The Colorado Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of Nathan Dunlap in the 1993 slayings of four employees at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora and ordered that the court set a date for Dunlap’s execution.
Killed in the Dec. 14, 1993, shooting spree were Ben Grant, 17; Colleen O’Connor, 17; Sylvia Crowell, 19; and Margaret Kohlberg, 50.
Dunlap claimed that he had not received adequate representation from his lawyers during the trial.
In the 115-page ruling written by Justice Nancy Rice, the state high court noted that Dunlap raised 27 issues on appeal. Many were claims that he was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel at both the guilt and penalty phases of trial.
A lower court had ruled that Dunlap’s two trial attorneys, Forrest Lewis and Steven Gayle, performed deficiently by failing to conduct an adequate mental-health mitigation investigation and by not objecting to a portion of the prosecution’s penalty-phase closing argument. The judge said these two instances of substandard performance didn’t individually or together affect Dunlap’s trial.
The Supreme Court said it agreed with prosecutors that Lewis and Gayle were diligent in their defense of Dunlap.
“We agree with that the action’s of Dunlap’s trial counsel did not fall below the constitutionally required level of performance,” Rice wrote. “As such, Dunlap was not denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel and is not entitled to post-conviction relief on those grounds.”
Rice also said that Dunlap’s other contentions of error were groundless.
As a result of the decision, the Supreme Court said a stay on Dunlap’s execution would be lifted. The case was sent back to the trial court to set a date for the execution.
Phil Cherner, one of Dunlap’s appellate attorneys, said Dunlap is far from finished in pursuing his appeals.
“Mr. Dunlap will seek a stay of execution while he requests the Colorado Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling,” Cherner said. “We will also seek relief in the federal courts if necessary. We continue to believe our appeal has merit and will eventually prevail.”
Dunlap was arrested hours after the shootings.
Evidence showed that Dunlap, who had been fired from a job at the restaurant a few months earlier, had boasted to his friends and acquaintances that he would return and get his vengeance.
The murder trial was moved to Colorado Springs because of the publicity surrounding the case.
The trial began in January 1996, and on Feb. 26, 1996, the jury found Dunlap guilty of four counts of first-degree murder.
After a week-long death penalty hearing, the same jury unanimously agreed Dunlap deserved four death penalties, one for each of the victims gunned down at the pizza parlor.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
