♪ >> 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. i had to believe we would find her alive. >> texter, she always got right back. >> i've seen her step out of the shower to answer her phone. >> then one day she didn't. >> immediately my senses were

high. >> where was nailah? >> i sent her an e-mail all caps. are you alive? >> there was no sign of her. and such a confusing trail of clues, even the calls to 911 were silent. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard. >> this could be kind of eerie. >> yes, it. >> 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. >> he lived a life of a lot of smoke and mirrors. >> and the strangest clue of all. there in an empty parking lot. >> six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. >> why were they there? what was in them? >> it was right an jadent to a lagoon. >> that's probably not a good sign. >> welcome to date line extra. i'm tamron hall. a beautiful young woman vanished and her close knit family was frantic to find her.

nailah franklin had a career, a handsome new boyfriend and building the life she always dreamed of. then suddenly, there was silence, quite unlike her. a trail of clues led detectives to one of chicago's most exclusive neighborhoods. would those clues lead them to nailah? here's keith morrison within smoke o smoke and mirrors. >> it wasn't like there, you have to understand. it wasn't gray. it wasn't cold. no athletics of snow to drift and catch the bitter breeze. no, no, it was hot and it was late after midnight, september 27th, 2007. >> pretty secluded area next to a forest preserve. >> so it was. and it was clear and dark and still and vacant. here where the deep wood 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 waiting to wake up. >> it just feels like you're in like a nightmare. >> yes, still does. the name you'll want to remember is nailah. >> the meaning was one who succeeds. >> this is nailah's mother maria. >> i wanted her to be successful and she was. she lived her name. >> quite true. as frankly as the rest of them in this big family. this is leah, the first born. >> we might need a graph or a chart because it's kind of involved. >> full siblings, half siblings, quarter siblings once removed. that sort of thing. very blended. >> we share one parent. technically half siblings. that word is kind of offensive to me. it implies it's something less.

i've never used that word. we're just siblings. >> one big close happy family. so said john, the youngest. >> it's simple for us because we grew up together from the time we were young. for us it's like we're one big family. >> not one but two ashleys. >> she's ashley with an "e" and the other is ashley with a "y." >> that's this one. and page this. >> this is kind of unusual, kind of rare. >> yes. >> that everybody gets along. >> yeah, everybody gets along. it's a good thing. >> when we were kids, it was a lot more crazy to other people. >> hi. >> and in the middle of this big family was nailah. >> happy birthday. i love. >> you little moot, they used to call her because once she decided something, all arguments against were moot. >> she was very sure of herself from really the earliest time. >> yes, nailah franklin was going somewhere.

>> she was like me hero. i looked occupy to her. >> she always accepted you for who you were. she almost glowed when she walked in a room. >> she began building a career eventually in pharmaceutical sales. at 28, she owned a condo in the heart of the city. >> i think everything she wanted to be she was. just as a theme fabulous was the aspiration. i think she definitely met that mark. >> but always number one really, she 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 spent time with everyone. friends, family. >> that's a pretty special skill. >> yeah, to manage that and your career. >> there were men, of course, there were. though she was, shall we say, discerning. >> the young men she dated were

of a caliber that you know, we expected of her. >> what sort of guys did she like? >> successful, nice, respectable men. >> and professional men. >> she was dating plastic surgeon guy and this guy and that guy. >> she took up briefly with a dashing investor who drove a white bentley and then in july 2007, nailah attended an art gallery opening and he came. >> there will lawyer from milwaukee andre wright. >> she had big beautiful smile. she was a very pretty woman. very warm personality and we just kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces, talking about my interests. what i was looking for in a piece of art. obviously, i tried to engage her. >> suddenly this is a different search. >> i mean the artwork bax little interest to me that the point. >> just like that, it was all over. for both of them. >> you know, i don't want to go

