CAMDEN, N.J. — The confessed accomplice in the contract killing of a New Jersey rabbi's wife described the violent murder Thursday in the religious leader's trial for orchestrating the slaying.

"I saw Carol Neulander on the floor, bleeding," said Paul Daniels, 27, his hands shackled and his voice slurred by a cocktail of anti psychotic medications. "I smacked her two times on the head with a pipe. [Then] I ran out the house [with] Len Jenoff."

Daniels and Leonard Jenoff, 56, who spent four days on the stand ending Wednesday, both testified that the Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, 60, the defendant in this Camden County, N.J., capital murder trial, put them up to the slaying, which was made to look like a robbery-gone-wrong.

On Nov. 1, 1994, Carol Neulander was brutally beaten with a metal rod until she collapsed on the floor of her Cherry Hill, N.J., living room. Fred Neulander was considered a suspect but was not indicted until 1999 and continued running his successful M'Kor Shalom synagogue until January 1995.

The prosecution contends that Neulander offered Jenoff (who testified he later hired Daniels) $30,000 to murder his wife so he could continue a two-year relationship with Philadelphia radio personality, Elaine Soncini.

The rabbi's lawyers claim Jenoff and Daniels killed Carol Neulander in a botched attempt to rob her of the daily receipts from her cake-making business, which sometimes totalled between $5,000 and $20,000. They say Jenoff lived a "secret spy" fantasy life, and was able to convince Daniels that the rabbi asked him to kill his wife when in fact he played no role in the slaying.

On Thursday Daniels, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and has a history of substance abuse, provided testimony that was often muddled, always brief. He was called by the prosecution to corroborate the testimony of key witness Jenoff.

Prosecutor James Lynch led Daniels, who entered the courtroom in shackles, through the planning of the murder, the night of the crime, and the days, months, and years after the murder.

At first, said Daniels, he did not know that he and Jenoff were going to kill Carol Neulander. "[Jenoff] asked me if I wanted to make some money," Daniels testified. "He told me it was a vending machine [salesman's] wife. [I said] 'Yes, I'll do it.'"

Even when he received the rabbi's down payment, Daniels testified, he didn't know Carol Neulander was the target. "[Jenoff] poured [the money] over my head," he testified. "I said, 'That bitch is dead.'"

"When you said the words 'that bitch is dead,' were you referring to a particular person, Mr. Daniels?" Lynch asked.

"Yes," Daniels replied. "The vending machine [person's] wife."

On cross-examination, Daniels said it was only "a couple of days" before the first murder attempt that he learned their target was Mrs. Neulander, contradicting Jenoff, who testified that he told his partner weeks before their first attempt.

Defense lawyer Dennis Wixted was successful in his first attempt to show that Daniels had no way of knowing whether the defendant was actually behind the conspiracy, and that Daniels got all of his information from Jenoff.

But when Wixted again tried to distance Daniels from Neulander, the witness was not so accommodating. Instead, he recounted a brief conversation he had with the rabbi at his wife's funeral. "He came up to me at the synagogue and asked me if I was okay," Daniels told the jury. "You took that to mean he was admitting he was involved?" Wixted asked. "Yes, I think that's what he was trying to ask me," Daniels replied.

Wixted was also successful in pointing out a number of mismatches between the testimony of Jenoff and Daniels.

Among the inconsistencies in Jenoff and Daniels' testimony were:

Also on Thursday, Margaret Miele, the victim's sister, testified that she thought the rabbi didn't seem to show grief over his wife's death, beginning with a call she received from him the morning after her sister was murdered.

"He told me that there had been a break-in at the house, that things got out of hand, and Carol didn't survive," Miele testified through tears. "I didn't take it in...I didn't know what he was talking about, and he said, 'Carol's dead.'"

Miele continued as Neulander sat whispering to his attorney, "He was totally calm and just kind of more like 'I'm sorry, Midgie.'"

Miele also told the jury that the rabbi was devoid of emotion at her sister's shiva, the seven-day Jewish ritual of mourning during which friends and family pay their respects to the survivors of the deceased. "I saw no signs of grief," she said.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Zucker suggested that Neulander wasn't prone to displays of grief, noting that he administered over a Bar Mitvah the day after his mother died.

Miele, however—a long-time medical social worker—strongly disagreed with the lawyer. "I've spent 30 years dealing with people who have been coping with illness and death," she said. "I think I have a pretty good sense of how people deal with grief, and I thought Fred's was unusual."

But the rabbi's sense of grief wasn't the only thing that seemed strange to Miele, as she told the jury about a conversation she and her brother were having in the den of the Neulander's house during shiva.

"I said 'I just hope they find this person soon,'" Miele began said. "And [the rabbi] just very kind of almost cavalierly said 'Oh, they'll never find the person. I was so taken aback I was like what? 'Cause had only been two days. Fred said well it could be anyone. It could be someone from the bakery ... they're never going to solve this."

Robin Gross, a woman with whom the rabbi had an affair between 1992 and the Spring of 1994, testified that after passing Carol Neulander on the way to a Bible class taught by the rabbi, Neulander told her "Why didn't you run her off the road?"

Gross was the third witness to testify for the state that Neulander made passing comments about wanting his wife dead. Myron "Pepe" Levin testified last Wednesday that the rabbi told him after a racquetball game that he wished he could come home and find his wife dead on the floor. Elaine Soncini, the woman who allegedly pressured Neulander indirectly to kill his wife, testified last Tuesday that Neulander told her, "I wish [Carol's] car would just go in the river."

On cross-examination, Gross admitted that Neulander's comments were made in a "nonchalant, non-threatening way." Gross, who spoke in a delicate, seemingly embarrassed manner, also testified that Neulander told her that, as a rabbi, he could not get a divorce even though he was unhappy with his marriage.

Craig Mitnick, lawyer for Paul Daniels, testified that he suggested his client take the June, 2000, plea agreement because "Mr. Daniels was going to live. He wasn't going to face the death penalty if convicted."

Mitnick fleshed out the plea agreement for the jury, noting that Judge Linda G. Baxter has full discretion to sentence his client, and can return Daniels to facing the death penalty if she desires. The move by prosecutor Lynch could have been meant to prevent the defense from asking Daniels pointed questions about his plea agreement, as Wixted did Wednesday with Jenoff.

The trial, which is being broadcast live on Court TV, continues next Monday at 9:00 a.m. ET, with the first of the defense's witnesses.