'Never Say You've Seen It All': Judge Hands Down Sentences to Men Convicted of Abusing Their Adopted Sons

Content Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

OXFORD, Georgia — LGBTQ activists William Dale Zulock and Zachary Jacoby Zulock were sentenced last week to 100 years in prison each, followed by life on probation, for "routinely" raping their young, adopted, special-needs sons, producing "homemade" child pornography of the abuse, and inviting nearby pedophiles in the Atlanta area to "double penetrate" their two children, ages 9 and 10 at the time of rescue.

"I tell people never say you've seen it all. Because in this line of work, you will yet again be reminded of the depths of depravity and men's ability and willingness to engage in unspeakable cruelty to other humans," said Judge Jeffrey L. Foster, who handed down their punishments at Thursday's sentencing hearing.

Foster highlighted how the harm that they've inflicted has foisted negative national attention on gay men everywhere, "who fought to be married and to live happy, productive lives, stable, who would never—" the Alcovy Judicial Circuit judge said, before trailing off.

"And yet your actions have perpetuated every stereotype, every trope that causes fear. And you've damaged and contributed to the difficult struggle that others have fought for a long time to get, because you fulfilled the worst fears."

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Zachary Zulock (right), wearing a blue Walton County Jail jumper, sat beside his husband, William Zulock (left), who was donning an orange-and-white striped Barrow County Detention Center uniform at their sentencing hearing on December 19, 2024 | Townhall Media

"There are people out there that murmur about why people adopt kids," Foster, who's also an adoptive father, went on. "There must be some other reason. They want a state check," for example.

"Two gay men who will provide, take care, support, and nurture a young child is a much better environment than a group home and years and years of foster care. And yet, what damage have you done? What child will not be adopted because somebody won't step forward because they hear and see this? The ripples of what you have done go far beyond the immediacy of your life," Foster chastised the self-described "partners in crime."

He stressed that they victimized the "most vulnerable child[ren] coming out of trauma, thinking they've found a rescuer."

In 2018, when the boys were 4- and 6-years-old, William and Zachary, as newlyweds, adopted them through a local Christian special-needs adoption agency, the now-defunct All God's Children, Inc., after passing the "faster-than-expected" clearance process with "flying colors." The children, who are biological brothers, reportedly came from a broken home of heroin addicts.

Inside the judge's chambers on the official day of adoption | Zachary Zulock (Facebook)

"You took these boys and pulled them out of one pit and told somebody to hold your beer, 'Because I've got one that's deeper and worse.' You've treated these two boys as personal sex toys," Foster railed.

Though the jointly indicted co-defendants were convicted on slightly varying charges after being severed before trial, Foster decided that they were equally culpable and deserved the same sentence. "One initiated it. One joined in, honestly, because it just sounded like he was jealous. I don't know what is worse."

The judge pointed to an LGBTQ-themed "Love Is Love" sign that once adorned a corner of the couple's kitchen, where some of the sexual abuse took place. Foster said he noticed the married men's Pride-centered decor featured in a number of the child porn videos entered into evidence.

The couple decorated their place with Pride paraphernalia, including a "Love Is Love" neon sign on the kitchen countertop and a rainbow "Love Above All" pillow in the foyer | Zachary Zulock (Facebook)

"Love is not lust. Love is not control, abuse, manipulation. Love is not self-centeredness, caring only for your own's desires. Love is not pedophilia," Foster declared. "It is not a deviant sexual interest in prepubescent children. Unfortunately, that's what summarizes your home."

Under police interrogation, Zachary said William started the sexual abuse when he one day "had the urge."

When pressed on whether 10-year-old J.Z., who suffered severe physical injuries from being brutally raped, expressed any pain, Zachary said, "Unfortunately, it seemed like he wasn't bothered by it."

(In initial talks with detectives, the men acknowledged that the boys would cry out during the abuse, but they'd walk them through "how to handle the pain.")

"How did that strike you?" an investigator asked.

Instead of discussing J.Z.'s demeanor during the abuse, Zachary talked at length about how he felt finding out that William had initiated it without him, indicating he was more so upset with the fact that his husband left him out at first.

Zachary (left) and William (right) Zulock pictured together | Zachary Zulock (Instagram)

"And like I said, and then I was concerned that, you know, William had to do something and didn't tell me," Zachary complained. "I even asked him about it one night. I don't know if it was before or after oral. I was like, 'I thought you trusted me, and we could talk about anything.' And I was like, 'I wish you had—this is something you had told me about, let me know.'"

