hope you know the damage you caused.
* *
We'll find you.
* *
narrator: One week after fashion entrepreneur
George Vela was found murdered outside his home--
- It's just shot after shot after shot.
narrator: Detectives receive a shocking
piece of information about the mother of his children.
* *
- When we're sitting there talking to Jesus,
he brings up that George believed Yaya
may have been cheating on him.
- And that he caught her lying about going to a gun
range with a couple of individuals
that he didn't know, and specifically
that he found a receipt on a day
in which she lied about where she was and who she was with.
narrator: Yet when detectives ask Jesus about the identity
of the mystery man, he tells them he has no idea.
The team must now consider the awkward possibility
that Yaya could have been playing them all along.
- When we started to suspect Yaya was involved,
it was my hope that she wasn't because
of her two young children.
But it is something that we need to look into,
and it's something that we were going
to question her on later.
narrator: In the meantime, detectives hit the streets
and do some old-school police work, trying to locate
the gun range Yaya and her mystery friend visited.
- Talking with an ATF agent, he's like,
go to Adventure Outdoors.
Everybody buys their guns there.
* *
I've been in close contact with Adventure Outdoors,
and that's the first gun range we went to.
narrator: And the tip pays off.
When detectives look at the logbook, they see Yaya's name.
* *
- We could see that the days that Yaya had signed in,
directly after her were two male names.
The two names that signed in after Yaya in the logbook
were Zachary Franks and Christopher Gutierrez.
And that was the first time their names
have been brought up.
narrator: But that's not all the logbook reveals.
- Christopher and Zachary had gone into the gun range
earlier that week--
I believe it was on the 15th.
July 15, they went into the gun range.
- We know that based on the surveillance footage
and the receipt, that they bought .45-caliber ammunition,
which matched the caliber of the firearm that
was used to kill George Vela.
* *
- When we received information that he had been at the gun
range with Yaya and that he had bought the same type
of ammunition that was used to kill George Vela,
they definitely become persons of interest.
narrator: And so does George's girlfriend, Yaya Gil.
- I thought it was extremely odd that she was at a
gun range shooting with, potentially,
other men literally in the days before George was killed,
and she never once mentioned it to the police.
[gunshot]
narrator: All of these new revelations
force investigators to rethink their case.
In order to get a better read on Yaya,
they reach out to George's family.
- So we went back and talked to Leigh Ann about Yaya
and about the relationship with George.
- The feeling that I got was that Leigh Ann loved Yaya
just like she was her own daughter.
Her and George had been together for a very long time.
- Speaking with Leigh Ann,
Yaya had a troubled background.
Yaya, to my understanding,
did not get along well with her family.
There was a lot of contention
between the various family members.
narrator: Leigh Ann tells detectives that due to Yaya's
troubled past, she decided to take her in
when she was 15 years old.
- Yaya was my best kid.
She would do anything I asked her to do.
She wanted to be, you know, loved.
- Leigh Ann could not believe that Yaya was involved
because, again, she-- she felt as if she
had basically raised her,
and was another mother figure to her.
- I was hoping that she wasn't cheating
and that it was her fault.
I really, really hoped
that she wasn't the main spark.
narrator: Frustrated, investigators walk away,
no closer to knowing whether Yaya could have played
a part in George's murder.
They switch gears and focus on the two men who accompanied
her to the gun range.
- When the police look into the backgrounds of Zachary Franks
and Christopher Gutierrez, they learn that Franks lives
with his grandparents, who've been his legal guardians
since he was five years old.
And upon further investigation,
they determined that neither of these two young men
have criminal records.
- So the first thing I did was we got search warrants
for their cell phone records.
- Once Detectives Stoddard and Cook had the information
about Christopher Gutierrez and Zachary Franks,
they wanted to try and establish whether or not
they had a connection to the incident
and specifically the location of the incident.
- With Zachary Franks's phone records,
you can search things like his location data.
I'll be honest with you, when Detective Stoddard pulled up
Franks's location data,
that doesn't tell you anything, right?
So you've got to hand-plot it into Google Maps.
The suspense is killing us.
Where is this going to show that he was?
narrator: The result pinpoints exactly where
Zachary Franks was the moment George was killed.
- The victim, George Vela, was found at 612 Hickory Trail.
So when Hickory Trail came up on Zachary Franks's
phone records, I was standing behind Detective Stoddard,
and I just started violently shaking his chair
and screaming because I was like, well, this is it.
You know, this is just--
you couldn't hope for anything better.
- We start learning that Yaya made
contact with Zachary Franks the day of the homicide.
There were text messages about them having a baby.
- There is a video and also photos of Franks and Yaya
in, I'll say, compromising positions.
- If you look at the reasons for homicide,
love is a strong reason for people to commit homicide.
