All language subtitles for American Greed s11e01 Deadly Gold Digger

In this episode of American Greed...
That woman had a gift. She had some sort

voodoo magic over these men.

What Nanette Johnston wants, Nanette
Johnston gets.

And her sorcery has one aim.

Turning sex into money.

She was a gold digger. It was obvious.

And he went for that? How smart is that?

She steals multi -millionaire Bill
McLaughlin's heart. Then she steals his

fortune.

But when he becomes suspicious of her
spending, this femme fatale's options

deadly. He must die or the money dries
up. Nanette needs to find somebody

enough, violent enough, and mean enough
that she can manipulate him to commit a

murder. Enter former NFL linebacker Eric
Naposki.

But after nearly 15 years, no one is
arrested for Bill McLaughlin's murder.

And many wondered if anyone ever will
be. You can stay on my head for my whole

entire life and we will grow old
together. You will die and I will stay

But you will never, ever, ever find any
reason to think that I had any motive to

kill someone.

She is a killer.

That woman is responsible for the murder
of Bill McLaughlin.

That woman is 46 -year -old Nanette
Johnston. And in January 2012, she

trial for the murder of her former
fiancé.

The couple is together for nearly three
years when Bill McLaughlin is gunned

down at his Newport beach home on
December 15, 1994.

The minute his heart stops beating,
there is one obvious suspect.

At 9, 10, and one second, Lynette
Johnston became a millionaire.

By now, Johnston has already been
convicted in the court of law for

half a million dollars from McLaughlin
and convicted in the court of public

opinion for being a greedy girlfriend.

But her defense wants to ask the jury
one last question.

Hate her as much as you want for being a
thief, a liar.

She's lost, whatever you want to call
her.

Can you call her a murderer?

I guess, if truth be told, she just had
some very appealing attributes that she

used very well.

She distracts you over here with her
beauty, her looks, her body.

And meanwhile, she's got a whole other
agenda, and that's in full swing.

Before Nanette Johnston ever meets Bill
McLaughlin, she sharpens her

manipulative skills on Tom Reynolds in
1990 while he works the door of a

nightclub in Orange County, California.

We basically met. Things hit off rather
well.

She came back to my place, which was
down in Newport. And before I knew it,

had moved in.

It was not pre -designed.

Looking back, I kind of wonder how it
happened.

Johnston essentially moves in
immediately, and Reynolds quickly

a taste for the finer things at his
expense.

She was very focused on money and where
it was coming from and how much was

around. We went out and got all new
furniture. It was redecorated, you know,

to bottom. New couch, new bed, new TV.
Everything was done in whitewash from

upstairs to downstairs.

She had a gift. She, that woman, had a
gift.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney
Matt Murphy says that engulfing men in

sex, lies, and vagaries is standard
operating procedure for Nanette

This is what she does. She meets men,
she manipulates them, and she destroys

their lives.

Everybody's got a talent.

That's her talent.

And one day, Reynolds realizes he isn't
the first to fall prey to Johnston's

talents. An ex -boyfriend came by at one
point. I found him lurking, literally

stalking, walking back and forth in
front of the house, and he was trying to

track her down.

She had deceived him in some way. You
know, they had been involved, and she

gotten money from him, and when she had
done that, the relationship he thought

existed did not.

It seems to be a pattern with Nanette
Johnston.

You start thinking about how did this
whole situation come about because there

really was no planning, wasn't any
formality to it. It was just here I was

the middle of it, which is pretty much
as he had described it.

He said all of a sudden he looked around
and things were gone, money was gone,

and she was gone.

And I'm like, well.

Everything so far, but not the gun part,
and that really started making me

wonder.

Perhaps this relationship isn't all
sunshine and roses.

I found a lockbox, and that lockbox had
a canceled check.

That canceled check was made out to a
magazine that we don't have a

subscription. I looked up what magazine
it was, and it was a hookup magazine.

So I just went by the dates, found that
issue, and lo and behold, it's in bull

print.

Wealthy men only.

Single white female.

Classy, well -educated, adventurous.

Fun.

Looking for an older man who knows how
to treat a woman.

You take care of me, and I'll take care
of you.

You know, here I am looking at this and
knowing she's living in my home. I'm

like, well, if you're going to be
wanting those wealthy men, I don't think

there's enough room in here or time for
you to leave.

