experience, i think. that's all for this edition of "dateline: extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. 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. >> narrator: text her, she always got right back. >> i i'veeen her ste out the shower to 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 calls from 911 were silent. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard. >> this could 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 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. >> narrator: what was in there? what was in there? >> i watch enough "dateline" to know that's probably not a good sign. >> welcome to "dateline." her family was frantic to find her. a woman with a thriving career

and a handsome new boyfriend. she was building the life she had always dreamed of, then suddenly there was silence, which was quite unlike her. a trail of clues led detective to one of chicago's most exclusive neighborhoods, but would those colludes lead them to her? here's keith morrison with "smoke and mirrors." >>t was hot and it was late. september, 2007. >> so it was. it was clear and dark and still and vacant. here with a deep food fought back against the decaying suburban straw. 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. >> narrator: yes, still does.

the name, you'll want to remember, is nailah. >> the meaning is one who succeeds. >> this is nailah's mother, maria. >> i wanted her to be 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. very blended. >> we share one parent, so technically half siblings, but that word is kind of offensive to me because it implies that it's something less and i've never felt that way. we're just siblings. >> narrator: 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, 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. >> that's this one. and imagine this -- >> 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. >> happy birthday, harper. i love you. >> little moot, they used to call her, because once decided something, all arguments against her were moot. >> 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. >> narrator: she came to chicago and built a career 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 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, discerning. >> the young men she dated were of a caliber, you know, that we expected of her. >> what sort of guys did she like? >> successful, nice, respectable men. >> professional men. >> she was dating with plastic surgeon guy, and this guy and that guy.

>> she took up briefly with a dashing investor who drove a white bentley. and in july of 2007, she attended an art gallery and met this man, deandandre 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 than it was before. >> 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 or anything like that -- >> that's okay. >> but this was clearly like a transcendental moment. >> oh, yeah, absolutely. >> nailha's family loved andre.

who 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. >> that was happening 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, 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, 2007, 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.

so 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. >> 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 got a text message that something along the lines of, 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 have seen her step out of the 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 worried things you say without knowing. what a good question it was. >> not only was nailah increasingly hard to reach, even worse, she hadn't shown up for work that day. >> coming up -- >> you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there just out. >> something's wrong? >> you know what? this isn't -- this isn't right. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪

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. septembe 19th, 2007 donned 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 radio silent. even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning, e-mailed her, called her again early afternoon. >> that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive. >> you probably didn't mean it the way it really was. >> no, it's like to say, are you there. >> big sister did get a call not from nailah but nailah's boss. >> she missed a meeting. immediately my spidey senses were high, so, of course, i tried to call her. i didn't get her. >> so she called nailah's other

friends and siblings. had anyone heard from nailah. >> i haven't. i've been really busy. i haven't talked to her. >> she called the chicago pd, filed a missing person's report and drove over to nailah's condo, knocked on the door. no answer. she got a key. she went in. >> you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there just out. >> something's wrong. >> you know what? this isn't right. >> and then lea 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 really kicked in. >> yes. >> lea's experience told her not to hope too much for 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 is that old saw in the media business, in fact, there is some truth to it. >> i think it's not just a saw, it's a -- >> the good looking young blonde goes misng and the whole world wants to kw about it and stay talking about it for years. >> mmm-hmm. >> 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 -- it's not real. >> so lea knew. but lea was not to be denied. >> you decided they damn well were going to cover it. >> well, they were. >> maybe it was because of lea's media savvy. next morning, nailah's picture was all over the news. >> fliers with her picture are taped to posts and handed out to

people in the streetwalking by. >> we were hitting the streets and putting them any place we could, downtown, suburbs. >> they phoned, texted and e-mailed their friends but no one reported seeing nailah. no one. nailah's sister kept replaying their last conversation. >> she called me and she said, i've got something to tell you. before she could tell me, she got a call on the other line. she clicked over and said she'd call me back. >> she didn't call you? >> she didn't call me back. >> awful what a person's mind can churn up in the dark. as day one became two and then day three. >> i kept calling her and kept calling her. i just kept thinking, she's going to answer, she's going to answer, she's going to answer. >> there is no handbook for this so you wake up and think it's a bad dream, nope, yit's still real. >> the case of the missing pharmaceutical executive landed on the desk of these detectives

who 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. [ inaudible ] >> 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? >> it is. the person physically unable to complete the conversation and just dial 911. >> investigators started by talking to just about everybody nailah knew. >> there were interviewed through doctors she had visited, trying to retrace her steps. anyone we knew had a relationship with her. >> maybe lea's pr campaign helped because -- >> we had some anonymous tips.