Zachary recounted having sex with William in front of J.Z. as a "tutorial" of sorts.

"So, you know, I just wanted to make sure he was okay. I would check and make sure, you know, he wasn't bleeding or anything. And at the end of the first time that William did [J.Z.] in front of me, William actually did me first in front of [J.Z.] so he could see."

Zachary then nonchalantly described how they began sexually abusing their second, younger son, D.Z.

"Well we have an extra mouth," Zachary once texted William. To which, William replied, "That is true."

At times, both boys were abused together:

Investigator: It was—?

Zachary: All four of us.

Investigator: All four of ya'll, okay. And the first time that you remember being present, what happened?

Zachary: They both gave us oral individually.

Investigator: Like [D.Z.] on, did it with—?

Zachary: One, and then switch.

William, meanwhile, suggested J.Z. wanted to be sexually abused and that the child had instigated it.

"I mean, he groped me. I didn't stop it [...] Like he grabbed my junk [...] I didn't want it to happen, but I went along with it," William told the detectives, recalling how he was "roughhousing" with J.Z. while wearing only underwear.

As the district attorney assessed in court, the convicted pedophiles claimed that they were "peer pressured into having sex with a 9- or 10-year-old little boy."

"They don't accept responsibility whatsoever. Over and over and over again, they blame the young boys for not stopping it or saying no," DA Randy McGinley said. "That is unbelievably telling."

During Zachary's psychosexual exam, which was supposed to furnish "mitigating" evidence (i.e. circumstantial factors that could've potentially diminished his perceived culpability), he gave a number of "self-serving" statements that hurt him rather than helped him, McGinley disclosed. "Their attitude towards how this affected the boys frankly also shows why a very severe sentence is appropriate in this case."

"Their own words show an utter lack of understanding of what they have done and the gravity of what they have done," the DA added.

In a victim impact statement, per prosecutors, J.Z. wanted to know "Why? Why was this done?" to him and his little brother.

McGinley argued that the adoption aspect contributes to the heinousness of this case's circumstances.

The Zulock "family" on vacation in 2019 | William Zulock (Instagram)

"Two young brothers believe that they are finally making it into a loving home. Little did they know that their dream would turn into a nightmare beyond what anyone could imagine. Instead of caring for, protecting, and loving these two young boys, Zachary and William Zulock used them for their own darkest desires [...] they treated them as objects of their lust, something to be used."

"There's no love in this household," McGinley said. "They're [the children were] there to please these two defendants."

The Evidence

Foster found the evidence "disturbing" "beyond description."

During the criminal proceedings, the defense attempted to challenge the charges via a special demurrer in a failed effort to toss out the 17-count indictment entirely. However, the move unwittingly sparked a forensic investigation into the men's 24/7 surveillance system that they had installed in the interior of their home. In response, the state threatened to re-indict the Zulocks on "hundreds" of additional counts, one for every act of abuse found in the footage, if the defense insisted on prosecutors pinpointing definitive dates of when exactly the crimes were committed.

Seven terabytes of data were extracted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) from the 16 security cameras positioned all over the premises, one practically in every room of the property, filming everything non-stop.

A TV transmitting a live feed from inside the Zulock house | Zachary Zulock (Facebook Messenger)

Since the DVR records over itself, the GBI's crime lab only forensically examined a snippet of footage between July 17, 2022, going back about 10 days, to July 26, 2022, the date of the device's seizure. Over the course of that week-and-a-half, the children were abused almost every day at all hours.

Of the most horrific instances of abuse, on July 18, 2022, William is seen forcing both boys to perform oral sex on him, sometimes simultaneously, in the morning and evening (Camera #10). William, who often only wore a robe—and nothing else underneath—while walking around the house, would prompt the children at will.

On July 26, 2022, mere hours before authorities arrested them, William and Zachary take turns raping J.Z. (Camera #4).

In addition to the overt acts of abuse, the tapes establish a pattern of grooming behavior, such as "a very strange level of comfort being naked" around each other, even while doing daily activities, the prosecution said. "These videos, which just show a snapshot of the abuse suffered over only 10 days, show how normalized this abuse had become in this house of horrors."

"It's astounding to the court how normalized constant sodomy of children became," Foster remarked.

"I don't know if I've seen a case where sexual abuse has become more normalized," McGinley said.