In a short period of time, Johnston
finds her next mark,

Bill McLaughlin.

My wife today, you know, she jokes, good
thing you weren't making more money

than you were because that could have
been you.

Whether Bill answered that ad or whether
they met in one of these other ways,

nobody really knows.

All we know for sure is that McLaughlin
had been married for about 30 years to a

very, very nice woman. He had three
beautiful, super sweet kids. And when he

got divorced, he basically met the worst
woman in Orange County.

Apparently, that's not how he sees it.
He called me and he said, oh, he met

really beautiful young.

You know, she has a couple of kids, but
she has a Ph .D.

And I think I messed up. She must be a
genius.

Barbara LaSpisa grows up with her cousin
Bill McLaughlin near Chicago, where she

says his family learns the value of a
dollar.

His parents were known to be very frugal
in our family.

It was rather funny because if you went
to their house to eat, as my father

would say, you better eat first before
you went there.

McLaughlin may not have money, but he
has ambition.

He wanted to be a millionaire by 30.
That's what he would tell me, and I'd

of laugh.

Yeah, so would I.

We all do.

But he was focused, and somehow he was
going to get there.

After high school, McLaughlin enlists in
the Marines and is stationed at Camp

Pendleton in Southern California.

When his duty ends, he enrolls in what
is now Loyola Marymount University.

Bill was the first one to go to college,
and he couldn't afford that. The

parents couldn't afford it.

Determined to succeed, McLaughlin
enrolls in a student worker program to

his education on his own, graduating
with a degree in biology in 1964.

In 1966, he marries and soon has three
kids, two daughters and a son.

And in the 80s, his promise to his
cousin finally comes true.

His business partner invents a
groundbreaking medical device that makes

millionaires dozens of times over.

They invented a centrifuge that would
separate plasma from blood.

It's still being used today, and it is
incredibly lucrative.

After his divorce in 1990, family friend
Sandy Baumgartner says there was a

vacuum in McLaughlin's life.

And she sees how the 52 -year -old fills
the void at a Christmas party in 1991.

Bill and Nanette walked in, and she was
a great deal younger, and I managed to

glean through conversation that she and
I were, in fact, the same age, three

weeks apart, and I was 26 years old at
the time.

For a 26 -year -old, Johnston seems to
have an impressive resume.

She tells Baumgardner she earned a Ph
.D. from Arizona State and once owned

own business.

But something about Johnston doesn't
feel right.

She was talking about all this education
and such, and as I was doing the math,

something wasn't ringing true with the
list of accomplishments and the resume,

if you will, that she was rattling off
to me.

Nevertheless, when Bob Gardner sees
Johnston again two years later,

and Johnston are still together, and she
sees a transformed Nanette Johnston.

It looked like she had a little facial
surgery and she had some breast

augmentation done.

McLaughlin's family, particularly his
daughters Kim and Jenny, are not

impressed. Kim sat Bill down one time
and said, look, I think she's after you

for your money.

And, you know, he said, well, thank you
very much for your input. But, you know,

I think he took the stance of duly
noted.

Johnston moves into McLaughlin's house,
converting guest bedrooms into bedrooms

for her two children from a previous
marriage.

McLaughlin treats them as his own. And
before long, it appears he's going to

make it official.

In 93, he came to me and asked me my
thoughts about him getting married.

Brian Ringler has been McLaughlin's
accountant since the mid -80s. And

McLaughlin tells him he wants Johnston
to be a permanent part of his life.

And he said his concern was that he
would be able to provide for her should

something happen to him. And so we had
discussed some various options, and one

of the things that he ended up doing was
getting a life insurance policy.

The insurance policy is for a million
dollars, naming Johnston as the sole

beneficiary.

And it comes just in time.

Within a year of getting the policy,
shots ring out in Newport Beach.

Bill McLaughlin is dead.

But who in Bill McLaughlin's world could
be capable of such calculated deceit?

Any idea at all who would want to harm
him?

I wish I had something to tell you. I
wish I knew.

I don't know.

I can't think of anybody.

When American Greed returned, Nanette
Johnston claims to have an alibi for the

night of the murder.

But could she have tricked yet another
man to do her bidding? I think Naposki

was definitely duped by Nanette. She
went after men who could give her

something.

Newport Beach, emergency, please fire.

Three years before Bill McLaughlin's
murder, his son Kevin is involved in a

accident that leaves him with mental
trauma that affects his speech and motor

skills.

