FREEHOLD, N.J. — Rabbi Fred Neulander, accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife, told a New Jersey judge that he does not wish to testify on his own behalf.

Though murder defendants commonly refrain from testifying, the announcement came as a surprise in the retrial of the 61-year-old rabbi, who took the witness stand last year in his first trial. That trial ended with a hung jury.

Jurors also heard testimony Wednesday that confessed hit man Len Jenoff confided to a jail mate that he framed the rabbi for his wife's murder. Camden County Judge Linda Baxter ruled, however, that jurors will not hear that the witness, David Beardsley, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child molestation.

Baxter said that, because of a New Jersey Court of Appeals ruling, Beardsley's convictions in 2000 for second-degree sexual assault and second-degree child endangerment are in question. Baxter, who presided over Beardsley's trial, ordered prosecutor James Lynch not to ask about his prior criminal record.

Beardsley, 53, was dressed in a suit and tie when he took the stand so that jurors would not know that he is currently incarcerated. He testified that while an inmate at the Camden County Correctional Center in May 2000, he and Jenoff discussed Jenoff's involvement in the Nov. 1, 1994, murder of the rabbi's wife.

David Beardsley says confessed hit man Len Jenoff claimed to have framed the rabbi.

Neulander could be sentenced to death if jurors believe Jenoff's testimony that the once popular New Jersey rabbi paid him $18,000 to kill his wife, Carol, 52, with a lead pipe.

"He made it very clear that the rabbi had nothing to do with it," Beardsley testified, referring to his conversations with Jenoff in jail.

According to Beardsley, Jenoff claimed that he and another man, Paul Daniels, killed Carol Neulander during a "robbery gone bad."

Jenoff was arrested May 1, 2000, three days after he and Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Nancy Phillips met with a prosecutor and police investigator at a diner in Cherry Hill, N.J. Shortly after arriving in jail, Jenoff used the phone to call Phillips. Jenoff yelled a lot and accused her of "double crossing him" because he thought he would get immunity from prosecution for turning state's evidence against Neulander, Beardsley told jurors.

Jurors, reporters and members of Carol Neulander's family were kept out of the courtroom while Baxter informed Beardsley what he could and could not say on the stand. People who were permitted in the courtroom said the judge repeated an earlier ruling that Beardsley cannot go into detail about his claim that Jenoff confessed his involvement in another murder, the slaying of a 33-year-old Voorhees, N.J., housewife during a 1995 robbery inside her home.

Neulander's defense sought unsuccessfully to get the judge to permit the defense to ask Beardsley about the alleged statements. Among other things, Beardsley said outside the juror's presence during a hearing last week, that Jenoff claimed he was concerned that he left tire marks when he sped away from the home of murder victim Janice Bell. Police, according to the defense, photographed tire marks left on Bell's driveway.

Convicted killer Len Jenoff confessed the crime to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Nancy Phillips (above).

Phillips, the newspaper reporter, also testified Wednesday. Protected by New Jersey's shield law for journalists, Phillips merely read two articles she wrote about her involvement with Jenoff the day he and Daniels were arrested.

She met Jenoff after Carol Neulander's murder, when he was doing investigative work for Fred Neulander. Prosecutors contend that Jenoff was merely pretending to investigate and that any money he got paid was for the murder.

Earlier Wednesday, Wildwood, N.J., lawyer David Stefankiewicz testified that he believed Jenoff in 1995 when Jenoff told him he was a former CIA agent with impeccable credentials in law enforcement. Jenoff has admitted that he lied about that and other details of his background.

"I thought he was probably the most credentialed private investigator I ever dealt with," said Stefankiewicz, who at the time was investigating an unrelated case. "I was convinced, based on my conversations with Mr. Jenoff, that he was the goods."

On cross-examination, the lawyer argued with the prosecutor and was admonished by Baxter for not directly answering Lynch's questions. Stefankiewicz acknowledged, with some prodding, that he never told the jury that deadlocked on Neulander's guilt or innocence last year that Jenoff theorized that Carol Neulander was killed during a "robbery gone bad." 

The defense rested at 4:18 p.m. after calling 13 witnesses.

Jurors return Thursday at 9 a.m. for closing arguments and Baxter indicated that the panel will get the case in the afternoon.

The trial is being broadcast by Court TV.