all hallmark card on you or anything but this was clearly kind of a transcendental moment or something. >> definitely. >> her family loved andre. what family wouldn't? >> she brought him to my child's first birthday party. he brought my baby a gift. who does that. >> because he's a nice quality person. >> they lid you. >> i think so, yeah, yeah. >> due to her influence though. >> you started planning on moving in together, right? on being together? >> we did. >> 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. >> and no one seemed to notice any dark force,ness 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 18th, a tuesday. >> that tuesday morning i thought i had called her on my way to work but i was interrupted. she called me and said hey, what happened to my call. said i thought i had. so we sboek for a bit, exchanged e-mails later and then kind of went about the day. >> 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 calling her every day talking all the time. >> yeah. >> and she said i'm at dinner? i'll call you later? >> but she didn't. then, 9:00 p.m., one of the ashleys caused nailah. nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. >> i got a text message that said thing along the lines i'm at dinner and i'll call you in a

few. >> did that sound like her? >> no, it wasn't like her to not answer the phone. i've seen her like step out of the shower to answer her phone. >> i send her an e-mail all caps, are you alive? one of those half in jest, half worried things you say. without knowing what a good question it was. >> coming up -- >> not only was nailah increasingly hard to reach, even worse, she didn't show up for work that day. >> immediately, my spidey senses were high. we see her eggs and coffee she had just left there. just out. >> something's wrong. >> just like you know what? this isn't -- this isn't right. >> and one more ominous sign. three calls to 911 from her cell phone. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard. light music in the background. >> it could be kind of eerie to hear that, huh. >> >> yes, it is.

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>> welcome back. here's keith morrison with more of our story. smoke and mirrors. >> september 19th, 2007, dawned in chicago like any other late summer day. hot, humid, windy. the usual. except for one thing. nailah franklin, ambitious, dependable and always on her phone was suddenly radioed silent. even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning. e-mailed her. called her again. early afternoon. >> and that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail. are you alive? and you probably didn't mean it the way it really was. >> no, like you say to someone, are you there. >> at the end of the workday, leah did get a call. not from nailah but from her boss. >> he said she had missed a

meeting. immediately my spidey senses were high. so of course, i tried to call her. didn't get her. >> so leah called her friends and other siblings. had anyone heard from nailah. >> i didn't speak with her the day before. >> i said no, i haven't talk toddler. >> nicole feared. she called the chicago p.d., filed a missing person's report and drove over to nailah's condo, knocked on the door, no answer. she went in. >> you see her eggs and coffee she had just left there just out. >> something's wrong. >> just like, you know what? there isn't right. >> and then leah got professional. she knew how. she's a public relations executive. and she called every media contact she had. >> you kind of went wide on this thing. your pr impulse kicked in. >> yes. >> leah's experience told her not to hope too much from media help. for one very unfortunate reason.

>> quite frankly, i don't know of a lot of women of color or people of color who get the same attention by the public in general. >> you know, there's that old saw in the media business and in fact, there's some truth to it. >> i think it's not just a saw. >> the good looking young blonde goes missing and the world wants to know about it and stay talking about it for years. >> uh-huh. >> black woman's not quite the same deal. >> no, and there is reality to that. it troubles the mind that when people of color go missing or if it doesn't fit the narrative of gun violence or gang violence or something like that, then somehow it's not -- it's not real. >> so leah knew, but leah was not to be denied. >> decided they were damn well going to cover it. >> there were. >> maybe this is because of her media savvy. the next morning, nail la's

picture was all over the flus. >> flyers with her picture are handed out to people passing by. >> we were in the streets and putting up any place we could, downtown, suburbs. >> they phoned and texted and e-mailed their friends. but no one reported seeing nail la. no one. na nail la's sister kept replaying their last conversation. >> she called and said i've got something to tell you. before she could tell me she got a call on the other line and clicked over and said she would call me back. >> she didn't call. >> you she didn't call me back. >> awful what a person's mind could churn up in the dark as day one became two and then day three. >> i kept calling her. i kept thinking she's going to answer. >> there's no handbook for this so you wake up and think it's a bad dream and no, it's still real.

