James Parker And Robert Tulloch would murder two Dartmouth College professors in 2001. According to court reports sixteen year old James Parker and seventeen year old Robert Tulloch decided they wanted to go to California but they needed money to complete the trip so they decided the house of two Dartmouth College professors would have what they needed.
The two teen killers went to the Zantop residence posing as students who needed to fill out a questionnaire. Apparently when Mr. Zantop told the students they should have been more prepared angered Tulloch who would stab Mr. Zantop repeatedly when he turned his back. When Mrs. Zantop came to investigate the noise she was attacked by James Parker who would stab her repeatedly. The two teens would take the wallet of Mr. Zantop and flee the premises leaving the sheath to a knife behind.
Turns out that sheath was rare and police were able to find out who bought one recently and from there the two teen killers became suspects and would be arrested a few states away. James Parker would plead guilty to second degree murder and would be sentenced to twenty five years and could be paroled after sixteen years. Robert Tulloch would also plead guilty and be sentenced to life
James Parker And Robert Tulloch 2023 Information
ROBERT WILBERT TULLOCH
Prison Number: 75385
Term ID: 42507
Admission Date: 04/04/2002
Release Date: 3/10/2101
Location NH State Prison for Men
JAMES JENNINGS PARKER
Age: 35
Prison Number 75389
Term ID: 42512
Admission Date: 04/04/2002
Min Release Date: 5/22/2024
Max Release Date 1/24/2100
Location: NH State Prison for Men
James Parker And Robert Tulloch Other News
A Chelsea man who has served 18 years in prison after the 2001 stabbing deaths of two Dartmouth College professors will go before a Grafton County judge on Tuesday and ask to have the remainder of his 25-year sentence suspended.
James Parker, now 34, has served his time inside the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in an “exceptional manner,” including completing a master’s degree and taking on a leadership role that has led to the betterment of the entire prison community, his attorney, Cathy Green, wrote in a September motion to suspend the remaining portion of Parker’s minimum sentence.
“He made a decision that although he could never change what he had done, or diminish the pain that he caused, he would live a life going forward to atone for his actions,” Green wrote. “He chose to educate himself, but more importantly, to dedicate himself to making the prison community a better and more humane place. He provided opportunities for those who sought to spend their time positively, aiding in their rehabilitation and personal growth.”
Because Parker has served two-thirds of his sentence, state law permits him to seek such relief.
But the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office in November objected to Parker’s request, saying he already received the minimum sentence for his role in the “premeditated, brutal deaths” of Half and Susanne Zantop in their Etna home on Jan. 27, 2001.
Parker, who was 16 when he committed the crime, pleaded guilty April 4, 2002, to second-degree murder for the death of Susanne Zantop, and he agreed to testify against Robert Tulloch, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the killing of Half Zantop.
Tulloch, who was 17 at the time of the murders, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. His sentence will be examined at a three-day hearing in December after the Supreme Court ruled mandatory life sentences are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.
Currently, Parker’s earliest release date is May 2024.
In the objection, Associate Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin recounted the days leading up to the crimes — Parker and Tulloch were bored with Chelsea and were looking for a way to get money and travel — and the crimes themselves.
“Such extraordinary relief is inappropriate in this case, given the facts of the crime the defendant committed and the lasting impacts,” he wrote. “The Zantops were not killed in self-defense or in the heat of the moment. Instead, their deaths were the results of months of detailed criminal planning that included the purchase of weapons and failed attempts to rob and kill others.”
The then-teenagers selected the Zantop home at random, went to the front door and posed as students conducting a survey before stabbing them both to death and fleeing the state. They were arrested the following month after police traced knife sheaths left behind at the Zantop home.
Parker already has been rewarded for his rehabilitation efforts in prison with a 21-month reduction in his sentence because of earned time credits, Strelzin said.
“What the Zantops experienced has to be worth far more than the few years the defendant has served and should serve in prison for what he willingly did to them,” he wrote.
State law, however, has designed a mechanism to recognize the “extraordinary behavior” of an inmate and reward him or her for it with a sentence reduction, Green wrote.
In addition to his advanced schooling, Parker completed a host of vocational training courses and contributed to life inside prison through his expertise in art, music and theater.
He painted murals that are hung throughout the prison, expanded the theater program through the facilitation of productions and directed choirs while preparing and performing concerts with the prison band.
He coached basketball and helped with other volunteer activities like job fairs, Green wrote.
Richard Bedell, an instructor at New England College, said Parker has “relentless drive and motivation,” settled for nothing “less than excellence” and made himself available to other students who needed help, she wrote.
James Brown, a lieutenant at the prison, called Parker “the most industrious individual I have observed in my 25 years working in this environment,” according to the petition.
Parker has only a few “minor” infractions on his prison record and has participated in mental health treatment and counseling, Green wrote.
Robert Kinscherff, a forensic psychologist, evaluated Parker for his risk for future criminal behavior and ruled that “Jim scores at the very low end for risk of violent behavior and reoffending,” Green wrote.
Killer in Dartmouth professors stabbing case seeks early release from prison
James Parker And Robert Tulloch Videos
James Parker Granted Parole
A man sentenced to prison for his role in the murders of two Dartmouth College professors in 2001 has been granted parole.
James Parker, 39, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the killings of Half and Susanne Zantop in 2001.
Investigators said Parker, who was 16 at the time, and his friend Robert Tulloch, who was 17, posed as students conducting a survey when they stabbed the Zantops to death.
Parker admitted during Thursday’s hearing he had intended to kill someone that day. He later expressed how he feels now about the killings.
“I think it’s unimaginably horrible,” Parker said. “I’ve gone over it and over it, and just finding an explanation for that. I just don’t know how I could do that.”
Parker said he and Tulloch killed the Zantops as part of a plan to rob them.
“We were attempting to get money to go overseas and live some sort of life of adventure, or whatever,” he said.
He described to the board how he and Tulloch killed the couple.
“During the interview when Mr. Zantop pulled out his wallet, my codefendant and I, he attacked Mr. Zantop, and then when his wife came in, I restrained her, and then I cut her throat and she fell to the floor,” Parker said.
He acknowledged the pain that the Zantops’ loved ones suffered because of what they 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,” Parker said.
This was his first chance at parole.
In granting parole, the board ordered that Parker have no contact with the victims’ families, that he continue his mental health treatment and that he remain free of any other disciplinary action.
Tulloch, 40, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. He is scheduled for a resentencing hearing in June in light of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which made it unconstitutional to sentence juvenile offenders to mandatory life imprisonment without parole.
https://www.wmur.com/article/half-susanne-zantop-james-parker-parole-granted/60536412
