>> it took a while before you really were able to trust her with all your feelings and really tell her you love her and hugged her in every bit of it. >> you can be her sons again? >> right. >> for that at least, bambi is grateful. for the future, she is hopeful, even if every once in a while, she looks back in anger. >> i lost my mom and dad. my children lost the grandparents. our family still has no answers. they are still saying the cases and completely solved. maybe if they took the time in the beginning we wouldn't be in this predicament today. >> maybe there are no more answers, no reason to keep digging up the past. just leave it rooted right where it is, and let the spanish moss grow. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. thank you for watching. he 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 >> i'm craig melvin. >> i am natalie morales.

>> this is dateline. >> she missed a meeting, the 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. >> texture, she always got right back. then one day, she didn't. >> immediately my spidey senses were hot. >> where was natalie? >> i sent her an email, all caps, are you alive? >> there was no sign of her in such a confusing trail of clues . even calls to 911 were silent. >> no voice, no struggles can be heard. >> in my heart, i knew she's not coming back. >> one of the suspects had an alibi, until a camera caught him in a lie.

>> it was 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? welcome to dateline. when nailah franklin vanished, her family was frantic to find her. a trail of clues led detectives to one of chicago's most exclusive neighborhoods, but

with those clues lead them to nailah? here is kate morrison with "smoke and mirrors." >> it was hot in late after midnight, september 2007. >> it was clear, dark, still, and vacant. here for the deep word -- woods fought back against declining suburban sprawl, then nothing was clear at all. >> i never cried this violent cry. >> you are experiencing everything but it's not you. you're just waiting to wake up. >> it feels like you are in a nightmare. >> yes, still does. the name, you will want to remember, is nailah. this is nailah's mother, maria. >> she lived her name. >> quite true as had the rest of them in this big family. this is leah, the firstborn.

>> we might need a graph or chart because it is kind of involved. >> full siblings, half siblings, quarter siblings once removed, that sort of thing. very blended. >> that what is offensive to me because to me it implies that it's something less than i've never felt that way. i've never used that word. we are 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 so for us, it's like we are one big family. >> not one but two ashley's. >> she is ashley with the e. she is ashley with a y. >> imagine this. i think this is kind of unusual, kind of rare, but everybody gets along? >> yes, everybody gets along.

it's a good thing. >> when we were kids, it was a lot more crazy to other people. >> in the middle of this big family was nailah. little moot, they used to call her, because when she decided something, all arguments against were moot. >> she was 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 excepted you for what you are. >> it was like she would glow when she walked into her room. >> after college, she began a career in chicago. at 28, she owned a condo in the heart of the city. >> i think everything she wanted to be, she was.

fabulous was the aspiration i think she met that mark. >> but always she stayed in touch, never failed, call her, she would call back right away. text her, she would reply instantly, always. >> she managed to honor all of her relationships. she would spend time with everyone. friends, family. >> that is a pretty special skill. >> you, to manage that in 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 we expected of her. >> what sort of guys did she like? >> successful, nice, respectable men. >> respectable men. >> she took up deep briefly with a dashing investor and then in july 2007, nailah attended an art gallery opening and he came. this lawyer from milwaukee, andre wright. >> big beautiful smile, she was a 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'm trying to engage her. >> suddenly this is a different search. >> yeah, i mean 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 don't want to go hallmark card on you but this was clearly kind of a transcendental moment or something. >> yes, absolutely. definitely. >> nailah's family loved andre. what family wouldn't? >> she brought him to my

child's first birthday party. he brought my baby a gift. like who does that? because he is a nice, quality person. >> she liked you? >> i think so. >> you started planning on moving in together, right? on being together, and that was happening pretty fast. >> it felt good, though. it felt natural. >> it was long-distance. he in milwaukee, she in chicago. they stayed connected by phone, email, and text all day long. >> i would call her every morning. >> no one seemed to notice any dark force, any unseen thing festering in the heat of that hot, late summer. did not feel the warning, did not know who said what to who. it was september 18th, 2007, 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 and i said oh, i thought i had, so we spoke for a bit, exchanged emails later, and then just one 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. >> you had been calling her every day, talking all the time,