>> the case of the missing pharmaceutical representative landed on the desks of detectives who right away scanned her 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 911. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard. no background noise with the exception of light music in the background. >> this could be kind of eerie to hear that. >> yes, it is. is the person physically unable to complete the conversation and just able to dial a 911. >> so the investigators set about talking to just about everybody nailah knew. >> there was interviews completed through doctors she had visited to try to retrace her steps and people she encountered. >> a lot of people. >> anyone we knew had a

relationship with her. >> maybe leah's pr campaign helped because zmish we will some anonymous tips, people saying they saw her at this location. >> but not a single one of them led to nile la. by now the detectives believed 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. >> the boyfriend she was in wisconsin weekend before she went missing, they were all interviewed. >> that boyfriend from wisconsin had come to chicago, was helping with the search and soon was perhaps a subject of it. they came to you. >> they did. >> the perfect boyfriend. now, to police, a perfectly obvious person of interest. >> coming up -- >> a discovery in an empty parking lot. >> it was in a pretty secluded area adjacent to a lagoon.

i watch enough "dateline" to know that's probably not a good sign. >> a strange sight to be sure. but what, if anything, did it have to do with nailah? when date line extra continues. because safe drivers cost less to insure, which saves money. they let you pay your bill electronically, which saves postage, which saves money. they settle claims quickly, which saves time, which saves money. and they offer home and auto insurance, so you can bundle your policies, which saves money. esurance was born online and built to save. and when they save, you save. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call.

welcome back. 911 operators had received several calls from nailah franklin's phone but each time, no one spoke. days into their investigation, detectives suspected their missing person may have been the victim of a serious crime. and it was time to turn their attention to the men in her life. here again is keith morrison with smoke and mirrors. >> there's this big search. >> yes. >> how overwhelming was that? >> don't realize how the world seems so big when you're looking for someone. >> imagine, all of chicago and nail la could be anywhere. tied up in some 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 local cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course parking lot. his name is calvin lucious. >> as i got to this area right here, i noticed right in front of me six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. you know, shipping boxes. >> sitting right there on the parking lot. >> sitting right on the curb. it stood out. i'm looking like something's not right here. >> inside the boxes, pills. hundreds of them. >> i was thinking okay, this might be something big as far as you know, some type of narcotics and drug-related case. >> except looked more like samples, something a pharmaceutical rep would have been handing out free to doctors. >> what were they? >> just different type of medicines. i can't even pronounce the names. >> what were they doing here? on the label, the address to a storage locker. and a name.

nail la. nile la. and pretty soon. >> the fbi and chicago police, everybody was out here looking. >> including detective greg jacobson. >> it was in a pretty secluded area next to a forest preserve which right adjacent to a lagoon. >> and whoa. >> i watch enough "dateline" to know that's probably not a good sign. >> was nile la down there in that murky water? >> we had light trucks that dredged the lagoon. >> back and forth they went, scoured every inch of the pond and the thick woods behind it and found one weird thing. >> there there was some jewelry that was on some of the bushes. >> pearls and such just hanging there. the cops checked with her friends. looked like nile la's, they said. except nile la wasn't here. but remember sister leah's r campaign? not far away from there, next town over. >> the person saw a news cast

and they were like that car's been on my block for a couple days and thank god they saw that and thank god they cared enough to call it in. >> that call came from herere hammon, indiana three days after nile la vanished. a black chevy impala. >> we rushed out there to see it. >> it was hers. >> you open that trunk, the last thing you want to think is there's something in that truchk. and fortunately there wasn't. >> you obviously do a workup on the vehicle. did you find any prints, any dma? >> i think our evidence technicians that process it described it as it was wiped clean. >> including in the trunk. >> yes. >> yes. >> believing somehow she might find her sister, the younger ashley drove out there. >> the car was parked in front of an abandoned house. and i went and i banged on the door, looked through the windows. i screamed her name i didn't want to leave. i had to be taken from the area.

