Dugan jury deliberates in eligibility phase
A DuPage County jury began deliberations this morning on whether three-time convicted killer Brian Dugan is eligible for the death penalty in the 1983 murder of Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.
If the jury finds Dugan eligible to be put to death, a lengthy sentencing phase lies ahead.
Dugan, 53, linked through DNA, pleaded guilty July 28 to the fifth-grader's abduction, rape and murder. He has been in prison since 1985, serving life terms for two later sex slayings and a series of other attacks. He killed nurse Donna Kay Schnorr, 27, of Geneva on July 15, 1984, and Melissa Ackerman, 7, of Somonauk on June 2, 1985.
Prosecutors argued Dugan should be deemed eligible for the death penalty because 10-year-old Jeanine's murder was particularly brutal, committed in the course of other felonies such as home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and rape, and because he has killed two other people in his lifetime.
At this stage, eligibility often is considered a perfunctory matter since it is spelled out under statutory guidelines. The real fight, in which defense attorneys try to save Dugan's life, comes next.
Dugan has admitted kicking in the front door of the Nicarico home, near Naperville, on Feb. 25, 1983, while Jeanine was home alone with the flu. Prosecutors argue the young girl's scratch marks were found on the wall near the door as she tried to resist her abductor.
Two days later, Jeanine's bludgeoned body was discovered along the Illinois Prairie Path, just miles from her Clover Court home. Jeanine had been sexually assaulted and fatally beaten in a horrific crime that sparked a long legal saga that involved the wrongful prosecutions of three other men and now, nearly 27 years later, is finally coming to a painful close.
DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis is presiding over the death penalty hearing in Wheaton.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience43606475001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="255" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="43606475001" /> </object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --> </ul> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=325418">Images of Brian Dugan's victims </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=325419">Images of Brian Dugan </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=325420">Images of Nicarico's wrongly accused </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=325421">Images from Brian Dugan's trials </a></li> </ul> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="/story/?id=308729">Dugan's criminal background</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=308727">Timeline of Nicarico murder investigation, trials</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=326654">Brian Dugan's victims</a></li> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=326645">Cruz: Dugan confessed to save himself <span class="date">[10/02/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=325829">Jury picked to decide Dugan's sentencing <span class="date">[10/02/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=317249">Dugan says he tried to confess in '85 to Nicarico slaying <span class="date">[08/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=310026">The statement Brian Dugan wanted to read in court <span class="date">[07/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=310014">Nicarico neighbor recalls the search for Jeanine, painful aftermath?<span class="date">[07/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=310033">State moratorium on executions - 10 years and counting<span class="date">[07/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=310040">A timeline of the Nicarico-Dugan cases<span class="date">[07/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=308853">After a lifetime of violence, will jury show Dugan mercy?<span class="date">[07/23/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=308535">Guilty plea expected in Nicarico murder <span class="date">[07/22/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=203555">Did one Chicago-area killer create another? <span class="date">[06/05/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=308721">Inside the FBI files of Brian Dugan <span class="date">[01/07/07]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=308724">Grand jury indicts Dugan in Nicarico murder <span class="date">[11/30/05]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>