Former New Jersey rabbi convicted of hiring 2 men to kill his wife, dies in prison

TRENTON, N.J (TND) — A former New Jersey rabbi who was convicted of hiring two men to murder his wife died in prison, according to reports.

Fred Neulander passed away at a hospital Wednesday after experiencing a sudden medical emergency, NBC 10 Philadelphia reported. He was 82 years old.

The media outlet said correctional officers at New Jersey State Prison found him unresponsive inside an infirmary unit.

"After staff members administered CPR, Neulander was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m.," NBC 10 Philadelphia noted.

A cause of death was not immediately known, the media outlet noted.

Neulander was convicted in 2002 and later sentenced to 30 years in prison after he was found guilty of arranging a murder-for-hire plot in 1994. He paid two men $30,000 to murder his wife, 52-year-old Carol Neulander, at their Cherry Hill home.

"Make sure when I come home I find her dead," he told the killers, according to reports, noting that Leonard Jenoff and Paul Daniels bludgeoned Carol to death.

The couple was married 29 years at the time of her death. They shared three children, two of whom testified against their father.

One of the killers testified Neulander wanted his wife dead because he was having an affair with Elaine Soncini, a Philadelphia radio personality, who later converted to Judaism.

Neulander was the founding rabbi of the Congregation M'Kor Shalom Reform Temple.