He comes down the stairs and finds his
father dying on the kitchen floor. And

calls 911, and it is this heart
-wrenching 911 call.

I can't understand what you're saying.

He's trying to... tell the 911 operator
what happened, and because of his brain

damage that he suffered as a result of
the accident, she can't understand what

he's saying, and you can hear the
frustration in his voice.

Are you hurt?

Okay,

we have an officer on the way to your
house right now.

The investigators get there probably
about 9 .15.

They walk in, and there's poor Kevin
distraught.

And to the right on the kitchen floor is
Bill McLaughlin on his back, having

been shot six times.

The only thing that they could see that
happened in the house was the shooting.

There was really nothing except the
murder that seemed to be the point of

incident.

As usual in a murder investigation, the
spouse or significant other is an

immediate person of interest.

But when she's questioned...

Nanette Johnston seems to have an alibi.

So what she says is, I was at my son's
soccer game.

I went in a triple overtime, and then I
went to go buy Christmas presents.

The kids were going to come home with
me, but it was so late.

It was like already 8 .30 when the game
ended, and my ex was right around the

corner from the field.

So he took them home instead because
they were going to have to go to bed in

minutes.

Then I went over to South Coast Plaza,
Christmas shop for a few things.

She produces a receipt from Crate and
Barrel with a time stamp that seems to

corroborate her story.

So if Johnston wasn't at the house, who
was?

Larry Montgomery is an investigator with
the Orange County District Attorney's

Office, and he says that investigators
on the scene immediately find important

clues about who may have pulled the
trigger.

Keys were used. One was for the gate to
get into the actual complex.

And the other one was the one that was
stuck in the door itself to open the

house. So obviously right there, there's
a big clue.

Who has access to keys that could get
into the complex and the front door of

this gentleman's house? You start out
with the population of the earth, and

can immediately eliminate everybody
based on, well, essentially three

Somebody that's in the area, somebody
that has a motive to kill Bill

and somebody that has access to these
keys.

When Sandy Baumgardner arrives at the
scene the next day, a thought

occurs to her.

Besides access to the keys, this killer
must have inside information.

I said, whoever did this had intimate
knowledge of his schedule because he

wasn't even supposed to be in town.

Only family members and a housekeeper
have access to keys and might know

McLaughlin's schedule.

But none are near the house at the time
of the murder except for Kevin.

But a gunshot residue test shows that he
didn't fire a gun that night.

And his condition makes it extremely
unlikely he could have pulled off a

with such precision.

Once again, all eyes are on one person.

But no one has an explanation for how
she could be in two places at once.

But maybe she doesn't have to be.

As she repeatedly described, I was at my
son's game. I watched my son's game.

They lost in the championship.

I was sad, whatever.

It turns out it wasn't an I, it was a
we.

She was with her boyfriend, Eric
Naposki.

When American Greed returned, who is
this 6 '2", 230 -pound specimen?

And what use could the ex -football
player be to Nanette Johnston? Nanette

to find somebody stupid enough, violent
enough, and mean enough that she can

manipulate him to commit a murder.

I met Eric at the pool at the apartment
complex where I live.

Suzanne Coger meets Eric Naposki in
1994.

The 6 '2", 230 -pound athlete has played
linebacker for the New England Patriots

and Dallas Cowboys, among other teams in
other leagues.

But injuries cut his career short.

He's tried his hand at both acting and
personal training.

But when Coker meets him, he's working
security for various nightclubs in the

Orange County area.

She also sees a woman visiting him
regularly.

At first, Naposki says she's just a
friend, but eventually he comes clean.

He came over and finally admitted that
she was his girlfriend and how he was in

love with her.

And he also explained her living
arrangement and said that she had been

with a man who was her business partner.

I wasn't sure if he was just trying to
make me believe that or if he really was

that dumb to not believe that she was
truly living, living with this man.

And he said, oh, no, no, it's just a
business arrangement.

They're business partners.

And I said, oh, my gosh, boy, wow,
really?

Is that what you believe?

Oh, he certainly believed it.

Angelo McDonald is Naposki's attorney.

According to him, Nanette Johnston tells
Naposki that she is a successful

businesswoman. She had all the trappings
of it. The nice car, the fine clothes,

the jewelry, the lifestyle.

She had everything.

