DENVER-
A man convicted in a 1993 shooting rampage that left four people dead in a pizza restaurant lost another round in his battle to avoid execution Monday.
The Colorado Supreme Court rejected Nathan Dunlap’s claim that his legal defense was ineffective, and the justices ordered the trial court to set a date for his execution.
Dunlap’s attorney, Phillip Cherner, said he would ask the court to reconsider. If that fails, Cherner said, he will launch an appeal through the federal courts.
“We believe our appeal has merit and we will eventually prevail,” he said.
Nate Strauch, a spokesman for Attorney General John Suthers, said the ruling means Dunlap has exhausted his state appeals.
“We’re happy to see the case moving toward the resolution of the jury’s well-deserved verdict,” Strauch said.
Dunlap, now 33, was convicted in 1996 of shooting five people at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in suburban Aurora. Four of the victims died.
The state Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in 2001. In 2004, Dunlap began another appeal, claiming his representation was inadequate. The court rejected that claim Monday.
“We dissolve the stay of execution and remand this case back to the trial court to set a date for imposition of the death sentence,” the justices said in their ruling.
Dunlap was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder, robbery, theft and burglary.
Killed in the rampage were Margaret Kohlberg, 50; Ben Grant, 17; Colleen O’Conner, 17; and Sylvia Crowell, 19. Bobby Stephens survived and later identified Dunlap as the murderer.
The only other prisoner on Colorado’s death row is Edward Montour Jr., 39, convicted of murder in the death of a guard at the Limon prison in October 2002.
Both Dunlap and Montour are held in the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City.
