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WHEATON, Ill. (CBS) ― An Illinois jury has decided that a convicted killer should be put to death for the 1983 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.

The mother of Jeanine Nicarico gasped and put her hand over her mouth Wednesday as the bailiff read the verdict at Brian Dugan's sentencing hearing.

CBS station WBBM-TV said some events left some feeling a little dazed and confused. After some five hours of deliberation, everyone was gathered to hear the jury deliver a verdict in the case. There was an announcement that the jury had come to a verdict at 10 p.m.

Dugan, 53, had admitted to killing Jeanine Nicarico, 10, in Naperville back in 1983. He showed no apparent emotion as he stood in the courtroom to hear the verdict. Dugan pleaded guilty in July, hoping a jury would sentence him to life in prison. He's been serving life sentences since 1985 for two unrelated murders.

Jeanine's mother gasped and put her hand over her mouth in the courtroom Wednesday as the bailiff read the verdict.

But Dugan will not face execution for that crime anytime soon. A death penalty verdict triggers an automatic appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, which could take months, if not years. Additionally, former Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000 in the wake of 13 Death Row prisoners being found to have been wrongfully convicted.

Efforts to lift the moratorium have gone nowhere, as have seperate efforts to abolish the death penalty altogether in Illinois.

Wednesday's verdict for Dugan comes after a bizarre turn of events Tuesday evening that left some feeling a little dazed and confused.

After some five hours of deliberation Tuesday evening, everyone was gathered to hear the jury deliver a verdict in the case. There was an announcement that the jury had come to a verdict at 10 p.m.

But a little more than half an hour later, there was another announcement – that there was no verdict, and the jury would return to deliberate further at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, jurors had asked for information on a warrant from February 1986 for a sample of hair taken from Dugan. It was to see if it matched a hair found on a blindfold put on Jeanine Nicarico. The hairs did not match.

Before jurors took the case at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jeanine's parents took the opportunity to express their gratitude to the people who had to relive the family's painful ordeal.

"We'd first like to thank the jury for their service and dedication," Tom Nicarico said during a small news conference as closing arguments ended after more than a month of testimony. "We are sure that many of them likely suffered unwanted emotional or financial consequences during these past five weeks."

He thanked friends and family for their "tireless support" and for giving the family the strength to get through the "seemingly endless twists and turns of the past quarter century."

It was a long five weeks for the Nicaricos and the 12 jurors who listened to the litany of crimes committed by Dugan in the 1980s. Jurors had to decide whether Dugan is a psychopath incapable of controlling his impulses or a calculating murderer who deserves to die.

According to DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett, the last five weeks have been nothing but "show time" for the defendant, who he described as cold, cunning and manipulative.

Birkett said Dugan has made a stage out of Judge George Bakalis' courtroom over the last month, playing the role of a mentally ill convict who deserves some leniency -- another life sentence -- for his confession to the crime.

"He enjoys pulling the ultimate con, which is what he is doing here with you," Birkett said angrily, in an attempt to persuade jurors that death, and no other sentence, is suitable for the career criminal, who is already serving two life sentences for the murders of 27-year-old Donna Schnorr of Geneva and 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman of Somonauk.

Spectators, including some of Dugan's victims who survived, packed the courtroom and held their breath as the 26-year saga began to draw to a close Tuesday. The Nicaricos sat close together in the third row as they have for weeks, next to Donna Schnorr's sister. Opal Horton, who was nearly abducted with Melissa Ackerman in 1984, and other Dugan victims sat nearby.

"Words do not convey the gratitude and empathy we feel toward those very brave women who came forward and testified during these proceedings," Tom Nicarico said. "They tore off the scabs from the emotional 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."

But in his rebuttal, Dugan's attorney, Steven Greenberg, hammered home the fact that the law doesn't say whether death is an appropriate sentence for two murders, five murders or 100.

"The law doesn't say how you're supposed to do this, but the law does give you two choices. One is life, one is death, and you have to decide what is appropriate," he said. "Is it appropriate to put a mentally ill person to death?"

Prosecutors, victims and relatives of the murdered said yes and argued that Dugan is more than capable of curtailing his impulses. Plenty of people suffering from personality disorders maintain regular lives every day, prosecutors argued. It should not be a mitigating factor in Dugan's case, they argued.

"This case is not about vengeance; it is about providing justice in this case," Birkett said. "... justice will not be done if this guy goes back into protective custody … he wants to go back to 'Hotel Pontiac' … there is one sentence that will remind this guy every day of this crime, and that is if you return a verdict of a sentence of death … Make sure he never forgets her."

Jeanine was kidnapped on Feb. 25, 1983, while she lay in her Naperville home, alone recovering from the flu. Her body was found two days later in a forest preserve.

Dugan pleaded guilty to the Nicarico murder on July 22. He had been claiming he committed the murder since 1985, but initially, authorities thought he was just trying to draw attention to himself and didn't believe him.

Jeanine's murder triggered a legal saga that initially saw two other men convicted and sentenced to death for her slaying. But Rolando Cruz was acquitted of the killing following his third trial in 1995, ultimately prompting charges to be dropped against co-defendant Alejandro Hernandez.

Those prosecutions ultimately led to seven police officers and prosecutors being charged with concocting evidence against the pair. The so-called "DuPage 7," however, were acquitted of all charges following a lengthy 1999 trial.

Dugan had previously offered to plead guilty if he were granted immunity from the death penalty, but DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said no. Dugan finally decided to plead guilty without protection from the death penalty.


WMMB's Pamela Jones and WBBM's Mike Puccinelli contributed to this report. The Aurora Beacon-News' Erika Wurst also contributed, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.

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