The couple takes multiple vacations and
cruises. And Naposki believes it's all

paid for by Nanette's successful
business dealings. And in a twisted way,

After McLaughlin's murder, his
accountant, Brian Ringler, examines the

Johnston is keeping and discovers that
she's been skimming cash for months.

Here's a check to Nanette on October
25th. The check amount was actually $5

,000. It shows $1 ,000 on what Bill
would get as a printout.

In McLaughlin's ledger, Johnston records
relatively minor payments made to her

and other entities.

But in reality, she's writing bigger and
bigger checks to herself.

So you see this dramatic increase in
thefts from McLaughlin right as she is

spending more and more time with
Leposki.

They go to Jamaica, she steals $20 ,000.

They go to, you know, meet his family,
and it's $30 ,000.

They go to her sister's wedding, and the
thefts are off the charts.

The most brazen theft?

A $250 ,000 check dated the day before
McLaughlin's murder. The signature on

check forged by Nanette Johnston.

Brian Ringler believes that Johnston
eventually embezzles approximately $500

,000 from McLaughlin, and it's not
something she can expect to hide for

You can steal $5 ,000 and get away with
it from somebody that has as much money

as Bill McLaughlin. You might even be
able to steal $20 ,000 and get away with

it. You can't steal $250 ,000 and not
have an accountant ask where that money

going. And she is a genuinely bad
person. So she's going to get caught.

soon as he finds out that she's stealing
or that she's sleeping with some other

dude, she's out the door.

So he must die before the money dries
up.

And according to Murphy, she has set up
the patsy to make it happen. To an

extent, you can almost feel sorry for
the guy. He's not that bright. He's a

failed athlete.

And Nanette needs to find somebody
stupid enough and violent enough and

enough that she can manipulate him to
commit a murder.

Johnston allegedly tells Naposki that
McLaughlin has been making unwanted

advances, sneaking into her bedroom at
night. When Naposki tells his neighbor

Suzanne Cogar about it, she says his
testosterone is boiling over.

He seemed jealous and somewhat enraged.

And then he proceeded to tell me that
Bill owned his own plane, and then he

blurted out, I'm going to have his plane
blown up.

Weeks later, Bill McLaughlin is dead.

And Nanette Johnson doesn't seem like a
woman in mourning.

She's more like someone with reasons to
celebrate.

There was an insurance policy that was
worth $1 million to her.

In the will, there was $150 ,000 given
to her.

She gets to keep all the money that
she's stolen, which is somewhere in the

neighborhood of maybe just shy of half a
million dollars.

She gets to live in the beach house rent
-free for one year. She gets titled to

convertible Lexus that he bought for
her. So just on the surface, she stands

make about a million dollars.

But as the trustee, she's going to be
able to steal another million, two

out of his estate.

This is not only a gold digger.

It's a gold digger with a black heart.

When American Greed returns, law
enforcement zeroes in on Nanette

she won't go down willingly.

You can't catch up to me because I
didn't do anything.

You can't catch up to somebody who
didn't do anything without making

up. Okay?

Because I didn't do anything.

Eight days after Bill McLaughlin's
murder, Newport Beach police bring

Johnston's lover, Eric Naposki, in for
questioning.

Am I in trouble for something?

I hope not.

I hope not, too, because I don't
understand.

He's very aggressive and very compelling
in the way he defends himself. He's

very forceful in his denials, but the
problem is that he talks too much.

Describe your relationship with Nanette.

Well, he'd actually proposed to her.

So, you know, fiancé versus friend, you
know, when you're immediately lying

about the nature of the relationship,
that's a huge red flag.

They also asked him if he owned any
firearms.

But less than 20 minutes later... The

problem

with Eric Naposki is that every time he
talks, it's a different story.

It makes investigators suspicious.

But Naposki leaves the interview without
further incident.

And if the attention scares him in
Johnston...

They aren't acting like it.

Larry Montgomery put it very well once.
He said, these are not chess players.

People that do this sort of thing, they
roll the dice.

They're not thinking three or four moves
ahead.

They went through all this so that they
could get the money, and they can't wait

to go and spend it.

He moves out of his crappy little
apartment and into a beach house in

Beach. He's driving around in Bill
McLaughlin's convertible Cadillac. He

a friggin' shopping trip with her. We're
there at South Coast Plaza buying

everything in sight.

All on Bill Stein.

