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tv   Dateline NBC  NBC  March 18, 2016 10:00pm-11:01pm PDT

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>> mike: it's a 15-6 lead for the jientgiants as we head to t ninth and the new pitcher is cory garen. >> duane: get a good look here at his sink.
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i mean, he's really got a live arm. 6'3", 200 pounder. this spring's he's having a great camp. and he'sler right, you're going to see a lot of ground balls. and low 3/4 release. missed all of the 2015 season with tommy john surgery. this camp he's been lights out. with movement, consistency of movement. he's an interesting guy in the giants camp because he's out of options. giants had to take him north or they're going to lose him. >> mike: this is haggerty at the plate. jason haggerty. >> duane: good change up right
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there. got three good pitches and at times, three swing and miss pitches but for the most part, everything has downward bite and everything he has can get ground balls and you love a guy like that coming into an existing inning when you need a ground ball. think every pitching staff should have one in their bullpen. >> mike: and the one-two. here it is to haggerty. got him. >> duane: 91 mile-per-hour sink. heetz rr h and that's the point. everything he has, he can put you away with. >> mike: so, here's pare all, a
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is 1 for 4. and a wild swing and a miss. mention bumgarner tomorrow. felix debraun will pitch for the a's. and it will be on csn bay area at 1:00. on the ground charging is tomlinson. >> duane: is this the guy we've all been waiting for?
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>> mike: yep. >> duane: this is an interesting guy in padres camp. he's got big time power. he's a tall guy. 6'5", 235. >> mike: george foster. >> duane: well, i mean, he's got some credentials last year between double-a and triple-a. he's got three runs. george foster also had loud contact off me. if you threw something flat, he would hurt you but he didn't liking the curve ball. he liked the sliders. >> mike: he looked very relaxed at the plate. >> duane: he did.
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he looks relaxed everywhere he went in life. >> mike: i think you're right. and he came up with the giants but really established himself in the '70s with the reds. he was scared. they all were scared. >> mike: one and two. and that's way outside. 2-2. >> duane: slider, started a wave. better run off the plate with his movement. maybe he'll chase. but for blash, he likes the ball low and extended. like all tall hitters do. but if he gets a hold of one, heell'll hit it as far as he do. >> mike: and that's the ball game. so, two strikeouts in the ninth. and the giants scoring early and later on often. beat the san diego padres
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tonight by a final of 15-6. >> duane: i think it was really a great win for the giants and they got their line up out there. that everybody feels is more than likely going to be the opening day line up and boy, did they look like they enjoyed playing with one another up and down with the line up, solid at bat, 18 hits, five home runs. it was just a nice offensive night. but the matt cain story took precedent over everything. >> mike: we'll
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. back here in scottsdale, giants win 15-6. >> duane: it was all bouts matt cain. the long awaited return of cain to it rotation. he was fantastic and the arm slot was consistants. he delivered. >> mike: a lot of home runs tonight as well. for more, tune into sportsnet central on csn bay area tonight at 10:30. and tomorrow at 1:00 for the giants and the a's. i'm dwayne, we had a fun night tonight at the yard in front of
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a sell out crude. thanks for joining us. once again the final score, giants 15, padres 6 and have a good night everybody.
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she had missed a meeting and then not to hear from her, this isn't right. it would have been impossible to get up every day knowing that she was gone.
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>> i had to believe we would find her alive. >> narrator: text her, she always got right back. then one day she didn't. where was nailah. >> there was no sign of her, and such a confusing trail of clues, even calls from 911 were silent. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard. >> in my heart i knew she's not coming back. >> one of the suspects had an alibi, until a camera caught him in a lie. and the strangest clue of all, there in an empty parking lot. >> six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. >> narrator: what was in there? >> i watched enough date line to
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know that was probably not a good sign. >> reporter: in lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with "smoke and mirrors." >> narrator: it wasn't like this, you understand. it wasn't gray, wasn't cold. no flecks of snow to catch the bitter breeze. it was hot and after midnight, september, 2007. so it was, and it was clear and dark and still. and vacant. here where the deep woods fought back against the decaying suburban sprawl. and then nothing was clear at all. >> i never cried this violent cry. >> you're experiencing everything, but it's not true. you're just waiting to wake up. >> it just feels like you're literally in a nightmare.