* *
narrator: Cobb County detectives have just
scored their first big break in the murder case
of George Vela, after obtaining
Zachary Franks' phone records.
- We started going through the location data,
and the data showed that he was within
50 meters of the homicide scene around the time
of the homicide.
narrator: Upon closer inspection,
the records reveal something even more surprising.
- We start learning that Yaya made
contact with Zachary Franks the day of the homicide.
There's text messages exchanged.
- It appeared that she had been speaking with Franks,
hoping to have George killed.
There was a comment or a message
about being willing to pay five bands,
which is kind of street language for $5,000.
There's also messages between Franks and Gutierrez
that she wants someone to kill her husband,
which is kind of how they referred to George,
even though they weren't legally married.
narrator: For investigators, the couple's plan
is rapidly coming into focus, as well as their motive.
- Once we got Zachary Franks and Yaya's cell phones,
there were text messages about them having a baby and them--
I mean, Zachary and Yaya having a baby together.
- There is a video and also photos of Franks and Yaya
in, I'll say, compromising positions.
And there's a lot of messages about their relationship,
their future.
- In the weeks after George's death,
Yainerys Gil took a photograph of her two children,
George's two children, at his grave and actually sent it
to Zachary Franks and said, I visited George today,
and I can't wait for us to start our family.
- If you look at the reasons for homicide, you know--
love, money, power, and revenge.
Love is a strong reason for people to commit homicides.
narrator: Nearly three weeks after George Vela
was fatally shot, police are set to question the trio
they believe are responsible for his murder.
But there's a hitch.
- So we're searching for Zachary and Christopher
and Yaya to be interviewed.
I had not taken out the arrest warrants yet.
I wanted to interview them, get a little bit more information.
We aren't able to locate Zachary Franks
or Christopher Gutierrez.
Our units were checking multiple locations for them.
Detective Cook suggested that we go find Yaya.
- So we drove by where she worked.
We parked off to the side in the parking lot.
And sure enough, we saw a car that matched Zachary Franks's
vehicle description in the parking lot of a restaurant
that's just down in the same strip mall
as where Yaya worked.
narrator: Investigators stake out the area
and then spot the two.
- They walk into Paco's, which is a Mexican restaurant
on the corner.
After they're done eating, they go to a liquor store
and buy a bottle of vodka.
- Our plan was to just approach them
and conversationally ask them to come back to the office
to be interviewed.
As with happens in police matters sometimes,
things go over the radio.
All of a sudden, we have all these police units
that are notified that homicide is looking at
a suspect in this parking lot.
narrator: As Franks and Yaya leave the liquor store,
police spring into action.
- It was a very tense moment.
Our uniformed members take them in custody.
- They were detained at that point.
They were brought to our office to be interviewed.
narrator: A few hours after Franks and Yaya
are brought to headquarters,
police finally track down Gutierrez.
- So we're able to figure out that Christopher Gutierrez was
at an apartment, and our SWAT team took him
into custody without incident.
* *
narrator: With all three suspects detained,
detectives need to find out who did what--
specifically, who pulled the trigger.
- I put them in separate interview rooms,
and they interview them one at a time.
- I went into the room with Zachary Franks.
- He started explaining how Yaya,
she wanted them to break into the house
and steal the items from George.
And so it really began to--
to be clearer to the detectives that the murder
was related to the burglary.
- He says Yaya set up the burglary,
and that it was Christopher's idea to do this crime.
narrator: But there's still the lingering
question of who fired the gun.
[gunshot]
[gunshots]
- We got a lot of information back.
I don't believe it was 100% truthful.
People lie to protect themselves.
We need to talk with everybody,
and Kelli Cook and I interviewed Yaya.
She admitted that she had set up the burglary.
She stated she set up that burglary
because she wanted George to get out of the drug trade.
She wanted to show him how dangerous
the drug business was, and she did not mean
for anybody to get killed.
- With Yaya, I had this feeling of, OK,
she's giving us a little bit of the truth.
She's admitting that she set up the burglary.
We talked about, what door did she leave unlocked?
But then she's also trying to distance
herself from the murder.
- The explanation of wanting to kind of teach George
a lesson about why selling small amounts of marijuana
was so dangerous and to go through this extent
to do that, that didn't make sense to me,
especially knowing the lengths that she took
to steer police in the wrong direction
of who really murdered George.
- She also implicated Christopher Gutierrez
as the trigger-puller and the mastermind
behind this homicide.
narrator: Investigators are convinced
Yaya isn't telling the truth.
They don't buy her story or Franks'.
Detectives need to know what Gutierrez has to say.
- He confirmed that Franks and Gil
had been in a relationship.
That Franks, at least, had spoken
to him about how Yaya was looking
for someone to kill George.
