Ex-NFL player maintains innocence in '94 murder of multimillionaire

Produced by Patti Aronofsky and Gayane Keshishyan
[This story previously aired on May 29, 2012. It was updated on March 23, 2013.]

(CBS) ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. -- The murder of Bill McLaughlin rattled the quiet gated community of Balboa Coves and devastated Bill's daughters, Jenny and Kim.

"My mom called and told me. It's too terrible to hear. Somebody had come into our house and shot him in the chest," Kim McLaughlin told "48 Hours" correspondent Troy Roberts.

On Dec. 15, 1994, Newport Beach detectives struggled to piece together the puzzle.

"To have a murder occur here was very uncommon," said Tom Voth, who was the lead detective on the case. "There were no fingerprints. DNA was very early in its stages... There were no weapons found."

"So there wasn't much to go on?" Roberts asked.

"No, no sir," said Voth.

But the night before his murder, Bill McLaughlin had called his brother, Patrick.

"I could tell right away something was wrong...he was in Las Vegas calling me," Patrick McLaughlin told Roberts. "...he was feeling as though his life was threatened. Just the way he talked to me. It was like people were out to get him."

"And we were very worried for our own safety," Kim explained. "Who has done this? Are they after the family?"

Detectives began pouring over every personal detail of Bill McLaughlin's life. His world of privilege in Newport Beach, Calif., was a far cry from his humble beginnings on the south side of Chicago.

"He was always the self-made guy, really," said Patrick.

He was first in his family to go to college.

"He wanted to be the kind of guy that would make a difference," Patrick continued.

And he did. Bill McLaughlin was the entrepreneur behind the development of a groundbreaking device that separated plasma from blood. It was a huge advance in the healthcare field and it made him a fortune.

Bill's best friend, Don Kalal, says McLaughlin was "probably [in] his early 30s" when he made his first million. But Kalal says that was just the beginning. By the time of his death, McLaughlin was worth an estimated $55 million.

"You don't amass that kind of fortune without stepping on some toes," Roberts noted.

"There was nobody that I knew that had a vendetta against him," said Kalal.

But in the months before his murder, Bill had been embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with Hal Fischel - a former business partner who had invented the plasma device.

"This had been a long difficult lawsuit," Jenny McLaughlin explained. "Hal Fischel was the adversary in the lawsuit."

Fischel lost the suit and had to forfeit $9 million to McLaughlin. That sounded like a motive.

Voth said he considered Fischel a suspect in the case. But Fischel had an alibi - a good one. Eyewitnesses say he was in Santa Barbara, nearly a 150 miles north of Newport Beach, at the time of the murder.

Voth said Fischel was eliminated as a suspect "fairly quickly."

Besides, investigators were becoming more convinced the killer was part of Bill McLaughlin's inner circle. The clues kept leading them closer to home; in fact, directly to his front doorstep.

"When we arrived at the homicide scene in 1994, there were two keys located - we found the key in this door," Voth showed Roberts at the crime scene. "In addition, they also found a key laying on the ground here. And the key that fits this lock right here, at the time also fit the front door of the residence."

"What does that say?" Roberts asked.

"In all of our minds, that narrows the field of suspects down to those who have access to keys," Voth replied.

Police took a closer look at McLaughlin's family, beginning with his son, who was upstairs in the house when he says he heard the shots that killed his father.

"They put paper bags over Kevin's hands and they did a forensic analysis of his hands, showing that Kevin did not fire a firearm that night," said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy.

That left McLaughlin's two daughters and his ex-wife, all who had airtight alibis and no motive.

And then there was Nanette Johnston -- Bill McLaughlin's much-younger fiancee, who he met through a magazine ad she placed looking for a wealthy, older man.

"'I know how to take care of a man. If he can take care of me.' That's what she said," Patrick said of the ad.

"He was at a vulnerable time," Kim said. "And so here she comes along and, you know, made everything a little better."

In return, Bill McLaughlin provided Nanette with a generous allowance and a lavish lifestyle.

"She immediately stepped into a lifestyle that most people would only dream of," Murphy explained. "She lived in a beautiful home. They went to Europe, they went on cruises, they went on exotic ski vacations. She had...jewelry, everything."

Within months, Nanette brought her two young children to live with Bill. His daughters, Kim and Jenny, became increasingly worried

"I said, 'Dad, I don't really like her. I think she's with you for your money," said Kim.

