Re: 12/1-4/01 - Boston Globe: Zantop case defendant to cite insanity; Friendship a factor in N.H. case; Plea deal seen set in N.H. killings; Parker to plead guilty in the murder of one Dartmouth professor (Part 1 of 2)
Zantop case defendant to cite insanity
By Stephen Kurkjian and Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff, 12/1/2001
One of two teenagers charged with the murders of two Dartmouth College professors last winter says that he was legally insane at the time of the killings. Meanwhile, his alleged accomplice is ''reevaluating'' his plea of not guilty and a ''significant'' announcement is planned for Monday.
While the lawyer for 17-year-old James J. Parker refused to characterize the announcement, a lawyer close to the case said that Parker has been discussing a plea bargain with prosecutors since a judge ruled in October that he would be tried as an adult, not a juvenile, for the stabbing murders of Half and Susanne Zantop.
Yesterday, lawyers for Parker's alleged accomplice, Robert Tulloch, filed a motion stating that a recent psychiatric examination found that Tulloch suffered from a ''serious mental illness ... and that his acts were the direct result of the mental defect or disease.''
Asked if ''his acts'' referred to the killings, Tulloch's lawyer, Richard W. Guerriero, said the words speak for themselves. He also said he had not decided whether to pursue a two-step defense strategy available under New Hampshire law that would allow him to contest Tulloch's guilt as well as raise an insanity defense.
The two-page motion made no mention of Tulloch's specific mental illness and Guerriero declined to elaborate last night.
On the heels of Tulloch's motion, Parker's lawyer said last night that a major statement would be made on Monday, raising speculation that Parker had decided to plead guilty.
''In light of Mr. Tulloch's decision, we've reevaluated our case and will be making a significant announcement on Monday,'' said Douglas Brown, a lawyer from San Diego and a Parker family friend. ''This has been a nightmare for John and Joan Parker, as it has been for the other families involved.''
Brown refused to give any details about the announcement, but said Parker would not seek a defense of guilty by reason of insanity.
A New Hampshire judge ruled in October that Parker, who was 16 at the time of the killings, would stand trial as an adult, according to a lawyer close to the case. Since then, the lawyer said, Parker's defense team has been discussing a possible plea bargain with prosecutors from the office of New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin.
Kelly Ayotte, McLaughlin's lead prosecutor on the case, declined to comment on developments relating to Parker. About Tulloch's motion that he intends to offer an insanity defense, Ayotte said the prosecution is ''fully prepared to meet that at trial.''
Under New Hampshire law, Tulloch and Parker face life in prison without parole if they are convicted of first-degree murder. Although capital punishment is allowed in New Hampshire, prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty.
Guerriero and co-counsel Barbara Keshen, both public defenders, said in the motion that they had become increasingly concerned that Tulloch had a serious mental illness and sought an evaluation by a ''highly qualified psychiatrist'' whom they did not name.
''The indications of mental illness were difficult to recognize because of Robert's intelligence and his particular personality,'' Guerriero and Keshen wrote. But the psychiatrist's evaluation had confirmed that Tulloch ''does suffer from a severe mental defect or disease.''
New Hampshire criminal lawyers said that Tulloch's defense team will face a difficult challenge in convincing a jury that he was legally insane. ''The standard of proof is that there is clear and convincing evidence that the defendant was insane at the time of the murders, and historically that has been a difficult standard to meet,'' said John Kacavas, a former New Hampshire prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer.
These latest legal maneuverings refocused national attention on the small communities of Hanover, N.H., where the Zantops had resided for more than 30 years while teaching at Dartmouth, and Chelsea, Vt., the tiny town 35 miles away where Parker and Tulloch grew up.
The prosecution recently turned over thousands of pages of evidence it had accumulated from its investigation but the documents contained no motive for the killings, nor any known ties between the teenagers and the Zantops.
Prosecutors say they found fingerprints and footprints in the Zantops' home that link the teens to the killings. Court documents say two military-style knives stained with the victims' blood were found hidden in Tulloch's bedroom.
