Jeanine Nicarico's family to testify today against Dugan

As they sat on her porch, Denise Poquette Benson recalls, her boyfriend was reading a newspaper article about the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.

"He made a comment that whoever did something like that should be castrated," Benson said, "that they shouldn't be allowed to live."

Her boyfriend was Brian Dugan.

More than 26 years later, Benson came face-to-face Thursday with the man she dated for 15 months, beginning when she was just 15.

Benson testified in Dugan's death penalty sentencing hearing for Jeanine's Feb. 25, 1983, abduction, rape and fatal bludgeoning. Dugan, 53, pleaded guilty three months ago.

Prosecutors indicted him in November 2005 citing, in part, improved DNA testing linking him to the crime. Dugan had been serving life prison terms since 1985 for two other sex slayings - nurse Donna Schnorr, 27, of Geneva, and Missy Ackerman, 7, of Somonauk.

Benson, now a 42-year-old Aurora married mother, said she met Dugan in September 1982 at a party. He was more than 10 years her senior, but the two began dating. The teen's mother even let Dugan move into their basement on Hankes Avenue in Aurora.

"I liked him," Benson said. "I thought he was nice. I thought he was smart. He could talk about anything. He was, like, kind of charming."

So far, prosecutors have called about 50 witnesses in 11 days of testimony and introduced more than 350 exhibits, including graphic crime-scene photos. They are expected to rest their case today after Jeanine's family reads prepared victim-impact statements to the jury.

Benson testified Thursday she ended their relationship Dec. 7, 1983, because of his constant drug use, lying and obsession with sex. She said Dugan sometimes lost his temper, especially when she refused sex, but he wasn't physically violent.

"It was weird," she said. "He started creeping me out. I guess it just started to dawn on me that it wasn't right."

Of their breakup, Benson continued: "He said it was the day I dropped the bomb on him, like Pearl Harbor."

She said Dugan spoke of Jeanine's murder, which was constantly in the news, but Benson never suspected back then he could rape and kill. Benson said Dugan drove some friends to Naperville Feb. 28, 1983, to try to get near where the media had reported Jeanine's body was found. She recalled the exact day because the last episode of "M*A*S*H*" had aired.

And, several months later, while Dugan was in the DuPage County jail on an unrelated theft charge, she said he wrote a letter saying he was in with those "sick baby killers." Prosecutors contend Dugan was referring to three wrongly accused men, including Rolando Cruz, later cleared in Jeanine's murder but not before two spent years on death row.

Benson also told the jury how she and Dugan often hung out swimming or having sex at the Seavey Road quarry, in Kane County, where Donna Schnorr was killed July 15, 1984.

Benson remained calm Thursday. She looked at Dugan only briefly when asked to identify him. She said her mother allowed Dugan to remain in their home even after the breakup and that Dugan often came by up until his June 3, 1985, arrest, one day after Missy's murder.

"I tried to ignore him," she said.

Earlier Thursday, jurors listened to Dugan's Nov. 16, 1985, tape-recorded confessions to how he killed Schnorr and Missy. Dugan, who agreed to confess if his life was spared, spoke of his murders in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I don't understand why it happened and, um, saying I'm sorry isn't going to change anything, but I am," he said of Missy's death. "I'd like to understand, if I could, why I did these things."

<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>