people saying they saw her at this location. >> but not a single one 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. >> anyone we knew who had contact with. the boyfriend she was in wisconsin with the weekend before she went missing, they were all interviewed. >> that boyfriend from wisconsin, andre, 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 right adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's probably not a good sign. >> when "dateline" continues. but one blows them all out of the water.

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you don't realize how the world seems so big 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, a local cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course

parking lot. his name is calvin. >> as soon as i got to this area, i noticed in front of me six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes, shipping boxes. >> sitting right there in the parking lot. >> sitting right on the curb. so it stood out. i'm thinking, something's not right here. >> inside the boxes, pills, hundreds of them. >> i was thinking, okay, this might be something big as far as a drugs and narcotics related case. >> except, it looked more like samples, something a pharmaceutical rep would be handing out free to doctors. >> what were they? >> different kinds of medicines. i can't each pronounced names. >> what were they doing here? on the label, an address to a storage locker and the name, nailah. pretty soon -- >> the fbi, chicago police, everybody was out here looking.

>> including detective greg jacobson. >> it was a pretty secluded area next to a forest reserve. right adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's probably not a good sign. >> was nailah down there in that murky water? >> we had light trucks down there. they drudged the lagoon. >> there was some jewelry in the bushes. >> pearls and such just hanging. there looked like nailah's, they said. except nailah wasn't here. but remember sister lea's pr campaign? not far away from there, next town over -- >> the person saw a newscast and they were like, that car's been on my block for a couple of days. thank god they saw that and thank god they called enough to call it in. >> that call came from here,

hammond, indiana, just down the road, three dfter nailah vanished. a black chevyi impala. >> we rushed out there to see it. >> it was hers. >> you open that trunk, the last thing you want to think is that there is something in that trunk. unfortunately, there wasn't. >> you obviously do a workup on the vehicle. did you find any prints, dna, anything useful at all? >> i think our evidence technicians described it was wiped clean. >> including in the trunk? >> yes. >> believing she might somehow 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 canvassed the neighbors, and what do you

know? >> they had seen a man mulling around the vehicle and enter another vehicle and leave. 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. questioned him about her relationship and when she disappeared. >> that ask when the last time i saw her was, last time we spoke. >> could that man mulling around the car been someone else like the previous boyfriend, the investor. his name was reginald potts. >> he agreed to stop by headquarters to talk. >> he gave us a lot of information. >> he met her a year earlier, he told them. by pure chance on the streets in

the ritzy gold coast. she was sophisticated. so was he. ey dated briefly. realized it wasn't for life. though a girl could do worse, what with his white bentley and duplex overlocking the lake. >> he lives in a very large apartment complex. high rise. >> very nice place. >> upscale. >> that's where you want to live. >> everywhere he vent, very detailed. the day's events, early evening shopping with friends at target, bar hopping later with not one but two girlfriends, separately, of course. and then 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, right? >> i guess so. >> as investigators went out to check reginald potts alibi, down

in calumet city, when a partner noticed something. >> he saw a couple of ear buds hanging from the trees. >> bright little babbles hanging there 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 nailah's past. >> she sensed there was something off about him and that's where she probably decided to, you know, look a little deeper. >> when "dateline" continues. tf non-drowsy children's claritin allergy relief. the #1 pediatrician recommended non-drowsy brand. because to a kid a grassy hill is irresistible. children's claritin. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. happiness is powerful flea and tick protection

from nexgard. nexgard kills fleas and ticks all month long. and it comes in an easy-to-give tasty chew. and that mes dogs and owners happy. no wonder vets love it too. easy-to-give tasty chew. reported side effects include vomiting, itching, diarrhea, lethargy and lack of appetite. see your vet for more information on flea and tick protection you and your dog will love. nexgard. the vet's #1 choice. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. dray, when he was younger, he loved to smile; and we knew he would need braces because his teeth were coming in funny. that's when he had the bunny rabbits. we called him the bunny rabbit. now, those are the same two front teeth, there, that they are now. then dray ended up having to wear braces for 5 years because he never made it to appointments, because he was busy playing basketball. if he missed practice, he don't get to play in the game. this is the picture that was on the front

