♪ she had missed a meeting and 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. >> text her, she always got right back. >> i have seen her step out of the shower and answer her phone. >> then one day, she didn't. >> immediately my spidey 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. >> there's got to be kind of eerie. >> yes, it is. >> 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 the life of smoke and mirrors. >> the strangest clue of all, there in an empty parking lot. >> six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. >> why were they there? what was in it? >> it was right adjacent to -- >> whoa. >> i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> welcome to "dateline extra," i'm tamron hall. a beautiful young woman vanished and her close knit family was

frantic to find her. nailah franklin had a thriving career, and handsome new boyfriend and building a new life she was dreaming of and then there was silence, which was quite unlike her. a trail of tears led detectives to the most exclusive neighborhoods and would those clues lead them to nailah? here is keith morrison with "smoke & mirrors." >> it wasn't like this. you have to understand. it wasn't gray. it wasn't cold. no flecks 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. >> so it was. and it was clear, dark and st l still. and vacant. here where the deep wood fought back against the decaying suburban sprawl.

and then nothing was clear at all. >> i remember crying, that violent cry. >> you're experiencing everything, but it's not you. you're just waking to wake up. >> it felt like you're in 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 did 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 involved. >> full siblings, half cybillab some half removed. >> we share the parents, and half offends me. i never use 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. we're one big family. >> not one, but two ashlees. >> she's ashlee with the "e" and the other one is ashley with a "y." >> imagine this. i think this is kind of unusual. kind of rare. >> yes. >> 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. >> and in the middle of this big family was nailah. >> happy birthday. i love you. >> little mooch they called 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 my hero. i looked up to her. >> she always just accepted you for who you were. almost like she glowed when she walked in the room. >> after college, nailah came home to chicago and 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 and i think she definitely met that mark. >> but always, number one really, she stayed in touch. never failed. call her, she'd call back right away. text her, she'd reply instantly. always. >> she managed to water all of her relationships, she spent time with everyone. friends, family. >> it'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. >> professional men. >> she was dating a 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. this lawyer from milwaukee, andre wright. >> she had a big, beautiful smile. pretty woman. very warm personality. we just kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces. talking about my interests. what i was looking for in the piece of art. obviously i tried to engage -- >> suddenly, this is a different search. >> yeah, the artwork became of little interest to me at that point. >> just like that, it was all over. for both of them. >> you know, i normally don't go

all hallmark card on you or anything. >> that's okay. >> but this was clearly kind of a transdental moment or something. >> oh, yeah. definitely. >> her family loved andre. what family wouldn't? >> she brought him to my child's first birthday party and he brought my child a gift. who does that? >> they liked you. >> yeah, i think so. due to her influence though. >> you started to plan on moving in together, right? on being together. >> we did. >> that was happening pretty fast. >> it felt good though. 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. 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 18th, 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 i thought i had. we spoke for a bit. exchanged e-mails later. and then just kind of went about the day. >> evening came. he in the flush of love called again. no answer. >> i 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. your had been calling her every day, talking all the time. >> yeah. >> she said i'm at dinner, i'll call you later. >> yeah. >> but she didn't. then 9:00 p.m., one of the ashleys called nailah. she always picked up the phone.

>> she said i'm at dinner, i'll call you in a few. >> did that sound like her? >> no, it wasn't like her not to answer the phone. i have seen her like step out of the shower and 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. you see her eggs and coffee that 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. >> that's got to be kind of

eerie to hear that. >> yes, it is. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back. here's keith morrison with more of our story, "smoke & mirrors." >> september 19th, 2007, dawned in chicago, hot, humid, windy. the usual. except for one thing. nailah franklin, ambitious, dependable, always on her phone, was suddenly radio silent. even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning. e-mailed her. called her again early afternoon. >> that's what he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive? you probably didn't mean it the way that it was? >> no, like to say to someone, are you there? >> at the end of the work day, big sister did get a call.

not from nailah, but from her boss. >> she said she had missed a meeting. immediately my spidey senses were high. i tried to call her, didn't get her. >> so she called nailah's friends and siblings. >> i didn't speak with her that day. i didn't speak with her the day before. >> i said, no, i haven't, i have been really busy. i haven't talked to her. >> a cold fear took hold of leah. she filed a missing person's report. then she drove over to her condo, knocked on the door, no answer. she got a key. she went in. >> we see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there. just out. >> something's wrong. >> just like, you know what? this isn't -- this isn't right. >> and then lehia got professional. she knew how.

