Brian Dugan expressed remorse for killing girl

'He has changed,' psychiatrist says of man who killed Jeanine Nicarico

Brian Dugan repeatedly expressed remorse for murdering 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico and even talked about committing suicide as a way to demonstrate his regret, a defense psychiatrist testified Wednesday.

Dr. James Cavanaugh told a DuPage County jury that Dugan wrote in a letter earlier this year that he had considered killing himself while jailed to show he is sorry for murdering the Naperville girl in 1983.

“It is the most profound gesture I could make to express my remorse for my crimes,” Dugan wrote in the May 30, 2009, letter to Cavanaugh, which the noted psychiatrist read to jurors.

The jury is charged with determining whether to sentence the 53-year-old Dugan to death for murdering Jeanine in her home on Feb. 25, 1983. Dugan already is serving life sentences for the 1984 murder of 27-year-old Donna Schnorr and the 1985 murder of 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman.

If jurors reject the death penalty for Jeanine’s killing, Dugan will receive another life sentence.

Cavanaugh, who interviewed Dugan earlier this year in jail, testified that he believes Dugan is a psychopath who has difficulty controlling his actions and emotions. But he said Dugan finally appears to be coming to terms with the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder he committed against the Naperville girl. He cited Dugan’s July guilty plea to the killing and his claims of remorse as examples of how Dugan has accepted at least some responsibility for his violent acts.

“He has changed,” said Cavanaugh, who teaches at Rush Medical College in Chicago. “He is not today the same, exact individual he was in 1983, 1984 and 1985.”

Cavanaugh rejected claims by prosecutors that Dugan’s alleged remorse — including talking about suicide and reading about psychiatric issues — is simply an attempt to sway jurors to spare his life.

 “A more reasonable explanation is he’s trying to understand why he did what he did,” said Cavanaugh, who is the second mental health expert called by defense attorneys to testify that Dugan’s mental state makes it difficult for him to control himself.

Dugan said he had come to feel so badly about murdering Jeanine that he has considered committing suicide as a way to “atone” for his crime, Cavanaugh testified. Dugan said he has even fantasized about killing himself by attacking terrorists or doing something else that would have a positive effect, Cavanaugh testified.

“He would prefer if he had the choice — which he doesn’t — to do it in a way that would have some sort of value to society,” Cavanaugh said.

Questioned by prosecutors, Cavanaugh agreed there are no indications Dugan — who has been jailed since 1985 — has ever attempted suicide.

Another defense expert is expected to testify during Dugan’s sentencing that electronic scans of Dugan’s brain show it doesn’t function normally, causing him to lack empathy and self-control.

Prosecutors plan to call at least one medical expert to testify that even though Dugan is a psychopath, he still has the ability to control himself.