page of the newspaper. all you can notice is the braces! then, once he got to michigan state, he broke the retainer! my bottom teeth, they were really crooked, and i just wasn't getting braces again. smile direct club fits into my lifestyle so well. the liner is so great. it's easy to just grab it and go and then i can change on the road. i did photoshoots with my aligners in and you can't see them. i wish smile direct club would have been around when i was paying for them. i wouldn't have to take him out of school. i wouldn't have had missed work. it's like a great feeling to have good teeth. a smile is a first impression, that's why i think having a gre and i am a senior public safety my namspecialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives.

together, we're building a better california. . hi, the hour's top stories. the family of the 17-year-old student who opened fire on his texas high school killing ten people released a statement saying they are as shocked and confused as anyplace about the events. the family says what happened

seems, quote, incompatible with the boy that we loved and offered condolences to the victims. first lady melania trump is back in the white house after recovering in the hospital where she underwent a kidney procedure. for now, back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. what happened to nailah franklin? as her family continued their desperate search, police focused on the men in her life. and with a little digging, one of their stories started to unravel. here is keith morrison with more of our story, "smoke and mirrors." >> it's a grassroots effort by family and friends. >> for all the frantic activity, the phone calls, the flyers, the organized looking about, it was a rare quiet time nine days in when nailah franklin's sister felt it. >> we have a prayer service at our church. in my heart, i knew. i was like, you know what?

she's not coming back. >> and that very night in the 3:00 hush of calumet city, night patrol office found his way past the glistening earbuds to the parking lot behind a derelict video store. >> i got to this area and just looked over and the body was there. >> what was that moment like? >> shocked. 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's 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

literally like in a nightmare. >> an autopsy confirmed the death was by asphyxiation, so now it was homicide. but who was the killer? not andre. coirmed,e was in milwaukee when nailah vanished. >> evething wi h checked out. >> as for being questioned -- >> were you upset by it? >> not at all, no. they should have done that. that was part of doing their job. >> what about that investor reginald potts, 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 potts was recently visited by members of the cook county sheriff's department in an attempt to evict reginald

potts. >> of course, this was 2010. lots of people were falling behind with their mornings. 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? >> mattress. no furniture. not a pot or pan in the kitchen, and yet what he believe 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 is raising one of his children and an ex-girlfriend with whom he'd 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 where she probably 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, heasn't happy. >> he got wind of that and reached out to nailah in a threatening manner. >> sent her nasty e-mails and voicemails. >> 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 the police.

remember, he had given them a very detailed alibi to check out. as the weeks went by, he seemed very eager to help. >> he continuously called me on my cell phone. >> really? to tell you what? >> to direct the conversation. >> his friends, the eccles, 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. this was curious, for some reason reginald did not show up on camera. >> if you commit a crime, don't do it at target. they're going to have everything down to the transaction on the

key pad very clear. >> meaning he somehow managed to avoid every camera in the store or his friend lied for him. so they hauled reginald's buddy down to the administration and after a few go-rounds, he admitted not only that reginald wasn't at the target but -- >> he did receive a phone call from reginald potts and travelled to hammond in order to pick him up because he needed a ride. hammond, indiana, the town where nailah's car was found. on the -- arrested for the murder of nailah franklin. but reginald quite vehemently denied killing her. >> this is evidence, okay. we can put you -- >> fabrication. >> fabrication? yes, said reginald. he was being framed. coming up -- a suspect bears all. >> why are you taking your clothes off? >> because i am.

>> why is that? >> because i am. >> okay. >> but would he reveal the truth? when "dateline" continues. ♪ protect your pets from fleas and ticks with frontline plus for dogs and frontline plus for cats. its two killer ingredients work fast and keep working all month long preventing new flea its two killer ingredients infestations on your pet. frontline plus. the number 1 name in flea and tick protection. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. from the first moment you met, it was love at first touch. and all you wanted to do was surround them in comfort and protection.