But if Naposki dreams of driving the
Cadillac off into the sunset, Nanette

not be riding shotgun.

The problem is, is I don't think Nanette
has any desire to be with Naposki for

any length of time, but needed him for
what she needed him for.

And now that that's over, things were
starting to deteriorate.

You love this guy? You love Eric?

I don't know that I would say love. I'd
say I care about him a lot. I care about

him as a person.

I mean... Do you want to marry him?

No, I don't want to get married.

The investigators believe that Nanette
masterfully manipulates Eric's emotions.

They bring him in for questioning one
more time to see if they too can play

manipulation game.

Maybe a revelation about the true nature
of her relationship with McLaughlin can

get Naposki to turn on her.

She's told us that she was engaged to
Bill.

That's what she told you? She has told
us that. In an interview when she knew

that we were tape recording.

She said that she was engaged to Bill.
That's interesting.

But even with knowledge of the betrayal
and perhaps a new perspective on the

future of their relationship, Naposki
won't break.

I have to look out for Eric. I don't
want Nanette to be dragged into anything

that she didn't do either.

But once again, Naposki can't stick to
his own script.

But when they confront him later in a
subsequent interview, they say, hey,

you don't have an alibi. He says, well,
let me think about that night.

Actually, I said I went straight to
work, but I didn't. What I did is I went

home and then I went to see some friends
of mine and I got a page and I made a

phone call from a Denny's. And that
Denny's phone call has to be my, you

couldn't possibly have gotten there.

Another startling revelation in the
second interview.

A gun Naposki forgot to mention.

Where is your 9mm?

I have no idea. You have no idea. That's
my statement.

It's the same caliber gun used to kill
Bill McLaughlin.

But Naposki seems to believe he's always
one step ahead. You can stay on my head

for my whole entire life.

And we will grow old together. You will
die and I will stay alive.

But you will never ever.

ever find any reason to think that I had
any motive to kill a student.

It's not only with law enforcement that
Naposki can't keep his mouth shut.

Around the same time he's being
questioned, he pays Suzanne Colbert

visit. He asked if I'd seen any cops
around.

And I said, why, what's going on? And
he, why would there be cops here? And he

said, well, you know that guy, Bill, he
was killed, he was murdered.

It sends a chill down Cougar's spine.

I said to him, I don't even want to know
if you did it or not.

And he said, oh, I didn't do it.

But I might have had someone do it.

I was just shell -shocked. I couldn't
believe what was coming out of his

Who would say something like that?

I said again, I don't even want to know
if you did it or not. And he said, maybe

I did and maybe I didn't.

And he just smirked.

It's a conversation Cougar is initially
hesitant to pass along.

He was only like six foot something and,
you know, as broad as a doorway looming

over me.

He was very daunting to have standing
right in front of you and tell you about

murder that had just happened and me
standing there knowing that he was

responsible for it.

So I gave it a little time to make sure
he was kind of leaving me alone before I

made a phone call to the police.

On that call, she's disappointed when
the detective says her story will have

little impact.

He said, well, thanks, but this isn't
enough to make an arrest or anything.

And I thought, wow, that tells you what
I know about the justice system because

I would have thought that it was pretty
incriminating.

Despite police and prosecutors believing
they have the murder conspirators in

their sights, the case has limitations.

There are no unexpected fingerprints at
the scene, nor DNA.

There are no shoe prints outside the
house, no eyewitnesses, and the murder

weapon is never found.

You have to be able to have enough for
the prosecutor to believe that they can

prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt
before they can file charges.

It's an opinion that each prosecutor has
to decide upon.

And in this case, the district
attorney's office decides not to bring

charges.

But Johnston doesn't get away with
everything.

In 1996, she is convicted for the theft
of approximately $500 ,000 from

McLaughlin and is sentenced to one year
in jail.

But remarkably, she is still the
beneficiary of McLaughlin's life

policy.

After taking out what is owed to them
from Johnston's theft, the McLaughlin

children are left with the unpalatable
duty of paying Johnston $220 ,000.

Not a bad nest egg to start a new life.

When American Greed Returns. Nanette
Johnston may have stolen a new

but the Orange County District
Attorney's Office is starting over, too.

First day, when I came into the home
studio, she said, When you get your

bearings, you've got to take a look at
the foam and gloffing case.

She thought it was solvable, and she was
right.

Want inside information from the show?

Join the Greed social network.

