CONCORD, N.H. — A man convicted for his role in the stabbing deaths of two Dartmouth College professors has been released from prison.
James Parker was 16 when he was convicted in 2001 deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire. He was granted early release in April.
Parker’s attorney, Cathy Green, said Friday that Parker has been released on a “no contact” order with the Zantop family. Parker pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder years ago and has served just less than the minimum of his sentence of 25 years to life.
Parker said at a hearing earlier this year that what he did was “horrible beyond belief” and that there is “no time or things I can do to change it, or alleviate the pain I have caused.”
More than 20 years ago, Parker and Robert Tulloch, then 17, wanted to move to Australia and hatched a plan to rob the Zantops of their credit cards and ATM details and kill them. Parker and Tulloch fatally stabbed the Zantops and fled with $340 and a list of numbers. They were arrested weeks later at a truck stop in Indiana.
Tulloch pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a mandatory life sentence without parole, but was later resentenced. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to sentence juvenile offenders to life in prison without parole.
Susanne Zantop, 55, and Half Zantop, 62, were German-born academics. Susanne was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department and Half taught earth sciences.
Veronika Zantop, one of the Zantops’ two daughters, said in an email to The Associated Press in April that she misses her parents and is “deeply saddened by all that she — and we — have missed.” She also said she wishes Parker “and his family the best and hopes they can heal.”