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>> narrator: yes, still does. the name, you'll want to remember, is nailah. this is nailah's mother, maria. >> i wanted her to be success l successful, and she was. she lived her name. >> narrator: quite true, as frankly had the rest of them in this big family. this is lehia, the first born. >> we might need a graph or a chart because it's kind of involved. >> narrator: full siblings, half siblings, quarter siblings once removed that sort of thing. the family was very blended. >> to me, it implies that it's something less and i have never felt that way, i have never used that word. we're just siblings. >> narrator: one big, close happy family, so said john, the youngest. >> it's simple for us because we
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grew up together from the time we were young, so for us, it's like we're one big family. >> narrator: not one but two ashleys. >> she's ashleys with an e, and she's ashley with a y. >> i think this is kind of unusual, kind of rare, that everybody gets along. >> yeah, everybody gets along, it's a good thing. >> although when we were kids, it was a lot more crazy to other people. >> hi. >> narrator: and in the middle of this big family, was nailah. little mute, they used to call her, because once she decided something, all arguments against were mute. >> she was sure of herself from really the earliest time. >> narrator: yes, nailah franklin was going somewhere. >> she was like my hero, i always looked up to her. >> she always accepted you for who you are. it's like she glowed when she came into a room.
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>> narrator: she came to chicago and built a career in pharmaceutical sales. she owned a condo in the heart of the city. >> i think everything she wanted to be she was. the theme fabulous was the aspiration and she always met that mark. >> narrator: she always stayed in touch, never failed. call her, she would call back right away, text her, she would reply instantly, always. >> she managed to water all of her relationships, she would spend time with everyone, friends, family. >> that's a pretty special skill. >> to manage that and your career. >> narrator: there were men, of course there were. though she was shall we say, discertadi discerning. >> professional nice men. >> she was dating with plastic
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surgeon guy, and this guy and that guy. >> she took up briefly with a dashing investor with a white bentley. and in july of 2007, she met andre wright. >> she had a big, beautiful smile, a big beautiful woman, she had a very warm personality and we kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces, talking about my interests, what i was looking for in a piece of art. >> suddenly this was a different search. >> the art work became of little interest to me at that point. >> narrator: just like that, it was all over for both of them. >> i don't want to go all hallmark card on you, but this was clearly like a trance indental moment.
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>> the family loved andre, who wouldn wouldn't. >> he came to my son's birthday party and he brought a gift. because he's a nice, quality person. >> you started planning on moving in together, right, on being together? >> we did. >> and it was happening pretty fast? >> it felt good though, it just felt natural. >> it was long distance, he in milwaukee, she in chicago. they stayed connected by phone and e-mail and text all day long. >> i would call her every morning. >> narrator: and no one seemed to notice any dark force, any unseen thing festering in the heat of that hot late summer, didn't feel the warning, didn't know who said what to whom. it was september 18, a tuesday. >> that tuesday morning, i thought i had called her on my way to work. but i was interrupted and she called me and said, hey, what happened to my call. i said oh, i thought i had.
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so we spoke for a bit, exchanged e-mails later. and then just kind of went about the day. >> narrator: evening came, he in the flush of love, called again. no answer. >> left her a message saying i was heading home and got a text message back from her phone saying she was at a dinner and would reach out later. >> wait a minute. you had been calling her every day, talking all the time. >> yeah. >> and she said, i'm at dinner, i'll call you later? >> narrator: but she didn't. then, 9:00 p.m., one of the ashleys call nailah, nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. >> i texted her and i got something along the lines of i'm at dinner and i'll call you in a few. >> was that like her? >> it's not like her to not answer her phone. i have seen her step out of the
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shower to answer her phone. >> i sent her an e-mail, in all caps, are you alive? >> one of those things half in jest, half knowing. >> reporter: not only was nailah increasingly hard to get after work. >> one more ominous sign, three calls to 911 from her cell phone. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard, light music in the background. >> that's got to be kind of eerie to hear that? >> it is. we know what it means .
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. >> narrator: september 19, 2007 dawned in chicago like any other day, hot, the usual, except for one thing, nailah frank in, ambitious, dependable, always on her phone, are silence, even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning, e-mailed her, called her again early afternoon. >>. >> narrator: that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive? >> you probably didn't mean it the way it was? >> it's like to say to someone, are you there? >> later in condo, no answer. she got a key, went in. >> you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there, just out. >> something's wrong. >> i'm like, you know what? this isn't right. >> narrator: then lehia got a professional, she snknows how, she's a public relations executive. >> your p.i. experience really kicked in? >> yes. >> lehia's experience told her not to hope too much for media's help for one unfortunate reason.
