PTSD a factor in combat vet's sentencing for fatal shooting at Olathe bar

March 26--An Augusta, Kan., man diagnosed with PTSD has been sentenced for the 2016 fatal shooting of another man inside an Olathe bar in 2016.

Michael W. Chinn Jr. was sentenced in Johnson County District Court to seven years and three months in prison for the March 30, 2016, shooting of 38-year-old William Schutkesting.

Chinn, 30, pleaded no contest last September to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm in an occupied dwelling.

The shooting occurred at the Double Nickel Bar & Grill at 189 S. Rogers Road.

The sentence was jointly recommended by the prosecutor and defense as part of plea negotiations that took into account Chinn's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis in departing from Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Chinn would have faced a minimum sentence of about 12 years in prison under the guidelines.

The Marine Corps veteran served in a combat zone and was diagnosed by experts hired by both the state and defense, according to documents filed by defense attorney Carl Cornwell.

"Such service subjected the defendant to such horrific battlefield trauma that he could not cope with the trauma and has sought treatment and will continue to be plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder," Cornwell wrote in the documents.

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