A rabbi serving 30 years to life in his wife's contract killing has died, prison officials say
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey rabbi serving a decadeslong sentence in a 1994 murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife has died.
Fred Neulander, 82, was pronounced dead shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday at a hospital in Trenton after he was found unresponsive in his cell in the New Jersey State Prison infirmary, news outlets reported, citing the state department of corrections.
A cause of death wasn’t immediately released. Neulander was listed on the New Jersey corrections inmate locator Saturday as “deceased.”
Neulander — founding rabbi of the Congregation M’kor Shalom synagogue in Cherry Hill, which merged two years ago with nearby Temple Emanuel — was sentenced to 30 years to life in January 2003 after he was convicted by a jury of having hired two men to kill his wife. An earlier trial ended with a hung jury.
Carol Neulander, 52, a mother of three, was beaten to death in her Cherry Hill home in November 1994. Prosecutors alleged that the hit men received $30,000 for the kill and were told to make it look like a robbery that turned violent.