Monday, Aug. 19, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.
A Clark County jury will decide the fate this week of a 35-year-old Pahrump man who has admitted and already served prison time for the crime.
David Crawford is accused of loading his gun, driving to Las Vegas from Pahrump on March 24, 1997, and shooting Gloria Joann Dugan, 26, six times in the chest and back, killing her.
Crawford agreed to plead guilty twice to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. The first time he backed out. The second time he pleaded guilty and was sentenced.
What happened after he signed the second plea agreement will land Crawford in front of a Clark County jury this week -- five years after the slaying.
Crawford pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 1999, after all of the parties agreed he would not be sentenced until Jan. 10, 2000, allowing him to have one final holiday season with his ailing parents.
Two weeks later District Judge Jeffrey Sobel revoked Crawford's $360,000 bail.
Defense attorney Scott Bindrup accused the judge of catering to the media, but Sobel said his conscience drove him to reverse his decision.
"I can't go to sleep at night, I am finding, without worrying about Mr. Crawford being out," Sobel said at the time.
Sobel refused to let Crawford back out of the plea agreement, saying the post-holiday sentencing was not a part of the written agreement. He gave Crawford a 40-year to life sentence.
The Nevada Supreme Court overturned Crawford's conviction, and now a jury will be asked to decide if Crawford is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, second-degree murder or first-degree murder.
Voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon carries a two- to 20-year sentence and second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon is punishable by 20 to 50 years. First-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon carries a 40- to 100-year sentence or a life sentence with or without the possibility of parole.
District Judge Donald Mosley will preside over the trial. Jury selection starts this afternoon.
On Friday Crawford's new attorney, Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee, said his client pleaded guilty only so he could be with his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease but has since died.
"There's no question he shot this girl," Coffee said. "The question is 'Why?' Hopefully by the end of the trial we'll be able to answer it.
"Hopefully the jury will realize this was not a planned situation where he sat down and thought about it. He acted in a rage or in the heat of passion. It was totally out of character for him."
Deputy District Attorneys Marc DiGiacomo and Giancarlo Pesci, the two new prosecutors assigned to try Crawford, declined to comment on the case.
According to court documents, Dugan and Crawford met in a Las Vegas bar in August 1996. Dugan was engaged at the time, but her fiance was stationed in Korea.
The nature of the relationship between Dugan and Crawford is in dispute.
According to a sentencing memorandum written by Bindrup, the relationship was a tumultuous one, with Dugan acting hot and cold toward Crawford from one minute to the next.
Bindrup said Dugan miscarried two months before her death and claimed she told both her fiance in Korea and Crawford the baby was theirs.
Crawford claimed to be engaged to Dugan, but friends of Dugan painted Crawford as an obsessed, violent man who stalked her.
One friend of Dugan described getting a call from a hysterical Dugan in November 1996. When she picked her up, she found Dugan covered in bruises and her car dented.
Dugan said Crawford beat her when she refused to break off with the man in Korea, the girlfriend told police. Dugan told the woman she saw Crawford because he threatened to commit suicide otherwise.
Crawford did attempt suicide, but months later -- after he killed Dugan.
According to court records, Pahrump paramedics responded to his home at 3 a.m. March 25, 1997, to find a bloody Crawford sitting on the floor. He had sliced open his left forearm.
Crawford reportedly asked the authorities "If something bad happened in Las Vegas who should I report it to?" When questioned further, he declined to answer, saying he needed to speak with an attorney.
It was only later that the authorities in Pahrump learned that Dugan's body had been found by co-workers from First American Title, who wondered why she never showed up for work.
Crawford had told someone what he had done, however. He called former girlfriend Tracie Ryback twice on March 24 and March 25. The first time he told her he had shot Dugan six times. The second time he told her about his suicide attempt.
Ryback, who jotted down notes during the conversation, is expected to testify at the trial.
Another potential witness for the state is Polly Card, who married Crawford six months after Dugan's slaying while he was out on bail.
Card left him a few days later after he told her he was being investigated in connection with a shooting and his mother showed her newspaper articles about the case.00
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