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>> quite frankly, i don't know of one woman of color that gets the same attention by the media, in general. >> in fact there's some truth to it. that the good looking young blond, the whole world wants to know about her, stay talking about her for years, a black woman's not quite the same deal. >> there is really got that. it troubles the mind when people of color go missing, or if it didn't fit the narrative of gun violence or gang violence or something like that, then somehow, it's not real. >> narrator: though lehia knew, but lehia was not to be denied. >> they damned well going to cover it. >> well, they were. >> narrator: maybe this is because of lehia's media salve i savvy. >> we were in the streets and
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putting up any place we could, downtown, suburbs. >> narrator: they phoned and texted and e-mailed their friends, but no one reported seeisee ing nailah, no one. nailah's sisters kept replaying their last conversation. >> she called me and she said, i've got something to tell you. and before she could tell me, she got a call on the other line. she clicked over and said she would call me back. >> she didn't call you? >> she didn't call me back. >> narrator: awful what a person's mind can churn up in the dark, as day one became day two, and then day three. >> i just kept calling her, i was thinking, she's going to answer, she's going to answer. >> there's no handbook about this, you think you're going to wake up and it's a dream, but, no, it's reel. >> detective greg jacobson, who
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right away scanned nailah's phone records and found something alarming. just after 10:00 p.m., the night nailah vanished, her cell phone made three calls to 911. >> chicago emergency, may i help you? >> no voice, no struggles could be heard, no background noise, with the exception of some light music in the background. >> that's kind of eerie to hear that. >> if a person is unable to physically complete the conversation and just able to dial the nang 911. >> narrator: so the investigators set about talking to just about everybody nailah knew. >> there was doctors she had visited to try to retrace her steps and everyone she had encountered. >> everyone we knew had a relationship with her. >> narrator: maybe lehia's campaign worked because -- >> we had some anonymous tips of
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people saying they had seen her at this location. >> narrator: but not a single one of them led to nailah, now detectives knew they were dealing with a serious crime. and yet -- >> she's missing, technically, there hasn't been a crime committed. >> that makes it somewhat awkward when you're looking into it. >> we looked at the boyfriend she went to see from wisconsin the week before she went missing. >> andre was helping in the search and soon was the subject of it. the perfect boyfriend, now to police, a perfectly obvious person of interest. >> reporter: coming up, a discovery in an empty parking lot. >> it was in a pretty secluded area and right adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> reporter: but what if
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it was a big search? >> yes. >> how overwhelming was that? >> you know, the world seems so big when you're looking for someone. >> narrator: imagine, all of chicago, and nailah would be anywhere, tied up in a basement, in the trunk of a car, or worse. then middle of the night, 20 miles south of town in a place called calumet city, a cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course parking lot. his name is calvin lucius. >> i was in this area right here, i noticed right in front
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of me, six perfectly sta lly st cardboard boxes right in the parking lot. something stood out, so i'm like something's not right here. >> narrator: inside the boxes, pills, hundreds of them. >> i was thinking this might be something big, some type of narcotics and drug related case. >> except it looked like examples, something a pharmaceutical rep would be handing out to doctors. >> what were they? >> different types of medicines, i can't even pronounce the names. >> narrator: the label, the address to a storage locker and a name. nailah. pretty soon -- >> the fib and chicago police, everybody was out here looking. >> narrator: including detective greg jacobson. >> it was right next to a nature preserve, that was right
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adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> they drudged the lagoon. >> narrator: back and forth they went, dragging the pond and found one thing. >> jewelry hanging from a tree. >> nailah wasn't here. but remember sister lehia's p.r. campaign, not far away from there, next town over -- >> a person saw a newscast, and they're like, that car's been on my block for a couple days. and thank god they found that and thank god they cared enough to call it in. >> narrator: that call came in here, a black chevy impala. >> we went out there to see it.
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>> narrator: it was hers. >> you opened that trunk, the last thing you want to think is there's something in that trunk. and fortunately there wasn't. >> did you find any prints, any dna, anything useful at all? >> i think othe way our technicians described it, it was wiped clean. >> narrator: determined that she might find her sister, the younger ashley drove out there. >> the car was parked in front of an abandoned house. i knocked on the door, i banged on the windows, i screamed her name. i didn't want to leave. i had to be taken from that area. >> narrator: of course the cops canvassed the neighbors, and what do you know? >> they had even a male loitering around the vehicle.
