Sep 24, 2002 By Jennifer Harr 6 min read

Janet Dugan of Uniontown recently breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in five years.

Sitting in a Las Vegas courtroom, Dugan heard a jury come back with a guilty verdict against the man charged with killing her daughter. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before reaching its verdict. The case lodged against David Crawford had languished in the court system since Gloria Joann Dugan’s March 24, 1997, death. The process was time consuming as it was delayed by Crawford’s suicide attempt, various court rulings and an overturned plea agreement.

Janet Dugan was pleased to see it finally resolved.

The day after Crawford was convicted of first-degree murder, Dugan sat before the jury and told them about her daughter.

“Any time she would come home, it was me and her,” Dugan said she told jurors. “And I couldn’t get on the phone and say I needed something to her without it coming in the mail.”

Dugan said she related how her daughter, who lived in Uniontown until she was 17, always tried to return to Fayette County to attend the annual May Day Parade – an event she loved.

“But I couldn’t even begin to describe how much (Crawford) took from me,” said Dugan during a recent interview.

Jurors decided that Crawford’s sentence should be life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. The other option was to find for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Dugan said she never requested prosecutors seek a death sentence for Crawford.

The trial started Aug. 21, which would have been Gloria Dugan’s 32nd birthday, said her mother, who was a fixture in the courtroom during the trial. Dugan said she listened to all of the testimony presented with the exception of testimony from the coroner who examined her daughter because prosecutors told her it would be gruesome.

And as painful as it was, Dugan listened when Crawford took the stand in an attempt to bolster his claims that he killed Gloria Dugan in the heat of passion – not in an act of premeditation.

“He sat there, and he said he killed her because she smirked. It killed me,” said Dugan. “It went through me like a butcher knife.”

Crawford, said Dugan, testified that he wanted to further a relationship with her daughter, but when Gloria said she was not interested, Crawford shot her six times with hollow point bullets. Dugan said Crawford told the judge he wanted to be with Gloria because she came from a loving, caring family like he did.

His confession to the shooting was “heartbreaking” and devoid of emotion, said Dugan.

But as difficult as it was for her to hear Crawford talk about shooting her daughter, Dugan said witnesses who testified at Crawford’s sentencing hearing made her beam with pride.

Elderly neighbors and co-workers came forward to testify in her daughter’s behalf, detailing to jurors how Gloria was always willing to help and was a joy to be around, said Dugan.

“Before I went in, (prosecutors) said ‘Get ready for anything,'” said Dugan. “But I went there and I listened, I was the proudest mother that there ever was.”

Even Crawford’s mother, who testified in his behalf, said that she met Gloria and liked her, said Dugan, who hopes to relax now that the trial is over.

But a resolution to the case was a long time in coming.

In August 1999, more than two years after her daughter’s death, Dugan thought she could begin to put the tragedy behind her when Crawford pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. At that time, as a condition of the plea, a Las Vegas judge agreed to delay Crawford’s sentencing until after Christmas so he could spend one last holiday with his aging and ailing parents.

A week later, the judge reversed that ruling, and sent Crawford to prison. In December 1999, Crawford tried to hang himself in his jail cell and spent several days in the hospital recovering, according to news accounts.

Crawford was eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole under the terms of his plea agreement.

Then, last September, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Crawford could withdraw his guilty plea because they found credence to his claim that his guilty plea was based on the judge’s agreement to let him be free for a final Christmas with his parents.

That, said Dugan, led him to trial before a different judge.

“I kept up on everything – any time anything went on,” said Dugan. “I told (prosecutors) I’d be there until that man’s put away.”

Dugan said she kept abreast of developments through her daughter’s boss, Joyce Lewis. Gloria Dugan was Lewis’ private secretary at First American Title in Las Vegas. Lewis, “fought as hard as I did” for justice, said Dugan.

During the trial, Dugan not only met with Lewis, but others who knew her daughter.

“Most of the people who knew her said she just drew people to her. She didn’t care if you had anything, or who you were, she just drew you in. It was unbelievable,” said Dugan

Since her daughter’s death, Dugan has traveled to Las Vegas eight times, each of those by way of bus. Dugan said she was careful to save up money when she could and buy tickets in advance so that she could leave whenever the Nevada court notified her there was something going on in the case.

Each way, the trip took about two and a half days, said Dugan, who gladly made the trek so that she could be there in her daughter’s memory. Six times, Dugan said she rode all the way to Las Vegas for planned court dates, only to turn around and head right back to Uniontown because of last-minute postponements.

This last trip lasted 10 days, and she stayed in a Las Vegas hotel.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” said Dugan, who is trying to save money for one final trip to Las Vegas in October, when Crawford will be formally sentenced.

Years after her daughter’s death, Dugan said she maintains an American flag on Gloria’s grave. When people ask her why, Dugan said she tells them it’s her way of remembering her high spirited, generous-hearted daughter who loved to come home and see the flags at the May Day parade.