SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- A Southern California woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday for helping her lover, former NFL linebacker and one-time Greenwich resident 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. He played college football at the University of Connecticut.
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.
In May 20, 2009, Naposki was arrested near his Weaver Street home in Greenwich during a "high-risk" motor vehicle stop. Naposki was soon extradited to California to face the murder charge there.
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.
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