Nancy West

Eduardo Lopez Jr., center, is pictured with his attorneys Pamela Jones, left, and Paul Borchardt, right, at a recent hearing in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua. Lopez is seeking a new trial because prosecutors failed to tell his defense attorneys 22 years ago before his trial that John Seusing, then a Nashua police detective, had been disciplined a few years earlier for lying to his superiors. Lopez is also one of four men who will be re-sentenced as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday because he was 17 when he was sentenced to life without parole.

File photo

Robert Tulloch

Robert Dingman

Michael Soto

Eduardo Lopez Jr. and three other men who were imprisoned for life with no chance for parole years ago for murders they committed in New Hampshire as teenagers will now be re-sentenced as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday.

The court said in Montgomery v. Louisiana on Monday that its 2012 ruling that mandatory life without parole for juveniles constitutes cruel and unusual punishment applies retroactively.

That means the four men that could have have benefited from it are now to be re-sentenced even though their convictions happened years before the 2012 decision.

Eduardo Lopez Jr., Robert Tulloch, Robert Dingman and Michael Soto will now all be re-sentenced, according to Lopez’ attorney, Paul Borchardt of the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office.

“Each of them can still get life without parole, but they can all get lesser sentences as well,” Borchardt said Monday.

The four men were all 17 when they committed unrelated homicides. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that they should all be re-sentenced because of the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but it was unclear until Monday’s decision whether it was retroactive.

In a separate matter, Lopez was notified two years ago that he could seek a new trial because former Nashua police detective John Seusing – who later headed the department and has since retired – had testified against him without disclosing prior discipline for lying.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Jacalyn Colburn ruled against Lopez’s bid for a new trial in that matter saying Seusing’s testimony was “inconsequential in establishing Mr. Lopez’s guilt.”

Lopez recently filed a notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court in that case.

Lopez was convicted of shooting Robbie Goyette to death during a robbery in Nashua in 1991. Robert Tulloch was convicted in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop.

Robert Dingman was convicted of killing his parents in Rochester in 1996, and Michael Soto was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder for the Manchester slaying of Aaron Kar in 2007.

Last week, in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua, a status hearing was scheduled for March 14 to see if Montgomery v. Louisiana was decided, Borchardt said.

“I expect the court will turn that into a scheduling conference, set various disclosure deadlines and a date for the actual sentencing hearing,” Borchardt said.

He said it was unlikely that Lopez’ re-sentencing hearing would be held before the fall.

Chris Johnson, chief appellate defender for the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office, said the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledges two possibilities for prisoners covered by the ruling.

“The first is that the state could hold new sentencing hearings at which there is a choice between life without parole and some lesser sentence,” Johnson said. “The second is that the state could just concede that the prisoners are eligible for parole, and leave to the parole board the question of whether any of them actually should be paroled.”

Lyle Denniston summarized Monday’s decision on the SCOTUSBlog:

“No juvenile who commits murder or another serious crime can be sentenced to life without parole unless it is clear that the youth is doomed to a life of crime — that is, is so ‘corrupt’ as to lack any capacity for reform, the Supreme Court ruled by a six-to-three vote on Monday.

“The decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana, expanding on a major ruling four years ago, will also provide a chance for early release of a thousand or more inmates whose life sentences are now unconstitutional but were valid when imposed years earlier.”

Denniston went on to say that the ruling was mainly about  whether the court would apply retroactively its 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, “ declaring that life without parole should be an ‘uncommon,’ even ‘rare,’ sentence for an individual who was under the age of eighteen at the time of the crime.”

The court said in Montgomery v. Louisiana on Monday that its 2012 ruling that mandatory life without parole for juveniles constitutes cruel and unusual punishment applies retroactively.

That means the four men that could have have benefited from it are now to be re-sentenced even though their convictions happened years before the 2012 decision.

Eduardo Lopez Jr., Robert Tulloch, Robert Dingman and Michael Soto will now all be re-sentenced, according to Lopez’ attorney, Paul Borchardt of the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office.

“Each of them can still get life without parole, but they can all get lesser sentences as well,” Borchardt said Monday.

The four men were all 17 when they committed unrelated homicides. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that they should all be re-sentenced because of the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but it was unclear until Monday’s decision whether it was retroactive.

In a separate matter, Lopez was notified two years ago that he could seek a new trial because former Nashua police detective John Seusing – who later headed the department and has since retired – had testified against him without disclosing prior discipline for lying.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Jacalyn Colburn ruled against Lopez’s bid for a new trial in that matter saying Seusing’s testimony was “inconsequential in establishing Mr. Lopez’s guilt.”

Lopez recently filed a notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court in that case.

Lopez was convicted of shooting Robbie Goyette to death during a robbery in Nashua in 1991. Robert Tulloch was convicted in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop.

Robert Dingman was convicted of killing his parents in Rochester in 1996, and Michael Soto was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder for the Manchester slaying of Aaron Kar in 2007.

Last week, in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua, a status hearing was scheduled for March 14 to see if Montgomery v. Louisiana was decided, Borchardt said.

“I expect the court will turn that into a scheduling conference, set various disclosure deadlines and a date for the actual sentencing hearing,” Borchardt said.

He said it was unlikely that Lopez’ re-sentencing hearing would be held before the fall.

Lyle Denniston summarized Monday’s decision on the SCOTUSBlog:

“No juvenile who commits murder or another serious crime can be sentenced to life without parole unless it is clear that the youth is doomed to a life of crime — that is, is so ‘corrupt’ as to lack any capacity for reform, the Supreme Court ruled by a six-to-three vote on Monday.

“The decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana, expanding on a major ruling four years ago, will also provide a chance for early release of a thousand or more inmates whose life sentences are now unconstitutional but were valid when imposed years earlier.”

Denniston went on to say that the ruling was mainly about  whether the court would apply retroactively its 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, “ declaring that life without parole should be an ‘uncommon,’ even ‘rare,’ sentence for an individual who was under the age of eighteen at the time of the crime.”