"She knew how much he was worth," noted Roberts.

"Yes, definitely," she replied.

In spite of the warnings, McLaughlin proposed after about a year of dating.

"And she told everyone she was his fiancee," said Jenny.

"She had a whopper of a ring," added Kim.

McLaughlin even wrote Nanette into his will.

"He wanted to make sure that if anything happened...her and her kids would be taken care of," Murphy explained. "...he had a million dollar life insurance policy with her as the beneficiary."

On Dec. 15, 1994, Bill McLaughlin came home and found a note from Nanette. She had gone to her son's soccer game and would be home late. When she pulled up to the house around 10 p.m., her fiance was dead.

"What was Nanette's alibi?" Roberts asked Voth.

"That she was at the soccer game. And directly after that she went shopping. She couldn't have possibly been involved in the murder because she had these receipts," he replied.

"Did her alibi check out?"

"No. Not completely."

Nanette had been at the soccer game, but with another man -- someone McLaughlin's family knew nothing about.

According to Jenny McLaughlin, "They said, 'Do you know who Eric Naposki is?' And we said, 'Absolutely not, who's that?' They said, 'This is Nanette's boyfriend. And we were like, 'Really? We thought our Dad was Nanette's boyfriend."

Bill McLaughlin's fiancee, Nanette Johnston, had a big secret: Eric Naposki, a 6'2", 250-pound professional football player for the NFL.

Naposki, a linebacker for the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, among other teams, was certain in December of 1994, that Nanette was his girlfriend.

"You saw a future in this relationship?" Troy Roberts asked Naposki.

"I did," he replied.

"You wanted to marry Nanette?"

"I did."

"Do you think she really loved you?"

"She appeared to back then."

"...she seemed madly in love with him," Naposki's sister, Angela Licata, said. "I liked her. She had two small children - that were wonderful children... we fell in love with them instantly...We really thought she was the one for Eric because she was strong and she was intelligent. And we thought it was a good match."

Dave Matthews couldn't believe his high school buddy was smitten.

"He was excited," Matthews said. "Eric, back then...he's a good looking, charming funny guy with great energy...he's a tough one to fall in love because he dates a lot."

But with Nanette, things were different. "This wasn't just a regular girl," said Matthews.

Naposki's former roommates, Rob Frias and Leonard Jomsky, agreed.

"She was a bombshell," Frias said. "She was very attractive. It was hard to miss her."

"She was beautiful," Jomsky added. "I mean without a doubt. She was a really, really pretty girl."

To Naposki, there was much more to Nanette than her looks.

"She graduated college early," Naposki told "48 Hours." "She wrote business plans for a living."

"She's got her MBA... She had this...prototype design for a device...it separates plasma from blood, it's really cool," Matthews explained. "They winded up selling it making tens of millions."

Not only did she take credit for Bill McLaughlin's work, but Nanette claimed his money was her own.

"From the very beginning, she told me exactly what she was doing with Bill McLaughlin, as far as a mentor and as far as a business relationship. And it sounded really good," Naposki told Roberts.

"You never suspected that she and Bill McLaughlin shared an intimate relationship?" Roberts asked Naposki.

"I never once suspected," he replied. "Bill was an investor and Nanette also took part in his investments. ...she would tell everyone the same stories."

"She came over with a new car - a dark green Cadillac," Frias recalled.

Bill McLaughlin had bought it for her, but that's not what Nanette told them.

"She said she went out and wrote a check somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000," Frias continued.

Nanette told them she and her business partner were investors in high-end real estate. "...she owned a $5 million beach house in Newport," said Naposki.

Naposki says Nanette told him she also shared a million-dollar home with her colleague, Bill, where they had separate bedrooms.

To Naposki, she was clearly a self-made success story -- something he desperately wanted to be. But his football career was in jeopardy.

"In Giants Stadium... I'm making a sack and my foot twisted and I popped the arch in my foot," he explained.

Years of playing professional football was taking a toll. In the early 1990s, Naposki was trying to figure out what to do next.

"[I] started programs at the gym working with kids... Started a security company," he said.

And then, just two weeks before Bill McLaughlin's murder, Naposki got another job running security at the Thunderbird nightclub. It was located less than 200 yards from McLaughlin's home where he was killed.