Like us on American Greed's Facebook
page.

We'll be right back.

Nearly eight years after Bill
McLaughlin's murder, there's still no

But in 2002, when Matt Murphy joins the
District Attorney's Homicide Unit, he

directs his investigators to solve the
case once and for all.

I was asked by the DA and the Newport
Police Department to look at the case

whatever experience I have to see if I
can find anything that maybe they didn't

find.

The district attorney's office looks
into minute detail of everything Naposki

and Johnston say and do.

And they see a lot of suspicious
behavior.

In the fall, a few months before the
murder, Johnston and Naposki appear to

looking for a new love nest.

They're house hunting in a place called
Turtle Rock.

Picture Beverly Hills with newer houses.

You know, these are multi -million
dollar homes.

Eric is a bouncer.

And Nanette has no income outside of
Bill McLaughlin. So how this is going to

happen without her knowing at the time
that Bill McLaughlin is going to die,

it's impossible.

Johnston also tells a software
entrepreneur she may be interested in

in his company, but not until 1995.

She was saying that she was thinking
that after the first of the year, she

have $100 ,000, maybe $200 ,000 to
invest in his company.

She knows Bill McLaughlin's going to be
dead. That's the only way that she can

come in. And if you know somebody's
going to die, before they die, it's

not going to be a bolt of lightning
that's going to kill them.

More than a decade after the murder,
investigator Larry Montgomery and Deputy

District Attorney Matt Murphy begin to
piece together Naposki and Johnston's

actions the night of December 15, 1994,
after her kid's soccer game.

They drive directly to Newport Beach.

She dropped Eric Naposki off somewhere
in the vicinity of the murder scene.

Back in 1994, there was a staircase that
came right down to about where my feet

are, and there was a place you could
pull out. We think that Annette probably

dropped Naposki off at that location so
he could walk straight down here to

where I'm standing.

And right in front of me, this was a
chain -link fence, and there was a gate.

He enters the pedestrian gate.

He enters the front door with the key
that gets stuck in the lock.

So as he's fumbling for that, he drops
the pedestrian access key.

So Naposki walks in, pulls the gun out,
shoots Bill McLaughlin in three two

-shot bursts. Boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom.

McLaughlin goes down.

Mr. McLaughlin lived directly over this
direction.

We think Mr. Naposki came right through
here and immediately went up to the road

and then head directly over the bridge.

to where he worked, which is a building
over here with a black awning.

If this scenario is true, Naposki and
Johnston have been operating on borrowed

time for nearly 15 years.

And Johnston gets back toward her old
tricks.

She marries one multimillionaire in 1998
with whom she has two more kids.

When that relationship falls apart, she
marries another and is as wealthy as

ever. That woman had a gift.

She didn't murder anybody else that we
know about, but she would charm these

guys, and she had some sort of voodoo
magic over these men.

Naposki has two kids from a short -lived
marriage and eventually moves to

Greenwich, Connecticut, working as a
personal trainer.

His sister, Angela, is convinced of
Naposki's innocence and says that

the difficult times being suspected by
the police, Naposki is able to put it

behind him and continue with the life he
deserves.

It took a little while for that to fade
out and for life to get back to normal.

It wasn't a fun thing to go through, but
it didn't, we all thought it was over

and behind us. Let's put it that way.

But it's not behind them.

When American Greed returns, Naposki and
Johnston move on without each other.

But their paths will cross again.

Former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki and
his ex -lover Nanette Packard have been

charged with the murder of William
Francis McLaughlin.

On May 20, 2009, Eric Naposki and
Annette Johnston are arrested in

stings on opposite sides of the country.

The trials are split into two.

Naposki's is first.

The defense will prove that Eric Naposki
did not commit and could not logically

and reasonably have committed this crime
because he was somewhere else at the

time of the murder.

The defense centers around Naposki's
story that after the soccer game on

December 15, 1994, he made a phone call
from a Denny's at 8 .52 p .m., and it

would have been impossible for him to
get to the murder scene by 9 .10. But 15

years after the murder, the defense is
severely challenged to prove it. You

can't wait for years and years and then
put a defendant in a position where he

can't establish his defense.

Back then, he had lots of people where
he could say, I was with these people

that people. And literally, 15 years
later, some of these people are dead.

They're missing. They don't remember
anything.

You can't find them because of that time
difference. It's so difficult to

actually make your alibi defense what
it's supposed to be.

