Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap will not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the highest court in the nation rejected the Chuck E. Cheese killer’s last appeal in order to avoid his execution by lethal injection. The now 38-year-old Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap and his lawyers might continue to file further appeals. However, with the rejection of the Supreme Court to hear his case, a decade-long appellate process might finally come to an end.
In a Feb. 19, 2013, report, the Denver Post wrote that “Dunlap is Colorado's longest-serving death-row inmate. He has spent more time behind bars — roughly half his life — than some of his victims spent alive.”
Last year, the panel of 10th Circuit judges rejected the argument that the Chuck E. Cheese killer was misrepresented by his lawyers and that the death sentence for Nathan Dunlap should be thrown out because his lawyers were incompetent and failed to show that the Chuck E. Cheese killer was mentally ill.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is determined to see the death sentence for the Chuck E. Cheese killer to the end and to see justice for his victims.
"Our office has spent nineteen years prosecuting Nathan Dunlap for the preplanned and deliberate murders of the unsuspecting three teenagers and one adult victim who had the terrible misfortune to be working the night shift on December 14, 1993 at Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora."
On the night of Dec. 14, 1993, Nathan Dunlap hid in the bathroom until Chuck E. Cheese was closed. After closing time, he mercilessly shot 19-year-old Sylvia Crowell, 17-year-old Ben Grant, 17-year-old Colleen O’Connor, and the 50-year-old Chuck E. Cheese manager, Margaret Kohlberg. He also injured another young employee during the shooting spree.
The Chuck E. Cheese killer who had been a former employee at the restaurant then fled the scene of the crime with $1500 in cash, some restaurant key chains, and some game tokens. Nathan Dunlap was arrested the next day.
According to the police, the Chuck E. Cheese killer said that the motive for the shooting was that he was angry about having been fired from his job at Chuck E. Cheese.
Since Colorado has not executed an inmate since the execution of Gary Lee Davis in 1997, it is unclear what will happen after the Supreme Court’s rejection. The Chuck E. Cheese killer’s attorneys, who are seeking life in prison instead of the death penalty, might send a petition to Gov. John Hickenlooper as a final attempt to avoid the Chuck E. Cheese killer’s execution.
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