Woman accused of killing rich boyfriend arraigned
Personal Injury News
Article Date: 5/21/2009 | Resource: MLG
Woman accused of killing rich boyfriend arraigned
“She, former lover charged with murder for financial gain, which could lead to life without parole on conviction.”
NEWPORT BEACH A Ladera Ranch woman stood in a dark blue jail jumpsuit in a courthouse holding cell this afternoon and told her family “I love you” moments before her arraignment on charges she conspired to murder her millionaire boyfriend for money in 1994.
Nanette Johnston Packard McNeal’s husband and two adult children sat in the courtroom gallery and gave her the OK sign, blew her kisses and told her they loved her back before they were warned by a bailiff that communicating with prisoners in court is prohibited.
Packard McNeal, 43, was arrested at her home on Wednesday on a warrant charging her and a former paramour with the Dec. 15, 1994, shooting death of entrepreneur William Francis McLaughlin, 55, in his home in a gated community in Newport Beach.
Eric Andrew Naposki, 42, her alleged co-conspirator, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Greenwich, Conn. He will be extradited to Orange County within the next ten days, prosecutors said.
Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy charged both defendants with murdering McLaughlin for financial gain a special circumstance that could lead to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if they are convicted.
Superior Court Judge Karen L. Robinson agreed to delay Packard McNeal’s arraignment until June 8 at the request of defense attorney Barry Bernstein. Packard McNeal, a mother of four children including a new infant, will remain in custody without bail pending a bail review hearing in Orange County Superior Court’s Harbor Justice Center on May 26.
Her husband and two adult children left the courthouse hastily and declined to comment to reporters.
Bernstein, who also represented Packard McNeal in 1996 when she pleaded guilty to embezzling from McLaughlin before his death, also declined to comment.
Murphy said a re-examination of all the evidence in the case prompted him to file charges. “The Newport Beach Police Department never gave up on this case,” Murphy said. “We greatly look forward to presenting our evidence to a jury.”
He declined to reveal what new evidence led to charges being filed now, nearly 15 years after McLaughlin was shot six times in the chest as he stood in the kitchen of his million-dollar-plus home in Balboa Cove.
Murphy contends that Packard McNeal met Bill McLaughlin, who made a fortune in the 1980s with a machine that separated plasma from blood, in about 1990 when she was about 25. According to Murphy, he responded to her personal ad that read, “I know how to take care of my man if he knows how to take care of me.”
McLaughlin, who was in his 50s and who had just gone through a divorce, later began dating and financially supporting Packard McNeal, according to prosecutors. Packard McNeal, who at the time was divorced with two children, started living with him in a beachfront home he purchased for her and also stayed with him in his bayfront home.
At the same time, she also was allegedly an affair with Naposki, a former National Football League player for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, according to prosecutors. At the time of McLaughlin’s murder, Naposki worked as a bouncer at the Thunderbird Nightclub, located in Newport Beach, less than 500 feet from the McLaughlin’s home.
Prosecutors believe that Packard McNeal, who had a $1 million life insurance policy on McLaughlin, provided Naposki with a key to the McLaughlin’s home and information about when he was expected to be at the house.
At about 9 p.m. on Dec. 15, 1994, Naposki allegedly entered McLaughlin’s home using the house key Packard McNeal provided, and shot McLaughlin six times with a 9 MM handgun while he was standing in the kitchen, according to the District Attorney’s Office. He then walked over to the Thunderbird and reported for work, prosecutors said.
McLaughlin’s son, a young adult who suffered brain damage as a result of being hit by a drunken driver a few years earlier, was upstairs listening to music and heard the gunshots. The victim’s son found his murdered father and called 9-1-1.
Packard McNeal was named in McLaughlin’s will, and was due to receive $150,000 in cash the event of his death and also have the right to live in his beach house rent free for one year, according to prosecutors.
For more information regarding this article please contact:
Jeffrey Marquart
(949)589-0150
jmarquart@marquartlawgroup.com