DA says woman’s killing was a promise fulfilled

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

When Gloria Dugan was shot to death in March 1997, David Crawford was simply carrying out a promise, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

During opening statements in Crawford's murder trial Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci said that shortly before Dugan died, Crawford called Dugan's fiance in Korea and told him Dugan had been having an affair with him for six months.

Pesci said Crawford didn't stop there. Instead, he vowed, "I'm going to ruin her life like she ruined mine because she won't marry me."

On the night of March 24, 1997, Pesci said, Crawford drove from Pahrump to Las Vegas and shot 26-year-old Dugan six times.

"This is a case of simple math," Pesci said. "Six equals one. Six willful acts equals one case of first-degree murder."

Wednesday would have been Dugan's 32nd birthday.

Pesci said that one of the state's witnesses, Tracie Ryback, will testify that within minutes of killing Dugan, Crawford called her in Michigan and confessed.

" 'She's dead. I killed her. I shot her six times with hollow point bullets.' Those were his words," Pesci said.

Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee waived his right to give an opening statement until after the state presents its case.

He told the Sun last week, however, that Crawford, 35, shot Dugan while "in a rage or in the heat of passion." The Crawford-Dugan relationship was a tumultuous one and Dugan, he said, couldn't decide between two men.

If the jury decides Crawford acted impulsively, it could mean a voluntary manslaughter or second-degree murder conviction and a far less serious sentence.

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.

Joyce Lewis, Dugan's boss at First American Title, was the first witness for the state. She told jurors of finding her secretary's body in a spare bedroom after Dugan failed to show up for work.

"I saw blood on her. I was so scared. I didn't know if she was alive. I couldn't touch her," Lewis sobbed. "I backed out of the room screaming for (a co-worker) to call 911."

Among the audience members Wednesday was Dugan's mother, who has waited five years for the case to be resolved.

Crawford pleaded guilty to first-degree murder 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. The Nevada Supreme Court later overturned Crawford's conviction and life sentence, saying Sobel erred in revoking the bail, leading to the current trial.