and she said i'm at dinner, i'll call you later? but, she didn't. then 9:00 p.m., one of the ashley's called nailah, nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. >> i got a text message that said something along the lines that i'm at dinner and i'll call you in a few. >> did that sound like her? >> no, it was not like hurt not to answer the phone. i've seen her step out of the shower to answer the phone. >> i sent her an email, all caps, are you alive? >> one of those half and just have worried things, you say. without knowing what a good question it was. >> not only was nailah increasingly hard to reach, even worse, she had not shown up for work that day. coming up -- >> you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there. just like you know what, this

isn't right. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. ok, someone just did laundry... no, i add downy light so the freshness really lasts. yeah, most scented stuff gives me a headache, but this is just right. and i don't like anything. but i like this. get a light scent that lasts with no heavy perfumes or dyes. ( ♪ ♪ ) what can you do with sensitive skin? ♪♪ cetaphil gentle skin cleanser does more than clean. it actually protects skin by keeping it hydrated. so you're always ready for the unexpected. cetaphil. we do skin. you do you.

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keith morrison: 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 radio silent-- september 19, 2007 donned in late chicago like any other 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 that morning, emailed her, called her again early afternoon. >> that is when you sent her that email, are you alive? and you probably didn't mean it the way -- >> no. >> big sister lehia 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 i tried to call her, didn't get her. >> she called her friends and other siblings. had anyone heard from nailah? >> i said no, i haven't. i've actually been really busy and i haven't talked to her. >> she called the chicago pd,

filed a missing persons report then 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 just left there, just out. >> something's wrong. >> is like you know what, this isn't right. >> but then, leah got professional. she know how. she is a public relations executive, and she called every media contact she had. >> you kind of went wide on this thing. your pr info kicked in. >> experience told her not to hope too much for media help for one very unfortunate reason. >> quite rightly, 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. >> there is that old saw in the media, there is some truth to it? >> yeah, i think it's not just a saw. >> that the good-looking young blonde goes missing, the whole world wants to go looking for her and stay talking about her for years. >> no, and there is reality to that. it troubles the mind that when

people of color go missing, or if it does not fit the narrative of gun violence or gang violence or something like that, then somehow it is not -- it is not real. >> no, lehia new. she was not to be denied. and maybe this was because of lehia's media savvy. the next morning, nailah's picture was all over the news. >> flyers with her picture a tape to traffic posted handed out to people passing by. >> we were in the streets and putting them up anyplace we could. downtown, suburbs. >> they phoned and texted and emailed difference, 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 and before she could tell me,

she got a call on the other line and she clicked over and she said she will 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. they won became two and then day three. >> i kept calling her. i just kept thinking 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 but no. it is still real. >> the case of the missing pharmaceutical representative landed on the desk of sergeant mia and detective greg jacobson who right away it scanned nailah's phone records and found something alarming. just after 10 apart -- 10:00 p.m., just before she 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. >> i guess he can be kind of eerie to hear that. >> yes it is. is the person physically unable to complete the conversation and just able to dial 911? >> of the investigators said about talking to just about everyone nailah new. >> the interview was completed after she visited to try to retrace her steps. anyone that we knew who had a relationship with her. >> maybe lehia's pr campaign helped because -- >> we had some anonymous tips. people say they saw her at this location. >> but, not a single one of them led to nailah. by now, detectives believe they were dealing with a serious crime and yet, >> she is missing. her technically there has not been a crime committed. >> but anyone we knew who had contact with her, the boyfriend she was with the we can before she went missing, they were all interviewed.

>> the boyfriend from wisconsin, andre, had come to chicago and was helping with the search and soon, was perhaps the subject of it. the perfect boyfriend. now to police, perfectly obvious person of interest. >> coming up, a discovery in an empty parking lot. >> it was in a pretty secluded area. >> when dateline continues. [phone vibrator] hey, what's up, mijo? uh dad, don't freak... but i kinda messed up. my only nice shirt with barbeque wing stains. just throw it in the wash! this bottle says i need to pretreat. that's your problem... that stuff has way more water. tide cleans better. ok, so i don't need to use a "full cap for large loads?" nope. a little bit of tide goes a long way, so you can save money too. nice! more money for nights at the...library. right...

