Rabbi convicted in plot to kill wife in 1994

FREEHOLD, N.J. -- A rabbi was convicted of murder Wednesday for hiring two men to beat his wife to death so he could carry on an affair with a woman he met while ministering to her dying husband. He could now face a death sentence.

The verdict against Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, 61, came nearly a year after his first trial for the 1994 slaying of Carol Neulander at their suburban Philadelphia home ended in a hung jury.

The rabbi stood expressionless as the verdict was read, while his wife's brother and sister wept in the courtroom gallery. Jurors took 27 hours to find Neulander guilty of capital murder, felony murder and murder conspiracy.

The sentencing phase of the trial begins today.

Neulander, a founder of Cherry Hill's large Congregation M'kor Shalom, took the stand last year to deny any role in the slaying.

He said he and his 52-year-old wife had an "open marriage" in which they agreed to see other people.

"I was selfish and arrogant. I went beyond the bounds of the marriage," Neulander testified then. "I betrayed Carol. I betrayed my family. I betrayed my synagogue. I betrayed my religion."

The rabbi did not testify this time.

Neulander's attorney, Michael Riley, said the defense wanted jurors to focus on the credibility of one of the confessed killers, an admitted liar. He said he would argue against the death penalty based on Neulander's age and his lack of a prior criminal record.

"He's a very courageous, strong man," Riley said of his client. "And I think you'll see that tomorrow."

Relatives of the victim and prosecutor James P. Lynch said they would not discuss the case until the rabbi is sentenced.

The Neulanders were pillars of the community in Cherry Hill, a wealthy suburb of 70,000 southeast of Philadelphia. They founded Congregation M'Kor Shalom together in 1974 and watched it grow to include nearly 1,000 families.

On Nov. 1, 1994, Carol Neulander was at home and her husband was at the synagogue sitting in on evening classes, something he had started doing just two weeks earlier.

The doorbell rang while she was talking to her daughter on the telephone, and Carol Neulander said she would call back. But within the hour, the rabbi arrived home to find his wife's body in a pool of blood, her head beaten in with a metal pipe.

Among the first on the scene was their son, Matthew Neulander, an emergency medical technician whose ambulance crew responded to the 911 call. He later testified that he was shocked by his father's lack of emotion.

In a police interview a few hours after the slaying, Neulander denied any knowledge of the killing and also said he never had an extramarital affair.

"Everything was kosher," Neulander said about his relationship with his wife.

Neulander later resigned as senior rabbi, citing unspecified moral indiscretions, and he was charged in 1998 with arranging the slaying.

The charges were upgraded to capital murder after private investigator Len Jenoff came forward two years ago and said he and his roommate killed Carol Neulander at the rabbi's asking for $30,000 and tried to make it look like a robbery.

Jenoff and his roommate, Paul Daniels, both pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and agreed to testify against Neulander. Both will be sentenced to 10- to- 30-year prison terms, likely early next year.

Jenoff was the prosecution's star witness, despite his credibility problems. Jurors also heard from Elaine Soncini, the former Philadelphia radio personality with whom the rabbi had a nearly two-year affair.

She said she met Neulander when it was suggested he preside at the funeral of her husband, Ken Garland, who died in December 1992. Soncini said that as she was paying Neulander for the funeral he asked if he could call her. He called her that night and the affair was on.

Soncini told jurors about poetry Neulander wrote for her, how he led her to convert to Judaism and about gifts she bought him. She also said the two had sex in his office at Congregation M'kor Shalom and how the rabbi called her up to 10 times a day.

Prosecutors said the rabbi snapped when Soncini said she wanted to break off their relationship. She also testified: "My increasing concern was that the man I loved had something to do with the murder of his wife and he was going to do it to me, too."