she called every media contact she had. >> you kind of went wide on this thing. your pr impulse really kicked in. >> her experience said to not expect too much from media help. for one unfortunate reason. >> 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. >> yeah, yeah, i think it's not just a saw. yeah, it's -- >> that the good looking young blonde girl goes missing and talks about it for years. black woman, not quite the same deal. >> no, there's 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 lehia knew that she was not to be denied. >> you decide they were going to cover it. >> they were. >> maybe this is because of her media savvy.

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

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

>> of course. anyone that we knew had a relationship with her. >> maybe lehia's pr attempts helped. >> we had anonymous tips people saying they saw her at this location. >> but not a single one of them led to nailah. 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. >> but everyone that we knew had contact with her, the boyfriend she was in wisconsin with, the weekend before she went missing, they were all interviewed. >> that boyfriend from tws -- from wisconsin, andre, had come to chicago, he 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, right adjacent to -- >> whoa. >> i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> what if anything did it have to do with nailah? when "dateline extra" continues.

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 & mirrors." >> there was this big search. >> yes. >> how overwhelming was that? >> you don't realize how the world seems so bing when you're looking for someone. >> imagine, all of chicago and nailah 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 cop was on routine patrol. 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 of, you know, shipping boxes. >> sitting right there on the parking lot. >> sitting on the curb. so it stood out. i'm looking like something is 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 it 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 the storage locker and a name --

nailah. 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 is right adjacent to the lagoon. >> whoa. >> i watch enough "dateline" to know that not a good sign. >> was nailah down there in that murky water? >> they 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's some jewelry that s was -- behind some of the bushes. >> pearls and such, just hanging there. the cops checked with their friends. looked like nailah's they said. except nailah wasn't here. but remember sister lehia's pr campaign? not far away from there, next town over.

>> a person saw a newscast and they were like, that car has been on my block for a couple days. and thank god they saw that and thank god they cared enough do -- to call it in. >> that call came from here. hammond, indiana. just down the road from calumet, threw days after nailah vanished. a black chevy impala. >> we rushed out there to see it. >> it was hers. >> you open the trunk the last thing you want to think is there's something this that trunk and fortunately there wasn't. >> did you do any prints, any dna, anything useful at all? >> i think our evidence technicians that processed it described it as it was wiped clean. >> including in the trunk? >> yes. >> yes. >> believing somehow she might find her sister, the younger ashlee 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 canvassed the neighbors and what do you know? >> they had seen a male around the vehicle. and then enter another vehicle and leave. that was a few days prior to us actually locating the vehicle. >> did they give you a good description? >> a 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 of course about their relationship and where he was when she disappeared. >> and they asked about the last time i saw her was, last time we spoke. >> or could that man mulling around the car have been someone else like that previous boyfriend, the investor? his name was reginald potts, but before the cops could find him, he stepped up and called them.

>> he wanted to know why the chicago police wanted to talk to him. >> he agreed to stop by for a talk. >> he gave us a lot of information. >> he met her a year early, 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, with his white bentley and place overlooking the lake. >> he lived in an upscale area of the city. >> where you want to be live. >> wow. >> reginald told them everything he did the day that nailah vanished. everywhere he went. ve detailed. the day's events, early 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 made arrangements to meet at reginald's apartment around midnight on the 18th. >> this guy gets around. >> if you have a bently your

options are open. >> i guess so. as the investigators checked out potts' alibi, calvin lucious was again cruising vacant parking lots. this time a mile or so from where he found the boxes when a partner noticed something. >> he saw a pair of earbuds hanging from the tree. >> bright little baubles showed up in the dark. what else was in that abandoned place in the woods? coming up -- now a different type of investigation and detectives take a closer look at a man from nailah's past. >> one of the doors is extremely damaged. like it had been forced open. >> she sensed there was something off about him and that's when she decided to look a little deeper. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

