On December 19, 2024, the sentencing hearing for Zachary and William Zulock was held before Judge Jeffrey L. Foster. Back on August 20, 2024, William Dale Zulock entered guilty pleas to the crimes listed below. Then on October 21, 2024, Zachary Jacoby Zulock entered guilty pleas to the crimes below except for the Incest charges. For those Counts, the Judge found him guilty after a brief bench trial on a purely legal issue. After those guilty pleas, the Court scheduled the sentencing hearing.
The Defendants were facing sentences for the following crimes:
William Zulock: 6 Counts of Aggravated Sodomy, 3 Counts of Aggravated Child Molestation, 2 Counts of Incest, and 2 Counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Zachary Zulock: 2 Counts of Aggravated Sodomy, 3 Counts of Aggravated Child Molestation, 2 Counts of Incest, 2 Counts of Sodomy, 3 Counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children, and 2 Counts of Pandering for a Person Under 18.
After hearing arguments from both the State and the defense, the Court essentially followed the State’s sentencing recommendation for both Defendants: 100 years in prison followed by life on probation. Because of the nature of the offenses, the Defendants will not be eligible for parole for the entire 100 years.
The case was prosecuted by District Attorney Randy McGinley, Senior Assistant District Attorney Lacey Majors, Victim Services Director Kim Kelly, Senior Legal Assistant Melanie Sims, as well as investigators Josh Chambers, Alicia Chandler, Eric Yarbrough, and Melindy White. The case was investigated by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the GBI, including their Cyber Crimes Center, Walton County DFCS, the Walton County District Attorney’s Office, and others.
On July 22, 2022, Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) was contacted by the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit regarding a “Cyber Tip” they had received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding suspected homemade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that had been uploaded to a Google account with an IP address in Walton County. After further investigation, WCSO investigators executed a search warrant at that address. They met with Hunter Lawless who admitted to receiving and viewing CSAM. Lawless stated that he had received the pictures and videos from “Zach Zulock.” Lawless later pleaded guilty to Sexual Exploitation of Children and was sentenced to 20 years with the first 12 years in prison and agreed to fully cooperate in any prosecution of the Zulocks.
This led investigators to obtain a search warrant for the Walton County residence where both Zachary and William Zulock lived with the victims. Investigators learned that the Zulocks had adopted two young boys a few years before the search warrant was executed. Both Defendants were interviewed that night. They both admitted to sexually abusing both boys over a period of time.
Numerous pieces of electronic evidence were seized and submitted to the GBI. Surveillance cameras from inside the house contained video of approximately 14 days before the DVR was seized. This digital analysis took significant time to go through by the experts with the GBI since it contained over 7 terabytes of video. A thorough analysis found videos of multiple incidents of the Defendants committing sexual abuse in different parts of the house. Cell phones were analyzed which contained graphic images and videos of the abuse as well as graphic text and social media messages about the sexual abuse.
The information obtained from the cell phones led to evidence of a Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez receiving messages from Zachary Zulock about sexual abuse of one of the victims. Vizcarro-Sanchez later pleaded guilty to Pandering for a Person Under 18. At the same time, he pleaded guilty to numerous counts of Computer Theft in which he was stealing from his employer, the Loganville Kroger. He was sentenced to a total of 60 years with the first 15 years in prison along with a requirement that he testify in any proceeding or trial of the Zulocks.
“I am grateful for the hard work of so many to obtain an appropriate outcome in this case. The hard work of law enforcement put an end to the abuse suffered by the victims and this resolution will help the victims continue their process of healing. William and Zachary Zulock will now spend 100 years in prison without parole. This all but guarantees that the victims will not have to worry as they grow older about their abusers being free.
It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for our society to have individuals willing to adopt children in need. But anyone who does so and then abuses those children deserves extremely harsh consequences and decades in prison. The sentence imposed not only appropriately punishes these Defendants for their repeated selfish actions but also sends the message to the public that such actions will never be taken lightly.
Those involved with the investigation and prosecution of this case will never forget what they had to see and hear in this case. These two Defendants truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else. However, the depth of the Defendants’ depravity, which is as deep as it gets, is not greater than the resolve of those that fought for justice and the strength of the victims in this case. The resolve I have seen from these two young victims over the last two years is truly inspiring.”
Randy McGinley
District Attorney
Alcovy Judicial Circuit