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Robert Tulloch, who previously received a sentence of life without parole for the murders of two Dartmouth University professors in 2001 when he was a juvenile, is now eligible to be released by the time he is 62 years old.
Tulloch was automatically sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop.
A resentencing hearing for Tulloch, who was a 17-year-old at the time of the murders, was required following a decision by the U.S. 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.
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Tulloch was one of the few individuals in New Hampshire serving such a sentence at the time of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Initially slated for three days, Tulloch’s resentencing hearing lasted about an hour in Grafton Superior Court in North Haverhill, New Hampshire, 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.
As additional requirements of resentencing, Tulloch may have no contact with any members of the Zantop family, including Half and Susanne Zantop’s daughters Veronika and Mariana Zantop, and may not profit “in any way” from the murders “through the sale of his story or any other commercial exploitation.”
During the resentencing, Veronika Zantop talked about how she and her family were affected by the death of her parents. Veronika, a psychiatrist, urged the judge to not allow Tulloch the opportunity for freedom.
“This wasn’t a crime of passion or retribution,” she said. “He wasn’t using substances, he wasn’t psychotic. There was just sheer depravity.” She urged that he stay in prison “for the longest possible sentence.”
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Under the terms of the recommendation, Tulloch, 43, is also now eligible for parole at age 62.
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“The murders of Half and Susanne Zantop were horrific crimes that caused immeasurable pain to their family, friends, students, and the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a statement.
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“While this resentencing was required by court decisions and a changed legal landscape, the State worked to ensure that the sentence imposed reflects the seriousness of these crimes, promotes accountability, protects the public, and provides meaningful protections for the Zantop family,” Formella said. “Our hearts go out to the Zantop family and all of those who knew and loved Half and Susanne Zantop.”
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According to Tulloch’s 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, Tulloch and Parker 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’s German studies department and her husband, Half Zantop , 62, taught Earth sciences.
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Parker, who was 16 at the time, told prosecutors 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 a truck stop in New Castle, Indiana. Investigators said that the pair were attempting to flee to California.
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On April 5, 2022, Tulloch pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a then-mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Tulloch’s codefendant Parker was sentenced to 25 years to life on second-degree murder charges after pleading guilty to being Tulloch’s accomplice in Half Zantop’s murder and agreeing to testify against Tulloch. In June 2024, Park is released on parole.
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“I think it’s unimaginably horrible,” Parker said during his parole hearing when asked by a board member what he thought of what he did. “I know there’s not an amount of time or things that I can do to change it, or alleviate any pain that I’ve caused.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Tulloch’s attorneys, Richard Guerriero and Oliver Bloom, and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