>> of course, the cops can canvassed the neighbors. and what do you know? >> they had seen a male mulling around the vehicle. and then enter another vehicle and leave. and that was a few days prior to us actually locating the vehicle. >> did they give you a good description. >> male african-american, thin build. >> that description might have fit a lot of people in nailah's life like for example her new boyfriend andre wright. police had questioned him right away about their relationship and where he was when she disappeared. >> they asked when the laughs time i saw her was, last time we spoke. >> or could that man mulling around the car have been someone else liking that prebs boyfriend, the investor. >> reg flald pot nald pots. he stepped up and called them. >> wanted to know why the chicago police wanted to talk with him. >> he agreed to stop by

headquarters for a talk 1993 gives us a lot of information. >> he had met her a year earlier he told them. by pure chance really on the street in the ritzy gold coast. she was sophisticated. so was he. they dated briefly. realized it wasn't for life. though a girl could do worse what with his white bentley and duplex overlooking the lake 1993 lives in a large apartment complex, high-rise. >> nice place. >> yes in an upscale area in the city. >> that's where you want to live. >> wow. reg flald told them everything he did the day she vanished. everywhere he went. detailed. the day's events, early even shopping with friends at target. bar hopping later with not one but two girlfriends separately, of course. and after that, an intimate plan with a third girlfriend. >> they make arrangements to meet at reginald's apartment around midnight on the 1th. >> this guy gets around. >> if you've got a bentley, your

options are open. >> guess so. >> down in calumet city it, officer calvin lucious was again cruising vacant parking lots. this time a mile or so from where he found those bops when a partner noticed something. >> he saw a pair of ear buds hanging from the tree. >> light little bobbles showed up in the dark. what else was in that abandoned place. >> at the edge of the midnight woods? >> coming up -- it's now a different type of investigation. and detectives take a closer look at a man from nile la's past. >> one of the doors was extremely damaged like it had been forced open. >> she sensed there was something off about him. and that's probably where she decided to you know, look a little deeper. >> when date line extra continues.

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hi, richard lui with the top stories for you.

hillary clinton and tim kaine holding their third event of the day in ohio. live pictures for you. the duo copies the campaign this weekend. earlier today, billionaire mark cuban endorsed hillary clinton at an event in pittsburgh. saying he's ready to vote for a "true leader." and east of seattle, washington, a five-acre brush fire prompting mandatory evacuations. officials say 40 to 50 homes affected. air crews have been called in to help fight that fire. now back to date line extra. >> welcome back to date line extra. i'm tamron hall. what happened to nailah franklin as her family copied their desperate search, police honed in on the men in her life and with a little digging one of their stories started to unravel. here's keith morrison with more of our stoerks smoke and mirrors. >> it's a grassroots effort by family and friends. >> through all the frantic

activity, the phone calls, the flyers the organized looking about, it was a rare quiet time, nine days in. when nile la franklin's sister felt it. >> we had a prayer service at our church and in my heart i knew. i was like you know what, she's not coming back. >> and that very night in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, night an patrol officer calvin lucius felt his way past the glittering ear buds his partner saw hanging from a tree to the inky black fringe of forest at the back of a long abandoned parking lot behind a derelict video store. >> i probably 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 an idea because it's a female body. >> they had to resort to dental records to confirm. it was nile la. >> i think this type of death doesn't just kill that person.

it kills a lot, and 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 doesn't feel real. it just feels like you're in literally like in a nightmare. >> an autopsy confirmed the death was by as fixation. so now it was homicide. but who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nile la vanished. >> everything with him checked out. >> as for being questioned -- >> were you upset by it? >> not at all, no. they should have done it. that was part of doing their job. >> so what about that investor reginald pots, the one who had been so helpful? well, this was curious. when the detectives went to visit his high-rise apartment, they couldn't help but notice -- >> the exterior to one of the doors was extremely damaged. like it had been forced open.

