James Parker and Robert Tulloch planned to flee to Australia after robbing homes and killing all witnesses to their crimes, state prosecutors said in a motion released Monday.
Parker and Tulloch, who are accused in the Jan. 2001 murder of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop, conspired to enter private homes and "threaten the residents with violence" to obtain PIN numbers to ATM cards, according to the motion.
The papers stated that "the Zantop murders and the prior robbery-murder attempts were part of an overall scheme by the defendant and James Parker to raise $10,000 illegally, to eliminate witnesses and to travel to Australia."
In addition to this plan, the motion said that Parker and Tulloch discussed their plans "almost daily," "spent time watching the homes that were potential targets" for attacks and conducted Internet research to purchase weapons and plan their expected travels.
The newly released information in the court documents represents an attempt to consolidate a charge of conspiracy -- brought last month by the prosecution -- with existing murder charges.
Currently, there are four first-degree murder charges against Tulloch, all of which carry a mandatory life sentence without parole, plus the additional conspiracy charge, which carries a lesser penalty of 15 to 30 years imprisonment.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said that the prosecution is planning to consolidate the new charge with the murder charges "so that the jury will have the opportunity to consider all five charges within one trial."
A motion to consolidate the four murder indictments was granted by the Superior Court of New Hampshire in January.
All five charges will be heard at the same trial if the motion is approved, though Ayotte said that the jury will deliberate each charge separately.
The new information, which the motion says was provided by Parker, comes after last month's indictment that claimed the teens had randomly targeted four other homes in the six months prior to the Zantops' murder.
According to the February indictment, Parker and Tulloch attempted to enter four other houses with plans of obtaining PIN numbers from residents and murdering them.
Prior attempts -- first at a home in Vershire, Vt., in the summer of 2000 and later at homes in Rochester, Vt., and Etna, N.H. -- failed when the teens either found no one home or were turned away by residents.
The indictment said that the two succeeded in entering the Zantops' Etna home when they told Half Zantop that they were students conducting an environmental survey for school.
The court documents released Monday seek to have these prior attempts used as evidence in the case, calling them "probative of the intruder's state of mind, intent and motive just prior to the murders."
"This evidence is admissible and should not be treated as prior bad act evidence," the motion said. "Each robbery-murder attempt was a stage in the overall plan's execution."
Parker pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to the second-degree murder of Susanne Zantop in December. According to the court papers, he will testify on behalf of the prosecution during the upcoming trial.
Tulloch plans to use an insanity defense at the trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 22.
Richard Guerriero, a lawyer who represents Tulloch, declined to comment on the motion.
