Dugan among very worst in psychopathic traits: expert

Triple murderer Brian Dugan displays more severe psychopathic traits than all but a half-percent of the population, a defense psychologist testified Thursday.

"His score is in the highest range of any inmate I've ever met," said Kent Kiehl, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico who has tested about 1,000 prison inmates while studying the mental disorder.

Tests done earlier this year to measure the severity of his psychopathy gave Dugan a score of 37 out of a possible 40 points -- ranking him higher than 99.5 percent of the population, Kiehl testified.

Kiehl was likely the last witness called by defense attorneys trying to persuade a DuPage County jury to spare Dugan's life for his notorious 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. The 53-year-old Dugan, already serving life sentences for two other murders, will receive another life term if jurors choose not to sentence him to death for fatally bludgeoning the Naperville girl.

Defense attorneys have called several mental health experts, including Kiehl, to testify Dugan is a psychopath who has difficulty controlling his actions and emotions.

His defense team is expected to rest its case today, though prosecutors plan to call their own psychological experts to testify about Dugan's mental state. Jurors could begin deliberating his fate next week.

Kiehl tested Dugan on Sept. 5 using a new technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging -- and concluded Dugan's brain doesn't function properly because of the severity of his mental disorder.

"It constitutes a brain disturbance," Kiehl testified.

Kiehl said he believes Dugan also had the disorder when Jeanine was slain.

"I can say with certainty he was a psychopath," Kiehl said.