Fred Neulander

Overview

Fred Neulander was a rabbi who was convicted of arranging his wife’s murder. He was sentenced to serve 30 years to life in prison.

Timeline

• November 1, 1994 — Carol Neulander was bludgeoned to death in her Cherry Hill, N.J., home with “a one-foot section of lead pipe.”
• May 1, 2000 — Len Jenoff told police that Fred Neulander paid him to kill Carol Neulander.
• November 22, 2002 — A jury found Fred Neulander guilty of murder, felony murder and second-degree conspiracy for hiring a hit man to carry out the murder of his wife.
• January 15, 2003 — Fred Neulander was sentenced to serve 30 years to life in prison.
• January 16, 2003 — Fred Neulander was sentenced to life in prison.
• December 2006 — The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Courts denied Fred Neulander’s appeal.

The offence

Carol Neulander was bludgeoned to death in her Cherry Hill, N.J., home after returning home from her work as a bakery manager. She was killed with a one-foot section of lead pipe.

On the night of the killing, Fred Neulander arrived home from his synagogue, M’Kor Shalom, to find his wife “sprawled on the couple’s parlor floor,” covered in blood. He ran from the room and called 911.

At sentencing, Judge Linda Baxter described the killing as a planned and contracted murder.

Investigation

Investigators at first had few leads in the slaying of Carol Neulander. Suspicion turned to Fred Neulander after he was caught lying about a two-year affair he was having with Elaine Soncini, a Philadelphia radio personality.

The case developed through the actions of Len Jenoff, a private investigator being paid by Fred Neulander to investigate Carol’s murder. Investigators later tied Jenoff’s account to the idea that Fred Neulander had paid for the killing.

The case was described as involving a “Deadly Mix: A Rabbi, a Mistress and a Hit Man.”

Lead pipe and missing evidence

The initial press coverage described no sign of forced entry and no murder weapon found. It reported that there were signs of a struggle and that authorities wanted to contact Daniel and Frank Spanolia.

It also reported that authorities suspected robbery as a possible motive, and that there was interest in receipts and what may have been taken.

Arrest

Fred Neulander was indicted in 1998 for murder. He was later reindicted and the charges were amended to reflect the identities of the conspirators after Jenoff confessed.

Trial

Fred Neulander was tried before Judge Linda G. Baxter.

First trial

The first trial resulted in a hung jury. It had been empaneled in Camden County. Area newspapers reported rumours that the panel hung 9-3 in favor of guilt.

Retrial

The retrial was moved from Camden to Freehold, in Monmouth County, because of intense publicity in Philadelphia and the large New Jersey suburb of Cherry Hill.

At the retrial, Fred Neulander was defended by Mt. Holly attorney Mike Riley. Following the verdict, Assistant Prosecutor Jim Lynch submitted to the jury on the question of the death penalty.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on counts including murder, felony murder and second-degree conspiracy.

Guilty verdict and jury details

• The jury of seven men and five women pronounced Fred Neulander guilty.
• After an earlier jury deadlocked, the case was retried.
• After the verdict in the penalty phase proceedings, the jury declined to unanimously impose death.

Defence arguments

The defense attacked the testimony of prosecution witnesses and alleged that many of the 25 people who took the stand had motives for testifying and were manipulated by police. Riley argued that Soncini only began cooperating after being told she was not his only girlfriend.

The defence also argued that Myron “Peppy” Levin did not tell police about incriminating statements attributed to Neulander until after Levin was informed that Neulander had sold him an inferior Torah.

Neulander denied wrongdoing and told police he was not seeing anyone else and that his last conversation with his wife was a telephone call that afternoon in which he told her, “I love you.”

Key witness testimony and evidence described

Matthew Neulander testified that he heard his parents fight two nights before Carol was killed and that his father told his mother their marriage was “over.”

The defence and prosecution both discussed the “bathroom man” concept. During the retrial, Fred Neulander’s adult daughter Rebecca testified to the timing of her mother’s phone call as she arrived home from the bakery minutes before she was killed.

Jurors were said to have rejected the defence theory and the inmates’ testimony claiming Jenoff bragged that the murder was a “robbery gone bad” and that Neulander was not involved.

Sentencing

After the guilty verdict, the penalty phase did not produce a unanimous decision. The jury declined to impose the death penalty.

Fred Neulander was sentenced to serve 30 years to life in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Judge Linda Baxter imposed the sentence after listening to impact statements and remarks in court.

Impact statements and courtroom remarks (verbatim)

Fred Neulander told the court:

“You have no idea how much rage I have.”

At sentencing allocution, Judge Baxter ruled on what he was permitted to say.