The pair fled Vermont after denying to New Hampshire State Police that they had anything to do with the killings. They were arrested at an Indiana truck stop several days later, on Feb. 19.
Cathy J. Green, who argued that Parker's case should remain in juvenile court, did not return phone calls yesterday. Also, Brown, who is assisting in Parker's defense, declined comment on the juvenile court case.
In their Vermont hometown, Tulloch's insanity defense and Parker's possible guilty plea took residents by surprise.
Kyle Farmham, a friend of both defendants and a classmate of Tulloch, wondered aloud if Tulloch was possessed. ''Does this mean he was hearing voices?'' he asked. ''Did they call in an exorcist?''
In the end, he said an insanity defense was better than a trial based solely on the facts, which he feared his friend would lose.
''I guess it's a better explanation than if he was a cold-blooded killer,'' Farmham said.
John O'Brien, who coached Tulloch in debate at Chelsea High School, said he never saw any indication that Tulloch was mentally disturbed.
''He was certainly very bright and mentally complex, but I never saw an insane side to him,'' he said.
As the word spread in Hanover, neighbors of the Zantops were conflicted. ''I guess the fact that somebody is fessing up is already a step ahead of some other possible scenarios,'' said Bruce Duncan, a colleague of Half Zantop.
But the fact that the question of motive remains unanswered is frustrating to many.
''Insanity doesn't answer anything,'' said the Zantops's neighbor, Bob McCollum. ''A lot of people would still like some answers.''
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 12/1/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Friendship a factor in N.H. case
By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 12/2/2001
hey were inseparable teenage friends from a small town in Vermont with a shared passion for typical outdoor activities like rock-climbing and hiking.
But Robert W. Tulloch and James J. Parker also engaged in more troubling practices, authorities say, such as sneaking into their friends' houses when no one was home and raiding the refrigerator. Or the time they climbed to the roof of the vacant State House in Montpelier and hit a few golf balls into the parking lot below.
It's been 10 months since Tulloch and Parker last saw one another in adjoining cells in an Indiana lockup. And in that time, it appears their friendship has shattered as the two young men may be preparing to implicate each other in the murder last January of Half and Susanne Zantop in the couple's Hanover, N.H., home.
Tulloch and Parker were arrested and charged with the murders last February after a cross-country chase that ended in Indiana. In March, New Hampshire prosecutors made public much of the evidence tying the teenagers to the grisly crime, including knives, bought by Parker and later recovered in Tulloch's bedroom, that were stained with blood matching the victims' DNA.
What has been missing is a motive for the murders and a determination if Tulloch or Parker was the instigator of the crime and primarily responsible for the bloody mayhem inside the Zantops' home.
Thousands of pages of documents reflecting most of the investigative work into the killings by New Hampshire State Police and the office of Attorney General Philip T. McLaughlin were turned over to Tulloch's and Parker's defense teams in recent weeks. According to lawyers who are wading through the boxes of evidence, none of the documents provide a motive for the killings or establish a relationship between the victims and the alleged perpetrators that would provide some explanation for the crime.
While New Hampshire prosecutors could try the case on the physical evidence, criminal law specialists said that juries hearing first-degree murder cases are more likely to convict when they are given a complete account of the crime, including a reason for it and an eyewitness statement of what happened.
''With first-degree murder, you're asking a juror to sentence a person to life in prison without parole. That's a tough responsibility for a juror to make, particularly when all they have in front of them is physical evidence,'' said John Kacavas, a former New Hampshire assistant attorney general in the 1990s who prosecuted several first-degree murder cases.
It now appears that Parker may have agreed to become a cooperative witness for the prosecution. One of his lawyers told reporters on Friday that Parker is ''re-evaluating'' his plea of innocence and to expect a significant announcement on the case tomorrow. At the same time, Tulloch's lawyers were releasing copies of a legal notice they were filing in court stating that Tulloch intended to contend at trial that he was insane at the time of the killings.
