Gee. couple convicted of sexual abuse of adopted children

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – A Walton County couple will spend the rest of their lives in prison without parole after being convicted of sexually abusing their two adopted children.

The Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, which oversees Walton and Newton counties, said William and Zachary Zulock were convicted of the following charges:

William Zulock: six counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of child sexual exploitation and other sex offenses.
Zachary Zulock: two counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of sodomy, three counts of child sexual exploitation, two counts of pleasuring a person under 18 and other sexual crimes.

William pleaded guilty to all the crimes in August. In October, Zachary pleaded guilty to all but one charge, of which he was found guilty after a bench trial, the district attorney said.

Both were sentenced by a judge last Thursday.

“It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to our society that there are individuals willing to adopt children in need. But anyone who does this and then abuses these children deserves extremely harsh consequences and decades in prison,” said Alcovy District Attorney Randy McGinley. “The sentence imposed not only properly punishes these defendants for their repeated selfish actions, but also sends a message to the public that such actions will never be taken lightly.”

William Zulock (left) and Zachary Zulock (right) pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to… — William Zulock (left) and Zachary Zulock (right) have pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to the abuse of their adopted sons, according to the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.(Alcovy Judicial Circuit)

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the case in July 2022, when the GBI’s Computer Crimes and Exploitation Unit contacted deputies about a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip was about suspected domestic child sexual abuse material that was uploaded to a Google account and linked to an IP address in Walton County.

Deputies searched the home associated with the IP address and found Hunter Lawless, who admitted to the crime and said he received the material from Zachary. Lawless pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation and was sentenced to 20 years, the first 12 to be served in prison.

Bumi was shot at least twice while chasing some teenagers. Bumi was wearing a vest but was hit…

Investigators then searched Zulock’s home, where they lived with two boys they adopted several years ago. During an interview, both men admitted to sexually abusing the children, prosecutors said.

Law enforcement officers reviewed two weeks of footage from the home’s interior surveillance cameras, which showed multiple acts of abuse in various parts of the home. Their cellphones also had graphic material and text and social media messages about the abuse, according to the DA’s office.

A cell phone analysis found that Zach sent messages to Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez about the abuse. Vizcarro-Sanchez pleaded guilty to paying for a person under 18. After also pleading guilty to stealing computers from his workplace, a Kroger in Loganville, he was sentenced to 16 years, with the first 15 to be served in prison.

“These two defendants have truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else,” McGinley said. “However, the depth of the defendants’ depravity, as deep as it gets, is no greater than the determination of those who fought for justice and the power of the victims in this case. The determination we have seen from these two young victims over the past two years is truly inspiring.”