COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Before she vanished more than eight years ago, pharmaceutical rep Nailah Franklin told her friends, "If something happens to me, you will know why," prosecutors said Wednesday.
Not long after she issued that cryptic warning, Franklin was found dead in suburban Calumet City in September 2007 — her body naked and badly decomposed.
Prosecutors charged Reginald Potts, a man Franklin had briefly dated, with first-degree murder in December 2007. After nearly eight years of delays, Potts' trial finally began Wednesday.
According to prosecutors, Potts, now 39, stalked and threatened Franklin in the days leading up to her death. After Franklin shared an article about Potts' past legal woes, Potts sent Franklin a degrading expletive-laced email and threatened in a voicemail to "erase" her, according to court testimony.
"He fulfilled his promise, and he erased her," Assistant State's Attorney Fabio Valentini said during his opening argument Wednesday.
Franklin, who lived in University Village on the Near West Side, was first reported missing on Sept. 19, 2007, after she didn't show up to work. Following a high-profile search, authorities found Franklin's body in a wooded area in Calumet City. Her corpse was so badly decomposed that there was "a skeleton where her face used to be," Valentini said.
In court Wednesday, prosecutors pointed out that Franklin was dumped behind a vacant video store owned by Potts' brother-in-law.
But Potts' public defenders were quick to counter that there is zero physical evidence linking Potts to Franklin's murder. And while Franklin's body was dumped near the video store, her jewelry and pharmaceuticals were found strewn about a parking lot near a nearby Outback Steakhouse, according to Assistant Public Defender Michael Morrissey.
During his opening statement, Morrissey claimed Franklin had told her current boyfriend on Sept. 18, 2007 — the night before she was reported missing — that she was planning on eating dinner at Outback that evening. Morrissey brought up Franklin's well-paying job and seemed to imply she could've been a robbery target or murdered by someone other than Potts.
Prosecutors have based their case against Potts on cellphone activity.
Potts used his phone "all the time, like a teenage girl," Valentini said, and "the cellphone is going to wind up being an albatross around his neck."
According to prosecutors, surveillance footage captured Potts and Franklin together in Franklin's garage on Sept. 18, 2007. That's the last time she was seen alive.
Prosecutors claim Potts murdered Franklin that afternoon and dumped her body in Calumet City — nearly 25 miles from her Near West Side condo. To throw friends and relatives off his trail, prosecutors alleged, Potts continually checked Franklin's phone. Whenever someone would call or text the 28-year-old woman, Potts posed as Franklin and texted back a response. When Potts was with a friend later that evening — and had an alibi for the first time day — he called 911 three times from Franklin's phone, Valentini said.
The FBI was later able to map Pott's movements on Sept. 18 using cellphone-tower pings, prosecutors said.
Both Potts' and Franklin's phones "were in lock step with each other" all afternoon and evening, Valentini said, arguing this matched the prosecution's cover-up theory.
"He left a trail, like a trail of breadcrumbs," Valentini said.
As Franklin's best friend, Dana McClellan, 35, took the stand, prosecutors shared emails that Potts and Franklin sent one another. Franklin was angry that Potts repeatedly lied to her about seeing other women, and had hid the fact he had children, the emails said. Franklin told Potts "I'm not too proud to say I really did care for you" but "I truly believe you are pathological."
In a voicemail played in court, Potts told Franklin, "I'm very wealthy. I will always have women around me. Understand that."
Franklin told her friends she was scared Potts would hurt her, McClellan testified, and even shared with them her voicemail and email passwords in the days before her death in case something happened.
In a heated email exchange, Potts threatened to release a sex tape he allegedly made with Franklin. Franklin threatened to get a restraining order and told Potts, "You are crazy. You hit women. You are a bully, but you're not going to bully me. Your picked the wrong chick this time."
Morrissey called the state's case "fragile" and told jurors the state would provide "some very impressive PowerPoints, but no proof."
He argued that there are no eyewitnesses to Franklin's murder, and that there are no fingerprints or DNA linking his client to the crime. Morrissey pointed to the very public search Franklin's friends and relatives launched after her disappearance.
"The police investigation in this case has been tunnel vision with one target: Reginald Potts," Morrissey said. "The case is riddled with doubt."
Since his December 2007 arrest, Potts has garnered a lot of media attention. He hired and fired several attorneys — and even tried to represent himself on more than one occasion.
According to a Tribune investigation, Potts has racked up more than 200 infractions while in Cook County Jail, where he's been awaiting trial without bail since 2007. Potts has also been charged with additional felonies for attacking guards, obstructing justice and damaging government property.
While most murder cases go to trial within two years, state officials told the Tribune, the combined disciplinary issues and changes in Potts' legal representation have created repeated delays in his case.
In 2007, Potts would've faced the death penalty if convicted. Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011.
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