SANTA ANA,
Calif. -- A Southern California woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday
for helping her lover, former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, murder her live-in
millionaire boyfriend for financial gain nearly two decades ago.
Nanette Ann
Packard, 46, was convicted of murder earlier this year in the cold case slaying
of William Francis McLaughlin, who made his fortune in medical technologies and
was shot dead in his kitchen in December 1994.
Packard was
living with the much older McLaughlin when he was murdered, but the divorced
mother of two was also dating Naposki, a former linebacker for the New England
Patriots and Indianapolis Colts who worked as a bouncer at a nearby nightclub.
Packard
convinced Naposki to kill McLaughlin, gave him a key to the victim's house and
told him when he would be home, prosecutors said.
She stood to
collect $1 million on a life insurance policy and receive $150,000 and free
rent for a year at one of his homes if McLaughlin died, authorities said.
Packard ended
up stealing at least $500,000 from McLaughlin's estate both before and after
his death, Matt Murphy, deputy district attorney, said during trial.
She pleaded
guilty to grand theft in 1996 and was sentenced to a year in jail, but the
murder case went cold.
Investigators
long suspected Packard and Naposki, however, and new technology to identify the
weapon along with a new witness allowed prosecutors to file murder charges in
2009, prosecutors have said.
McLaughlin's
adult daughters spoke at the sentencing hearing Friday in Orange County
Superior Court.
"The
fact that you, Nanette, destroyed so many lives, including my Dad's, is vile.
... You had absolutely no right to take him from us for your own selfish
reasons. He was incredibly good to you for four whole years," said
daughter Kim McLaughlin Bayless.
Naposki, 45,
was convicted of first-degree murder last July.
His
sentencing has been postponed until Aug. 10. sources
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