Judge keeps records sealed in Dartmouth
professors' slaying
MONTPELIER, Vt.
(February 26, 2001 2:42 p.m. EST ) - A judge refused Monday to open records that could help explain why two teenagers stand accused of killing two Dartmouth College professors last month.
The Associated Press, one of the news organizations seeking the records, planned to appeal immediately to the Vermont Supreme Court, AP lawyer Philip White said.
The sealed records include affidavits for search warrants and a request for physical evidence from the suspects, according to District Court Judge Patricia Zimmerman's decision.
"Piecemeal dissemination of information does not promote an understanding of the investigation and charges in this case; rather the opposite occurs, and has occurred, in this case," Zimmerman ruled.
Prosecutors say releasing documents could jeopardize their continuing investigation, and Zimmerman said the investigation is clearly ongoing.
James Parker, 16, and Robert Tulloch, 17, are accused of fatally stabbing Half and Susanne Zantop on Jan. 27 in their Hanover, N.H., home.
The teens - who live in the small town of Chelsea, about 25 miles from Dartmouth - were caught last week at an Indiana truck stop.
Authorities obtained 10 different search warrants in Vermont as they sought evidence against the two teenagers.
Authorities have said nothing about a possible motive and almost nothing about their evidence. A sheriff told the AP earlier that authorities sought out Parker and Tulloch because one had bought a military-style knife on the Internet. The sheriff also said fingerprint evidence linked one suspect to the scene.
Sources have told other news organizations that a knife sheath or sheaths at the scene bore one of Parker's fingerprints and that a boot print linked Tulloch to the home.
All the affidavits requesting the warrants, as well as inventories of items seized, were closed by Zimmerman and another Vermont judge at the request of prosecutors.
Meanwhile, in Haverhill, N.H., Parker was arraigned at a closed juvenile hearing Monday. Authorities treated him as an adult while he was on the lam, but he reverted to juvenile status after returning.
Prosecutors are trying to have him certified as an adult for trial. Defense lawyer Cathy Green said he should retain his juvenile status.
"I represent an overwhelmed adolescent who is now within the protection of the juvenile justice system of New Hampshire, which is where we think he should be," she said after the arraignment in Grafton County Superior Court.
Parker's parents, John and Joan, held hands as they walked into the courtroom. They avoided reporters.
Tulloch, an adult under New Hampshire law, will go before a judge Wednesday in Lebanon for a preliminary hearing on evidence. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as was Parker when he was being treated as an adult.
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