- He wouldn't implicate himself,
and then we started explaining to him that we know more.
narrator: A frightened Gutierrez says
he'll tell detectives what really happened.
- It surprised me.
Gutierrez walked us through the night of the murder.
* *
[birds chirping]
narrator: Cobb County Detectives Phillip Stoddard
and Kelli Cook have detained Yaya Gil, Zachary Franks,
and Christopher Gutierrez for the brutal assassination
of George Vela.
Yaya and Franks claim
Gutierrez orchestrated the murder.
narrator: But detectives aren't buying
Franks and Yaya's story.
They press Gutierrez, who comes clean and tells them
how the murder actually went down.
- Christopher Gutierrez began by saying they went over there
for the burglary, while George and Yaya had been out watching
a movie with their daughter.
I believe he stated that Yaya had
been sending them their information
about where they were, the movie had ended.
After the burglary, Christopher didn't know
why they were going back to the house.
He stated that Franks had the firearm.
* *
He stated that they're sitting on the side of the road,
down past Yaya's house.
George comes walking up and sees something in the car.
He believes that he saw, like, a pair of shorts
or tennis shoes or something.
And George then gets in the car.
That's when Zachary Franks starts shooting.
[gunshot]
And George then took off running.
Zach got out of the car and started shooting at George
until he fell in the street.
[gunshots]
- Gutierrez vehemently denies he shot George.
He swears he only drove the getaway car.
- They both pointed the finger at the other
for being the shooter, which doesn't surprise me.
Nobody wants to admit to doing a shooting,
certainly to the police.
narrator: Gutierrez's version of events fits better with
the evidence detectives have and suggests that the shooting
was premeditated.
- He confirmed that Franks and Gil
had been in a relationship.
That Franks, at least, had spoken
to him about how Yaya was looking
for someone to kill George.
After they were interviewed, after being detained,
there was no doubt that we had the right people.
narrator: With this information,
the team officially arrests all three suspects.
- Zachary Franks and Christopher Gutierrez
were charged with the burglary from July 21 of 2019,
and then they were also charged with the murder
of George Vela that happened just
after midnight on July 22.
Yainerys Gil, as a conspirator to that crime,
was charged with the murder of George Vela.
narrator: Facing the possibility of spending
the rest of their lives in prison,
all three defendants plead not guilty.
- I became angry about what happened to George.
From my review of the crime scene and the photos
I had, it appeared to be personal to me,
in that your intent is to, in fact, kill this person.
* *
- We had to go tell Leigh Ann that the person
she thought of as a daughter killed her beloved son.
[somber music]
- It was hard. I'll never forgive her.
I want my son back, but I can't have that.
- My reality, finding out that Yaya had a part of it--
it mentally broke me for a short period.
It was something inconceivable,
and really hard to get over.
* *
- We knew early on that Christopher Gutierrez
was going to cooperate and testify at trial.
So we asked the court to separate him
and his case from Yainerys Gil and Zachary Frank
so that we could use him at trial.
narrator: In exchange for his cooperation,
Gutierrez receives a reduced sentence
after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
- Christopher Gutierrez reached a plea deal,
and he received 15 years with the possibility of parole.
* *
narrator: On December 6, 2021, just hours before her trial
is set to begin, Yaya Gil has second thoughts
about maintaining her innocence.
- Yaya reached a plea deal,
and she received 30 years with the possibility of parole.
- So in that respect, she accepted responsibility.
But she never made a statement in court
or went on the record as to what happened
or why or that she was sorry.
narrator: That same day, Zachary Franks's murder trial
gets underway.
- The trial lasted two weeks.
Zachary Franks decided not to testify.
I was confident, but with a jury trial,
you never know what the ultimate outcome could be.
Sometimes juries can be very surprising.
- It doesn't take the jurors very long
to reach their decision.
After two hours, they find Zachary Franks
guilty on all counts, including
the murder of George Vela.
- You feel good.
You convinced the jury that these are the right people
and that they should accept their punishment
for what they had done.
- The district attorney, they asked me what I thought
would be fair.
And you know, my answer to that is, get my son back.
And I said, I can't have that,
so I really don't care what you do to him.
- The judge ultimately sentenced him to life
without the possibility of parole,
which means he'll spend the rest of his life
in the Department of Corrections.
narrator: As for George's family, they continue
to cope and come to terms with their irreplaceable loss.
- I have imaginary conversations with him
when I'm having really hard times.
So I think about him almost every day.
- I remember telling him how proud
I was of who he had become.
And I have no choice but to move forward
because I am responsible for
my grandchildren.
They deserve to have a happy life.
* *
- I keep a picture of George and his son
and his daughter at my desk
just to remember that there really is evil in this world,
because there's absolutely no reason
he should have been murdered.
* *