'He told him to shoot him again, and he did'

Defense counsel Meredith Lugo huddles with her client, Robert Dingman, during Monday's resentencing hearing. (Rochester Voice photos)

DOVER - The resentencing of a Rochester man serving life for killing his parents in 1996 continues today at 9 a.m. in Strafford County Superior Court.

Robert Dingman, 39, is seeking to have his sentence reduced and is getting his shot due to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment for juvenile offenders.

When Dingman, at age 17, killed his parents in February 1996, he was considered an adult, which is why he was able to get life without parole, but since 1996, New Hampshire law shifted adulthood to 18.

Antoinette Kavanaugh, a forensic psychologist, testifies during Monday's hearing.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin is pressing for two 25-to-life sentences, which would allow Dingman a chance for parole at age 65. Dingman's defense is seeking a chance for parole after his serving 25 years, which could grant him freedom in 2022.

Overseeing the resentencing is Judge Tina L. Nadeau, who has wide discretion in sentencing parameters.

Much of the aggravating or mitigating factors impacting Dingman's chance at release depend on how the court views his psychological state of mind as he and his younger brother, Jeffrey Dingman, who was just 14 at the time, planned and executed the violent deaths of their mother and father.

To that end, Strelzin noted in his opening statements that Robert Dingman was the mastermind of the plot to kill Vance and Eve Dingman on a Friday night in February. He argued that Jeffrey was much younger, a follower of his older brother and easily manipulated.

During the 1997 trial Jeffrey Dingman said his older brother instigated the killings, which they carried out using their father's .22 caliber handgun.

Testimony revealed the two teens took turns fatally shooting and taunting their mother and father inside their Dover Road home on Feb. 6, 1996.

Strelzin recalled on Monday how the two boys shot their father, Vance, with Robert Dingman telling Jeffrey to "turn up the music" just prior to their dad getting home so no one would hear the shots.

After Jeffrey shot him once, "he (Robert) told him to shoot him again and he did," Strelzin said.

Moments later Eve Dingman returned home and asked her boys why the music was so loud before being shot and killed, herself.

Afterward the two teenagers stuffed their parents' dead bodies into garbage bags, putting their father's corpse in the attic, their mother's in the basement.

Later that night Jeffrey Dingman is said to have gone out to play basketball with friends, while his older brother visited his girlfriend.

When Vance and Eve Dingman, both 40, didn't report to work the following Monday, co-workers alerted police, who went to Robert and Jeffrey's schools to find out what they knew.

Robert told police his parents had gone on a "impromptu vacation" and was very polished and convincing in his story, Strelzin said, however, when police pressed Jeffrey, he at one point blurted out, "Well, what did my brother say?"

Police eventually went to the Dingman home where they found the bodies.

Strelzin argued that Robert was the mastermind behind the killings and had openly told people, including his girlfriend, that he wanted to kill his parents and specifically, "wanted to shoot them." Strelzin also reminded the court that Robert Dingman wiped down their dad's .22 caliber handgun they'd used in the killings and told his younger brother they had to go to school that following Monday so as not to arouse suspicion.

Also testifying on Monday was Antoinette Kavanaugh, a forensic psychologist from Chicago, who was there to testify that Robert saw his parents as abusive.

Jeffrey Dingman has been out on parole since March 2014.

The resentencing is expected to conclude later this week.