Previously, a "Gayest Place In Town" welcome mat was situated on the couch's front doorstep | Zachary Zulock (Facebook)

Citing two of the kitchen recordings, McGinley said that, in one segment, while William is making dinner, he orders one of the children to perform oral sex on him, then resumes nonchalantly stirring a pot of spaghetti on the stovetop as if nothing had happened. In the other excerpt, William is leaning against the kitchen island, scrolling on his phone, while he has both boys pleasure him. "Like this was just a normal day at the house," McGinley said in disbelief.

"It's clear that this abuse would have gone on and on and on," McGinley observed, if "Zachary Zulock wasn't dumb enough" to widely distribute photographic and video evidence documenting their crimes.

Sentencing

Both men were convicted on charges of aggravated anal and oral sodomy, aggravated child molestation resulting in serious injury of the child, incest, and sexual exploitation of children. Zachary additionally pled guilty to Counts 16 and 17: Pandering for Persons Under 18.

On August 20, 2024, William entered a guilty plea to all allegations, minus the child prostitution charges, which the state decided to drop against him because Zachary was the one soliciting local pedophiles off of the gay hook-up Grindr to gang rape their children.

On October 21, 2024, the eve of his long-awaited trial, Zachary partially pleaded out.

A brief bench trial was held to render a verdict on Counts 4 and 11: Incest, which Zachary argued he did not commit because the adopted boys were not biologically his. Following oral arguments, Foster found Zachary guilty of those two offenses. "Adopted children enjoy the rights and privileges of a biological child, including protection from incest," Foster ruled.

For a few of the other charges, including the child prostitution offenses, Zachary entered what's known as an "Alford plea," in which he still asserted his innocence while also acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt; it's neither a full admission of guilt nor innocence. This type of guilty plea allows the defendant to avoid trial without actually admitting to committing the crime.

If he had gone to trial on the entirety of the initial indictment, Zachary could've received as many as nine life sentences. William was lined up to testify against him under a limited immunity grant. Spousal privilege, which the defense unsuccessfully attempted to invoke, does not apply in Georgia child abuse cases.

Zachary Zulock's mugshot | Walton County Sheriff's Office

"I pray for the peace of God and his loving both of you, the true peace, not the world's peace, that you seek God in his heavenly kingdom," Zachary continued.

"Over time, if you do remember anything, I pray it's only of the good times, the large family of the people that love you both and the time spent with those people: the birthdays, holidays, and get-togethers."

He told the boys to "grow up to be strong men and enjoy your life to the fullness [sic] and never stop believing in a brighter future and humanity as a whole. I know if either of you decide to have children one day, you will be amazing parents."

Zachary, pivoting to address the judge, admitted to his so-called "guilt by association."

"For 34 years of my life, I tried to do what was right and live a good life. No criminal history, following the laws, no drugs or smoking, etcetera," Zachary pleaded. "Even in jail, I've had to say no to drugs, violence, and sexual advances."

In pre-trial detention, "I finally accepted Christ Jesus as my savior," Zachary said. There, he attended Bible studies, earned his "Bible certificates," and even had a fellow inmate baptize him.

"I'm a different person, a new creation," Zachary insisted, "a changed person" who will "strive to make a difference" in whatever God calls him to do. "God's mercy can convert these mistakes of my past into wisdom of my future."

"I ask the court to give me a second chance, to not give up on me, just like God never gave up on me when he should have over 30 years," Zachary implored. "Not to allow my worst mistake to define my future."

"I know that Christ is in me now," Zachary concluded. "And that I am enough. I know with God, there's always a way. And by faith, I will continue to find whatever he has in store for me."

At the end of Zachary's spiel, Winfrey added: "They always wanted to adopt children. And as you know, it takes a very special person who wants to adopt people. Good people adopt people. Unfortunately, there are times when good people do bad things. And that's what happened here."

Winfrey claimed that the couple's intentions at the outset of the adoption were not wicked. "That was not the plan. The plan was to give them a home, then things turned really, really bad."

Zachary's public defender suggested treatment as an alternative to incarceration, if not, then preferably a sentence of 25 years in prison, plus life on probation post-release.

"My client has given his life to the Lord," proclaimed Winfrey, who serves as general counsel for New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a black megachurch whose senior pastor has publicly spoken out against same-sex marriage and preached that "homosexuality is a sin." Winfrey, notably, also works at his wife's law firm, the Law Office of Earnelle P. Winfrey, a deputy district attorney in Fulton County DA Fani Willis's administration, specifically spearheading her Human Trafficking and Internet Child Exploitation Unit.

