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Dec
14
More About Reginald Potts Is Revealed By State In Nailah Franklin Case
Filed Under Nailah Franklin, Reginald Potts | 1 Comment
Nailah Franklin
The State of Illinois paints an unflattering picture of Reginald Potts in its case against him. Reginald Potts has been charged with the murder of Nailah Franklin.
Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn published the Proffer of Evidence against Reginald Potts in the Nailah Franklin criminal case yesterday.
The proffer lays out the State of Illinois’ case against Reginald Potts.
Proffer of evidence against Reginald Potts Jr. by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office:Defendant: Reginald Potts, 31
Victim: Nailah Franklin, 28 Pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly
The V and D had an on and off dating relationship for several months prior to her death on September 18, 2007. By early September, they were no longer on good terms. In early September, the victim sent an e-mail to several friends which discussed the defendant’s criminal history, including his escape from federal custody in 2001.
Defendant learned of this e-mail, and began making threatening phone calls to the victim. Two of victim’s girlfriends, both of whom knew defendant, heard a message left by defendant in which he threatened the victim’s life.
On September 10, 2007, the victim made a police report in which she stated that the defendant had threatened her life. During the days before her death, the victim told her friends she was afraid of the defendant.
The victim told one of these friends that if anything happened to her, he would know why, referring to the defendant. Victim also gave a friend her passwords for her e-mails in case anything happened to her. The victim was last seen alive during the afternoon of September 18th.
A few days after the victim went missing, the defendant was interviewed by police. The defendant told police that he had not had seen the victim since August, and that he told her that he no longer wanted her to contact him.
Several residents of the victim’s condominium building at 1525 S. Sangamon positively identified the defendant as the person they saw lurking in the victim’s hallway and in the parking garage on the evenings of September 16th and 17th.
Surveillance cameras at the victim’s building show the defendant in the hallway inside the parking garage on the evening of September 17th. Security called police after they encountered the defendant in a hallway and he claimed he lived in the building, giving them a false name and unit number.
When Police arrived, the defendant was gone, but they found tape over the locking mechanism on the interior garage door which allowed access to the building without a key.
The defendant further told police that on September 18, 2007 he was at a restaurant in the Loop area during the late morning and downtown during the early afternoon.
Cell phone tower site records revealed that during this time period, the defendant was not at these locations, but was within a radius of approximately one half mile of the victim’s residence during this entire time.
The defendant denied seeing the victim at all on September 18th, Video surveillance cameras from the victim’s building show the victim and defendant together inside a hallway of the victim’s building on September 18th.
The defendant stated that during the early evening hours of September 18th, he was with 2 friends at a Target store in the south Loop. Video surveillance cameras from that Target store show the 2 friends together in the parking garage of the store and inside the store at that time.
The defendant is not on the videotape. The defendant stated that he remained in the Loop area the remainder of the evening.
In fact, cell phone tower site records show the defendant heading south on the Dan Ryan shortly after 7:00 p.m., while his friends were in the Target store. Cell tower site records place the defendant and victim within the same vicinity of 159th Street in Calumet City during the evening of September 18th.
They were together at the same time in the same area where the victim’s pharmaceuticals and jewelry were found. Cell tower site records show the victim and defendant then traveling east in Calumet City at the same time in the same vicinity.
These records show them together at the same time in the area where the Victim’s body was found. After disposing of the body, the defendant kept the victim’s cell phone and drove her car farther east to Hammond, Indiana. There, he parked the victim’s car on a residential street.
Cell tower site records place the defendant and victim’s cell phone in the same area of Hammond where the victim’s car was found. A witness who was on that street positively identified the defendant as the person he saw peering into the windows of the victim’s parked car after the car was parked there.
Defendant called one of the friends who had been in the Target store and told the friend that he was stranded and needed a ride. The two friends then traveled down the Dan Ryan, east on 159th in Calumet City to Hammond, Indiana. The friends picked the defendant up one block from where the victim’s car was recovered.
These friends then drove defendant back west on 159th Street through Calumet City and north on the Dan Ryan, dropping him off in the South Loop at approximately 10:00 p.m. Cell tower site records corroborate the routes taken by the defendant and his friends throughout the evening of September 18th.
In an attempt to make it look as though the victim was still alive and in the South Loop area, the defendant made three 911 calls from the victim’s cell phone while defendant was traveling north on the Dan Ryan near I-55 with his friends.
The 911 calls lasted a second or two and nothing was said. Upon reaching the South Loop, there was no further activity on the victim’s cell phone. Cell tower site records show the defendant and his friend parting ways a short time later in the South Loop.
The victim’s pharmaceuticals and jewelry were found the day after she went missing, on September 19th , at 1 Park Avenue in Calumet City. Her car was recovered 3 days after she went missing approximately 2 miles east, in Hammond, Indiana. The victim’s body was found September 27th near 260 River Oaks Drive in Calumet City. She was naked, in a forest preserve, covered with leaves and debris and badly decomposed. The computer she had been using into the morning of September 18th was taken and not recovered.
BACKGROUND: 8 Felony Convictions
2005 – 3 years Probation for Intimidation case in Lake County (01CF-1794): In June of 2001, Defendant was being investigated in several cases, Defendant spoke directly to the victim, a Highland Park Police Detective and told him, “I will blow your brains out and your family’s brains out. Your family will never be safe. You’re going to feel the end of my .45.”
A warrant was issued for Defendant’s arrest. After Defendant was arrested, he escaped from federal custody.
