Prosecutors rest in Reginald Potts' murder trial

Cook County prosecutors rested their case in the murder trial of Reginald Potts Jr. Friday.

Potts’ defense team is expected to begin presenting evidence before Judge Thomas Gainer Jr. on Monday.

Potts, 39, is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend Nailah Franklin in a fit of rage after she told her friends about his criminal past.

Nailah Franklin

Franklin, 28, was last seen on surveillance footage with Potts at her University Village condo building on Sept. 18, 2007.

The pharmaceutical rep’s decomposed body was discovered nine days later in a wooded area behind a vacant Calumet City video store owned by Potts’ brother-in-law.

Cell phone tower records show that Potts and Franklin’s phones were pinging off key locations connected to the crime. Prosecutors said after Potts killed Franklin, he took her phone and texted her friends and co-workers to make it appear as if she were alive.

Assistant public defenders have argued that investigators rushed to judgment when they arrested Potts for the high-profile murder. They also stressed that the prosecution’s case is circumstantial, and no physical evidence can be traced back to Potts.

Jessica Smith, a digital forensic examiner, was the last witness to be called on by prosecutors Friday to show that an iPod recovered from Potts’ South Loop condo belonged to Franklin.

Smith said the iPod in question had been previously named as “Nailah’s iPod.” But on Sept. 19, 2007, the iPod was listed as belonging to “Reginald.”