Neulander Found Guilty

Rabbi Fred Neulander was found guilty of capital and felony murder and of conspiracy Wednesday in the 1994 death of his wife, Carol Neulander.

The former leader of the M'kor Shalom congregation in Cherry Hill, N.J., could get the death penalty.

The second time seemed to be the charm for the prosecution. After 27 hours of deliberation, the jury came back with a guilty verdict on all charges.

While Neulander showed almost no emotion during the reading of the verdicts, the courtroom was emotionally charged. The family of Carol Neulander broke down and cried and some of the jury members were crying. Family members hugged prosecutor Jim Lynch in relief.

The jurors couldn't talk about the decision because there will be a penalty phase. The jury said that they did want a penalty phase to determine whether Neulander will receive the death penalty for conspiring to kill his wife.

The same jury who found Neulander guilty will be back in court for a mini-trial to decide on his punishment.

The chain of events that led to the murder of Carol Neulander started when her husband had a two-year affair with Elaine Soncini, a radio personality. Soncini lost her husband and met Neulander when he came to minister to her husband when he was in the hospital.

After the death of Soncini's husband, she and Neulander started an affair, Soncini said during testimony.

According to court testimony, Neulander told Soncini that they would be together and he gave a date -- by November or December.

On Nov. 1, Carol Neulander was killed in her home. According to the prosecution, Len Jenoff who did the killing and Neulander paid him $30,000 for the job.

According to Jenoff, Neulander never quite came through with all the money, but he followed through on his part of the bargain. His accomplice, Paul Daniels, was alcoholic, drug-addicted and manic-depressive, it was revealed in court testimony.

The defense decided to not put Neulander on the stand during the retrial, leading many courtwatchers to wonder if that made a difference in the verdict.

Unlike the first trial, Neulander did not testify in his retrial. Defense lawyer Mike Riley told NBC 10 that he and Neulander looked at the court videotapes and read the court testimony and decided that Neulander did not come across as sympathetic, so they decided that Neulander should not testify.

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Author: Copyright 2002 by NBC 10. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.