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Prison release set for killer of Rabbi Neulander's wife

CHERRY HILL The convicted hit man hired by Rabbi Fred Neulander to murder the rabbi's wife in one of New Jersey's most infamous crimes will leave prison on Valentine's Day.

Left: Len Jenoff sits in at the Camden County Justice Center in Camden, N.J., on Tuesday, May 2, 2000, during his arraignment for his involvement in the 1994 murder of Carol Neulander, wife of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, of Cherry Hill. (File Photo: Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer) Right: Len Jenoff talks to reporter Craig McCoy inside Bayside State Prison February 6, 2012. (File Photo: Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer)
Left: Len Jenoff sits in at the Camden County Justice Center in Camden, N.J., on Tuesday, May 2, 2000, during his arraignment for his involvement in the 1994 murder of Carol Neulander, wife of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, of Cherry Hill. (File Photo: Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer) Right: Len Jenoff talks to reporter Craig McCoy inside Bayside State Prison February 6, 2012. (File Photo: Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer)Read more
    by By Jonathan Lai and Alfred Lubrano, Inquirer Staff Writers
    Published 

CHERRY HILL The convicted hit man hired by Rabbi Fred Neulander to murder the rabbi's wife in one of New Jersey's most infamous crimes will leave prison on Valentine's Day.

Len Jenoff, who admitted bludgeoning Carol Neulander to death in 1994 in the Cherry Hill home she shared with her husband, will have served about 14 years of a 10- to 23-year sentence.

"Len Jenoff may be released from prison, but he should never be released from his guilt for what he did," Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said in a statement released Saturday.

It was not known where Jenoff would go or what he would do when he leaves Mid-State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown, Burlington County. His former attorney, Francis J. Hartman, could not be reached for comment Saturday night.

Jenoff, 68, formerly of Collingswood, testified that he and Paul Michael Daniels beat Carol Neulander to death with a lead pipe after Fred Neulander had promised to pay $30,000. She was 52.

Neulander is serving a life sentence in New Jersey State Prison after his conviction in 2002. An initial trial ended in a hung jury, and Jenoff wound up testifying twice.

Daniels, 40, formerly of Pennsauken, is to be set free in June 2015.

Jenoff and Daniels were sentenced to serve minimum terms of 10 years and maximum terms of 23 years each.

A person who answered the phone Saturday night at the Manhattan home of Benjamin Neulander, 38, the rabbi's youngest son, said that he declined to comment. Benjamin Neulander testified during the penalty phase of his father's capital murder trial, asking the jury to spare Fred Neulander's life.

Jenoff in 2009 swore in an affidavit that Neulander had nothing to do with the killing.

He later reversed himself. "I testified at two trials that Fred Neulander did hire me in fact to kill his wife and make it look like a robbery and that is, in fact, the truth," Jenoff said in a 2012 statement.

Neulander has maintained that Jenoff lied.

Neulander once led Cherry Hill's Congregation M'kor Shalom. Prosecutors said he hired Jenoff to kill Carol Neulander so he could marry a radio personality with whom he was having an affair.

Jenoff first confessed to killing Carol Neulander to Inquirer reporter Nancy Phillips in 1999.

Soon afterward, she arranged for him to meet with prosecutors. He repeated his confession to them, and then he was arrested.