Asked how he learned that Bill McLaughlin was murdered, Naposki told Roberts, "Nanette told me. ...She was shaken up. She was absolutely shaken up. ...And she went right to the business deal with his ex-business partner Hal Fischel."

But within a week, Naposki says he learned he was a suspect.

"I notice there's a car following me," he said.

It was the police.

"...then they brought me to an interview room and started throwing questions at me," Naposki told Roberts. "Like, 'What's your relationship with Nanette?'"

Detective: What's your involvement or relationship?

Eric Naposki: Nanette's a pretty good friend of mine.

"He was very evasive," said Detective Voth. He remembers Naposki wouldn't give them a straight answer.

Detective: Would you describe it as a dating relationship, a boyfriend-girlfriend?

Eric Naposki: I wouldn't say a, a solo total, like I have girlfriends, you know.

"You danced around the truth. If you're an innocent man, why would you do that?" Roberts asked Naposki.

"I'm an innocent man now. Because there's no manual, there's no handbook when you're being looking at as a suspect in a murder case," he replied.

Naposki was not forthcoming about Nanette and evasive when questioned about other things. It took him awhile to admit he once had a 9mm gun.

"What were you thinking when you heard he owned a 9mm?" Roberts asked Det. Voth.

"I knew that...a 9mm was used in this crime," he replied.

Naposki refused to tell investigators where the gun was.

Detective: Where is your 9mm?

Eric Naposki: I have no idea.

Detective: You have no idea

Eric Naposki: That's my statement.

"Why weren't you truthful about the 9mm with police?" Roberts asked Naposki.

"I think I was just scared," he replied. "Because I didn't buy that 9mm for myself. ...That was Nanette's 9mm Beretta.

"I was scared to start throwing around, 'that's Nanette's gun. You know, go look at Nanette,' he continued. "...that would have been really like just pointing the finger."

Naposki says Nanette liked shooting at the range and months earlier asked him to get her a 9mm. But he didn't tell police that. Because at the time, Naposki says he didn't know what to believe about his girlfriend and Bill McLaughlin.

"They're telling me, 'Well there's this relationship going on that you don't know about. And then she's telling me, 'there's no relationship that you don't know about.' So I'm getting hit from both sides," Naposki explained.

"Eric called home," his sister, Angela Licata, recalled. "He was hysterical crying and he said "...they think I killed this guy. They think I killed him."

Eric Naposki had an alibi. And he was sure back in 1995, that after authorities heard everything, he'd be exonerated.

"I guarantee you, looking you straight in the face Troy, Eric Naposki did not murder Bill McLaughlin any way you slice it..." Naposki told Troy Roberts. "I couldn't have done it. The alibi allows me no time to commit any crime."

Naposki sat down for a television interview to answer questions about his whereabouts the night of Bill McLaughlin's murder.

Naposki's evening began with Nanette Johnston at her son's soccer game.

"It was a good game. It was a championship game," he told Roberts. "...and it ended pretty late."

Nanette, he says, then drove him to the town of Tustin where he lived.

"She drops me at my truck. I say good night. She says she's gonna go do some shopping," he explained.

Naposki said he got in his truck and headed to his job at the Thunderbird nightclub in Newport Beach. But before he could get very far, his beeper went off.

"My page is from...my boss, one of the managers at the Thunderbird," he said. "So I continued over the 55 freeway and I pull into the Denny's. I walked to one of the two phone booths in the back and I used my calling card to call the Thunderbird."

Naposki says according to his calling card bill, it was 8:52 p.m.

"Phone records...put me in Tustin, which is...20 minutes outside Newport Beach minutes before the 911 call," he told Roberts. "I hate to burst your bubble boys, but I wasn't in Newport at 9 'o clock."

It's impossible, he told police, for him to have had a phone conversation at 8:52 p.m., then drive about 12 miles to Newport Beach, sneak into Bill McLaughlin's house, shoot him and then flee before Bill's son discovered his father's body shortly after 9 p.m.

"You can't make it Troy. That's why they didn't arrest me back then. If you could make that drive, they would have arrested me in '95," Naposki continued. "I could not have committed this murder, period and end."

But it wasn't the end. About a month after the murder, Kim McLaughlin was looking over her father's financial records and got the surprise of her life.

