Nicarico family supports death for Dugan
It's been 30 years, but she still can describe that uneasy feeling as the assailant approached from behind, the sound of his voice, and how she begged for her life and that of her unborn child.
The Oswego woman, now 57, said she'll never forget that day - or the sight of the man's face as he peeled off his mask.
"He's sitting right there," she said, pointing at Brian Dugan, just feet away in the courtroom. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind."
She lived to tell her story. Others would not.
The dramatic testimony came last week as the triple murderer's death penalty hearing opened in DuPage County.
Dugan may face execution for the Feb. 25, 1983, abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville. He has been in prison serving life sentences since 1985 for two other sex slayings - those of 27-year-old Geneva nurse Donna Schnorr in 1984; and Melissa "Missy" Ackerman, 7, who was snatched while she and her friend rode their bicycles June 2, 1985, in LaSalle County.
The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated less than one hour last week before finding Dugan, 53, is eligible under the law for a possible death sentence. Members, who elected a Naperville Purple Heart recipient as their foreman, will decide whether to impose it after hearing several more weeks of graphic testimony.
Tom and Pat Nicarico are there to bear witness in their child's memory, just as they did in the multiple trials that came before for three wrongly accused men who later were exonerated in the sad legal saga.
The Nicaricos support the death penalty against Dugan, linked to the crime through his DNA. The couple's middle daughter, Kathy, tearfully testified about how she at 13 returned home from school that Friday nearly 27 years ago to find the front door broken. Jeanine, who had stayed home sick with the flu, had vanished.
Two days later, the bludgeoned body of the bubbly fifth-grader who loved horses, gardening and puppies was found along the Illinois Prairie Path, not far from her home. She had been blindfolded, and her nightgown, which depicted one of Disney's Seven Dwarfs, with the words, "I'm Sleepy," was pulled up around her arm and neck.
DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett portrayed Dugan as a "remorseless psychopath," whose own family long ago disowned him, with a history of sexual violence that left several other victims in its aftermath. More testimony is expected this week about that violence. The victims - one as young as 10 - encountered Dugan outside a laundromat, gas station and a shopping mall, and while driving home, leaving work and simply walking down a street. Many were beaten and sexually abused.
The Oswego woman was the first to testify. She told jurors Dugan tried to abduct her March 1, 1979, outside Aurora's Fox Valley Shopping Center. That snowy day, she was about 27 and six months pregnant with her second child.
"I said, 'Please, don't hurt me. I have a (20-month) baby at home and I have a baby due at any time,'" she testified, fighting back tears. "He looked confused. He said, 'I'm going to let you go.' I tried to scream but I couldn't get a sound out of my throat. He said, 'If you scream, I'll shoot you.'"
At her request, the Daily Herald is not naming the woman. She escaped unharmed, and her assailant was never apprehended. Still, she told jurors, he took off his mask before she drove away. She recognized Dugan after seeing him on television during his 1985 life-in-prison-without-parole plea deals for the two other murders.
The defense questioned whether she was mistaken. Dugan was never known to use a gun or wear a mask. Dugan, who confessed to his unsolved crimes after his 1985 capture for Melissa's murder, also does not recall that encounter.
He did, though, tell police about the brutal January 1977 abduction and sexual assault of a 25-year-old Elmhurst first-grade teacher. The woman escaped, naked from the waist down, and fled to a nearby home. Her attacker was never found. She died about three years ago from cancer, but her husband will testify this week about how she also recognized Dugan in 1985 media coverage as the knife-wielding man who assaulted her.
So far, prosecutors have focused largely on Dugan's early criminal history. It stretches back to 1972 and includes arsons, batteries, vandalism and break-ins to businesses, churches, schools and homes in mostly DuPage and Kane counties. In fact, Dugan was a free man for just four years and nine months between 1972 and 1985.
The five-member defense team is expected to call renowned mental health experts who collectively agree Dugan is a diagnosed psychopath who suffers from a severe emotional disorder. They argue the killer has a genetic defect that causes psychopathic behaviors to manifest themselves in people as young as 7 years old.
One particular defense expert, Kent Kiehl, a forensic psychologist who conducts clinical neuroscience research, formed that opinion about Dugan after measuring his purportedly abnormal brain function with an MRI. Common markers are a lack of empathy, impulsivity, sexual promiscuity and reduced capacity for guilt or remorse.
Jurors also learned Dugan was a victim, too. He grew up in a dysfunctional family with alcoholic parents and was sexually assaulted at least once while locked up in his teen years. In court, the bespectacled, gray-haired defendant appears passive and often avoids eye contact with the witnesses, including when Roger Schnorr stared at him when testifying about his sister's murder. One of the slain nurse's two sisters, Karen Schweitzer, also is attending the proceedings. They support Dugan's execution.
It takes one juror to spare Dugan's life. His defense team also argues Dugan merits consideration for accepting responsibility that he alone killed Jeanine. Dugan pleaded guilty July 28.
He first offered to admit his guilt in 1985, but only if the death penalty was taken off the table. Prosecutors refused. They also didn't believe Dugan, who confused some of the crime's details. By that time, two other condemned men - including Rolando Cruz - were sitting on death row for the crime.
Attorneys for Dugan argue he cooperated long ago to help the wrongly accused men, both exonerated in 1995. Charges were dropped against a third man years earlier. Dugan wrote a Nov. 1, 1985, confession. He also continued talking, even after his other plea deal. He retraced his path, took a lie-detector test and was hypnotized.
The trial, in which DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis presides, continues Tuesday.
<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 trial </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>