Nanette Johnston of Newport Beach: Cold Case and Convictions

Nanette Johnston is the former fiancée of Newport Beach medical device millionaire Bill McLaughlin, and she is serving life in prison without parole for orchestrating his 1994 murder at his Balboa Coves home. Prosecutors proved that Johnston, while engaged to the 55-year-old McLaughlin, conspired with her secret lover, former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, to have him killed for a $1 million life insurance policy, a $150,000 inheritance, a car, and a year of rent-free use of his beach house.¹ The case sat cold for 15 years before it was reopened, and both Johnston and Naposki were convicted in separate 2011 and 2012 trials.

How Johnston Met Bill McLaughlin

Bill McLaughlin had built a fortune in medical devices, co-founding HemaScience Laboratories and its Autophoresis-C blood-filtering technology, which was sold to Baxter Healthcare Corp. in 1986 for tens of millions of dollars. By the mid-1990s he was earning roughly $100,000 per month, and in November 1994 he had been awarded $9 million in royalties from litigation with a former business partner.² Divorced since 1990, he lived in a six-bedroom home in the gated Balboa Coves community in Newport Beach with his youngest son, Kevin, who had suffered brain damage after being struck by a drunk driver in 1991.³

In 1991, Johnston, then 25, placed a personal ad in a dating magazine under the heading “Wealthy Men Only,” accompanied by a photo of her in a negligee. She wrote that she “knows how to take care of her man” if he took care of her. McLaughlin, then going through his divorce, answered the ad.¹ Johnston soon moved into his Newport Beach home with her two children. He proposed, and they were engaged at the time of his death. His daughters later described her as a “gold digger.”⁴

The 1994 Killing at Balboa Coves

On the evening of December 15, 1994, at approximately 9:00 p.m., an intruder walked into McLaughlin’s home and shot him six times in the chest as he sat at his kitchen table. Kevin McLaughlin was upstairs listening to music, heard the gunshots, came down to find his father on the kitchen floor, and called 911 at 9:11 p.m.⁵ Kevin told police he had not seen the killer, and forensic testing confirmed he had not fired a weapon.⁶

The initial investigation produced no DNA, no fingerprints, no fiber evidence, and no murder weapon. Investigators did recover two newly cut keys, one on the front-door mat and one in the lock. Spent shell casings at the scene were consistent with a 9mm Beretta 92F, a model Eric Naposki owned. Even so, two successive Orange County prosecutors declined to file charges, concluding there was not enough evidence.²

The Secret Affair and the Money

While living with McLaughlin and wearing his engagement ring, Johnston was in a romantic relationship with Eric Naposki, a former NFL linebacker who had brief stints with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts in 1988 and 1989.⁷ After football, Naposki worked as a bouncer at the Thunderbird Nightclub in Newport Beach, roughly 130 yards from McLaughlin’s home.⁵ Johnston kept the two men apart by telling McLaughlin that Naposki was just a friend and telling Naposki that she and McLaughlin were only business partners.⁸

Johnston was also stealing from McLaughlin. Prosecutors established that she forged checks and drained nearly $500,000 from his accounts. On December 14, 1994, the day before the murder, she forged a $250,000 check in his name and a separate $75,000 check. On the day of the killing itself she forged another for $30,000.⁹ Beyond the stolen cash, Johnston stood to collect $1 million from a life insurance policy she held on McLaughlin, $150,000 from his will, a late-model Infiniti, and the right to live rent-free in his beach house for a year after his death.¹ Prosecutors argued McLaughlin was on the verge of discovering both the affair and the theft, giving Johnston a powerful reason to have him killed before he cut her off.¹⁰

Johnston was charged in April 1995 with 15 counts of forgery and one count of grand theft related to that money. She pleaded guilty in March 1996, agreed to return the proceeds of McLaughlin’s life insurance policy to his family, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.²¹¹ No murder charges had been filed against anyone at that point.

