Miami Beach. Maree was promised $1,000 for his involvement in the murder. Shortly afterwards, police suspected that Rebecca was involved in the murders. Rebecca, Smith, and Maree were all arrested in October 1974. All three were extradited to Georgia. During John Smith's trial, John Maree took the witness stand for the prosecution and testified that he witnessed Smith commit the murders after driving Smith from Miami to Macon. He also testified that the original plan was to beat Ronald Akins and then inject him with poison, but the plan was thwarted by Juanita accompanying her husband, and by the fact that the beating that Maree and Smith had planned failed to render the victims unconscious, leading to the killers resorting to shooting Ronald and Juanita Akins with buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun. Maree claimed that Rebecca Machetti convinced him and Smith to participate in the murders by telling them that she wanted "vengeance" against Ronald Akins for issues during her marriage to Akins, and Maree also claimed that both Smith and Rebecca threatened him and his family should he refuse to assist with the murders. Smith also took the stand during his trial, testifying in his own defense and denying any knowledge or involvement in the murders. His alibi was that he spent the day of the murders on a beach near his house in Miami, and he claimed that he had loaned Maree his driver's license and credit cards under the supposed guise of Maree going on a business trip with them. John Eldon Smith was convicted by an all-male jury on two counts of first-degree murder after a three-day trial. During the guilt phase of the trial, the jury only deliberated for 25 minutes before determining that Smith was guilty of the murders of Ronald and Juanita Akins. During the sentencing phase of Smith's trial, his jury deliberated for only 90 minutes before agreeing to sentence Smith to death. Rebecca went on trial on February 10, 1975, and received a death sentence from her jury as well. Maree agreed to testify against Smith and Rebecca in exchange for a guilty plea to two counts of first-degree murder, after which he received two concurrent life sentences that came with the possibility of parole. Maree entered his guilty plea in on April 4, 1975. Death row and appeals Smith's death sentence was automatically appealed. At the time of Smith's death