Man who killed Dartmouth professors at 17 seeks reduced prison sentence
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Vermont man who was 17 when he and a friend killed a married couple of professors at Dartmouth College 25 years ago is asking for his life sentence to be reduced to a minimum of 30 to 40 years.
Robert Tulloch, now 43, was automatically sentenced to life in prison 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 life sentences without parole were unconstitutional for juveniles and later applied that decision retroactively.
The decisions gave hundreds of juvenile life sentences a chance at freedom; Five people serving life sentences in New Hampshire for the murders they committed when they were young. Tulloch’s angry trial, the last of five, begins Monday in Grafton County Superior Court.
The state did not say what sentence it would seek. But in a court filing last week, Tulloch’s attorneys argued that a minimum sentence in the range of 30 to 40 years was appropriate, based on other murders committed by teenagers in New Hampshire and cases across the country affected by Supreme Court decisions.
Lawyers Richard Guerriero and Oliver Bloom also said Tulloch’s prison records show he has matured and, after some initial misconduct, has not had a major violation since 2012 and a minor violation since 2017. “The vast majority of his writings stem from having too many books,” they wrote.
Citing Tulloch’s therapy records, they said he expressed “significant remorse” for what he saw as a heinous and unforgivable crime, his “distorted youthful thinking” and his “good ability to empathize”.
According to Tulloch’s friend James Parker, the teenagers were bored with their lives in Chelsea, Vermont, when they hatched 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 conduct an environmental survey before being let in by Zantops. Susanne Zantop, 55, was chair of Dartmouth’s 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 then stabbed him. Fingerprints on the 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 weeks later at a truck stop in Indiana.
Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to being an accessory to second-degree murder, was released on parole in 2024 when he was 40 and had served nearly the minimum term of his 25-year life sentence.
“I think this is unimaginably terrible,” Parker said. parole hearing when a board member asked what he thought of what he was doing. “I know there isn’t much time or thing I can do to change this or alleviate any pain I’ve caused.”
Supreme Court decisions have addressed only mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles, leaving the United States as the only country that allows discretionary life sentences for juveniles. According to the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, 28 states and the District of Columbia ban the practice, while five other states allow it but no one carries out such a sentence.
New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected attempts to end life sentences for juveniles, but Tulloch’s case could bolster future initiatives. After Tulloch argued in 2018 that sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole violated the state constitution, the judge asked the state Supreme Court to comment, but the court declined. Last July, Supreme Court Justice Lawrence MacLeod agreed with Tulloch, finding that the constitution categorically prohibits such punishments as “cruel or unusual” punishments.
More than 75% of juveniles sentenced to life sentences received sentences of less than 40 years, according to a 2024 study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice that sparked nationwide outrage after U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
in New Hampshire, a man was angry with life without parole after refusing to appear at his trial or authorize his lawyers to argue for a lesser sentence. Others were punished 25-, 40- and a lifespan of 45 years.