"When December bank statements came in... I noticed a very big amount of money missing," she told Roberts.

Someone had written a check for $250,000. It was dated Dec. 14 - just one day before the murder.

"...and I thought, 'this is strange,'" Kim said. "...we alerted the banks that we needed to get copies of the check."

On the check, their father's signature was forged. Nanette Johnston, it tuned out, had cashed it.

"I was in shock," Kim said. "And then I continued to look further."

"All together, how much money did she embezzle from your father?" Roberts asked.

"Gosh, probably close to half a million dollars," said Jenny.

"Money is a really strong motive for her," added Kim.

It was clear to Kim and Jenny that Nanette had to end their father's life before he found out that she was stealing from him -- stealing for a future with Eric Naposki. They called police.

Retired Det. Dave Byington remembers being frustrated when the district attorney refused to charge Eric Naposki and Nanette Johnston with murder.

"We felt very strongly that both Eric Naposki and Nanette Johnston were responsible for Mr. McLaughlin's murder," Det. Byington said. "The decision was made there wasn't enough evidence to file. But our guts told us that they were good for it."

The district attorney would only charge Nanette with forgery and theft.

"They've accused her of stealing money,' Naposki said." Of course she has a pretty good excuse for all of it, being signers on accounts and co-business partners."

Naposki said he wanted to believe Nanette -- that the money was hers. But then newspaper articles were referring to her as Bill McLaughlin's fiancee.

"So I look at her and I go, 'What the hell is this fiancee stuff?' She blamed it on a misquote. 'Well, they don't know what they're talking about. I'm not engaged to Bill. I've never been engaged to him. That's ridiculous.'"

"How did she explain her deceit?" Roberts asked Naposki.

"She never did," he replied.

"And you didn't demand answers?"

"I demanded 'em ...which lead to our breakup."

"Though it was six months later, right?"

"With a lot of in betweens."

Eric Naposki finally left Southern California. And in March of 1996, Nanette pleaded guilty to forgery and theft and served 180 days. After Nanette was released from jail, she quickly began dating again.

"Nanette did what she always does," Byington explained. "She went looking for a new sugar daddy, someone else to support her."

Nanette married the very wealthy businessman John Packard and had another child.

"She was a man hunter," Byington said. "And she used that sexuality as her main tool, to grab these guys."

That marriage ended in divorce, but Nanette quickly moved on, marrying entrepreneur Bill McNeal and having yet another child.

"She was so aggressive that -- it wouldn't surprise -- if she had a trapeze set up in her bedroom," Byington continued. "You needed a playbook to keep track of the marriages."

Back on the East Coast, Eric Naposki had moved on with his life. He fathered two children.

"Eric's my 11-year-old and Susanna is my 8-year-old," Naposki told Roberts. "Eric's a miniature me...plays football basketball, soccer. He's a great kid. ...And my daughter is the light of my life. Just always smiling, always happy."

Naposki picked up work as a personal trainer and promoted workout products. He even tried his hand at acting, going back to Orange County to film a pitch reel for a potential TV series called "Newport 40."

"Kind of a male version of the 'Real Housewives of Orange County,'" said Rob Frias.

By 2009, Eric Naposki was finally settling down in quiet Greenwich, Conn. But one spring morning, his world turned upside down.

"There was four vehicles... with machine guns pointed at me. Over loudspeakers they were telling me to get out of the vehicle. ...they put me on the ground," he explained. "...I said, 'Am I under arrest' and they said, 'Yes. ...for murder.' There's no way. ...I couldn't even believe it."

Almost 3,000 miles away in Orange County, Calif., Nanette Johnston Packard McNeal was also under arrest for murder.

"All of a sudden 15 years later, out of the blue to have a phone call from the detectives. 'We just made two arrests. Nanette and Eric are in jail.' We were overjoyed," said Kim McLaughlin.

"It's hard to get a fair trial 15 years later. Am I innocent? Absolutely, 100 percent," Naposki told Roberts. "Can I prove it? I hope so. ...Can they prove I'm guilty? I don't think that's possible. Because I didn't do it."

Fifteen years after Bill McLaughlin was gunned down in his Balboa Coves home, Eric Naposki is facing trial for a murder he says he didn't commit.

