NORTH HAVERHILL – Robert Tulloch, who previously received a sentence of life without parole for the murders of two Dartmouth professors in 2001 when he was a juvenile, is now eligible to be released by the time he is 62 years old.
A resentencing hearing for Tulloch, 17 at the time of the murders, was required following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in 2012, ruling that mandatory life sentences without parole imposed on juvenile offenders are unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Initially slated for three days, Tulloch’s resentencing hearing lasted about an hour in Grafton Superior Court on Monday morning as both the state and defense reached a joint sentence recommendation of two concurrent sentences of 45 years to life for the murders, with credit for time served since his arrest over 20 years ago.
Under the terms of the recommendation, Tulloch, 43, is also now eligible for parole at age 62, the same age that Environmental Sciences professor Half Zantop was at the time he was stabbed to death.
In the winter of 2001, Tulloch and a friend, James Parker, 16 at the time, tricked their way into the home of Zantop and his wife, Susanne, chair of the German Studies Department at Dartmouth. They were convicted of stabbing the couple to death.
Prior to the Zantop murders, Tulloch and Parker had planned to secure $10,000 and use the money to travel to Australia, according to court records. From Half Zantop’s wallet, they stole $340 in cash.
As Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said during Monday’s hearing, the murders were “the result of choices … decisions … not age or circumstances.”
Prior to the Zantop murders, Tulloch and Parker made four unsuccessful efforts to execute their plan, which included robbing homes where they considered murdering the occupants, Agati noted.
Defense attorneys Richard Guerriero and Oliver Bloom planned to argue that a 30- to 40-year minimum sentence was “appropriate” based on comparable sentences for juveniles and adults convicted of murder in New Hampshire and nationwide, according to a sentencing memo filed with the court ahead of Monday’s hearing.
Parker was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison, and granted parole and released from prison in 2024.
The defense also was prepared to show exhibits proving Tulloch’s maturation over the years in prison, with psychiatric session notes in which he takes responsibility for the crimes and expresses remorse over the pain he has caused.
Veronika Zantop was in residency as an internal medicine physician when her parents were murdered.
“I ended up doing an additional residency in psychiatry in order not only to better understand the brain, but also to be there for other people suffering from trauma,” Zantop, a psychiatrist who appeared at Monday’s hearing virtually via Webex, said in a statement.
She told the court that one of her two sons is currently the same age Tulloch was at the time of the killings.
“My children live with the knowledge that someone similar to their current peers brutally murdered their grandparents, whom they’ll never know, in a truly savage and completely unjustifiable way,” said Veronika Zantop.
She went on to say she’s seen thousands of patients and evaluated whether they were safe to themselves and others.
“I know from practice and studies that sociopaths are highly intelligent and highly manipulative,” she said. “I don’t believe for a minute that some magic rewiring of the brain has or will ever happen to Robert Tulloch that would ever justify his release from prison.”
Tulloch, who was present at the defense table in dark prison attire and raised cuffed hands to wipe his eyes at times, was also given the opportunity to speak.
When he was first led into the courtroom, Tulloch’s attorney, Richard Guerriero, helped him retrieve an envelope from his back pocket with two pieces of paper inside.
At his chance to read the statement, however, Tulloch said the contents of whatever was written on the pages were “meaningless now.”
“I had something I wanted to say, but now it seems pretty pointless after Ms. Zantop speaking,” Tulloch said. “After listening to that, I feel disgusted by even thinking I could say anything that would mean anything.”
When he appeared to have nothing left to say, Guerriero quietly called his client’s attention to the pieces of paper he didn’t read.
“It’s meaningless now,” Tulloch said, hesitating as he looked down to the part of the page his attorney was pointing to.
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A moment later, Tulloch looked up to the screen where Veronika Zantop appeared.
“I’m sorry,” Tulloch said. “Even though I can’t imagine after hearing you talk that you would care at all.”
Ultimately, Grafton County Judge Lawrence MacLeod accepted the joint sentence recommendation of two concurrent sentences of 45 years to life for the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop, including credit of over 9,000 days for time served.
Tulloch is also prohibited from contacting any member of the Zantop family and from “profiting in any way from his crimes, including through the sale of his story or “accept(ing) payment, enter(ing) into any contract, sell(ing) rights regarding any book or film, television show, radio show, website, podcast, or any other writing, recording, broadcasting, or posting related to the murders,” the new sentence stipulates.
At 20 years into the new sentence, Tulloch will have his first opportunity in front of a parole board.
Following the hearing, Richard Guerreiro declined to comment.
Addressing a media scrum outside the courthouse, Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati insisted, despite Veronika Zantop’s belief in her statement that Tulloch belongs in prison for the “longest possible sentence,” that a consensus between the state and defense wouldn’t have been reached without input from the Zantop family.
“I cannot begin to put myself in the shoes of (the Zantop family),” Agati said. “(Veronika Zantop’s) statements, I think, were very powerful. I’m very glad that (Veronika) was here to be able to speak to the court directly.”
Veronika Zantop logged off the Webex screen before the resentencing hearing concluded.