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>> did they give you a good description? >> it was an african-american. >> that description may have fit a lot of people in nailah's life. for example her new boyfriend, andre wright. police had questioned him about their relationship and where he was when she disappeared. >> they asked when the last time i saw her was, the last time we spoke. >> narrator: or could that man milling around the car have been someone else, her ex-boyfriend, his name was reginald pops. but before the cops could find him, he stepped up and called them. >> he said he wanted to know why the chicago police wanted to talking to him. >> narrator: he agreed to stop by headquarters to talk. he had met her a year earlier, but purely by chance in the street on the ritzy gold coast, she was sophisticated, so was he. they dated on occasion, and realized it wasn't for life.
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>> he lives in a very large apartment complex, a high-rise. >> nice place? >> beautiful. >> in an upscale area. >> it's where you want to live. >> narrator: reginald told them everything they wanted to know. shopping with friends at target, bar hopping with not one, but two lady friends, after that an intimate plan with a third girlfriend. >> they made plans to meet at reginald's apartment around midnight on the 18th. >> this guy gets around. >> if you got a bentley, your options are open. >> as investigators went out to check reginald potts alibi, down in calumet, when a partner notices something. >> he saw a couple of ear buds
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hanging from the trees. >> bright little babbles hanging there in the dark. what else was there at the edge of the midnight woods. >> reporter: detectives take a closer look at a man from nailah's past. >> she felt that there was something off about him. starting at $12.99 may all your tomorrow's be as delicious as today olive garden i can't believe it has 40% fewer calories than butter. i can't believe it's made with real, simple ingredients. i can't believe... we're on a whale.
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it's a grassroots effort by family and friends. >> narrator: for all the frannic activity, the phone calls, the flyers, the organized looking about, it was a rare quiet time nine days in in nailah franklin's sister felt it. >> i knew, i was like, she's not coming back. >> narrator: and that very night, in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, calvin lucius made
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his way from the ear buds his partner found hanging in a tree, behind a derelict video store. >> i got right around in this area, and just looked over and the body was there. >> what was that moment like? >> shock, you don't know if it's her or not, but you have a idea, because it's a female body. >> narrator: they had to resort to dental records to confirm, it was nailah. >> i think this type of death, it doesn't just kill that person, it kills a lot in the family. it's the absence of a piece of you because that person is not here. >> i can't describe it, it's like you know it's happening, but it just feel real. it just feels like you're in, literally like in a nightmare. >> narrator: an autopsy confirmed the death was by asphyxiation, so now it was homicide, but who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nailah vanished.
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>> everything with him checked out. >> narrator: as for being questioned -- >> are you upset by that at all? >> they should have done that, that's part of their job. >> narrator: what about reginald potts who had been so helpful. well, this is curious, when investigators went to visit his high-rise apartment, they couldn't help but notice -- >> one of the doors was extremely damaged, like it had been forced open. >> narrator: hmm, that's weird. but maybe not so weird. >> reginald potts was visited by the sheriff's office in order to evict reginald pots. >> of course this was 2006, a lot of people were falling behind in their mortgages. but reginald's was deeper than that.
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>> he was constantly in default. he had not a pot or pan in the kitchen, but what he believed were important items to surround himself with, cars, clothing, high end restaurants. there for show. >> narrator: the bentley it turned out belonged to somebody else. and his hookups and a wife who was raising his children and another one who was raising another. it didn't take nailah long to figure it out. >> she knew something was off about him, so she decided to look a little deeper. >> narrator: so she ended it, and as she did, she warned whomever she could about reginald, even one of his other girlfriends. >> watch out for this guy, he's bad news, and he's cheating on you? >> yeah, they were in communication about reginald.
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>> nailah told andre that when reginald found out, he wasn't happy. >> he got wind of that and reached out to nailah in a threatening manner. >> narrator: sent her nasty e-mails and voicemails. >> did you worry about that a lot? >> she didn't exhibit any worries to me about it. >> narrator: but she must have been worried. detectives found a report that nailah had called a nonemergency police phone number, asked about filing an order of protection against a threatening ex-boyfriend. she mentioned mr. potts. so, yes, reginald pots was a murder suspect. but he wasn't exactly hiding from the police. remember, he had given them a very detailed alibi to check out. >> he was pretty specific on where he's at. >> narrator: and as the weeks went by, he seemed quite eager to help. >> he continuously called me on my cell phone. >> really? called you to tell you what?