>> huh. that's weird. >> maybe not so weird. there was an explanation. >> reginald pots was recently visited by members of the cook county sheriff's department in an attempt to revictory reginald pots. >> of course, this was 2007, lots of people were falling behind in their mortgages. but by the look of it, reginald's problems ran deeper than that. >> he was constantly in default. 15 pairs of gucci shoes and not a bed to sleep on. >> not a bed to sleep on. >> a mattress, no furniture, not a pat or pan in the kitchen but yet what he believed were important items to surround himself with. cars, clothing, high end restaurants. they're for show. >> the bentley it turned out belonged to somebody else. and reginald juggled girlfriends and lookups and an ex-wife raising his children and an

ex-girlfriend with whom had he had another. didn't take nile la long to figure it out or so her friends told the police. >> she sensed there was something off about him. and that's probably where she decided to you know, look a little deeper. >> 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. >> nile la told andre when reginald found out, he wasn't happy. >> he got wind of that and reached out to nailah in a threatening manner. >> sent her nasty e-mails and voice mails. >> did she worry about that a lot. >> she didn't exhibit any worries to me about it. >> but she must have been worried. detectives found a report that nile la will called a

nonemergency police phone number, asked about file agorder of protection against a threatening ex-boyfriend. she mentioned mr. pots. so yes, reginald potts 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. >> and as the weeks went by, he seemed quite eager to help. >> he koixsly called me on my cell phone. >> really? >> yes. >> called to you tell you what? >> to try to direct the investigation. why haven't we talked to huge he canals. >> his friends, the he canals, were with him much of the day, he said. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> and sure enough, mr. eccles confirmed his account. there they are on surveillance cameras at the target store, which would seem to exclude potts as a suspect if he was shopping. he wasn't kidnapping and killing

nailah. but this was curious. for some reason, reginald did not show up on camera. >> so if you were going to commit a crime do not do it at target because they're going to have everything down to your transaction on the keypad. very clear. >> meaning either he managed somehow to avoid every camera in the store or his friend lied for him. so they hauled reginald's buddy down to the station and after a few go rounds he admitted not only that reginald wasn't at the target but -- >> did he receive a phone call from reginald potts and then traveled to hammon in order to pick him up because he needed a ride. >> ham nond, indiana, the town where nailah's car was found. on the 6th of december, 2007, reginald potts was arrested for the murder of nailah franklin. but reginald denied killing her. >> this is the evidence, okay? we can put you --

>> fabrication, yes, said reginald. he was being framed. >> coming up -- >> a suspect bares all. >> what's that? >> okay. >> but would he reveal the truth? when date line extra continues. smarter way, which saves money. they offer a claim-free discount. because safe drivers cost less to insure, which saves money. they let you pay your bill electronically, which saves postage, which saves money. they settle claims quickly, which saves time, which saves money. and they offer home and auto insurance, so you can bundle your policies, which saves money. esurance was born online and built to save. and when they save, you save. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call.

>> welcome back. with his alibi in question and his history of menacing messages revealed, reginald potsts was arrested for the murder of his former girlfriend nailah franklin. with no evidence, this case was far from closed. keith morrison continues our story, smoke and mirrors. >> 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 are certain they have their man, but mr. potts? >> i deny that i was ever there, period. >> reginald potts appears to be insulted they even ask. >> and i can tell you you're lying. >> nailah, he was nowhere near her, he said, the day she vanished. >> i was not in her apartment on the 18th, period. >> or her apartment. >> or apartment building. >> of course they told him they had evidence. >> distinctive bentley in her [ bleep ] parking garage or building. >> that's it. >> and i can tell you, that's a lie. >> a police frame-up to which the detectives said. >> reginald, do you understand the cameras? >> yes, including nailah's apartment building.

and there is reginald plain as day with nailah. arriving and leaving withler. on that very day she disappeared. >> so you knew he was there? >> yes. >> but reginald? doubled down on his denial. >> i am certain that i am nowhere near inside of nailah franklin's apartment building. >> accused of police of fabricating evidence. >> if you were creative with photoshop, i guarantee you cannot find me getting off the elevator. if you have, you've been creative with photoshop. >> he talked and talked. denied and denied. >> we can put you there. >> all without any apparent desire for an attorney. but when they asked him to stand in a lineup so witnesses could have a look. >> there's no way that -- >> there's a state's attorney

