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CONCORD - A motion to resentence for a second time a Rochester man found guilty of killing his parents was heard on Thursday before New Hampshire's Supreme Court, which will take the motion under advisement.
Robert Dingman, who was found guilty along with his younger brother of killing his parents in 1996, is seeking another resentencing after a 2018 resentencing that would allow him parole at the age of 57.
Vance and Eve Dingman were killed when the then 17-year-old Dingman, along with his younger brother Jeffrey, who was 14, took turns fatally shooting and taunting them inside their Rochester home on Old Dover Road on Feb. 6, 1996. The motive was frustration over their parents' disciplinary style, which they thought too strict.
Under the 2018 resentencing order by Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau, Robert Dingman was to serve 20 years to life for each murder, which would have meant a potential release in 2035.
Dingman got his first crack at resentencing due to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment for juvenile offenders.
When Dingman killed his parents in February 1996 he was 17 and considered an adult, which is why he was able to get life without parole. But since 1996, New Hampshire law shifted the age of adulthood to 18, paving the way for the resentencing in 2018 and a potential resentencing this year.
During his two-day resentencing hearing in 2018 Dingman took the stand in his own behalf telling the court that his conscious decision making hadn't fully formed when he was 17 and committed the vicious murders.
During the 1997 trial Jeffrey Dingman said his older brother instigated the killings, which they carried out using their father's .22 caliber handgun.
Jeffrey Dingman has been out on parole since March 2014.
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