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keith morrison: imagine all of chicago, and nailah could be anywhere-- you don't realize how the world seems so big when you are 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 local cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course parking lot. his name is calvin lucius. >> so, 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 on the curb, so it stood out, so 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 some type of narcotics or drug case. >> except there were samples, something a pharmaceutical rep would've been handing out free to doctors. what were they? >> just different 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. nailah. pretty soon, >> the fbi chicago police, everybody was out here looking. >> including detective greg jacobson. >> it was in a pretty secluded area next to a forest preserve which was 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? >> they dredged the lagoon. >> back and forth they went, scoured every inch of the pond in the thick woods behind it, and found one weird thing. >> there was some jewelry in

some of the bushes. >> pearls and such just hang in there. the cops checked with their friends. looks like nailah's, they said, except nailah was not 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. thank god they cared enough to call it in. >> that call came from here. hammond, indiana just down the road three days after nailah vanished. a black chevy impala. >> we rushed out there to see it. >> it was hers. >> he opened that trunk.

the last thing you want to think is that there is something in that trunk. unfortunately, there wasn't. >> you obviously did a workup on the vehicle. did you find any prints, anything useful? >> our evidence technicians described it as it was wiped clean. >> 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 banged on the door, looked through the windows, screamed her name. i didn't want to leave. i had to be taken from the area. >> of course, the cops canvassed of the neighbors and what you know? >> they had seen a male bowling around the vehicle and then enter another vehicle and leave and that was a few days prior. >> did they give you a good description? >> male african-american, thin build. >> that description might offend a lot of people in nila's life like for example, her new boyfriend, andre wright. police had questioned him right away, of course, about the relationship and where she was when she disappeared.

>> they asked about when the last time i saw her was, when we spoke? >> or, could the man mulling around the car be someone else like the previous of 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 gave us a lot of information. >> he met her a year earlier, he told them, by pure chance on the street on the ritzy gold coast. she was sophisticated. so is he. they dated briefly, realized it wasn't for life but a girl could do worse, what with his white bentley and duplex overlooking the lake. >> he lived in a very large apartment complex, a high rise. beautiful. >> in an upscale area of the city. >> original told them everything he did, everything he went, very detailed. the days events, early evening shopping with friends at

target. barhopping later that with one but two girlfriends, separately, of course. then, after that? an intimate plan with a third girlfriend. >> they made arrangements to meet at reginald's apartment. >> this guy gets around. >> if you have a bentley, your options are open, right? >> i guess so. >> investigators headed off to check reginald potts out. down in calumet city, officer calvin lucius was again cruising vacant parking lots. this time, a mile or so from where he found those boxes when a partner noticed something. >> we saw a pair of air beds hanging from the tree. >> bright little bubbles, showed up in the dark. what else was in that abandoned place? at the edge of the midnight woods. coming up. it is 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 is probably when she decided to look a little deeper. >> when dateline continues. including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent.

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all eyes were on caitlin clark in the ncaa championship game but in the end, the hawkeyes could not best the undefeated south carolina gamecocks. south carolina won 87-75. we are hours away from the highly anticipated solar eclipse. travelers are flooding the path of totality hoping for a chance to see history but clouds could obscure the view. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i am 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 is a grassroots effort by family and friends. for all the frantic activity, the phone calls, flyers, the organized looking, it was a rare quiet time nine days in, when nailah franklin's sister felt it. >> we had a prayer service at our church. in my heart i knew. i was like you know what? she's not coming back. >> that very night in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, night patrol officer calvin lucius felt his way past the glittering earbuds his partner saw hanging from a tree to the black french of forest at the back of a long abandoned parking lot behind a derelict video store.

