Man who killed Dartmouth professors at 17 seeks reduced prison sentence
[July 13, 2026]
By HOLLY RAMER and KATHY McCORMACK
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — 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 five men serving life sentences in New Hampshire for murders
they committed as teenagers. Tulloch’s resentencing hearing, the last of
the five, begins Monday in Grafton County Superior Court.
The state hasn’t said what sentence it will seek. But in a court filing
last week, Tulloch’s 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’s prison
records show he has matured, and that after some initial misconduct
early on, he’s had no major infractions since 2012 and no minor
infractions since 2017. “The vast majority of his write-ups are for
possessing too many books,” they wrote.
Quoting from Tulloch’s therapy records, they said he has expressed
“significant remorse” for what he sees as a heinous and unforgivable
crime, his “warped youthful thinking,” and his “good capacity for
empathy.”
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,
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’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
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.
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Robert Tulloch, 17, is escorted into Lebanon, N.H. District
Court by Tropper James Stienmetz, right, and Hanover Sgt. Jeffrey
Fleury, Feb. 21, 2001. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
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.
“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.”
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
“cruel or unusual” 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, one man was resentenced to life without parole
after refusing to attend his hearing or authorize his attorneys to
argue for a lesser sentence. Others received sentences of 25-, 40-
and 45-years-to-life.
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