"I've never been in that house. Never ever," he told Troy Roberts. "I don't see any DNA, I don't see any fingerprints. I don't see any big footprints from a size 14 boot. I don't see anything from that night. And If I was never in the house, ever how did I commit a crime?"

"There's no doubt in any of our minds that Eric Naposki pulled the trigger and murdered Bill McLaughlin," said prosecutor Matt Murphy.

Murphy is confident he can do what prosecutors before him didn't - prove that Naposki was the shooter and Nanette Johnston got him to pull the trigger.

"...her gift is the manipulation of men," Murphy said. "She...told Eric Naposki in the months beforehand that Bill McLaughlin was sexually assaulting her. ...there's no reason for her to tell him that lie unless her plan is to manipulate him into actually committing the murder."

Murphy's case revolves around star witness Suzanne Cogar. In 1994, she lived next door to Eric Naposki and says Eric confided in her.

"Eric Naposki came to her and ...said, 'Bill McLaughlin keeps coming into Nanette's room at night.' And he was furious about it. And [Cogar] said that he was really, really upset," said Murphy.

So upset, that he said he wanted to blow up Bill McLaughlin's plane. Naposki says he was just letting off steam.

"I did tell her that I wanted to blow up his plane," he said. "I didn't say I wanted to kill Bill or that I wanted to shoot Bill or I want Bill blown away. His plane didn't blow up did it?"

But there was a second conversation with Cogar -- just three weeks after the murder -- where Murphy says Naposki implicates himself even further.

"And she goes, 'Oh my God, Eric, I don't even wanna know if you had anything to do with it.' And he smiled and he said, 'Maybe I did, maybe I didn't,' and he said, 'Maybe I had somebody do it,'" according to Murphy.

"I said, 'I didn't,' first. And then when she kept badgering me about it,' Naposki told Roberts. "It was more of a laughing conversation at that point...to me it's just an off-the-cuff comment."

But there's more to what Naposki told Cogar.

"He said 'the killer...used the same gun that I used to have. So the police think I did it,'" Murphy said. "The only people on the planet earth that knew a 9mm was used in the murder were about a half dozen detectives at the Newport Beach Police Department and the killer."

Defense attorney John Pappalardo grew up with Eric Naposki in Westchester, New York.

"I believe him when he tells me he's not the shooter," Pappalardo said of the friend he first met in Little League.

He teams his most experienced attorney from New York, Angelo MacDonald, with well-respected Orange County defense attorney Gary Pohlson.

"Matt Murphy, as you know, has never lost a murder case. Does it worry you?" Roberts asked Pohlson.

"Yeah it worries me, but, he doesn't get to make up the evidence," he replied.

But just before Naposki's scheduled trial, new forensic tests tie the shell casings from the gun that killed Bill McLaughlin to the exact make and model of the gun Eric Naposki once owned - a 9mm Beretta.

If convicted, Eric Naposki and Nanette Johnson face life behind bars. Naposki stands trial first.

In court, Murphy immediately hones in on Naposki's history of lying to the police.

"Mr. Naposki lied about his relationship with Nanette," Murphy said in his opening statement.

"And, of course, we know he lied about his 9mm."

"You just don't do that if you're innocent," Murphy told "48 Hours.

In order to find him not guilty, the jury must believe Naposki's story that at 8:52 p.m. -- just minutes before Bill McLaughlin's murder -- he was about 12 miles away on a payphone at the Denny's restaurant.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the defense will prove that he possesses a solid, simple, logical, reasonable and compelling alibi," Angelo MacDonald told the court. "He simply could not have done it."

It will be hard to convince the jury, though, without evidence of Naposki's phone call. He says he no longer has copies of his bill and the phone company no longer has the records.

"If we had the phone record, it might be open-and-shut case, right?" said Naposki.

Murphy doubts the call even happened, but if it did, he says it's hardly an alibi.

"As opposed to being an alibi, the timing of that actually fits perfectly," he said.

Murphy sent his investigator, Larry Montgomery, to time the drive from the Denny's to Bill McLaughlin's home.

"I did at least 15 time trials," Montgomery explained. "All of our tests show that he should have been able to arrive at the location...in order to do the killing."

But Naposki's defense lawyers have timed the drive, too.

"I do not think it's physically possible he could've made it in the required time," said MacDonald.

Asked how critical a matter of minutes is to his defense, MacDonald told Roberts, "Seconds could decide this case."

