Fiancee of Slain Millionaire Held on Suspicion of Theft

NEWPORT BEACH — The 29-year-old fiancee of slain millionaire William Francis McLaughlin, who was identified as a suspect but never charged in the killing, was arrested Monday evening on suspicion of grand theft, police said.

Nanette Johnston was taken into custody without incident after a warrant was served at her Newport Beach home, said Police Sgt. Mike McDonough. She was held Monday night at Orange County Jail on $500,000 bond.

In February, Newport Beach police identified Johnston and her ex-linebacker boyfriend, Eric Andrew Naposki, as suspects in the Dec. 15 slaying of McLaughlin, 55, according to police records. Neither has been charged in the crime.

McLaughlin’s 24-year-old son, Kevin, found his father’s body, clad only in a bathrobe and slippers and with six bullets in his chest, in McLaughlin’s six-bedroom Balboa Coves home.

McDonough said he did not know whether Johnston’s arrest on the grand theft charges was linked to the murder investigation or to McLaughlin’s financial relationship with Johnston. But Julian Bailey, an attorney for Naposki, said Monday that Johnston was accused of illegally writing checks on McLaughlin’s business accounts.

“It was my understanding that she was his business associate and had permission to sign his name,” Bailey said. Neither Bailey nor McDonough knew how much money was involved.

McDonough said of Naposki, “There’s no indication that he is involved in this at all.”

McLaughlin was an entrepreneur who made his fortune in the development of medical devices.

Bailey said both Johnston and Naposki have alibis for the night of the murder: Johnston, he said, was shopping at South Coast Plaza, and Naposki was on his way to work. He said Naposki could prove he made a credit-card call from Tustin to his workplace at 8:52 p.m., less than 20 minutes before police were summoned to the crime scene.

Search warrant documents on file at Municipal Court in Newport Beach show that Johnston stood to inherit more than $1 million from McLaughlin’s estate. They also indicate that her apparent romance with Naposki, who briefly played football with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, was a surprise to other members of the McLaughlin family.

In previous statements to the press, Johnston has denied that she or Naposki, 28, had anything to do with the fatal shooting.

One week after the killing, police initiated a surveillance of Johnston at the home on Seashore Drive that she and the victim had purchased together. That afternoon, according to court records, Naposki went to the home. When he left, police followed him and arrested him on a warrant for failure to appear for a traffic ticket.

Officers found “several suspicious” items in Naposki’s vehicle, including several brown and red stains on the carpet and a green towel with what appeared to be dried bloodstains, according to court records.