CAMDEN, N.J. (Court TV) — Arrogance and lust for an attractive radio host led a former rabbi of one of New Jersey's largest Jewish synagogues to plot the slaying of his own wife, a prosecutor charged Monday as the trial for the rabbi opened outside Philadelphia.

"This is a man who fell victim to his own needs," Camden County, N.J., First Assistant Prosecutor James Lynch said during opening statements. "This is a man overwhelmed by lust, greed, arrogance, and betrayal. And as a result of those qualities and those characteristics, he ordered the murder of his wife. He planned it, he plotted, it he paid money to have it carried out."

Fred Neulander, 60, co-founder of Congregation M'Kor Shalom, is accused of paying two men, Len Jenoff and Paul Daniels, $30,000 to murder his wife in order to continue an affair with Elaine Soncini, a popular Philadelphia radio personality.

But while he may have failed his family and his faith, Jeffrey Zucker, a lawyer defending the rabbi, says his client was not capable of involvement in his wife's murder.

"There's no question that Fred Neulander carried on an affair with a woman outside of his marriage," Zucker told the jury. "But it's one giant step from adultery to murder. [The rabbi] will put his hand on this Bible... and he will clearly tell you that he would not, could not, and that he did not have one thing to do with the horrible murder of his wife."

The Slaying: Burglary Gone Bad?

On November 1, 1994, the rabbi returned home from his work teaching a religion class at the Cherry Hill synagogue to find the body of his wife, Carol Neulander, 50, left bludgeoned and bloodied on the living room floor. The Neulander's white-hued living area was spattered with blood, but otherwise the room remained in order. Carol Neulander was still wearing all of her jewelry — including her wedding ring.

But police later discovered that Neulander's purse was missing, suggesting at first the crime had been a robbery gone wrong. The story was to get much more complicated, however, as controversy began to swirl around Neulander. The rabbi was considered a suspect but was not arrested for his connection in the murder until four years later, after he resigned from his congregation and was stripped of his rabbinical post by Jewish leaders.

The big break in the case came six years after the murder, when Jenoff, a private investigator Neulander had hired to investigate, confessed to police that he and Daniels had carried it out on the rabbi's behalf.

Prosecutors claim Neulander hired Jenoff, a M'Kor Shalom member whom he counseled for an alcoholism problem, to murder his wife in the family's home and to make it look like a robbery. Jenoff is expected to testify as the state's key witness later in the week.

His attorneys say, however, that while the rabbi may not have lived his life as his faith dictated, he hardly had the capacity to murder — or to order the murder of — his wife. They claim that Jenoff is an unreliable alcoholic who lives his life on the boundary between fact and reality.

The 911 Call

On the state's first day of testimony, Sergeant Detective Kenneth Johnson, who responded to the scene as a crime photographer, gave Lynch, the assistant prosecutor, an opportunity to play the 911 recording of Neulander's emergency call.

"I just came home. My wife is on the floor and there's blood all over," Neulander can be heard gasping on the 911 tape. "There's blood all over."

Relatives of the victim sat clutching each other in the back of the courtroom as Neulander repeated that refrain throughout the tape. "There's blood all over the place. There's blood all over. What do you want me to do?"

Neulander also implored the 911 operator to prevent his son, who worked as a volunteer emergency medical technician, from arriving on the scene.

Many jurors furrowed their brows as the tape ended, glancing sidelong at the defendant to gauge his reaction to the poignant tape.

In his opening statement, Lynch explained to the jury that, in the tape, "You're going to hear clutches in his voice, hesitations, moaning, groaning, 'Oh God.' You're going to hear what sounds like, to all the world, genuine emotion... but [the evidence] will lead you to believe that this was phony, play acting emotion by the defendant."

Zucker, too, addressed the 911 tape in his opening statement. "You're either going to conclude that it's an Academy Award performance, or the horror and terror of a man who has come home to find his wife beaten and bloody on the floor."

First Impressions: Patrolman Testifies

Richard Bumbera, who responded to the crime scene as a patrolman with the Cherry Hill police testified that Neulander did not appear to have been crying when he arrived. "My initial reaction was I thought he was disgusted," Bumbera said. The officer also said that items in the house remained in place and the living room did not show signs of a struggle, which would have supported the idea that the crime was a robbery gone awry.

Assisting defense lawyer, Dennis Wixted, countered by asking how Bombera could have gauged the rabbi's reaction to the murder. "Your conclusion that he was disgusted was based on how you thought he should be acting," Wixted asserted.

"It was just a general observation that I made, sir," Bombera replied. "From his reaction, from the tone of his voice, something in the back of my head told me that he was disgusted."

In openings, Lynch used the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to introduce his case, emphasizing that everyone— no matter their race or faith —should be held to the letter of the law. "An awful lot has changed since August 20 up to today," he said. "But our judicial system and system of justice is solid. It's built on principles. Recognizing human rights. Recognizing the freedom of the individual."

With a nod to the success that Neulander had with his congregation and family life, Lynch attempted to demonstrate why Neulander could have wanted his wife dead. "He had everything a man could want, but it was not enough for this man," Lynch said. "It was not enough for this man."

The prosecutor then focused on Soncini, the Philadelphia morning radio jockey whom Neulander had counseled during her husband's death. "Within two weeks after the death of her husband, a sexual relationship had developed already," Lynch said. With time, the prosecutor continued, "the relationship... blossomed, became stronger and deeper."

Neulander's primary motive for ordering the murder of his wife, was his connection with Soncini, who asked him to divorce his wife as their illicit affair progressed, the prosecutor said. Neulander declined to seek a divorce, but reportedly told Soncini that "things will change" before the radio personality's birthday came in 1994.

Neulander's solution, said Lynch, was to hire Jenoff to kill his wife, disguising the killing as a burglary. Carol Neulander managed a successful baking business and regularly returned home with between $5,000 and $20,000 in cash.

"This was no burglary, ladies and gentlemen," Lynch said. "Mrs. Neulander opened her door to her killers, turned her back to her killers. A series of blows rained down upon her head. They came to kill and they carried out their purpose."

Throughout the state's opening statement, Neulander looked on with a blank stare, a pair of black, wire-rimmed glasses framing his steel-wool hair and pale complexion.

Defense attorney, Jeffrey Zucker, claimed his client simply wasn't capable of ordering his wife's murder. "It's one thing to stray outside your marriage, and it's another thing to commit murder for hire," Zucker said.

And, Zucker noted, trying to dissolve the motive Lynch suggested, if his client wanted to leave his wife he simply could have divorced her as many rabbis throughout the U.S. have done.

The lawyer dug into the character of Jenoff, saying that the prosecution's star witness lives in an imaginary world. "This is a man who, by his own admission, could not sift out between truth and fantasy," Zucker said. "He told everybody he was involved in the Iran-Contra affair and received a presidential pardon from President Bush."

The trial, which is being broadcast live by Court TV, continues Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. ET.