Not unexpectedly, Angelo MacDonald, suggests to the jury a more likely killer.

"Nanette Johnston is an accomplished liar, cheat, thief, manipulator, con woman and selfish, promiscuous, gold digger," MacDonald told the court in his opening statement.

"There's more evidence here that Nanette Johnston did this murder than Eric Naposki... So, you know what...let's us play prosecutor," he told Roberts. "Let's put her on trial. Let's show the jury that she could have done this. ...she had the motive, she had the means. And...she's got the cold blooded heart, the sociopathic personality to do it."

Murphy has no problem letting the defense prosecute Nanette Johnston.

"I could not agree more," Murphy told the court. "If diabolical behavior was an Olympic sport, she'd be a gold medalist every year. ...She is a manipulator and an evil manipulator."

But he says Naposki was a willing participant; he and Nanette were thick as thieves.

"Several months before the murder they're shopping for million-dollar homes. ...Eric Naposki was in debt...and Nanette had no money," Murphy explained. "The only way they could ever afford that house that they were looking at is if Bill McLaughlin died."

"I've heard the reason that Mr. McLaughlin was murdered is so I can buy a house... it's ridiculous," Naposki told Roberts.

But maybe the hardest thing for the defense to explain is that Naposki had Bill McLaughlin's license plate number written down on a notebook found in his car right after the murder.

"That was a clue he forgot to get rid of," Murphy said. "That license plate number cannot be explained."

"That license plate has nothing to do with the murder," said Naposki.

He told "48 Hours" that he wrote down the license plate number months before the murder after he caught Nanette in a series of lies.

"So I called a buddy of mine...and I wanted her followed to see what she was doing," he said.

Naposki says his friend, Todd Calder, went by Nanette's house, told Eric there was a car there and gave him the plate number. Turns out the car belonged to McLaughlin. But Murphy says the story just isn't true.

"We interviewed Todd Calder," Murphy said. "He said, 'I have no idea what you're talking about. He never asked me to do that. I absolutely never did that.'"

Whatever happened, Naposki's attorneys say with no DNA or fingerprints - there's nothing to tie Eric to the murder scene.

"Please, as much as I've ever wanted anything in my life, I want you to find him not guilty because this man is not guilty. This is an innocent man," Pohlson told the court in his closing.

But the plea falls on deaf ears. After a month-long trial, it takes only 7 hours for the jury to find Eric Naposki guilty of Bill McLaughlin's murder.

Six months later, a very different looking Nanette Johnston - after spending a year-and-a-half in jail waiting for trial - is about to have her day in court.

"She is a killer," Matt Murphy tells the court. "...that woman is responsible for the murder of Bill McLaughlin."

Murphy argues at trial Nanette killed McLaughlin so he wouldn't discover her infidelity or her rampant stealing.

"She steals $48,200 in the month of October alone...$20,000 in November... $68,200 in seven weeks. Now, how is she gonna get away with that if Bill McLaughlin lives?" asked Murphy.

Nanette's attorney, Mick Hill, doesn't sugar coat it.

"She's not a nice person," he addressed the court. "...hate her as much as you want for being a thief, a liar, a cheat, a slut, whatever you want to call her."

"I knew the jury weren't going to like her," Hill told "48 Hours," "but that doesn't mean she's a murderer either."

"When you're motivated by money, when you're living with the golden goose, you're not going to get rid of him," Hill said in court.

In the end, Hill says, Nanette never would have left Bill McLaughlin for someone poor like Eric Naposki. Remember, McLaughlin had just won a $9 million settlement from his ex-business partner, Hal Fischel, and he was about to get millions of dollars richer. Naposki, Hill says, acted alone.

"Someone who is fully capable of getting jealous, someone who's fully capable of being violent, someone who's fully capable of killing his girlfriend's lover," Hill told the court.

It took the jury just three hours to find Nanette guilty of Bill McLaughlin's murder.

"We really miss him and we're so glad that justice has been served on his behalf," said Kim.

For Bill's daughters, Kim and Jenny, this painful journey would finally be over, except, that now, Eric Naposki says he'll reveal a secret he's kept for almost 20 years: The identity of the man who really killed their father

"You know that there are people who believe that this is a desperate ploy to gain release" Roberts commented to Naposki.

