Crime & Safety

Update: Woman Police Say Hired NFL Linebacker to Kill Boyfriend Will Stand Trial Monday

Eric Andrew Naposki, the former linebacker, was convicted of murder in July.

A 46-year-old woman accused of getting her lover, a former NFL linebacker, to kill her boyfriend in his Newport Beach home in 1994 will stand trial Monday.

Eric Andrew Naposki, the former linebacker, was convicted July 14 of special circumstances murder for financial gain with a sentencing enhancement for using a gun. Naposki, 45, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 20.

The trial for his former lover, Nanette Ann Packard, of Ladera Ranch, is scheduled to begin Monday with opening statements at 9 a.m. at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, the District Attorney's office reported today. Packard is charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder for financial gain and faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

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Packard is accused of getting Naposki to kill 55-year-old retiree Bill McLaughlin, who was shot to death by an intruder in his home in a gated community Dec. 15, 1994, to steal the $1.5 million he had in savings and collect on a $1-million life insurance policy.

Naposki was a key suspect in the mid-1990s and Packard pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail in 1996 for stealing about $500,000 from McLaughlin. However, the case went cold until 2009 when the two were arrested on murder charges.

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Packard met McLaughlin through an ad and Naposki was having an affair with her behind McLaughlin's back.

Naposki's defense team of Gary Pohlson and Angelo MacDonald argued during this summer's trial that Packard was the killer and Naposki was framed for the crime.

Naposki and Packard were becoming more brazen about their relationship as they visited each other's families and appeared in public together just before McLaughlin's death. Naposki and Packard went to her son's soccer game the night of the slaying.

Naposki played three games with the New England Patriots in 1988 and one each with the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts in 1989.

City News Service contributed to this report.


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