“Starting today, there is another sense of the days of the years of my life that will unfold. I do not know where I will be, quite obviously. But where ever I will be there will be men who cannot read. The legacy of illiteracy is striking, and very sad, and very lyrical. I would hope that where ever I am, I will be able to teach young men to read.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “if you give me this privilege to redeem, to atone, what will happen is that the days of the years of your life will indeed be made more rich because you have given me the privilege, in the days of the years of my life, to reach out and change for the better the days of the years of the lives of so many men I have yet to meet. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, gentlemen.”

Judge Linda Baxter told Neulander:

“I see the need to release rage and anger here today,”

Judge Baxter also said:

“She had the right to live out each and every day that was allotted to her. She had the right to grow old and you took that right away from her. You decided how long she would live and when she died. You planned and plotted and premeditated the murder over six months.”

Carol Neulander’s brother Edward Lidz said:

“Before you had Carol killed in the most brutal manner imaginable, and during the ensuing eight years, you acted in a manner so repulsive that words cannot begin to describe the type of person that you became,”
“You are a murderer. You are a liar, a coward and a cheat. You dishonored Carol, yourself, your children, this court, your congregation, the rabbinate and Judaism.”

Carol Neulander’s brother Robert Lidz referred to Neulander’s “single act of malignant arrogance” and said he asked Baxter:

“sentence him to anonymity so that he could suffer his narcissism in silence.”

Statement attributed to prosecutor

Prosecutor James Lynch told the jury:

“This is serious, serious business,”

and:

“ The defendant procured the murder of Carol Neulander by payment of money.”

Appeals

In December 2006, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Courts denied Fred Neulander’s appeal.

His appellate counsel argued that the trial court erred in not permitting Neulander to argue a third party liability defense based on a similar home invasion burglary murder that had occurred in Cherry Hill.

The appeal also challenged the trial court’s handling of double or triple layer “hearsay” evidence, specifically an out-of-court statement by Carol Neulander as elicited by her daughter about the telephone conversation involving the “bathroom man.”

Other details

Persons

• Fred Neulander (born August 14, 1941) — defendant and rabbi.
• Carol Neulander (52) — victim; wife of Fred Neulander.
• Elaine Soncini — former Philadelphia area radio personality; mistress mentioned in connection with motive and testimony.
• Len Jenoff — private investigator; confessed and testified; incarcerated in Riverfront State Prison in Camden, New Jersey.
• Paul Daniels — accomplice; sentenced similarly and held in a separate facility.
• Rebecca Neulander-Rockoff — adult daughter; testified about a cellphone conversation.
• Matthew Neulander (29) — adult son; physician in North Carolina; testified about a heated exchange and his father’s “No, it’s over” statement.
• Myron “Peppy” Levin — racquetball partner; described in defense arguments about delayed cooperation.
• Dennis Wixted and Jeffrey Zucker — first defense team members mentioned.
• Michael Riley — rabbi’s lawyer at the retrial; also referenced as defense counsel.
• James Lynch — prosecutor referenced in multiple stages of the case.
• Lee Solomon — Camden County prosecutor referenced in connection with Jenoff’s second account of the killing.
• Judge Linda G. Baxter — presiding judge at both trials and sentencing.

Places

• Cherry Hill, N.J. — location of the murder in Carol Neulander’s home and related events.
• M’Kor Shalom — synagogue of Fred Neulander.
• Freehold, Monmouth County, N.J. — retrial location.
• Camden County, N.J. — first trial and related proceedings.
• Trenton — New Jersey State Prison location named for incarceration and sentencing context.
• Riverfront State Prison, Camden, New Jersey — Jenoff’s incarceration.
• East Jersey State Prison in Trenton — location stated in later narrative about where Neulander resided.

Congregation and background

Fred Neulander was described as the founding Rabbi of the Congregation M’Kor Shalom Reform Temple in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which opened in the summer of 1974. Previously, he was assistant Rabbi at Temple Emanuel, also in Cherry Hill. He graduated from Trinity College in 1963.

He was also described as resigning as a rabbi from Congregation M’Kor Shalom in 1995.

Charges and verdicts

Fred Neulander was convicted on charges including:

• murder (first-degree murder referenced in descriptions),
• felony murder,
• second-degree conspiracy.

Death penalty proceedings

During the penalty phase, jurors declined to apply the death penalty, leaving the judge to sentence him to 30 years to life.

Co-defendants’ outcomes

Len Jenoff and Paul Daniels pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and were sentenced to prison terms. Len Jenoff was sentenced to 23 years, and Paul Daniels was sentenced to 23 years, with details also described about their potential maximum exposure and eligibility for parole.

911 call and emergency response

The initial coverage reported that Fred Neulander’s emergency call was recorded at 9:20 p.m. and that Cherry Hill police arrived at 9:22 p.m.

Autopsy and injuries

The initial coverage reported that the autopsy concluded she died from “multiple incidents of blunt trauma to the head.” It also stated authorities would not disclose the number of blows.