Former New England Patriot's linebacker Eric Naposki, now a convicted murderer, took a break from his seemingly continual jailhouse network TV interviews to appear today in court, where he asked that his punishment be delayed until May 18.
Naposki entered Superior Court Judge William Froeberg's courtroom wearing a pink button down shirt, khaki pants, and, of course, the trademark smug look of a man who still doesn't appreciate he is presently on par with a cockroach.
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Last year, an Orange County jury convicted Naposki of killing William McLaughlin, a Newport Beach inventor and businessman worth about $55 million in Dec. 1994. At the time of the killing, Naposki was dating Nanette Ann Packard,
McLaughlin's live-in girlfriend. Prosecutor Matt Murphy believes
Naposki and Packard conspired together in the hopes of stealing a
portion of the dead man's fortune. Packard's jury began deliberations
late yesterday.
In court today, Naposki's natty, loyal-to-a-fault New York-based defense lawyers–John Pappalardo and Angelo MacDonald–asked Froeberg for the sentencing delay, Murphy didn't object and the judge granted the request.
The
only words Naposki–whose wrists were chained to his waist–uttered
were, “Yes, I am your honor,” after Froeberg essentially asked him if he is happy with the delay.
Two bailiffs then took the killer to a
nearby cell where he once again asked for a meeting with Orange County
DA super-sleuth investigator Larry Montgomery. After his conviction, Naposki has been claiming he knows the identity of the real killer. One clue: It's not him. Montgomery emerged about 15 minutes later but didn't seem in a rush to throw handcuffs on a new suspect in the case.
CBS 48 Hours
interviewed Naposki last year after the trial and aired a surprisingly
sympathetic piece that left out numerous key incriminating facts.
This week, Dateline NBC producers got their time with him inside the Orange County Jail.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime ReportingĀ for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise fromĀ New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.