Nanette Ann Packard convicted in California millionaire's 1994 murder

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Nanette Johnston enters a courtroom in Santa Ana, Calif. where an Orange County jury handed down a guilty verdict with special circumstances, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, for the 1994 murder of her millionaire boyfriend, William McLaughlin.

/ Pool), (AP Photo/Orange County Register, Leonard Ortiz

(CBS/AP) SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Southern California woman was convicted Monday of arranging to have a former NFL player kill her millionaire boyfriend more than a decade ago to collect on a $1 million life insurance policy and other cash.

Jurors found Nanette Ann Packard, 46, guilty of first-degree murder in the 1994 shooting death of Newport Beach mogul William McLaughlin and that she committed the crime for financial gain.

"This is in honor of my dad and all of the many people this woman has used and abused," Kimberly McLaughlin, the victim's daughter, told reporters after the verdict. "It's a lot of closure for us."

Prosecutors said Packard, whose name was Nanette Johnston at the time of the murder, was dating and living with the much older McLaughlin when he was shot six times in his Newport Beach home in December 1994. But the divorced mother of two was also romantically involved with Eric Naposki, a former linebacker for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts who worked as a nightclub bouncer, authorities said.

Prosecutors accused Packard of convincing Naposki to kill McLaughlin, giving him a key to the victim's house and telling him when he would be home. She stood to collect $1 million on a life insurance policy and receive other benefits if McLaughlin died, authorities said.

Authorities long suspected Naposki and Packard in the shooting death, but the case went cold for years until police said they uncovered evidence that linked the pair to the killing.

A jury found Naposki guilty of first-degree murder in July.

Packard and Naposki are each scheduled to be sentenced on May 18. Both face a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Complete coverage of Nanette Ann Packard on Crimesider

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by oldabner January 25, 2012 4:07 PM EST: Just another old fool, who actually believed that a hot, young hunnie was interested in anything but the money. It's amazing how many useless, half senile old men fall for the scam. Sure, you can see many old geezers, with money, with hot young women. But show me just one broke, broken down grandpa with a hunnie who gives a f*ck about him.; Reply to this comment