breaking news in texas, police are on the scene of two separate shootings in downtown austin. the police just released information saying both scenes are now secure. earlier it had been reported as an an active shooting scene. so far no word if the police have the shooter in custody. one person has been killed, three others taken to the hospital. we're awaiting a news conference with the police. we will bring that you that as it becomes available. now back to "dateline extra.." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. what happened to nailah franklin as her family continued 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 story, "smoke & mirrors." >> it's a grass roots effort by family and friends. >> for all the frantic activity, the phone calls, the fliers, the

organized looking about, it was a rare quiet time, nine days in when nailah franklin's sister felt it. >> we had a prayer service at the church. in my heart i knew, you know what? she's not coming back. >> and that very night in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, night patrol officer calvin lucious felt his way past the glittering earbuds his partner saw hanging from the tree to the inky black fringe of forest at the back of a long, abandoned parking lot. behind the derelict video store. >> i probably got around in this area. and just looked over. and a 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 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 doesn't feel real. it just feels like you're in literally like a nightmare. >> an autopsy confirmed that the death was by asphyxiation, so now it was homicide. who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nailah vanished. >> everything with him checked out. >> as for being questioned, are you upset by it? >> no, not at all. they should have done that. that was part of doing their job. >> so what about that investor, reginald potts, the one who had been so helpful? this was curious. when the detectives went to visit his high rise apartment. >> the exterior of the door was extremely damaged like it had been forced open. >> that's weird.

>> maybe not so weird. there was an explanation. >> reginald potts was recently visited by members of the cook county sheriff's department in an attempt to evict reginald potts. >> 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. >> mattress -- >> no furniture. not a pot 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 hookups and an ex-wife who was raising one of his children and an ex-girlfriend with whom he had another. didn't take nailah 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. >> 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. >> 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 nailah had called a non-emergency police phone number, asked about filing an order of protection against a

threatening ex-boyfriend. she mentioned mr. potts. 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 continuously called me on my cell phone. >> really? >> yes. >> called you to tell you what? >> tried to direct the investigation. why haven't we talked to hugh echols? >> his friend, the echols, were with him much of the day. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> and sure enough, mr. echols confirmed his account, there they are on surveillance cameras on the target store. this was curious.

for some reason, reginald did not show up on camera. >> so if you're going to commit a crime, do not do it at target. they'll have it done to the transaction on the keypad very clear. >> meaning either me managed to avoid every camera in the store or his friend lied for him. so they haul reginald's buddy down to the station and after a few go rounds did he admit that reginald wasn't at the target, but -- >> he received a phone call from reginald potts and went out to hammond, indiana, to pick him up. >> hammond, indiana, where her body was found. reginald potts was arrested for the murder of nailah franklin. but reginald quite vehemently denied killing her. >> this is the evidence okay? fabrication? yes, said reginald.

he was being framed. coming up -- a suspect bares all. >> what's that? >> but would he reveal the truth? when "dateline extra" continues. polo! marco...! polo! marco...! polo! marco...! sì? polo! marco...! polo! scusa? ma io sono marco polo, ma... marco...! playing "marco polo" with marco polo? surprising. ragazzini, io sono marco polo. sì, sono qui... what's not surprising? how much money amanda and keith saved by switching to geico. ahhh... polo. marco...! polo! fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. polo!

welcome back. with his alibi in question and his history of menacing messages revealed, reginald potts was arrested for the murder of his former girlfriend, nailah franklin. but with no physical evidence this case was far from closed. keith morrison continues with our story, "smoke & mirrors." >> here we are in a little room in the 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 asked. nailah, he was nowhere near her, he said. the day she vanished. >> personally, i was not in her apartment on the 18th period. >> or her building? >> of her apartment, period. >> of course they told him they had evidence. >> there was a bentley in her -- [ bleep ] parking garage or building. >> hey, hey, i can tell you for sure -- that's a lie. >> a police frameup to which the detectives said -- >> reginald, do you understand about videotapes? there's cameras. >> 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. >> but reginald? he doubled down on his denial. >> i'm certain that i am nowhere inside or nailah's apartment -- >> but accused the police of fabricating evidence. >> i guarantee you cannot have me getting off the elevator. if you have, you have been creative with photoshop. >> he talked and talked, denied and denied. >> we can put you -- >> all without any apparent desire for an attorney. but when asked to stand in a lineup so witnesses could have a look -- >> there's no lawyer -- who is speaking to me in the lineup

room -- the person or the jury. i do not feel comfortable. >> there's a warrant from the state's attorney -- >> the state's attorney is representing the people and the case. i will not feel comfortable at all -- at all. >> so they waited for reginald's attorney to arrive. and then -- it got odd. >> hello, gentlemen. the attorney -- >> yes, sir. >> why are you taking your clothes off? >> because -- >> okay. we want to take you for the lineup right now. will you step into the other room q. >> 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. >> 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.