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here we are in a little room in a chicago police station, >> let's say that's what you're saying. >> reginald potts is under arrest for the murder of nailah franklin. the detectives are certain they have their man.

but mr. potts? >> i adamantly deny that i was ever there. period. >> reginald potts seems insulted they even asked. >> and i can tell you you're lying. >> nailah, i was nowhere near her the day she vanished. >> i was nowhere near her. >> narrator: of course they told them they had evidence. >> i have video of your distinctive bentley in her parking charge of your building. >> i can tell you for sure that's a lie. >> narrator: a police frame-up to which the detectives said -- >> reginald, do you understand about videotapes. there are cameras 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 building. >> narrator: accused the police of fabricating evidence. >> you have been very creative with photoshop. i guarantee you did not have video of me getting off the elevator at nailah franklin's us if you ha yve,e really creative with photoshop. >> narrator: he never expressed any desire for an attorney, but when they asked him to stand in a lineup so that witnesses could have a look. >> and who is speaking to whom in the lineup room. >> i definitely don't feel comfortable. >> there is a lawyer here with the state's attorney from cook county. >> the state's attorney representing the people and 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. >> reginald. your attorney is here. >> yes, sir. >> why are you taking your clothes off? >> because i am. >> why's that? >> because i am. >> okay. your attorney's right here. we want to take him for a lineup right now. >> no, sir. >> 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. >> 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 -- watched in something like amazement as reginald turned speedy justice into something else altogether. >> he hired lawyers. he fired lawyers. he tried to act as his own attorney. at steps along the way, the trial had to be reset. >> illinois abolished capital punishment so that was off the table. still reginald's actions forced delays. >> this is one of the most bizarre cases we've 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 that there may be some way that she's not associated with this crime, that there might be someone else, that there was a rush to judgement. >> 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 too often people who are poor or people of color do not -- 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 reginald potts began. it has taken eight years to get here. >> when it was finally happening, we were sort of like confused about how things would go down. there is finally a trial? what type of experience is this going to be? >> they had no idea. how could that? cook county assistant states attorneys brought the case against potts. >> this was a case with no

eyewitnesss, 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 not a monster. >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> when "dateline" continues. coppertone sport. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard. nexgard kills fleas and ticks all month long. and it comes in an easy-to-give tasty chew.

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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? with the conclusion of "smoke and mirrors," here's keith morrison. >> for eight years, nailah franklin's family struggled through their incomplete grief. >> what really tormented me all these years is that there is 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. the video of reginald potts with nailah the day she disappeared. the footage at the target that didn't show him. played a voicemail in which he threatened her. >> nailah played that voicemail for them because she was so terrified. essential in that voicemail he said to nailah, 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 she strangled her, stuffed her body in the trunk of her own car. how did they know he took her out to the suburbs to dump her body and her car? ce 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 lockstep 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 prosecutors. >> we find out the video store is owned by potts' brother-in-law. >> testified, 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. 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 cell phone evidence. >> based on the cell that pings on a tower is somehow flawed. >> after two weeks of testimony and 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 pronouncedguilty of first-. >> i was so relieved. it's like, okay, that's past now it's 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 is present. all the parties are 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 potts. 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. kill my family. my family would never be safe. >> he was struck three times 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 detainee potts. >> all of that was too prejudicial to present at trial, but completely relevant. >> he took her back behind the elevator and i heard slap. >> this guy has been an absolute menace his entire life. >> when a woman stood up to him. witness after witness testified that reginald betrayed them, bullied them and much worse. >> choked her out and threw her on the bed. >> he not only had a propensity of violence against women, but specifically to choke and strangle them. >> he's a sociopath. he lies as easily as he breathes, even about stupid. if he tells you what time it is, look at your watch. >> that bad, huh? >> ye >> the guy's monster. >> a monster who, however briefly, fooled oh 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 and i believe that a court of appeals will overturn that, but for now this court has to honor what they said and impose a sentence. but i tell you, your honor, i'm not the person that ms. 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 prosecutors'. 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 try 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 will 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." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. >> married to her high school sweetheart, family meant everything to her. >> it was always a lot of talk about children. she wanted grandchildren fast. >> but it all went up in smoke the night she died in a mysterious and monstrous inferno. >> it was to the right of the mattresses that we found the remains of julie.