Prosecutors Depict Convicted Killer As Violent Serial Woman Abuser
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Prosecutors at the sentencing hearing for convicted murderer Reginald Potts put more witnesses on the stand Thursday, depicting Potts as a violent con man who abused and took advantage of women and business partners on a routine basis.
An investigator who spoke with an ex-girlfriend who is the mother of Potts' daughter said he was told Potts would allegedly drive off and abandon her miles from home when he became angry with her.
Another investigator testified that he was told that Potts allegedly tried to strangle her in a New York hotel room.
Investigators also detailed how Potts allegedly ruined a college student's credit in real estate and auto transactions, by convincing her to put properties and cars in her name, and then failing to make the promised payments. When, as part of the scam, a police desk sergeant refused to take a report from them regarding a stolen vehicle, Potts' hair-trigger temper allegedly flared. Investigator Richard Lombard said he was told Potts allegedly began shouting at the officer that he knew the Rev. Jesse Jackson and would see to it the officer was fired.
The investigators said they testified in place of the witnesses in each case, because the witnesses feared retribution by Potts.
Cook County Jail chief of operations Terry Williams said Potts has been judged one of the 75 "highest risk" inmates at the jail, and has spent more than five of the past seven years in solitary confinement. Williams said, while held in the 2007 murder of Nailah Franklin, Potts has been cited for itimidation, extortion, battering jail personnel, weapons possession, disrupting the jail's operations, and making and possessing contraband -- including a tool that could allow him to exit his cell.
Williams said the summary of Potts' disciplinary record at the jail runs 54 pages.
Potts has been convicted of stalking and killing Franklin, a pharmaceuticals salesperson whom he dated briefly. Prosecutors have said Franklin tried to break off the relationship after learning of Potts' background, and Potts strangled or smothered her after she told friends about his criminal past, and told him she was planning to get an order of protection against him.
Potts faces up to life in prison.
