CONCORD, N.H. (AP) 鈥� A Vermont man who was 17 when he and a friend killed a pair of married Dartmouth College professors 25 years ago is seeking to have his life sentence reduced to a minimum of 30 to 40 years.
Robert Tulloch, now 43, was automatically sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory sentences of life without parole are unconstitutional for juveniles, and later applied that decision retroactively.
The rulings gave hundreds of juvenile lifers a shot at freedom, including for murders they committed as teenagers. Tulloch鈥檚 resentencing hearing, the last of the five, begins Monday in Grafton County Superior Court.
The state hasn鈥檛 said what sentence it will seek. But in a court filing last week, Tulloch鈥檚 lawyers argue that a minimum sentence in the range of 30 to 40 years is appropriate, based on a review of other murders committed by juveniles in New Hampshire and cases nationwide that were affected by the Supreme Court rulings.
Attorneys Richard Guerriero and Oliver Bloom also said Tulloch鈥檚 prison records show he has matured, and that after some initial misconduct early on, he鈥檚 had no major infractions since 2012 and no minor infractions since 2017. 鈥淭he vast majority of his write-ups are for possessing too many books,鈥� they wrote.
Quoting from Tulloch鈥檚 therapy records, they said he has expressed 鈥渟ignificant remorse鈥� for what he sees as a heinous and unforgivable crime, his 鈥渨arped youthful thinking,鈥� and his 鈥済ood capacity for empathy.鈥�
According to Tulloch鈥檚 friend, James Parker, the teens were bored with their lives in Chelsea, Vermont, when they concocted a plan to kill strangers, steal their money and move to Australia. For several months, they knocked on doors in New Hampshire and Vermont pretending to be conducting a survey on the environment before being let in by the Zantops. Susanne Zantop, 55, was head of Dartmouth鈥檚 German studies department and her husband, Half Zantop, 62, taught Earth sciences.
Parker, who was 16 at the time, told prosecutors that Tulloch stabbed Half Zantop and then directed Parker to attack Susanne Zantop. Tulloch also stabbed her. Fingerprints on a knife sheath and a bloody boot print linked the teens to the crime, but after being questioned by police, they fled Vermont and hitchhiked west. They were arrested at an Indiana truck stop weeks later.
Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder, was released from prison on parole in 2024 at age 40, having served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 unimaginably horrible,鈥� Parker said during his when asked by a board member what he thought of what he did. 鈥淚 know there鈥檚 not an amount of time or things that I can do to change it, or alleviate any pain that I鈥檝e caused.鈥�
The Supreme Court rulings addressed only mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles, leaving the U.S. the only country that allows discretionary life sentences for minors. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have banned the practice, while another five states allow it but have no one serving such a sentence, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.
New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected attempts to end life sentences for juveniles, but Tulloch’s case could bolster future attempts. After Tulloch argued in 2018 that sentencing juveniles to life without parole violated the state constitution, the judge asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in, but it declined. Last July, Superior Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod agreed with Tulloch, finding that the constitution categorically prohibits such sentences as 鈥渃ruel or unusual鈥� punishment.
Among the juvenile lifers nationwide who have been resentenced after the U.S. Supreme Court rulings, more than 75% have received sentences of less than 40 years, according to a study published in 2024 in the Journal of Criminal Justice.
In New Hampshire, without parole after refusing to attend his hearing or authorize his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence. of 25-, and 45-years-to-life.
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