2003
2 years IDOC on an Aggravated Battery of a Peace Officer (02CR-1166): Defendant was an inmate in Cook County Jail. the Defendant punched the victim, a Deputy Sheriff, in the face. After this incident, the Defendant stated in the presence of more than one Sheriff, that when he got out of jail, he was going to kill a certain Lt. and his entire family.
Consecutive to:
5 years IDOC on a Class 1 PSMV (01CR-521): Defendant was in custody on this case when he committed the aggravated battery on the Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy. In this case, Defendant was found in possession of a $100,000 Mercedes stolen from the Motorworks Dealership in Barrington earlier that day. After being put in lock-up, the defendant knee’d a detention aide in the groin.
2002 – 30 months IDOC on Obstruction of Justice in Iroquois County
1997 – convicted in 4 separate aggravated PSMV cases and sentenced to 7 years IDOC concurrent on all cases. In those cases, on multiple occasions during the Spring of 1996, the defendant was found to be in possession of cars totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from dealerships throughout Cook County. In one case, five days after the defendant was released on bond in Atlanta, he re-stole the Mercedes from the police pound in Atlanta. Six weeks later, using yet a different name, he took the car to an auto shop in Chicago, where it was recovered by police.
3 Misdemeanor convictions:
11-26-07 – Defendant PG to counts of Violation of Order of Protection. The victim was his former girlfriend. Defendant was sentenced to 100 days in Cook County Jail. He is currently serving that sentence.
2004 – 6 months CCJ on an assault
1997 – 180 days CCJ on a theft
5 cases pending:
Aggravated Battery of a Peace Officer, Maywood. 11-26-07. While in the main lock-up at the Maywood courthouse, Defendant repeatedly kicked a lock-up cell door causing it to remain open after being ordered to stop this activity. Cook County Sheriff’s entered Defendant’s cell and ordered Defendant to turn around and put his hands on his head. Instead, defendant struck the victim Sheriff in the face. Defendant kicked a second Sheriff in the knee.-
Battery and Resisting a Peace Officer, Maywood. 10-30-07. Defendant refused to comply with County Sheriff’s Deputies’ request to put his cell phone away while in a courtroom. Defendant was asked to step out of the courtroom and place his phone on the ground. Defendant refused to put the phone down. Defendant then resisted arrest by striking the victim Sheriff several times in the chest and stomach. Defendant told the victim “F— you. Touch me so I can sue you.” NCD 12-21-07.
Assault of gas station attendant in Chicago and Battery of a maintenance man in a condo building in Chicago. NCD: 1-9-08 in Branch 43.
Violation of an Order of Protection in DuPage County. Victim in that case is the D’ ex-wife.
In addition, the defendant has used multiple aliases and social security numbers when arrested in the past.
Dec
11
Reginald Potts Threatened To ‘Erase’ Nailah Franklin, Say Prosecutors
Filed Under Nailah Franklin, Reginald Potts | Comments Off
Prosecutors say Reginald Potts threated to “erase” Nailah Franklin.
Calling Nailah Franklin’s killing “premeditated,” an assistant state’s attorney says that Reginald Potts stalked and threatened to “erase” Nailah Franklin before she was killed, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
A first assistant state’s attorney says Reginald Potts was caught on video stalking Nailah Franklin and explains how Reginald Potts’ and Nailah Franklin’s cell phone records tore apart Reginald Potts’ alibi.
Witnesses at Nailah Franklin’s building also saw Reginald Potts stalking Nailah, according to law enforcement officials.
“It was premeditated,” First Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Milan said after the hearing. “This defendant went through a lot of trouble and time in order to take Ms. Franklin out to an abandoned area — a desolate area — and take her life.” …
In early September, Franklin sent an e-mail to friends discussing Potts’ criminal past, Milan said. When Potts found out, he made threatening calls to her. “He told her he could have her erased,” Milan said.
Cell phone records –television news reports say GPS signals — indicate that Reginald Potts and Nailah Franklin were on 159th Street in Calumet City where Nailah Franklin was was later found dead by police, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The cell records depict Potts and Franklin traveling east in Calumet City at the same time that night, and show them both in the area where Franklin’s body was later found, Milan said.
After dumping Franklin’s body, Potts kept her cell phone and drove her car to Hammond, Ind., where he left it, Milan said.
Prosecutors say after Nailah Franklin was killed, Reginald Potts kept her cell phone and made three hang-up calls to 911 operators using Nailah Franklin’s phone.
CBS 2 News Chicago reports how Reginald Potts’ story fell apart when law enforcement investigated cell phone GPS records.
Prosecutors say global positioning system records from a cell phone helped solve the murder of Nailah Franklin. A judge Monday denied bail for her ex-acquaintance, Reginald Potts.
As CBS 2′s Dorothy Tucker reports, the man charged with killing Franklin can blame his arrest on his cell phone. Police say Potts is a suspect in Franklin’s death because on the day she disappeared Potts gave one story to police, but the satellite records on his cell phone told another.
News reports are detailing Reginald Potts’ violent past.
Reginald Potts’ ex-wife also alleges that he made threats against her, reports the Naperville Sun.
The threats Reginald Michael Potts Jr. made against Nailah Franklin in the days before her murder are not the first he’s made against women in his life. …
According to court records, Potts contacted his ex-wife via e-mail Oct. 10. That message was sent less than a month after the murder of Franklin, a 28-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Chicago whom Potts had been seeing on and off for the past year.