How the Cold Case Was Cracked

In January 2008, Orange County District Attorney investigator Laurence Montgomery began a fresh review at the direction of Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy. Montgomery spent two years going through 60 tapes of original police interviews, looking for contradictions between Naposki’s and Johnston’s accounts.¹²

He tracked down a 1995 tipster who had been known to police only as “Robert.” Cross-referencing Johnston’s old phone records with reverse directories and Irvine-area software companies, Montgomery identified him as Robert Cottrill. Cottrill confirmed that Johnston and Naposki had met with him together in November 1994, offering to invest $200,000 in his software company, and had appeared “very close” as a couple weeks before the murder.² A Tustin hardware store manager also confirmed that Naposki had keys cut in November or December 1994, matching the freshly cut keys left at the scene.

Montgomery also focused on Naposki’s lies about a 9mm Beretta, the same model used in the killing. Naposki told original investigators he had lost the gun months before the murder, but witnesses had seen him with it just two weeks before McLaughlin was shot. Naposki also gave conflicting alibis and initially denied any romantic relationship with Johnston. Murphy later called Naposki’s lies about the gun “the single most important piece of evidence.”¹³

On May 20, 2009, Johnston, who had remarried and was living in Ladera Ranch under the name Nanette Packard McNeal, was arrested. Nine days later, Montgomery flew to Connecticut and arrested Naposki in Greenwich. Both were charged with special-circumstances murder for financial gain.⁸

Convictions and Sentences

Naposki went to trial first. Prosecutor Matt Murphy built a circumstantial case around Naposki’s access to the gated community, his lies about the Beretta, his shifting alibis, and the financial motive tying him to Johnston. The prosecution’s timeline had Naposki leaving a soccer game in Walnut, driving to the crime scene, shooting McLaughlin, and arriving late to his 9:00 p.m. bouncer shift at the Thunderbird Nightclub.⁵ On July 14, 2011, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of murder for financial gain and a firearm enhancement. He was sentenced on August 10, 2012, to life in prison without parole plus four years.¹⁴

Johnston’s trial followed in early 2012. Prosecutors argued she was the mastermind who convinced Naposki to carry out the killing, providing him with a key to the gated community, a freshly cut house key, and McLaughlin’s schedule. Murphy described her as a “greedy thief who committed this murder” to keep McLaughlin from discovering her embezzlement and affair, and to collect on the insurance and inheritance.¹⁵ Her defense conceded she was a cheater, liar, and thief but denied she was a killer, arguing there was no confession, no evidence of a conspiracy, and no reason to kill her “golden goose.”¹⁶

On January 23, 2012, the jury found Johnston guilty of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of murder for financial gain. On May 18, 2012, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.⁵ Both defendants appealed. The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, affirmed Johnston’s conviction on February 3, 2014, rejecting her argument that the 15-year charging delay violated her constitutional rights.¹⁷ Naposki’s conviction was affirmed on September 11, 2014.¹⁸

Where Nanette Johnston Is Now

Now legally known as Nanette Packard, she is incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility, where she has reportedly been training service dogs through a program called “Little Angels.”⁸ Naposki is held at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, California.⁴ Both continue to maintain their innocence. Packard has said she “never would have killed him” because she needed McLaughlin alive to support her lifestyle. Naposki has claimed that someone else used his gun, a claim prosecutors noted still placed him at the center of the conspiracy.

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NBC News. Ex-NFL Player Accused of Killing Millionaire
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Orange Coast Magazine. 3 Hours 44 Minutes
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Los Angeles Times. Wealthy Businessman Shot to Death in Newport Beach Home
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Orange County District Attorney. Former Girlfriend Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole for 1994 Newport Beach Cold Case Murder
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CBS News. Did Ex-NFL Player, Girlfriend Kill Millionaire
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NFL. Eric Naposki Career Stats
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ABC News. Convicted Killers in Millionaires Love Triangle Murder Case Maintain Innocence
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Los Angeles Times. Woman Charged With Stealing Nearly $500,000 From Slain Man
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CBS News. A Real OC Housewife Convicted of Murder
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CBS News. Breaking Open a Cold Case
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ABC7. The Millionaires Mistake
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Metropolitan News-Enterprise. People v. Packard
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