here from cook county. >> the state's attorney is representing the people and representing the case. i would not feel comfortable tall. >> so they waited for reginald's attorney to arrive, and then it got odd. >> reginald, the attorney is right there. >> yes, sir. >> why are you taking your clothes off? >> because i and. >> what's that? >> because i am. >> your attorney's right here. we want to take you for a lineup right now. will you step in the other room. >> reginald removed all his clothing and refused to stand in the lineup. >> that's an interesting tactic. >> yes. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no. >> so no lineup. but they charged him anyway with capital murder. nile la, 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. >> relieved, too, that reginald

potts as was his right demanded a speedy trial. but then. >> reginald potts used every resource at his disposal to delay the process. >> nbc chicago's reporter watched in amazement as he turned speedy justice into something else all together. >> hired lawyers, fired lawyers, tried to act as his own attorney. at each step, the trial will to be reset. >> one, two, three years passed that way. in the fourth year after the murder, illinois abolished capital punishment so that was off the table. and still, reginald's actions forced delays. >> this is one of the most bizarre cases we've seen in chicago. >> just as nile la's family had reached out to the media, reginald potts tried to laurnl a pr campaign from behind bars. >> his family reached out trying to convince people that there

may be some way thattize not associated with this crime that it might be someone else that, there was a rush to judgment. >> talked to a newspaper columnist who wrote sympathetically about his treatment in jail. and 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 color do not -- or most often they don't get proper representation and don't get a fair shake in our court system. but this was not that. >> and then finally, on october 28th, 2015, on a crisp fall day in chicago, the state versus reginald potts began. it had taken eight years to get here. >> when it was finally happening, western sort of like confused how things would go down. like there's finally a trial. what type of experience will this be? >> they had no idea. how could they? cook county assistant states

attorneys maria mack car think and fabio val len tee knee brought the case against potts. >> this was a case with no eyewitnesss, no video of the crime, no evidence linking potts to the crime and a cause of death based on primarily exclusion. we don't try many cases like that. >> and not many cases with a defendant quite like reginald potts. >> coming up, and accused killer's defense. >> i'm not a monster. >> he's smarter than the average criminal. but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> and after eight years, a verdict. >> well, really tormented me all these years is that there's a possibility that justice won't be done. >> when "dateline extra" continues. can a toothpaste do everything well?

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welcome back. nailah franklin deserved justice and after a long wait, her family was ready for the trial of reginald potts. but with a largely circumstantial case, would they finally get what they wanted most, the truth? we return to keith morrison with the conclusion of smoke and mirrors. >> for eight years, nailah franklin's family struggled through their incomplete grief. >> what really tormented me all these years is that there's a possibility that justice won't be done. >> there was no real forensic evidence. only circumstantial things. though according to the prosecutors, there was a whole smorgasbord of proof. that video of renl nald pots with nailah the day she vanished? the video at the target store that did not show him and thus blew up his alibi. nailah's friends testified she show them e-mails and played a voice mail in which he

threatened her. >> nailah played that voice mail for them because she was so terrified. and essentially, in that voice mail, he said to nayla, i'm going to have you erased. i'm going to make you disappear. >> in fact, said the prosecutors, that's exactly what he did. snuck into her building, led her terrified to the garage where he strangled her, stuffed her body in the trunk of her own car. and how do they know he took her out to the suburbs dump her body and her car? cell towers linked their phones together. like a trail of brecrumbs. >> from the moment they walked out to the garage, she's not seen by anybody. she's not calling anybody, she's not answering calls. her texts are all odd but her phone and his phone are together lock step the entire rest of the day. >> right to the abandoned video store behind which they finally find nailah's body.

