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OC Woman Sentenced to Life in Prison for Killing Millionaire Boyfriend
Nanette Ann Packard and ex-NFL player Eric Naposki have been convicted of murder
An Orange County woman, Nanette Packard, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing her wealthy boyfriend in 1994. She was aided by former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, who did the actual shooting and whose sentencing was delayed until August. Vikki Vargas reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on May 18, 2012.
An Orange County woman was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the murder of her millionaire lover – a plot that involved a former NFL linebacker.
Nanette Ann Packard, 46, is known to the family of slain businessman William Francis McLaughlin as a black widow. He was shot and killed dead in his kitchen in 1994.
Packard was living with him, and was 25 years his junior, at the time of the murder. She was simultaneously dating Eric Naposki, a former linebacker for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts who worked as a nightclub bouncer nearby.
The two conspired to kill McLaughlin, with Naposki shooting him six times in the chest.
Both have been convicted of McLaughlin's murder, but Naposki's sentencing hearing was delayed until August. He refused Friday to come out to face Packard's family, an act that Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy called "a final blaze of no class and cowardice."
McLaughlin's family showed their disgust for Packard during the hearing at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.
"The fact that you, Nanette, destroyed so many lives, including my Dad's, is vile," said daughter Kim McLaughlin Bayless.
Daughter Jenny McLaughlin said: "I wish he could have stayed with us longer and that God would have chosen his time to leave, rather than a person with a gun and a greedy heart."
Nearly two decades ago, Packard had gotten McLaughlin to assign her as the beneficiary of his $1 million life-insurance policy.
Packard ended up stealing at least $500,000 from McLaughlin both before and after his death, Murphy said during trial.
In 1996, she pleaded guilty to grand theft was sentenced to a year in jail.
Packard had long been suspected in McLaughlin's murder, but the evidence hadn't been there to build a case for prosecutors. Then, in 2009, a new witness and new technology allowed murder charges to be filed against both Packard and Naposki.
Packard had married her second husband, had children and living in Ladera Ranch. She was pregnant with her fourth child.
Naposki was convicted of first-degree murder last July. Packard was convicted in January.
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