While lawyers for both Parker and Tulloch, as well as in McLaughlin's office, urged against speculation on these developments, Friday's actions raised the possibility that Parker has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution as it prepares for Tulloch's trial next spring in Grafton County Superior Court.
According to family friends, Parker, who was 16 at the time of the murder, had steadfastly resisted the idea of testifying against his friend. Instead, he and his parents had held on to the hope that a superior court judge would deny McLaughlin's efforts to have Parker tried as an adult, and allow his case to be heard in the juvenile court system. As a juvenile, the worst sentence Parker faced was imprisonment until he was 21.
Those hopes were dashed sometime within the last six weeks. ''All of a sudden, they looked devastated again,'' said one Chelsea resident who saw Joan and John Parker around town several weeks ago, ''but they didn't say anything.'' The explanation was provided by a legal source who told the Globe on Friday that the judge had ''certified'' that Parker should be tried as an adult. If tried and convicted of first-degree murder, Parker now faces life in prison without parole.
In the ensuing weeks, the legal source said, Parker's defense team has been in discussion with the attorney general's office trying to work out a plea bargain. Parker's defense team refused to speculate on its details, including whether Parker would agree to plead to a second-degree murder charge that might make him eligible for parole in 30 years. Nor would Parker's lawyers or the attorney general's office speculate on the implications of such an agreement.
Stephen Kurkjian can be reached via e-mail at kurkjian@globe.com
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 12/2/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Plea deal seen set in N.H. killings
25-years-to-life term expected for Parker
By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 12/3/2001
[picture]
Robert Tulloch
[picture]
James Parker
James J. Parker, one of two Vermont teenagers charged in the murders of two Dartmouth College professors last January, has agreed to plead guilty to accessory to second-degree murder charges and accept a sentence of from 25 years to life, according to a family friend.
Parker has agreed to cooperate with the New Hampshire attorney general's office and testify against his best friend, Robert W. Tulloch, for the slayings of Half and Susanne Zantop, said the family friend, who asked not to be identified but who has periodically spoken on the family's behalf.
Parker, 17, decided to cooperate with prosecutors after his legal attempt to be tried as a juvenile - he was 16 at the time of the murders - was rejected. Last month, a New Hampshire state judge ruled in favor of the office of Attorney General Philip T. McLaughlin that Parker should be tried as an adult, a legal source said.
Tulloch, now 18, is due to be tried on first-degree murder charges in April. On Friday, Tulloch's lawyers filed a legal document in Grafton County (N.H.) Superior Court informing Judge Peter Smith that Tulloch intends to claim that insanity caused him to take whatever actions he is found guilty of against the Zantops.
McLaughlin is expected to release a statement today outlining the stunning developments in the case against Parker.
Parker, who is currently being held in Belknap County Jail in Laconia, is likely to appear in Grafton County Superior Court later in the week to plead guilty to the charges.
Neither McLaughlin nor Kelly Ayotte, the lead prosecutor on the case, could be reached for comment last night. Phone calls to their office last night went unanswered. Parker's attorney, Cathy J. Green, also could not be reached.
If he were convicted of first-degree murder charges, Parker would face life in prison without parole. Had he been tried as a juvenile, the harshest sentence he could have received would have been to stay in prison until 21. Under the plea agreement, Parker would be eligible for parole in 16 years.
Parker's parents, Joan and John Parker, have been urging their son to cooperate with the investigators since the judge's decision that he should be tried as an adult for the Jan. 27 slayings, the family friend said.
The friend said Parker has spoken with New Hampshire authorities about his involvement in the murders, but the friend did not know how extensive those discussions had been, or whether Parker had provided investigators with a motive for the killings.
The friend said Tulloch is aware that Parker plans to plead guilty and testify against him.
Parker's parents are not aware of the details that their son provided to investigators, or what allegedly led him and Tulloch to attack the Zantops, the friend said.
