After six weeks and more than 10 hours of deliberation, a DuPage County jury has sentenced Brian Dugan of Aurora to death for the 1983 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.
The jury announced its verdict in a DuPage County courtroom shortly after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Dugan was previously serving two life sentences for the murders of Donna Schnorr, 27, of Geneva and 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman of Somonauk.
Dugan is also linked to about a dozen rapes or attempted rapes across the Chicago area, including a rape of a 25-year-old Elmhurst teacher in 1977 that Dugan confessed to while incarcerated in 1987.
According to reports, jurors began deliberating after 5 p.m. Tuesday before DuPage County Circuit Judge George Bakalis sequestered them for the evening at around 11 p.m.
Jurors returned to work at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, despite Veterans Day being a federal holiday.
Dugan’s defense argued that Dugan’s psychopathy was a defective illness that spared him from the death penalty. His counsel also said that by confessing to two previous murders in 1985, he cleared the names of two men sentenced to death.
The prosecution said Dugan committed the worst of crimes and deserved death for his actions.
According to reports, Nicarico’s mother and sisters wept as the jury announced their verdict, while Dugan showed no emotion.
