As they watched true crime TV in Hayward, he started to fidget. Then he turned to her and confessed to murder, she says

HAYWARD Retired homicide detective Joe Kenda was going through the motions describing for his TV audience how murders are solved through a meticulous step-by-step review of physical evidence It was Dec the year that Kenda s show Homicide Hunter aired its ninth and final season Over in Hayward one viewer allegedly rocked back and forth in his seat nervously His name was Emmanuel Padilla-Maciel and at the time he was a -year-old known to the woman alone in her living room with him as a laid back chill type of person Related Articles Ex-East Bay cop sentenced to years in law enforcement corruption controversy Bay Area cyclist killed in crash on Mount Rose Highway Prosecutors seek -day jail term for Bay Area activist Zoe Rosenberg in Petaluma Poultry occurrence Feds want to put away ex-East Bay cop for years DUI suspected to have caused fatal two-car crash in East Bay She sought him what was causing him to behave so uncharacteristically What followed according to her court testimony was a chilling confession to a homicide that occurred just two days earlier in the same city where they were watching TV By coincidence the victim happened to be her childhood friend John JJ Creech Jr whose killing would go unsolved for years despite the alleged confession and lead to the proliferation of familiar Justice for JJ banners and online flyers being shared by loved ones The woman shared the information not with police but instead with one of Creech s loved ones who turned it over to investigators Padilla-Maciel was a suspect but stayed out of jail until after police spoke to eyewitnesses and matched a spent shell casing in Padilla-Maciel s bedroom to the homicide scene That year Padilla-Maciel was arrested at the southern edge while returning to the United States from Mexico according to police Ultimately at Padilla-Maciel s preliminary hearing in June the woman took the witness stand publicly sharing her story for the first time Her full name was sealed by an order by Alameda County Judge Amy Sekany due to fear of reprisals She recalled how Padilla-Maciel would regularly stop by her Hayward home to watch TV with her or hang out with her husband The two were alone watching a true crime show featuring Kenda when he began to act nervous and fidgety as Kenda described police evidence gathering techniques the woman testified He was asking me Is this really what happens ' she stated on the stand When she pressed him he allegedly communicated her the story of how he shot and killed Creech completely because Creech was wearing a red beanie on that cold winter day Padilla-Maciel was with two women and a man all but one of whom would refuse to speak to police according to court records They seen him walking out of a house that they were next to And they went up to him And he wouldn t take off his beanie They urged him to take off his beanie she testified And he didn t So they shot him Administration allege that Padilla-Maciel was associated with a gang that uses the color blue as an identifier and rivals with a gang that uses red Prosecutors offered no evidence that Creech was really an associate or member of a gang completely that Padilla-Maciel was offended by the article of clothing s color and took action Padilla-Maciel is now awaiting trial with his next court date set for January He is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail records show Creech was shot and killed around p m on Dec near Santa Clara Way and Yolo Street in Hayward leaving behind seven sisters and a fiancee The two were planning a wedding when he was killed A campaign led in part by Creech s mother kept the incident fresh in peoples minds for years Court papers say that detectives learned of Padilla-Maciel s viable involvement as early as Dec when they received a tip that he d confessed to a friend Police later learned that there were three other eyewitnesses one of whom flat out refused to discuss the shooting according to court records The review was further complicated when the lead detective went on sick leave with a terminal illness passing it off to a new investigator according to testimony With no residents resolution Creech s loved ones continued to reach out to the masses for answers As we approach JJs two-years anniversary I m still searching for answers on why my son isn t here anymore a Facebook post by Creech s mother says One-hundred-and-four weeks of going back and forth in my head nothing makes sense What I do know is JJ was robbed of living and left to die all alone Someone knows who murdered JJ that day everyone talks Turns out mom was right according to police testimony First Padilla-Maciel allegedly confessed to his friend Then in the two other alleged eyewitnesses were arrested in an unrelated event One of them agreed to talk and later took the stand like the other woman with her full name sealed by a court order and described just enough to implicate Padilla-Maciel in the shooting She noted the day started with tacos in Oakland When they got back to Hayward Padilla-Maciel explained the driver he yearned to talk to someone they d driven past The car stopped he got out and I heard shots she testified She denied seeing the shooting or remembering how a large number of shots were fired Another local resident a retired mailman testified he also heard shots that day then saw a man aged - running down his street He reported he wouldn t be able to recognize the person now that several years had gone by But what he remembered is that the young man was holding a gun and looked scared He got to the corner he crossed like he was heading towards the underpass He got halfway off the street and he stopped and I seen him panic the retired mailman testified He jumped in the air Then a car pulled up and a woman got out I could just see her silhouette her long hair And I heard her She was screaming he testified She screamed to the guy who was running Get in the car '