Tulloch and Parker, both of Chelsea, Vt., were arrested and charged with the murders in February, three weeks after the Zantops were found stabbed to death in their home in Etna, N.H., a village not far from the Dartmouth campus in Hanover. In March, New Hampshire prosecutors made public much of the evidence tying the teenagers to the crime, including knives, bought by Parker and later recovered in Tulloch's bedroom, that were stained with blood matching the victims' DNA.
The Globe reported on Saturday that Parker had begun discussing a possible plea bargain with investigators after he was certified to stand trial as an adult.
New Hampshire criminal defense lawyers have said the implication of a decision by prosecutors to negotiate a deal with Parker is that he played a lesser role in the crime than Tulloch.
John Kacavas, a former assistant New Hampshire attorney general who now practices criminal law in Manchester, said that when trying accomplices, prosecutors always prefer to make a deal with the person whom they believe played a smaller role in the crime.
''The defense is going to be attacking the accomplice's credibility very hard, and as a prosecutor you always want to be able to show to the jury that you made a deal with the lesser of two evils,'' Kacavas said.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 12/3/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Parker to plead guilty in the murder of one Dartmouth professor
By Harry R. Weber, Associated Press, 12/3/2001 19:52
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The younger of the two teen-agers charged in the murders of two Dartmouth College professors will plead guilty in one of the deaths, the attorney general's office said Monday.
James Parker will plead guilty to an adult charge of accomplice to second-degree murder in the death of Susanne Zantop in the agreement, which must be approved by a judge.
A hearing on the plea is scheduled Friday in Grafton County Superior Court in Haverhill. Prosecutors say they will present the full agreement then, including a proposed sentence.
''We have reached an agreement with the state of New Hampshire which resolves the case against Jimmy,'' Parker lawyer Cathy Green said in a statement.
''Jimmy has made the decision to accept responsibility for his actions, and is hopeful that his plea will enable his family and that of the Zantops to begin the healing process. He is now 17, and will pay a very heavy price for his role in this tragedy.''
Parker and Robert Tulloch, 18, both of Chelsea, Vt., were charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of the Zantops in their Hanover home on Jan. 27.
The attorney general's statement made no reference to the charge involving Half Zantop. Tulloch remains charged in both deaths.
Tulloch's lawyer, Richard Guerriero, took Monday's development in stride.
''We welcome any admissible testimony that helps explain the tragedy,'' Guerriero said. ''The right way to resolve a case is by testimony in court rather than speculation on the front page.''
Parker had been charged as a juvenile, but prosecutors had been trying to have him certified as an adult. Adult conviction carries much more severe punishment.
The boys were 16 and 17 at the time of the murders. Juveniles are 16 and under.
An accomplice to second-degree murder charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison.
The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald said Monday a family friend told them the agreement included a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, and Parker would testify against Tulloch.
Tulloch's lawyers said in a court filing Friday he will use an insanity defense at his April 8 trial. He did not admit to the killings.
No motive for the crime or connection between the Zantops and the two youths has been given publicly. A law enforcement source has told The Associated Press the Zantops likely were killed during a burglary gone awry.
The news that Parker will plead guilty didn't seem to surprise many in the small, close-knit town of Chelsea, Vt.
But it left them with the same question that has been nagging since the boys were arrested at an Indiana truck stop in February: Why would two young people from a quiet Vermont town kill a pair of well-liked college professors at nearby Dartmouth College?
''It would be kind of nice, in one sense, when it's all said and done, if they come out and say why,'' said farmer Nick Gilman, who lives just outside the village of Chelsea.
Audrey McCollum, the Zantop's neighbor in Hanover, said she hopes the plea bargain provides answers.
''It could be useful only if it includes a full disclosure of motivation,'' she said. ''I think there's a widespread and intense need on peoples' part to understand why this happened.''
Prosecutors said they found fingerprints and footprints in the Zantops' home that link the teens to the murders. Two military-style knives stained with the victims' blood were found hidden in Tulloch's bedroom, according to court documents.
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