Brian Dugan jury deliberates killer's fate
The Brian Dugan jury began its deliberations after being presented with contrasting portraits of the triple killer who faces possible execution for the 1983 Jeanine Nicarico slaying.
Members adjourned behind closed doors after 5 p.m. today after listening to nearly six hours of impassioned closing arguments. At 10 p.m., there was an announcement that a verdict was pending, prompting victims' families to return to the courtroom. However, jurors said they wanted to continue deliberations shortly after, delaying a decision.
Afterward, Jeanine's family thanked the jury, law enforcement, their friends and community for its support, and Dugan's surviving victims who testified during the emotional sentencing hearing that stretched into six weeks and included more than 65 witnesses.
"They tore off the scabs from the emotion and psychological wounds which they had been trying to heal for many years," father Tom Nicarico said. "They exposed the rawness of their very personal pain and revisited humiliations and inner fears in an effort to ease ours."
Lawyers portrayed Dugan as either a manipulative psychopath devoid of remorse, or an aging man with a defective brain who long ago tried to atone for his crimes.
The weight of the task before the seven women and five men on the DuPage County jury was evident in the solemn expressions they wore while exiting the packed courtroom.
"Remember this little girl," DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said, holding up a photo of Jeanine. "Make sure he never forgets what he did to her. Send him to death row. The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst. Brian Dugan is the worst of the worst."
The slain child's parents, Tom and Pat Nicarico, with their other two daughters, Chris and Kathy, wept for the bubbly fifth-grader they long ago lost, but have not forgotten.
On Feb. 25, 1983, Dugan kicked in the Nicarico's front door while Jeanine was out of school sick with the flu. Kathy Nicarico, at 13, returned home from school to find a broken front door. Jeanine had vanished. Their dog, Ruffles, cowered in the laundry room.
Two days later, Jeanine's brutalized body was found along the Illinois Prairie Path, not far from her home. Jeanine was blindfolded, and her nightgown, which depicted one of the Disney's Seven Dwarfs with the words "I'm Sleepy," was pulled up around her arm and neck. She had been sexually assaulted and repeatedly beaten over her head, likely with a tire iron.
Dugan, 53, has served life terms since 1985 for the sex slayings of nurse Donna Schnorr, 27, of Geneva, and 7-year-old Missy Ackerman of Somonauk.
All of his victims' families and several surviving women, including Opal Horton, who escaped and watched in horror as Dugan drove off with a terrified Missy pounding on the window, came to court to bear witness.
Tom and Pat Nicarico support a death sentence.
The couple endured multiple trials of three wrongly accused men, including Rolando Cruz, who spent years on death row before his 1995 acquittal. Prosecutors indicted Dugan in 2005, and he admitted his guilt more than three months ago, sparking his death penalty sentencing hearing. They spent weeks wading through Dugan's litany of crimes. In fact, Dugan was a free man for just four years and nine months between 1972 and 1985.
His crimes began with arsons, batteries and burglaries and escalated into senseless acts of terror against women in DuPage and Kane counties. The surviving victims - as young as 10 - encountered Dugan outside a laundromat, gas station, shopping mall, while driving home, leaving work or simply walking down the street.
But the defense team, led by attorney Steven Greenberg, fought hard to save Dugan's life. His attorneys presented expert testimony that Dugan similar to other diagnosed psychopaths has a defect or inactivity in an area of his brain that processes emotion, inhibition, judgment and self-control. The murderer's psychopathy test score was a 37 out of 40, compared to a 4 for regular folks.
"Brian's brain isn't like ours," DuPage Public Defender Robert Miller said. "Having a brain abnormality takes Brian's so-called ability to make choices to a whole new level when the process (to make those choices) is defective."
He continued: "We would all take bullets for our loved ones. It this was our child, we would all gladly take their place. We can't turn it off, just like he can't turn it on. But the psychopathy tends to burn out with age."
Dugan has taken steps to improve himself behind bars, testimony showed, such as continuing his education, staying out of trouble, and helping other inmates with legal issues.
Dugan did not testify, but jurors heard plenty of his words through recorded interviews, dating from 1985 to the present. In his most recent interview, Sept. 5, Dugan told a defense expert that something inside of him would just "click," sparking him to rape and kill. Dugan said he didn't view his victims as real human beings and it was only when he did connect with them on some level that he let them live.
He often spoke of his fear of the death penalty, but recently commented he didn't care because it would give him, "an early release." Dugan, as early as 1985, asked mental health experts to help him figure out why he committed such heinous acts. The son of alcoholics, he suffered some childhood abuse and likely was sexually assaulted in prison, testimony revealed.
His attorneys also argue Dugan deserves credit for pleading guilty to his crimes, sparing victims' families emotional trials. They said Dugan agreed to admit as early as 1985 that he alone killed Jeanine if prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. They refused. They also didn't believe him, as Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez sat on death row.
Dugan continued talking, after his other plea deals were done, even though he was under no obligation to do so, his attorneys said. In fact, he penned a written confession Nov. 1, 1985 that ended with, "in the event of my death, to ensure that innocent people are not murdered by the state for a crime they had no part of."
"What we're deciding here is whether to send a mentally ill person who saved two other men's lives to death," Greenberg said. "There's no chance death is appropriate given the unique circumstances of this case."
DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis is presiding over the lengthy proceedings. If the jury does not reach a verdict tonight, the judge warned members they will be sequestered at an area hotel, and will return on Veteran's Day to continue deliberations.
Nicarico family statement
A statement from the Nicarico family - Tom and Pat, and their daughters Chris and Kathy.
Regardless of the verdict, we'd first like to thank the jury for their service and dedication. We are sure that many of them likely suffered unwanted emotional or financial consequences during these past five weeks.
Next we must express our profound gratitude for the tireless support that we have received from family, friends and the community at large since 1983. As we have said before, they have given us the strength and resilience to get through the seemingly endless twists and turns of the past quarter century.
Also we very much appreciate the efforts of the many law enforcement and legal professionals who have worked sincerely over the years toward a just resolution of this crime.
At this time we need to thank you, the media, too. During this most recent trial, your respect for our privacy has been very much noted.
Lastly, words do not convey the gratitude and empathy we feel toward those very brave women - Dugan's surviving victims - who came forward and testified during these proceedings.
They tore off the scabs from the emotion and psychological wounds which they had been trying to heal for many years. They exposed the rawness of their very personal pain and revisited humiliations and inner fears in an effort to ease ours.
You are very special people in our hearts.
Thank you.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Related documents</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="/pdf/pat_75.pdf">Victim's impact statement from Pat Nicarico, Jeanine's mother</a></li> <li><a href="/pdf/tom_75.pdf">Victim's impact statement from Tom Nicarico, Jeanine's father</a></li> <li><a href="/pdf/chris_75.pdf">Victim's impact statement from Chris Nicarico, Jeanine's oldest sister</a></li> </ul> <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="myExperience49660326001" 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="49660326001" /> </object> <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 --> <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> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=335614">A statement from the Nicarico family <span class="date">[11/19/09]</span></a></li> <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>