>> like maybe right around in this area and just looked over on 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 of the 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 is the absence of a piece of you because that person is not here. >> i can't describe it. it's like you notice happening, but it just does not feel real. it just feels like you are literally in a nightmare. >> an autopsy confirmed that death was by asphyxiation, so now, it was homicide. but, who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nailah vanished. >> everything with him checked out.

as for being question, are you upset by it? >> not at all. they should've done that. that was part of doing their job. >> so, what about that investor, reginald potts, who had been so helpful? well, this was curious. when detectives went to visit his high rise apartment they cannot help but notice. >> the exterior of one 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 apartment -- department in an attempt to evict reginald potts. >> of course, this was 2007. lots of people were falling behind on their mortgages, but by the look of it, reginald's problems run deeper than that. >> he was constantly in the fall. the 15 pairs of gucci shoes and not a bed to sleep on. a 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 were for show. >> the bentley, it turned out, belong to somebody else, and reginald juggled girlfriends in her cups and an ex-wife who was raising one of his children and an ex-girlfriend with whom he had had another. it did not take nailah long to figure it out, or so her friends told the police. >> she sensed there was something off about him, and that is probably where she decided to look 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, there were in communication about reginald. >> nailah told andre that when reginald found out, he was not happy. >> he got wind of that and reached out to nailah in a

threatening manner. >> sent her nasty emails and voicemails. did she worry about that a lot? >> she did not exhibit any worries to me about it. >> but, she must've been worried. detectives found a report that nailah had called a nonemergency police phone number, asked about filing an order of protection against a threatening ex-boyfriend. she mentioned mr. potts. so yes, reginald potts was a murder suspect but he was not exactly hiding for the police. remember, he had given them a very detailed alibi to check out. >> he was pretty specific and where he was at. >> he as the weeks went by, he seemed eager to help. >> he continuously called me on my cell phone. >> really? called you to tell you what? >> tried to direct the investigation.

>> his friends, the eccles, were with him much of the day, he said. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> 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 was not kidnapping and killing nailah, but this was curious. for some reason, reginald did not show up on camera. >> if you are going to commit a crime, don't do it at target. they're going to have everything down very clear. >> meaning either he managed somehow to avoid every camera in the store and his friend lied for him, so they halt reginald's buddy down to the station and after a few grounds, he admitted not only that reginald was not at the target, but -- >> they received a phone call from reginald potts and traveled to him to pick him up because he needed a ride. >> hammond, indiana. the town for nailah's car was found.

on the sixth of december, 2007, reginald potts was arrested in the murder of nailah franklin. but, reginald quite vehemently denied killing her. >> this is the evidence. >> let me hear the fabrication. >> fabrication? yes, said reginald, he was being framed. coming up, a suspect bears all. but, would he reveal the truth? when dateline continues. al the when dateline continues. f cigare can cause a stroke. and there's nothing soothing about that. (announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now.

keith morrison: here we are in a little room (announcer) you can quit. 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-- here we are, in a little room in the chicago police station. reginald potts is under arrest for the murder of nailah franklin. d detectives are certain they have their man, but mr. potts -- >> i am adamantly denying that i was over there. >> reginald potts appears to be insulted the even asked. >> i can tell you, you're lying. >> nailah? he was nowhere near her, he said, the day she vanished. >> listen to me, i was not in her apartment on the 18th or apartment building. >> of course, they told him, they had evidence. >> somebody saw your distinctive bentley in her parking garage or building. >> that's it.

>> listen for a minute. i can tell you that's a lie. >> up please frame up? to which detectives said. yes, including nila'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 she was there. >> but reginald doubled down on his denial. >> i am certain that i was nowhere near the inside of nailah franklin's apartment building. >> he accused the police of fabricating evidence. >> you have a very creative photoshop. i guarantee you do not have me getting off an elevator in

nailah franklin's house. >> he talked and talked, denied and denied. 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 is no way. i definitely don't feel comfortable with that. >> there is a lawyer here, estates attorney. >> the state's attorney represents the people representing the case. i would not feel comfortable at all. >> so, they waited for reginald's attorney to arrive and then it got odd. >> reginald, your attorney is right there. why are you taking your clothes off? >> because i am. >> what's that? >> because i am.