"Yeah," he replied. "What are they going to say - whoops we made a mistake?"

Eric Naposki says he's always known who really murdered Bill McLaughlin. Only he didn't tell police. He didn't think they would believe him.

"I think some people watching this will say, 'If I was in his shoes, I would be screaming to the mountaintops that I know who the true killer is,' and you sat on the information," Troy Roberts commented to Naposki.

"There was no real benefit for me to come forward with no proof," he replied.

Eight months after his conviction for murder, Naposki's legal team contacted "48 Hours" -- asking us to come back to prison to speak with Naposki. He wanted to reveal the name of McLaughlin's killer and he said he now had evidence to prove what he says he's known for nearly 20 years.

"Nanette paid for the killing...she hired somebody," said Naposki.

A hit man. Naposki says he knows who she contacted to arrange it. It all began, he claims, three months before the murder when Nanette Johnston told him McLaughlin sexually assaulted her. A furious Naposki confided in a business acquaintance.

"He asked me, 'What the hell's a matter with you...what's bothering you?' And I told him," Naposki told Roberts. "He was upset. He said, 'You know this kinda stuff shouldn't happen and I understand why you're upset.' ...He said to me, 'I have people that take care of things like this, you know? I have people who don't like rapists.'"

Naposki says he didn't take the acquaintance seriously.

"You know a lot of people talk about a lotta stuff in this town...what connections they have and this and that. And you kinda take it with a grain of salt," he said.

Naposki was more interested he says in the connections his friend said he had in Hollywood.

"He got me an extra part in a movie," he said.

They were talking about starting a film production company. And Naposki thought Nanette could write up a business plan.

"That was her spiel....That's what she did. She put together business plans. She got funding. Things like that," he said.

So he set up another meeting to introduce Nanette. And that's when Naposki says the acquaintance turned to Nanette and repeated his offer to help her get revenge on Bill McLaughlin.

"It almost looked like a sales pitch," Naposki explained. "'I know what's goin' on. I can help you. ...this is what I can do for 'ya. And this is how the money is arranged.'"

" Did you take him seriously?" Roberts asked.

"Not really--"

"Even then?"

"Even then."

"What was Nanette's reaction?"

"I was more surprised at her reaction," said Naposki.

Nanette, Naposki says, liked the idea.

"She was definitely more interested in what he was talking about than I figured she would be," he said.

Naposki says he calmed her down. But, then later, he saw the acquaintance again.

"What did he say to you?" Roberts asked.

"'I've started the ball rolling' or something like that, on what Nanette wants to do," Naposki replied.

"And what did you take that to mean?"

"That he was gonna form some kind of retaliation for her," he replied. "And that's when I said, 'Well wait a second, you know...stay out of it, it's not your business. ...He said he thought she wanted him to go forward and I said, 'I don't think that was the case.'"

"So did you confront Nanette?"

"Yeah," he said. "I told Nanette that it wasn't going to happen...she was upset with me."

But Naposki believed Nanette wasn't going to do anything.

"It was squashed. It was over. The discussion was had...nothing happens in September. Nothing happens in October. Nothing happens in November," he said.

By early December, Naposki says he knew the 9mm Berretta he usually kept in his car was missing.

"It's her gun," he said. "I asked her... 'Did you take it from the car?'"

Within days, McLaughlin was shot to death.

Roberts asked Naposki, "Did you ask Nanette the question directly, 'Did you have Bill McLaughlin killed?'"

"Yes," he replied.

"And she answered?"

"Absolutely," Naposki said. "She has no remorse about killing Bill McLaughlin."

Naposki then went to confront the Hollywood producer.

"And what did he tell you?" Roberts asked.

"He told me it was what it was. You know, he did what she wanted him to do and that there's was nothing I could do or say about it," he replied.

What's more, the acquaintance confirmed the gun used to murder McLaughlin was Naposki's. He was now forever tied to the murder of Bill McLaughlin.

"It's kept me quiet for 17 years," he said.

"But no longer," noted Roberts.

"Eric Naposki called for a meeting with you?" Roberts asked prosecutor Matt Murphy.

"Right. Right," he replied. "He changed his story substantially."

Eric Naposki says he's spent every day of his incarceration reading through the documents and evidence police collected on the murder and on Nanette, including bank statements and phone bills.

