Leonard Jenoff Testifies

CAMDEN, N.J.: The man who went to authorities with a startling confession last year, saying he set up the Nov. 1, 1994 killing of Carol Neulander, began his testimony Thursday afternoon in the capital murder trial of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander.

Len Jenoff, 56, a former private investigator, said he was struggling with a host of personal problems when he met the rabbi in 1993.

Jenoff said he suffered from low self-esteem his entire life. He detailed how from the early 1970s he told people he was a former CIA agent and lied about his education, saying he had been graduated from Monmouth College, when in fact he dropped out after two year.

Wearing handcuffs and an orange Camden County Jail jumpsuit, he told jurors his problems mounted in the early 1990s _ his wife and teen-age son left him, he lost job after job and could no longer make mortgage payments on his Marlton home. After he went through a 30-day alcohol rehabilitation program, he said, he attended daily Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. He said people tried to help him, but one area of his life remained a problem. "I had a lot of serious issues with my religion," he said, "a lot of Jewish issues."

That, he said, led him in the fall of 1993 to Rabbi Neulander. Authorities said Neulander paid Jenoff to kill his wife a year after that.

Jenoff admitted shortly after his confession that he not only set up but also participated in the killing. He and another man, Paul M. Daniels, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter. Both are awaiting sentencing.

Until Jenoff told authorities on April 28, 2000, that he was involved in the slaying, it dramatically altered the case prosecutors were pursuing against Neulander.

They were within a few months of going to a murder trial. The revelation from Jenoff elevated the charges to capital murder.

Earlier Thursday, the Neulanders' son testified that the couple had the worst argument he'd ever witnessed two nights before Mrs. Neulander was killed.

Matthew Neulander, 28, a medical resident in Charlotte, N.C., testified Thursday that he was at his parents' Cherry Hill on Oct. 30, 1994, when they arrived back from an outing to North Jersey.

His mother told him his father was leaving, he recalled, and the couple immediately began arguing. Carol Neulander was passionate and upset, he said, while Fred was less emotional and quieter.

At one point, Matthew said, his mother asked his father a series of questions: did he want to save the marriage, did he want to seek counseling, did he want divorce?

When initially asked about that Thursday, Matthew Neulander said his father was unresponsive, but later Matthew said his father told Carol Neulander that he wanted a divorce.

Sometime later, Matthew testified, he was living in Somerset when he was subpoenaed by an investigative grand jury. He said he immediately called his father, who told him he had arranged a lawyer for him.

But Matthew Neulander said he wanted to hire his own lawyer.

He said he and his father then had the biggest argument they ever had. His father said that for him to hire a lawyer of his own would be "disloyal," Matthew recalled.

Fred Neulander said he would withdraw his financial support of his son, then in medical school, if he didn't agree to the lawyer the rabbi had arranged.

Matthew Neulander did hire his own lawyer. There was no testimony on whether the rabbi carried out his threat.

Prosecutors say Neulander, now 60, arranged for his wife's murder so he could carry on an affair with Elaine Soncini, a former Philadelphia radio personality.

Neulander's lawyer, Jeffrey Zucker, suggested to the jury that Matthew Neulander was still seething at his father about his infidelity.

"Once you found out about your dad, you never had the same thoughts about him that you had before?" Zucker asked.

Matthew Neulander replied: "Yes."

Neulander was not charged until 1998. He has pleaded innocent.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News