Online, woman & boyfriend charged in her dad's death had dark slant

IN "THE SOPRANOS," Dr. Jennifer Melfi often fantasized about Mafia life and about crossing the invisible line that separated the psychiatrist from sociopathic patients.

"The Sopranos," it turns out, was Christina Rubin's favorite television show, and the 22-year-old Abington Township woman also had a keen interest in the human mind.

Except that Rubin, who called herself "Mafia Princess" on her MySpace page, crossed that line when she paid her boyfriend to execute her father on Nov. 28 because he often yelled at her, authorities said.

Rubin, a graduate student in clinical psychology at Chestnut Hill College, and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Leinheiser, 20, face first-degree-murder charges in the shooting death of Marc David Rubin, 46.

A quote on her MySpace page may have provided a cryptic clue to how Christina Rubin was feeling after the murder:

to have seen what i saw was to see Evil. to hear what ive heard was to listen to the Devil. to have lived my life was to live in Sin. to achieve what i want is to be Forgiven

Christina Rubin, who worked at a sneaker store in Plymouth Meeting, wrote on her Facebook page that she is part black, German, Spanish and Sicilian.

She made it clear on her MySpace and Facebook pages that she was interested in all things Mafia, whether it be on television, in movies such as "Casino" or in books such as The Last of the Sicilians or The Don.

On MySpace, she lists her hometown as Palermo, in Sicily, and her hero as Scarface, the title character in a 1983 movie about a Cuban immigrant who takes over a drug empire.

Based on a probable-cause affidavit, it seems that Rubin and Leinheiser borrowed from both "The Sopranos" and "Scarface" when they tried to dispose of Marc Rubin's body.

According to the affidavit, Leinheiser shot Rubin once in the head, but tried and failed to fully dismember the man with a chainsaw. Although they originally had planned to dump his body into the Atlantic, Leinheiser and an accomplice rolled Marc Rubin up in a rug and left him in the New Jersey Pinelands, the affidavit states.

Rubin allegedly told police that she and Leinheiser later dumped a bloody mattress in Camden.

"It's a bizarre case," said Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele. "There are people who do evil things who do not have what you or I think are an appropriate reason for doing so."

Rubin last logged into her MySpace account on Jan. 7, three days before authorities brought her in for questioning. If Rubin was feeling guilt, it wasn't evident on her Facebook page in the first few weeks after the murder.

Two days after her father was shot, she updated her page to say she was "livin life to the fullest wit my hubby," a term she used for Leinheiser. On Christmas Eve, she wrote that she was "all alone."

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said that Rubin told others that her father had decided to relocate after being fired from his job.

Marc Rubin was a former admissions supervisor at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, and although he also is survived by a brother and mother, no one reported him missing, authorities said.

During the six weeks between the murder and her arrest, authorities say, Christina Rubin was busy draining her father's bank account by $500 a shot at ATMs, and establishing a life with Leinheiser and a roommate in the apartment where her father had been murdered.

On his Facebook page, Leinheiser said he "moved outttttttttttttttt" on Dec. 12, just a few days after he and an accomplice allegedly dumped Marc Rubin on a dirt road in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County.

Leinheiser's Facebook and MySpace pages indicate no fascination with the mob. Instead, the pages seem to include an honest portrayal of past problems.

Leinheiser, who called himself "Christina's Prince," wrote that he often had found himself in North Philly in the past, "sellin everything ive been givin, or anything i could get my hands on for crack."

But he claimed to have turned a new leaf through a renewed faith in Jesus.

Authorities arrested Leinheiser on an unrelated incident in Cheltenham after the murder and eventually, his fingerprints hit a match with those found on trash bags used to dispose of Marc Rubin.

Leinheiser's father, Bob Leinheiser, said that the family was too distraught to talk with a reporter yesterday.

"We love the sinner, not the sin," he said.