Is it a sufficient condition to be in NP?
You can obtain a non-deterministic polynomial-time Turing machine $T$ for $D$ as follows:

Since $D \le_p SAT$, there is a polynomial-time Turing machine $T'$ that maps any instance of $D$ into an instance of $SAT$. Simulate the $T'$ on $x$, where $x$ is the input of $T$.
Use any non-deterministic polynomial-time algorithm to decide SAT (e.g., guess the value of all the variables in the SAT formula and check if the formula is satisfied). By definition of Karp reduction, $T$ will accept if and only if $x \in D$.

This shows that $D \in \mathsf{NP}$.