A former Bergen County woman convicted of murdering her husband and dumping his dismembered body in the Passaic River in 1996 has been released from federal prison, authorities said.
Rita Gluzman, 72, formerly of Upper Saddle River, was released Tuesday from the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, prison records show.
She had been convicted in the murder of her estranged husband, Yakov Gluzman, who had filed for divorce and was living in an apartment in New York.
Gluzman recently suffered multiple strokes, has early Parkinson’s disease and trouble walking and moving around. A judge granted her a compassionate release, reported TV station WFAA.
WFAA reported Gluzman is staying at a Sheraton hotel in New Jersey and plans to move into a home in Hackensack.
Gluzman was arrested several days after the April 6, 1996, killing of Yakov Gluzman, who had been attacked with a hammer and an ax in his Westchester, New York, home. After a 16-day federal trial in White Plains, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, reported lohud.com.
Accused of crossing state lines to commit the domestic-violence murder, Gluzman became the first woman charged under the federal 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
Also convicted in the crime was Vladmir Zelenin, a distant relative whom later said Rita Gluzman blackmailed him into participating. Zelenin was released from prison in 2015, according to lohud.com.
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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.