FREEHOLD, N.J. — Len Jenoff lies. A lot.

The confessed killer of Carol Neulander admitted it numerous times from the witness stand at Rabbi Fred Neulander's capital murder trial. But the prosecution's chief witness insisted Thursday he isn't lying when he says that Neulander, 61, got him to kill his wife in exchange for $30,000 and help becoming an Israeli spy.

Neulander's defense lawyer, Michael Riley, spent more than a dozen hours over three days probing who Jenoff lied to and to what end. Riley is trying to persuade Neulander's jury that Jenoff concocted a story about being a hired hit man because he could cut a better deal with prosecutors than if he admitted he killed Carol Neulander during a robbery.

Lawyers during cross-examination of Len Jenoff.

Noting that police did not immediately arrest Jenoff when he first admitted involvement in the murder 30 months ago, Riley suggested that even investigators didn't believe the man who falsely listed the CIA as a former employer on his resume.

Jenoff, 55, faces 15 to 30 years in prison for the slaying of Carol Neulander, who was beaten to death with a lead pipe in her Cherry Hill, N.J., home on Nov. 1, 1994. Even when he confessed, Jenoff admitted he initially lied to police and tried to limit his own role to the planner and getaway driver.

Jenoff admitted on cross-examination that he wore a wire for police and worked hard to get co-defendant Paul Daniels to admit his involvement on tape. According to a transcript of the conversation read to jurors, Jenoff lied to Daniels and told him that they better cooperate with prosecutors against Neulander before he turned on them.

"We have to burn that mother — because he put us up to it and we know it," Jenoff told Daniels during the May 1, 2000, conversation. "We'll say he hired us and I hired you. We'll set him up ... I'll tell them he approached me, paid me, and I hired you."

Jenoff vehemently denied telling New Jersey prison inmate David Beardsley, who testified last week, that Neulander had no involvement in the murder.

"That's absolutely false," Jenoff said in response to a question from Riley.

"Isn't it true you told him it was a robbery that went bad?" Riley pressed.

"That's not true, sir. I deny all that," Jenoff maintained.

Carol Neulander, 52, was known to carry large amounts of cash. She managed a successful bakery that she founded and later sold.

According to Jenoff's direct testimony last Friday, Fred Neulander allegedly assured him her purse would contain thousands of dollars. After the murder, however, Jenoff said he found it had only $125 in it.

The defense is attacking Jenoff on two fronts: his lies about his background that bordered on fantasy and motives the defense claims he has for turning on the rabbi.

If jurors conclude that Jenoff has lied so many times in his life that his word cannot be trusted, they could discount everything he testified to. That would leave prosecutors with an entirely circumstantial case built on Neulander's alleged statements to others that he wanted to come home and find his wife "dead on the floor" and that he and his mistress would be a couple by her birthday, six weeks after the murder.

Prosecutor James Lynch, however, is expected to ask jurors during his closing argument to accept Jenoff's testimony as a consistent, plausible explanation for why a woman who had no enemies in the world would be killed by an associate of her husband.

Jenoff, Lynch stressed on re-direct examination, went to police and voluntarily confessed everything in late April and early May of 2000.

"My life was very good. I had my own detective agency and I was doing very well. Business was very good," Jenoff agreed. "I was remarried. I was very happy with my new marriage ... Life was good up until April 28th."

"Was life better for you then, when you implicated Rabbi Neulander, or is it better for you now?" Lynch asked.

"I have nothing now, sir. Life was better before," Jenoff said. "I ruined my life."

Then Lynch got back to the issue at the heart of the trial.

"Did you tell big lies about this man's involvement in his wife's murder?" Lynch asked.

"He paid me to kill his wife," Jenoff answered.

According to Jenoff, Neulander still owes him $18,000 of the $30,000 pledged.

If convicted, Neulander could face the death penalty. During much of Jenoff's testimony Thursday, Neulander had his glasses off and his index finger pressed to his left temple.

The trial is being broadcast by Court TV.