no coincidence he chose that particular spot so far from chicago, said the prosecutors. >> we find out that the video store is owned by pot's brother-in-law. >> his friend the alibi witness now testified for the prosecution that yes, he in i shally lied for reginald but didn't know it was to cover up a murder. and remember those three strange hangup calls to 911 and those odd texts her family and boyfriend received? it was reginald pots using nailah's phone hours after he murdered her, said the prosecution. a clever killer's attempt to throw off a missing person's investigation. >> he's smarter than the average criminal. but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> but reginald pots was nothing if not strategic. his defense was to refute their evidence and discredit the prosecution. >> defense attorneys need to create reasonable doubt. in this case, it was very difficult to determine cause of death. so immediately, the defense is

going to rush to that idea and say well, you can't really tell how they died. it's little things like that in the hopes that one juror or two jurors will latch on to that and say i can't convict. >> they even disputed the cell phone evidence the prosecution believed cinched the case. >> the defense alleged that the idea that you can triangulate a signal based on the cell pinks on a tower is somehow flawed. >> after two weeks of argument, the jury had the case. did reginald's arguments persuade them? two hours and 15 minutes after they began, the jury answered no. they pronounced reginald pots guilty of first degree murder. >> whoo. i was so relieved. >> that's passed. now the next thing so -- >> the next thing was sentencing. nearly four months later >> still waiting and hoping he doesn't get like four years or something stupid like that. >> mr. pots is present. >> but again, they had no idea.

what was this man all about? there was a hearing to help the judge make a decision about sentence. normally just arguments. recommendations from both sides. but not this time. >> the prosecution called 35 witnesses to tell the judge a hair-raising story about reginald pots. reginald was not quite the gold plated success story he appeared to be. >> he lived a life of a lot of smoke and mirrors. >> he's a con man who fooled a lot of people. >> and when the con man was challenged, everybody, even law enforcement, was a target. >> he would kill me. he would kill my family, my family would never be safe. >> when he was struck three times by mr. pots in the face. >> he spent much of his adult life in prison where he assaulted guards. >> i was struck in the right eye by mr. pots. >> all of that was too prejudicial to present at trial but now absolutely relevant. >> he took her back by the

elevator and i heard slap. >> this guy has been an absolute menace his entire dut life. >> do you see mr. pots in court today. >> when a woman stood up to him, witness after witness testified that reginald trayed them, bullied them and much worse. >> he choked her out and threw her on the bed. >> this guy not only had a propensity for violence against women but side effectually to choke and strangle them. >> he's a sociopath. he lies as easily as he breathes about anything. no matter how stupid. if he tells us what time it is, look at your watch. >> that bad, huh? >> yes. >> guy's a monster. >> a monster who however briefly, fooled even the sophisticated successful nailah to her mother's eternal sorrow. >> you don't know who you're letting into your life. they don't always come looking like a monster. >> there's a kind of ceremony about these things.

everyone gets to talk. >> nailah's murder stole from our community a bright light. >> nightmares still taunt me with her screaming. moaning and reaching out, begging for her life. >> but reginald, reginald cried. denied everything. >> the jury of my peers came back with a verdict that i believe is false. and i believe it is invalid. i believe that a court of appeals will overturn that. for now this court has to honor what had he said and impose a sentence. but i tell you, your honor, i am not the person that miss mccarthy has tried to paint in this courtroom. i'm not a monster. i'm not a monster. >> we waited. to see if the judge would buy reginald's story or the prosecutor's. and here it was. >> you are a cold, calculating, conniving, coward of a con man

who must be punished. >>ive and indeed he was. life without parole. >> take him away. >> so that was justice. the most nailah's family could hope for. terribly important. and strangely, empty. >> it's still not done. she's still not back. you still can't talk with her. >> no. they tried to remember nailah not as a murder victim but as a beautiful young woman she was. the vibrant center of her family. but grief real and painful comes to visit every day. >> you know, people say, oh, well she's your spirit and she's your angel and she's in a better place and all this other stuff. i'm like yeah, but i want her here. i don't want my 28-year-old sister to be my angel. i want her to be right here in the thick of it with me. >> that's all for this edition

of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. >> sudden death shrouded in suspense. >> all of a sudden her whole body and head jerked dead left. >> medical mysteries. >> yeah, that's. >> the doctors were baffled. the husband was beside himself. >> good lord. >> devastating loss. >> he's in the garage right now cut down. he's 19 years old. very young person that became very distraught. >> they should have