During rebuttal, McGinley quipped, "It's almost a joke in the criminal justice system that people find Jesus in jail."

Foster said he won't question or judge Zachary's religious journey to seek salvation in the afterlife.

"In this life," Foster countered, "justice will be served, these children will be vindicated, and all other children will be protected."

As for William's tactic, his private-hire defense attorney, John E. Haldi, emphasized that he's a first-time offender. "This is the first time he has ever been in trouble with the law. I don't think he's received a parking ticket to the best of my knowledge."

If prosecutors had their way, William would be "thrown in a hole, have a lid put on it, and let's just walk away and forget about him," Haldi said. "If they could, let's erase them in some Orwellian world from every registry and any record that ever existed."

"My client is a human being," Haldi maintained, urging the court to believe that William is "worthy of redemption."

William himself offered a few words as well. "If it does count for anything, I truly am sorry and will regret what happened, Your Honor," a monotone William said.

William Zulock's mugshot | Walton County Sheriff's Office

They're not sorry for what they did, McGinley said; they're sorry they got caught. "There is no valid reason for the court to consider rehabilitation of the defendants in this case," McGinley asked of Foster.

This was one of the most heinous child sex crimes the court has seen perpetrated in Walton County, the DA reflected. Accordingly, the recommended sentence is "at the extreme high end" of punishments that he has ever asked the court to impose over his prosecutorial career.

McGinley, mentioning he often deals with child abusers, called the Zulocks "the worst of the worst," "nothing short of monsters."

"I don't think you're a monster, but you're a narcissist," Foster told the Zulocks. "And you're deviant and predatory."

"Selfish people change what the definition of good and bad and right and wrong is to meet their own selfish needs, then they convince themselves and rationalize it to make it okay," Foster determined.

Foster took note of Zachary and William's respective phrasing, like referring to the years-long abuse as "a mistake" and saying that they're "sorry this happened."

"What you're sorry about is having been caught and the severity of the consequences," Foster agreed with McGinley, thereby granting the state's sentencing recommendation.

Due to the nature of their crimes, they will not be eligible for parole for the entire 100-year period in prison.

William was hoping to get out on the early end. According to conversations with family members, William was asking around about the whereabouts of his car, which the state seized along with the rest of the couple's assets.

William, previously a Prada-toting DMV employee, was not holding up well in Walton County Jail. The lactose-intolerant inmate refused to eat any of the dairy products offered in the detention center, and the lunch options weren't to his liking. ("I don't even know a dog would eat these bologna sandwiches. That's how low-grade the meat is," William, complaining about the facility's "decrepit" conditions, once fussed. "This place is a joke.")

While in lock-up, Zachary has been beaten up, threatened with sexual violence, and drugged by other detainees, according to what he told a relative over text on a jail-issued electronic tablet.

Since the start of the conspiracy case, Zachary tried to strike a plea deal with the district attorney's office, going to extreme lengths, such as secretly sending associates on the outside a handwritten "love" letter containing legal instructions and attempting to contact the DA directly out of increasing desperation. "I want an ankle monitor, and if required, a low bond," Zachary demanded of McGinley.

"This is great to hear his friends are helping us out," William said of his "hubby" via the inmate-messaging system.

Co-Conspirators

At least two clients connected to the Zulock pedophile ring were captured, charged, and convicted under negotiated pleas. As part of the plea agreements, co-conspirators Hunter Clay Lawless and Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez agreed to testify at trial against the Zulocks and fully cooperate with the prosecution.

Authorities were tipped off when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) sent a cyber tip based on Lawless uploading child pornography to the cloud under his Google account.

Hunter Lawless's mugshot next to Count 16 of the Zulock indictment | Walton County Sheriff's Office

Its contents showed Zachary abusing J.Z. in one of the bathrooms at home. A ball gag, a blindfold, and bindings were visible in the video, says the search warrant executed on his house.

Upon apprehension, Lawless snitched, telling detectives that Zachary, the cameraman and coordinator of the child prostitution operation, invited him over to his house several times to "double penetrate" J.Z.

They had met through a mutual Grindr contact, named "Blake," who had "turned [Lawless] on to the topic" of sexual attraction to children and "corrupted his mind to it." So, then Blake connected Lawless with Zachary, "somebody that he would be interested in getting to know," given their "shared interest" in child pornography.

Lawless said that Zachary would send him selfies of himself masturbating while stuck in traffic and instructive messages like, "I'm going to f**k my son tonight. Stand by."