>> relieve today 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 charlie watched in amazement as he turned speedy justice into something else all together. >> he hired lawyers, he fired lawyers. he tried to act as his own attorney. at each step of the process, the trial itself had 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 have seen in chicago. >> just as nailah's family had reached out to the media, reginald potts tried to launch a pr campaign from behind bars. >> his family reached out,

trying to convince me there may be some way he's not associated with this crime, it might be somewhere else, there was a rush to judgment. >> he talked to a newspaper columnist who wrote sympathetically about his treatment in jail. 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 they 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 reg natural potts began. it took eight years to get there. >> when it happened we were confused about how things would go down. like there's finally a trial, what type of experience was this going to be? >> they had no idea.

how could they? cook county assistant states attorney mccarthy and valentini brought the case against potts. >> this was a case with no eyewitnesses, no confession, no video of the crime. no physical evidence linking reginald potts to the crime and a cause of death that was 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 -- an accused killer's defense. >> i'm -- >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> after eight years, a verdict. >> what really tore at me, all these years, that there's a possibility that justice won't be done. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

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 & mirrors." >> for eight years, nailah franklin's family struggled through their incomplete grief. >> 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 reginald potts 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 showed them e-mails and played a voice mail in which he threatened her. >> she played the voice mail for them because she was terrified and essentially she said to nailah, i'm going to have you erased, i'm going to make you disappear. >> in fact, 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 did they know he took her out to the suburbs to dump her body and her car? cell towers linked their phones together, like a trail of bread crumbs. >> from the moment that they walked out of that vestibule 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

found 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 potts' brother in law. >> his friend the alibi witness now testified for the prosecution that yes, he initially lied for reginald, but didn't know it was to cover up a murder. and remember those three strange hang-up calls to 911? and those odd texts her family and boyfriend received? it was reginald potts 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 potts 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, we can't really tell how they died. and it's little things like that in the hopes that one juror or two jurors will latch on the that and say i can't convict. >> they even disputed the cell phone evidence that the prosecution believed cinched the case. >> you can triangulate the cell phone signal is somehow flawed. >> and after two weeks, the jury had the case. did reginald's case sway them? after two hours, at the jury answered no. they pronounced reginald potts guilty of first degree murder. >> i was so relieved. it's like, okay, that's passed, now the next thing. >> 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. potts -- >> 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 potts. reginald was not quite the gold-plated success story he appeared to be. >> he lived a lot of smoke and mirror. >> a con man who fooled a lot of people. >> and when he was challenged, everyone, even law enforcement was a target. >> he would kill me, my family, my family would never be safe. >> when he was struck by mr. potts in the face. >> he spent much of his adult life in prison where he assaulted guards. >> i was struck in the right eye by detective potts. >> all of that was too prejudicial to present at trial, but now absolutely relevant.

>> and he took her in the back by the elevator and i heard a slap. >> this guy has been an absolute menace his adult life. >> when a woman stood up to him, witness after witness testified that reginald betrayed them, bullied them and much worse. >> he choked her. choked her out and threw her on the bed. >> this guy not only had a propensity for violence against women, but he had propensity specifically 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 you what time it is, look at your watch. >> that bad, huh? >> yes. >> the guy is 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 a bright light. >> reaching out and begging for her life. >> but reginald, reginald cried, denied everything. >> the jury of my peers came back with the verdict that i believe is false. i believe it is invalid. i believe that in the court of appeals will overturn that, but for now this court has to honor what they said and impose the sentence. but i tell you, your honor, i'm not the person that ms. mccontacthy has tried to -- 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. >> 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. we still can't talk with her. >> no. they tried to remember nailah, not as a murder victim, but as the 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, she's in a better place and all this other stuff. 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. he said you did this. i said i did