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>> trying to direct the investigation, why haven't we talked to you eke echols. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> narrator: and sure enough, mr. echols confirmed his account, there they are on security cameras at the target store, which would seem to exclude potts as a suspect if he was shopping, not killing and asphyxiating nailah. >> if you're going to commit a crime, do not do it at target, they're going to have everything from the sign to every transaction on the keypad very clear. >> although he managed to avoid every camera on the store, or his frchbd lied to him. he admitted that not only reginald wasn't at the target, but --
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>> he got a phone call from reginald potts and traveled to hammond in order to pick him up because he needed a ride. >> hammond, indiana, where nailah's car was found. on september 16, 2007, reginald pots was arrested for the murder of nailah franklin. but reginald, quite vehemently denied kill herring. >> we would push you and then we would have -- >> fabrication? yes, said reginald, he was being framed. >> reporter: coming up, a suspect bears all. >> why are you taking yours off? >> but would he reveal the truth when "dateline" continues. as l,
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>> narrator: here we are in a little room in a chicago police station, reginald potts is under arrest for the murder of nailah franklin, the detectives they are certain they have their man. but mr. potts? >> i had maadamantly deny that
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anywhere near her the day she disappeared. >> narrator: he was nowhere near her when she vanished. >> i was nowhere near her. >> narrator: of course they told them they had evidence. >> i have video of your bentley in the parking garage of your building. >> i can tell you for sure that's a lie. >> narrator: a police frame-up to which the detectives said -- >> you understand that video cameras are everywhere? >> narrator: yes, including nailah's apartment building, and there is reginald, plain as day with nailah, arriving and leaving with her on that very day she disappeared. >> so you knew he was there? >> yes. >> narrator: but reginald, doubled down on hiss denials. >> i am certain that i am nowhere near inside of nailah franklin's apartment. >> narrator: accused the police
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of fabricating evidence. >> i guarantee you you don't have video of me getting off the elevator at nailah franklin's house, if you do, you're very good at photo shop. >> narrator: he never expressed any desire for an attorney, but when they asked him to stand in a lineup so that witnesses co-- >> the state's attorney is representing the people in registering the case, i would not feel comfortable at all, at all. >> so they waited for reginald's attorney to arrive. and then, it got odd. >> your attorney's right there. why are you taking your clothes
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off? >> your attorney's right here, we want to take him for a lineup right now. you can step in the other room. >> reginald removed all of his clothing and refused to stand in the lineup. >> that's an interesting tactic. >> yes. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no. >> narrator: so no lineup, but they charged him anyway with capital murder. nailah by then had been dead three months. >> i was definitely relieved, i was kind of surprised that it took so long. but i was relieved. >> narrator: relieved too that reginald potts as was his right, demanded a speedy trial, but then -- >> reginald potts used every resource at hiss disposal to delay the process. >> narrator: nbc chicago's charlie husky watched in amazen't as reginald turns speedy justice into something else all together.
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>> he hired lawyers, he fired lawyers, he tried to act as his own attorney. at each step of the trial, the trial had to be reset. >> in the fourth half of the year, indiana had apolished capital punishment, so that was off the table. still reginald's actions forced delays. just as nailah's family had reached out to the media, reginald potts tried to launch a p.r. campaign from behind bars. >> his family reached out trying to convince me that there may besome way that he was not associated with this crime, that it might be associated with someone else. >> narrator: every delay, every manipulation was slow torture. >> i very much believe that everyone should have a fair and just trial and that too often people who are poor or people of
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color do not -- or most often, they don't get proper representation, and they don't get a fair shake in our court system. but this was not that. >> narrator: and then finally, on october 28, 2015, on a crisp, fall day in chicago, the trial of reginald potts began, it had taken eight years to get here. >> when it was finally happening, we were confused about how things would go down. finally a trial, what type of experience is this going to be? >> narrator: they had no idea, how could they? assistant state attorneys maria mccarthy and fabio value leenti were the district attorneys in
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the crime. >> narrator: and not many cases with a defendant quite like reginald potts. >> reporter: coming up, an accused killer's defense. >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> reporter: then after eight years, a verdict. >> what really tormented me all these years is that there's a possibility that justice won't be done. get to kohl's super saturday - this saturday! and save on early birds 'till 1pm. like 40 to 60% off dresses.
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