Death sentence tossed in restaurant slayings

A judge has thrown out the death sentence imposed against Joaquin Enrique Arevalo for the 1998 armed robbery and slayings of two workers at Tanner’s Rotisserie Chicken in Lawrenceville.

Superior Court Judge Dane Perkins found that Arevalo’s trial attorneys failed to investigate and president evidence of Arevalo’s mental retardation, post-traumatic stress disorder and organic brain damage. Restaurant manager Marc Ratthaus and cook Adolpho Gonzales were killed during the attack by Arevalo, his brother and another man. Prosecutors said Arevalo targeted Tanner’s because he had been fired from there for refusing to take out the trash.