With the help of Lawless acting as an informant, on July 26, 2022, a SWAT team raided the couple's residence in a midnight search-and-rescue mission, resulting in William being handcuffed in bed "butt naked" and Zachary tackled to the floor of their foyer, as the couple recounted in recorded tell-all jailhouse calls.

"I just need somebody who doesn't hate us!"

The accused child rapists cried on recorded jailhouse calls shared with Townhall. William described the armed raid when he was arrested in bed NAKED: "They were doing like a drug bust or something...overkill."pic.twitter.com/UwqmGO3sx0

— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) January 18, 2023

Authorities found a folder, labeled "Us," on Zachary's cellphone containing images of William sexually abusing J.Z.

Aside from Lawless, many men's names were written on multiple digital folders found on Zachary's phone. Zachary admitted to sending the child pornography to "maybe less than a dozen" others.

Law enforcement additionally located a second cellphone belonging to Zachary. On it, Zachary requested a separate Grindr user to send pictures of an 11-year-old boy. There were also messages instructing Zachary to "do something with your son" and subsequently send videos of the voyeuristic request acted out over Snapchat.

Then, the cellphone data led law enforcement to Vizcarro-Sanchez, whom Zachary also met on Grindr and had asked to engage in sex acts with him and his son. Vizcarro-Sanchez confessed that he "intended to do so" but the plan never came to fruition.

At the time of his arrest, Vizcarro-Sanchez was working at an Arby's, where he would film himself performing sexual acts in the fast food restaurant's kitchen.

Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez's mugshot next to Count 17 of the Zulock indictment | Walton County Sheriff's Office

On January 3 of this year, Vizcarro-Sanchez pled guilty to solicitation charges as well as numerous counts of computer theft for stealing from his employer, a Kroger grocery store location in Loganville. (He had taken around $2,780 worth of merchandise by overriding the cash register's code and zeroing out transactions to steal gift cards.) While working there, Vizcarro-Sanchez would follow children through the aisles and touch them in order to get sexual gratification. Overall, he was sentenced to a total of 60 years, with the first 15 years to be spent in prison and the balance on probation.

Lawless later pled guilty to sexual exploitation of children. He was sentenced on August 16, 2023, to 20 years, with the first 12 years in confinement and the rest on probation.

Beforehand, Lawless was out on bail in the child porn case, but arrested again in April 2023 for driving under the influence, failing to maintain lane, and obstruction of an officer. According to the arrest affidavit and incident report, when Lawless's car crashed, his twin brother, Trevor, tried to distract the arresting officer and directed Hunter not to hand over his driver's license. An intoxicated Trevor, who was taken into custody as well for obstruction and public drunkenness, called the cop a "n***er" and shouted other profanities in the middle of the roadway. On account of the child porn conviction, the prosecution decided to drop the DUI case against Hunter "in the interest of judicial economy."

Mugshots of Hunter Lawless (left) and his twin brother Trevor Lawless (right) | Walton County Sheriff's Office

This was not Zachary's first run-in with police. Prior to the adoption, Zachary was accused of raping another child, a 14-year-old boy who now goes by "she/her" pronouns. In 2011, Zachary allegedly lured the child over to his place in Walton County. However, the case was closed "without a whole lot of investigation into it" and charges were never pursued against Zachary, who went on to adopt two little boys years later.

Now, authorities are looking into the case, officials confirmed to Townhall. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Walton County Sheriff's Office told Townhall that the 2011 child rape case was "handled in a manner that is inconsistent with today's current investigatory standards," and detectives are "seeking any leads that may still yield charges."

Those allegations stemmed from a separate case in Fayette County involving the same 14-year-old victim and Nathan Donald Moore, a youth minister at Heritage Christian Church, whom Zachary admittedly dated back then. According to Winfrey's wording, the police report indicated that authorities believed Zachary was trying to "make the pastor jealous."

Moore is currently serving a 30-year sentence in state prison. "Nathan manipulated and convinced me that he could be my daddy and eventually my only way to God..." the victim said at Moore's sentencing hearing, according to the 2011 case file obtained by Townhall. "I feel incapable of ever receiving pure and healthy love again."

Nathan Donald Moore's mugshot | Georgia Department of Corrections

In the lead-up to trial, Zachary's 2011 case was admitted into evidence as an example of his pedophilic and predatory history. On Zachary's behalf, Winfrey tried to dispute that there were any similarities between the two cases, arguing that the 2011 one involved "a full-blown teenager" as opposed to a young child.

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