"The first time I saw her phone calls...was after the trial. So there was a lot of things I didn't have access to that I should have had access to but I didn't know existed," he explained.

"I asked for 6,000 pieces of discovery and I went through every single piece of paper," Naposki told Roberts. "Everything."

Naposki showed CBS News what he had presented to the police and prosecution in the spring of 2012. The acquaintance's telephone number on Nanette's cell phone bill just days leading up to the murder.

"Why is this number eight times called in one week never called beforehand," he asked.

But Matt Murphy says the man's number on Nanette's cell phone bill isn't enough, because Eric could have just as easily used Nanette's phone.

"The problem there is that we know that Eric Naposki has access to that phone," he explained. "So as far as being able to say Nanette made that phone call versus Eric Naposki we just can't do that. We just don't know."

And Murphy says police have now thoroughly investigated the man Naposki accuses of setting up the murder - and he's an unlikely suspect.

"What I can tell you is that...he was completely cooperative in every way," Murphy said. "He's never been arrested before...he's legitimate as far as his business dealings go."

When police spoke to him, he denied even knowing Nanette. Eric Naposki provided CBS News with bank statements. Cash withdrawals Nanette made right before and right after the murder - a total of $50,000. Naposki is certain the money went to pay for the hit. One of the cash withdrawals Nanette made actually happens the very same day the man's number appears on her phone bill.

"You're telling me that a businessman with no criminal history carried out this murder for what - $50,000?" Roberts asked Naposki.

"I can only assume that's the amount of money that's missing from her cash withdrawals," he replied.

"It's kind of hard to digest, Eric. Fifty grand?"

"Troy, is it easier to digest that I did it for nothing," Naposki replied, "no houses, no future, no happily ever after."

Naposki pointed to an entry in his notebook from December 1994, right around the time of the murder.

"I have get a loan for $10,000 in my December book. Does a guy need a loan for 10K when he's about to make a million? When he's about to make a million about to become a millionaire to share in the gross profit of a murder scheme," he asked.

But Murphy's so certain the businessman had nothing to do with the murder, CBS News has decided not to broadcast his identity.

"Everything that comes out of Eric Naposki's mouth is a lie. Virtually every single thing from the first time he was interviewed by police till now when we've recently interviewed him," Murphy told Roberts. "Eric Naposki went into that kitchen that night and he murdered Bill McLaughlin and we have proven it. And everything he does since then is pointing fingers someplace else."

Both Eric Naposki and Nanette Johnston were supposed to be sentenced for Bill McLaughlin's murder in May 2012. Only Nanette came into the courtroom. Bill's daughter, Kim, confronted her:

"Your trial revealed what an abomination you and your life have been. We are appalled and repulsed," she told Nanette.

The judge then sentenced Nanette Johnston to life without the possibility of parole. But there was no punishment for Naposki. His lawyer had asked the judge to delay any sentencing for murder.

"Now he has a new story that he's come out with. The defense wants more time to develop that," Murphy told reporters at a press conference. "They want to bring a motion for a new trial."

Naposki's attorneys continued to fight to have his conviction dismissed, arguing that in the 16 years since the murder too much evidence had been lost to get a fair trial. They also tried to make a case for a new trial based on Naposki's claim that he can identify the real killer. But the judge was not swayed. In August, Naposki was back in court.

"The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming and I don't believe there is any juror who wouldn't find that Mr. Naposki killed Mr. McLaughlin. So I'm going to deny the motion for a new trial," said Judge William Froeberg.

Naposki continued to protest his innocence.

"I'm innocent and that will never change, no matter what the 12 people said. I said they made a mistake. They made a mistake," he said.

Bill McLaughlin's daughter couldn't get through her victim impact statement without Naposki interrupting:

Kim McLaughlin: You say you never set foot in Balbioa Coves or in our house. That's a lie Eric.

Eric Naposki: It's not a lie. Your father knows.

Kim McLaughlin: You are full of lies.

Eric Naposki:That's not a lie.Somehow in your lifetime you hav elearned that you cna get away with these lies and these lies could get you where you want. Well look where you are now.

At last, the judge read the sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Naposki remained defiant to the end.

"You blew it. You f-----g blew it. We'll see you again," Naposki yelled at his attorneys as he was led out of the court in handcuffs.

Eric Naposki is appealing his conviction.