I think in this case, it was unfair.

Even if Naposki did make that call at 8
.52, The prosecution argues that he

still had time to get to McLaughlin's
house to commit the murder.

If you hung up that phone, got in your
car, and drove straight to that bridge,

it's virtually the exact time that you
would arrive, and we drove it many

You can't prove someone guilty of murder
based on suspicion, innuendo, surmises,

guesses, beliefs, feelings.

The defense points out that the case is
almost entirely circumstantial. The only

physical evidence from the crime scene
are the bullets and shell casings. But

the gun is never found.

There were two, three million 9mm
Berettas out in circulation at the time.

that doesn't necessarily mean a whole
lot to me in terms of reasonable doubt.

There were no fingerprints.

There was no DNA.

There was no video. There was no
admissions.

There were no eyewitnesses, footprints,
bits of clothing, fiber evidence.

None of that existed in that case.

We don't have a picture of him there. We
don't have any witnesses that saw a big

guy at that location. However, we have a
whole ton of evidence that the person

or persons who were involved in doing
this had access to keys, and it's a gun

that he had, and it's a gun that he lied
about where it disappeared to.

and then you compound that with the bits
and pieces that are inconsistent with

telling the truth, inconsistent with
innocence, and totally consistent with

you would say if you were guilty, it
becomes overwhelming.

According to Deputy District Attorney
Matt Murphy, the greatest condemnation

comes from the mouth of the accused.

I think the best witness that we had in
this thing was Eric Naposki himself, and

the fact that he told a different story
every time he opened his mouth.

And that goes back to the investigation,
the first interview, the second

interview. And we start out with, yeah,
she's a pretty good friend of mine, to,

okay, I asked her to marry me.

You know, yeah, I don't have any guns.

To, okay, I had two guns, and one of
them was a 9mm.

Ultimately, the jury doesn't believe
Naposki's shifting stories.

On July 14, 2011, Eric Naposki is
convicted of murder and he is sentenced

life in prison.

But after the trial, he presents yet
another version of events to the

prosecution.

I know I lied about Nanette and I's
relationship, and I know I lied about

gun, but now I'm really going to tell
you the truth.

The truth is I knew she wanted to murder
him.

I knew she was trying to find a hitman.
I introduced her to the hitman, but I

had nothing to do with it.

According to his sister, Naposki has a
reason to keep the story to himself for

so long.

The guy told him he would kill him and
his family.

I remember him screaming to me on the
phone, you know, from prison. I said,

well, what the hell? Why didn't you say
this? You know, why didn't you tell this

story? He said, did you want to see me
floating down a river?

You know, he was screaming at me.

McDonald claims that the evidence at the
scene, such as access to keys and

knowledge of McLaughlin's schedule, only
incriminates Johnston, not Naposki. You

could argue that she could have gotten
anybody to do that. Certainly, the whole

Nanette hires the hitman theory clearly
could have been done with the

same evidence, the same scene,
everything. And the hitman not being

Naposki.

Eventually, Naposki names the alleged
hitman. But law enforcement says they

no evidence to support Naposki's story.

I went and reinvestigated everything he
told us and blew major holes in almost

everything he told us and then went back
to talk to Naposki, confronted him with

those lies, and he admitted to a number
of those and danced around a few, and we

proved that most of what he told us in
this big second interview were also

So his credibility is just shot.

The common denominator in either theory
is Nanette Johnston, and the district

attorney's office has no doubt that she
orchestrates the murder after stealing

hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now, how is she going to get away with
that if Bill McLaughlin lives?

The defense tries to argue that Naposki
acts on his own in a jealous rage.

There was no reason why he had to be
killed that night, except that it was

opportunity Eric needed.

That was the defense he needed to run
because...

Clearly, the jury's going to hate her,
and as they should.

But he didn't want them making a
decision on that type of motion, and of

we didn't either.

We wanted them to make their decision
based on the hard facts and the

which is exactly what they did.

We, the jury and the above entitled
action, find the defendant, Nanette Ann

Packard, guilty of the crime of... She
is sentenced to life in prison, and the

people who knew Bill McLaughlin are left
to try to make sense.

of a senseless murder.

From day one, her intention with Bill
was to get as much money and live a

lifestyle, but I don't know at what
point it turned homicidal.

I don't know what ails her, what in her
life happened to her that made her this

way.