March 05--When Nailah Franklin disappeared more than eight years ago, a photo taken by her best friend of the smiling 28-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative -- broadcast on TV and used in fliers passed out by her family -- captured the public's heart.
But after an intense nine-day search, her naked and badly decomposed body was found in a wooded Calumet City lot.
Prosecutors charged Reginald Potts Jr., a man she had casually dated, with her asphyxiation death. After a maddeningly slow journey through Cook County criminal court, Potts finally went to trial last fall and was convicted.
Now, after an unusually lengthy sentencing hearing that took all of last week at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Potts faces up to life in prison when Judge Thomas Gainer hands down the sentence Tuesday.
Prosecutors, who want the maximum sentence imposed on Potts, described a violent, sociopathic bully who stole high-end cars, abused women and lied to everyone he met.
Franklin's relatives attempted to express the devastation caused by their loss.
Her mother, Maria Maner, said her middle child was the glue who held the family together. After her death, Maner said, she was left with nothing, not even a lock of her daughter's hair.
"Not only was she gone, but there was no body for me to view," said Maner, reading from a prepared statement. "Nothing was left for me to kiss or hold on to. Nailah had the most beautiful hair, a lot of it. I asked the funeral director if I could have a lock of her hair. She said there was no hair when they received her remains. There was nothing. I'm crying as I write this."
Some family members left the courtroom Friday when Potts, now 38, delivered a 40-minute speech declaring his innocence, vowing that prison wouldn't break him and glossing over key evidence as he blamed his conviction on a distorted narrative that had Franklin breaking off their relationship.
"I'm not a monster," he said as he appeared to choke up with emotion. "I'm not a monster."
"I did not stalk Nailah," he said. "I did not murder Nailah, period."
Franklin was last seen alive with Potts on surveillance video as she walked out of her condo building in September 2007. He had been stalking her for days, prosecutors said.
The two had shared a casual sexual relationship, according to testimony. But Franklin had begun to fear Potts and said in emails shortly before her disappearance that she had filed a police report and would seek an order of protection against him.
Cellphone records showed the two together much of the rest of that day, prosecutors said. Her body was later found behind a vacant store owned by Potts' brother-in-law. Franklin's car was later discovered blocks from where Potts had been picked up by a friend the night of the slaying, according to testimony.
Prosecutors said Potts had a history of violence against women, choking his then-wife as well as a second woman with whom he had a child. He was also a con artist who was able to persuade a friend to buy a $225,000 Bentley for him and then stopped making the payments, they said.
"Nailah Franklin was everything that Reginald Potts is not," Assistant State's Attorney Maria McCarthy said Friday during closing arguments.
After a string of successful internships, Franklin was working as an Eli Lilly sales representative and had bought a condo in Chicago's University Village neighborhood, according to family and prosecutors. She had a new boyfriend she was excited about -- a man who eight years later attended parts of the trial and sentencing hearing.
"One of the joys of my life was witnessing Nailah live hers," her older sister, Lehia Franklin Acox, told the judge. "I honestly was in awe of her drive, cheerful optimism, sense of style and total devotion to her family and friends."
Another sister, Marina Franklin, said that for years she avoided her fading memories of her sister because of the pain it caused. Her slaying likely caused the early death of their father, she said, and has left her in therapy and struggling with relationships and at work.
"I felt it difficult to go on with my life when my sister's was cut short," she said. "You never know the exact impact of someone you love leaving this world until you are left to pick up the pieces."
Potts spent much of his remarks insisting that he had broken off the relationship with Franklin. He asked the judge to sentence him to something less than life in prison in consideration of his family and three young daughters.
"I can't ask forgiveness for something I didn't do," Potts said as at least eight deputies stood guard.
Potts' lawyer, Crystal Marchigiani, an assistant public defender, told the judge he should sentence Potts based only on the murder, not his past crimes, and urged Gaines not to let the emotions of the case sway him.
McCarthy, the prosecutor, referred to the many alleged threats leveled by Potts over the years, saying he often hinted at his alleged gang ties as he asked people if they knew who he was.
"Now that everything has come out, we now know who you are," McCarthy said as she turned to look at Potts. "You are nothing."
sschmadeke@tribpub.com
