The Key in the Door

Shortly after 9 p.m. on 15 December 1994 William McLaughlin, a divorced multimillionaire in his mid-fifties, was shot dead in his home in a gated Newport Beach community, hit by six 9mm rounds. His son rang 911 at 9:11 p.m. Police found a key in the front door and another on the mat outside that opened a nearby pedestrian gate. Living in the household was Nanette Packard, trustee of McLaughlin's trust, beneficiary of his $1 million life policy and a legatee under his will. Packard's boyfriend was Eric Naposki, a former Patriots and Colts linebacker now working security at a nightclub about 450 feet from that gate. The case went cold for fifteen years; in May 2009 Orange County prosecutors charged Naposki with first-degree murder for financial gain. The evidence was entirely circumstantial: a Tustin locksmith who said he had probably cut the door key and had made keys for Naposki weeks earlier; a notebook of Naposki's containing McLaughlin's licence plate number; shifting accounts of what became of his own 9mm Beretta; and an acquaintance who said he told her 'maybe I did and maybe I didn't, and maybe I had someone do it.' Naposki said he had an alibi, including a pager message and a pay-phone call from a Tustin restaurant at 8:52 p.m., and his lawyers pointed to other possible suspects.