Sign up for 5280's weekly e-newsletters. Want the latest restaurant scoop? The latest happenings around town? Access to exclusive events and deals just for 5280 readers? At 4:00 am this morning, hours before he was to face U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch for sentencing in a fraud case, banker Edward P. Mattar, III took a sledge hammer and knocked out a window in his 18th floor apartment, two blocks from Denver’s federal courthouse, and jumped to his death.
A few hours later, 20 miles away in Golden, Colorado, 19-year-old Nathan Quinn Tate faced a state court judge for sentencing following a jury verdict of guilty of first degree murder. His defense to the killing of his friends’ father, who had surprised the pair during a burglary of the father’s residence, was insanity, but the jury didn’t accept that. Nathan Tate was 16 at the time of the murder. The Judge imposed the sentence required by law in Colorado for first degree murder: Life without the possibility of parole.
Two lives lost to the criminal justice system, one to suicide, one to a sentence of life in prison. Surely there must be a better way.
Posted 11/2/2007 at 6:53 pm by Jeralyn Merritt
Crime :: Permalink :: Comments (5)
Of course there’s a better way. Think before you act. No one forced Edward P. Mattar to be a fraudulant person nor did anyone force Nathan Tate to rob and kill his “best friends” father.
Two lives lost to the criminal justice system? Perhaps if people stopped searching for a “better way” after the fact and reached a solution to better lives before such acts even come to conception then we wouldn’t need a “criminal justice system” but until that day comes Thank GOD we have it, to protect the many lives who choose to live by the law.
“Two lives lost” I am sorry but what a retarded comment.
Of course there’s a better way. Think before you act. No one forced Edward P. Mattar to be a fraudulant person nor did anyone force Nathan Tate to rob and kill his “best friends” father.
Two lives lost to the criminal justice system? Perhaps if people stopped searching for a “better way” after the fact and reached a solution to better lives before such acts even come to conception then we wouldn’t need a “criminal justice system” but until that day comes Thank GOD we have it, to protect the many lives who choose to live by the law.
“Two lives lost” I am sorry but what a retarded comment
Would the “better way” be that we should be able to commit crimes and not expect consequence?
Agree with Lummy. Honestly, the world is over-populated with good people who deserve resources and benefits; so why should I care if two people who break the law got what they deserve???
I think life without parole is too lenient of a sentence.