N.J. Killer Paroled After 38 Years

A man convicted of killing two police officers in 1963 has been released from a halfway house and is on parole after more than 38 years in custody.

Thomas Trantino, who turned 64 on Monday, had been the state’s longest-serving inmate. He spent most of his adult life in prison.

His case inspired the state Legislature to pass two laws attempting to ensure that no police killer would ever be paroled.

Trantino had been rejected for parole nine times. But a year ago, the state Supreme Court said the parole board lacked proof that he posed a threat to society and sent him to a halfway house for a year.

The Department of Corrections confirmed that he had been released late Sunday or early Monday.

“A couple of hours one way or the other don’t matter,” said Jerry Voto Sr., the son of Peter Voto, one of Trantino’s victims. “The point is, he’s out.”

Trantino’s lawyer, Roger A. Lowenstein, said Trantino had a job lined up and would most likely move to another halfway house in Camden.

“It’s really a nonevent,” Lowenstein said of the release. “He’s probably going to move from one halfway house to another.”

Trantino was sentenced to death for fatally shooting the officers in Lodi, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after the state’s death penalty law was deemed unconstitutional.

The two officers--Voto, 40, and Gary Tedesco, 22--were shot in August 1963 after they responded to a disturbance call at a bar where the men had been drinking. Voto was beaten and shot in the head. Tedesco, who had been forced to strip to his underwear, was shot in the stomach.

Trantino surrendered the same night; his accomplice was shot to death two days later by police trying to arrest him.