>> okay, your attorney is right here. we want to take you for a lineup right now. step in the other room. >> no, sir. >> reginald removed all his clothing and refuse to stand in a lineup. >> that's an interesting tactic. 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 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 use every resource at his disposal to delay the process. >> nbc chicago's charlie watched in amazement as reginald turned speedy justice into something else altogether. >> he hired lawyers and fired lawyers. he tried to act as his own attorney. at each step of the process, the trial had to be reset. >> three years past 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. >>'s family reached out trying to convince me that there may be some why he's not associated with this crime, that it might be someone else, that there was a rush to judgment. >> he spoke to a newspaper columnist who spoke 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, people of color do not -- or most often, they don't get proper representation. they don't get a fair shake in our court system, but this was not that. >> and then finally, on october 28, 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, we were sort of confused about how things were going down, like there's finally a trial? what kind of experience is this going to be? >> they had no idea. how could they? cook county assistant state's attorneys maria coffee and fabio 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 the cause of death that was based on primarily exclusion. you don't try many cases like that. >> and, not many cases with the defendant quite like reginald potts. coming up, and accused killers defense. >> he is smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is.

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welcome back. “download the gametime app to get great deals 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, 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, when they finally get

what they wanted most, the truth? with the conclusion of "smoke and mirrors," here is keith morrison. >> for eight years, nailah franklin's family struggled through their incomplete grief. >> what really tormented me all these years is that there was a possibility that justice will 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 emails and played a voicemail in which he threatened her. >> nailah played that voicemail for them because she was still terrified and essentially, 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 is exactly what he did. stuck into her building, let 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 in her car? cell towers linked to their phones together, like a trail of breadcrumbs. >> from the moment that they walked out of that vestibule to the rush, she's not seen by anybody. she is 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 abandon video store behind which they finally found nailah's body. no coincidence they chose that particular spot so far from chicago, said the prosecutors.

>> we find out that the video max store is owned by potts' brother-in-law. his friend, the alibi witness, not testified for the prosecution that yes, he initially lied for reginald but did not know it was to cover up for murder and remember those three hangup calls to 911 and does odd test -- text her family and boyfriend had received? it was reginald potts using her phone hours after he murdered her said the prosecution, a clever person's attempt to throw off an investigation. >> he is 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 difficult to determine cause of death so immediately, the defense is going to rush through that and say well, you can't really tell how they died and it is little things like that in the hopes

that one or two jurors will latch onto that and say i can't convict. >> the even disputed the cell phone evidence the prosecution believed since the case. >> the defense allege the idea that you can triangulate a cell phone signal based on the things off the 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 pronounced reginald potts guilty of first-degree murder. >> i was so relieved. it's like okay, that's past. now what's the next thing? so. >> the next thing was sent to sing, nearly four months later. >> still waiting and hoping he doesn't get like four years or something stupid like that. >> 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 goldplated success story he appeared to be. >> lived a life of a lot of broken mirror. >> and, when the con man was challenged, everybody, even law enforcement, was a target. >> he would kill me, 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 for he assaulted guards. >> i was struck in the right eye. >> all of that was too prejudicial to present at the trial, but now, absolutely relevant. >> and he took her back by the elevator and i heard slat. >> this guy has been a menace his entire adult life. >> and when a woman stood up to him? witness after witness testified

that reginald betrayed them, bullied them in much worse. >> he choked her out and threw her on the bed. >> this kite not only had a propensity for violence against women, but a propensity specifically to choke and strangle them. >> he is a sociopath. he lies as easily as he breeds, about anything, no matter how stupid it is. if he tells you what time it is, look at your watch. >> the guy is a monster. >> a monster, who, however briefly, fooled the beautiful, sophisticated, successful nailah, to her mother's eternal sorrow. >> you don't know who you are letting into your life. they don't always come looking like a monster. >> a kind of ceremony about these things. everyone gets to talk. >> nailah's murder still from our community of bright light. >> is still torments me with

her screaming. >> but reginald cried. denied everything. >> the jury of my peers came back with a verdict that i believe is false. i believe it is invalid and i believe the 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, i am not the person that ms. mccarthy has tried to paint in this courtroom. i am not a monster. i am not a monster. >> they waited to see if the judge would buy reginald 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. >> taken away. >> so, that was justice. the most nailah's family could hope for. terribly important, and strangely, empty. >> it's still not done.

she is still not back. we still can't talk with her. >> know. they tried to remember 9/11 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, she is your spirit and she is your angel and she's in a better place and all this other stuff is like yeah, 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 is all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thanks for watching. i am craig. thanks for watching. hello, i am craig melvin and this is dateline. it is never good news when the phone rings at 5:00 in th