Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 14
Robert Tulloch Gets 45-Years-to-Life, Eligible for Parole at 62 After Juvenile Sentencing Ruling
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 14

Robert Tulloch Gets 45-Years-to-Life, Eligible for Parole at 62 After Juvenile Sentencing Ruling

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 14

Summary

  • Two concurrent 45-years-to-life terms replaced Robert Tulloch’s mandatory life-without-parole sentence for the 2001 murders of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop, making him eligible for parole at 62.
  • A New Hampshire judge imposed the new sentence after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling barred mandatory life-without-parole terms for juvenile offenders; Tulloch was 17 at the time of the killings.
  • An hourlong hearing ended with a joint recommendation from prosecutors and defense, plus conditions barring Tulloch from contacting the Zantop family or profiting from the murders.
  • Veronika Zantop urged the court to keep Tulloch imprisoned as long as possible, while the state said the revised sentence still reflects the crimes’ severity and protects the family.
  • The case stems from a 2001 plan by Tulloch and James Parker to kill strangers and steal money; Parker, who testified against Tulloch, received 25 years to life and was paroled in 2024.

Insights

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A killer's prison record is nearly perfect. But can good behavior truly erase a brutal past?
One killer is free, the other waits 20 years. What really sealed their vastly different fates?