CAMDEN, N.J. — Playing a tape of the confessed hitman trying to persuade his accomplice to confess to his role in the murder, lawyers for a prominent New Jersey rabbi on trial for ordering his wife's contract killing again tried to convince the jury that the state's key witness is a liar.

"You and I are going to be in jail today and he's home in his $400,000 house because he gave us up," Leonard Jenoff, 56, can be heard on an audio surveillance tape telling his partner, Paul Daniels.

Two days earlier, Jenoff had confessed to murdering Carol Neulander, fingering Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, 60, as the mastermind and Daniels as his accomplice in the slaying. He was wired by investigators to help them nab Daniels.

Carol Neulander, 50, was found bludgeoned to death in her Cherry Hill, N.J., living room on Nov. 1, 1994.

Neulander, who founded the successful M'Kor Shalom synagogue in Cherry Hill, is charged with capital murder for allegedly offering Jenoff, who later recruited Daniels, $30,000 to carry out the killing. Prosecutors claim that the rabbi wanted to continue a two-year affair with Philadelphia radio personality Elaine Soncini, who threatened to leave him by the end of 1994 if he didn't become a single man.

Neulander's lawyers say their client could have easily divorced his wife, and is being wrongly implicated in the murder conspiracy by Jenoff, a career liar who entertained dreams of living the life of a "secret spy."

Last week, Jenoff testified for the state that Neulander paid him more than half of the $30,000 he offered to kill his wife, and helped him carefully plan for the contract killing. In three days of cross examination, however, defense lawyer Dennis Wixted highlighted the witness's "secret spy" aspirations — showing how Jenoff fabricated credentials such as a 26-year stint with the CIA — and meticulously picked apart his previous court appearances to portray him as a habitual liar and perjurer.

The May 1, 2000, tape Wixted played on Wednesday showed Jenoff using his intelligence gathering skills to save his own hide.

At the Camden County prosecutor's office, the licensed private investigator was fitted with two recording devices, one that looked like a pager. His task: to trick his partner, Paul Daniels, who was also at the office, into admitting his role in the murder on tape.

"Would it be fair to say that you were very much in the cloak and dagger mentality in your mind?" Wixted asked. "I was not in that 'secret spy' mode," Jenoff said, "I was very upset and scared that afternoon." The lawyer has repeatedly suggested that Jenoff, who built a career as a private investigator using falsified credentials, thought of himself as a character from a spy novel or a mafia movie.

The scratchy, muffled recording Wixted played, however, demonstrated that Jenoff was more than comfortable with wearing the two microphones he had been fitted with, and that he was able to use lies and persuasion to effectively prod his accomplice into admitting his role in the murder on tape.

At the beginning of the tape, Daniels was firm on not giving up his story.

"They said, they said that when I did it all, that I was the only one at the house," Daniels told Jenoff. "That I drove the car to Clover [inaudible.] That I hit Mrs. Neulander with the pipe. That's what they said that you said I did."

"They said I said that?" Jenoff asked.

"Yeah," Daniels replied.

"They're lying to both of us. You and I know what happened. I drove and I hired you. Know what this means, the f------ Rabbi going to put all the blame on us, the blame on us. No, now is the time we f--- him, he doesn't give a f---.

"Don't break down," Daniels stressed.

"F--- him," Jenoff said.

"Don't break down, don't break down," Daniels repeated.

But Jenoff continued pressuring Daniels to turn against the Rabbi. "You and I are going to be in jail today and he's home in his $400,000 house because he gave us up," he said later in the tape.

But Daniels continued to resist. "I don't want to cut no deal," he muttered over and over again.

By the end of the tape, however, Jenoff had worn down his younger partner.

"You gonna tell them you were there with me?" Jenoff asked.

"Yeah, I'll tell them I was there with you," Daniels said. "F--- him."

Also on Wednesday, Wixted continued to match articles written by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Nancy Phillips against Jenoff's current version of his involvement in the murder.

After being confronted with a number of quotes and statements in Phillips' articles that he denied making, Jenoff said sarcastically, "Miss Phillips is a very good writer."

"So did she embellish this story sir?" Wixted asked.

"I believe so," Jenoff replied.

"To make it a better story to read?" Wixted returned in a smug reference to his suggestion yesterday that Jenoff has made his testimony in this trial, now in its second week, more palatable to the jury.

Wixted also questioned Jenoff about his 2000 plea bargain agreement, in which he pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges instead of murder charges in exchange for truthful testimony in Neulander's trial. Daniels also pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and both men are still awaiting sentencing by Judge Linda Baxter, who is currently presiding over Neulander's trial.

Wixted noted that by sticking to his May 1, 2000, statement Jenoff, if given the lightest sentence by Judge Baxter, a flat 10 years, could be eligible for parole after serving a term of only one year, eleven months, and one day. Wixted also pointed out that, under the agreement, Jenoff would be shielded from a number of other charges as well, including "dozens and dozens of counts of perjury."

"The bottom line is you're not facing the death penalty here, you're not facing 30 years to life like the Rabbi, and you're not even facing charges of robbery, are you?" asked an animated Wixted.

To wrap up his cross-examination of Jenoff, Wixted launched into a series of statements that spurred a flurry of objections from prosecutor James Lynch but nonetheless may have provided a memorable impression on the jury. "Mr. Jenoff, when you lie, does your nose grow longer?" Wixted asked. "How could anybody ever know when you lie or tell the truth when you do both the same way?"

After a series of exchanges in which Wixted continued to press Jenoff on the differences between how he looks when telling the truth and lying, Jenoff admitted "It might be or it might not be [the same]"

On re-direct, Prosecutor James Lynch declined to question his witness, who took the stand for a total of four days. During three days of cross-examination, Wixted had used Jenoff's resume, court appearances made both as a private investigator and as a witness in this case, and more, to discredit the witness as a systematic and successful liar who built his life and career on a series of fabricated career accomplishments. Lynch, however, moved on with other witnesses, using them to corroborate certain parts of Jenoff's testimony.

A former rabbi with congregation M'Kor Shalom, Gary Mazo, testified that the rabbi may have jeopardized his rabbinical post if he divorced his wife because of his affair with Soncini.

"The relationship between a rabbi and somebody in my congregation is defined as a sacred relationship," said Mazo, who wrote a book, And the Flames Did Not Consume Us : A Rabbi's Journey Through Communal Crisis, about how his congregation dealt with the Neulander controversy. "It is not an equal relationship. To take advantage of that relationship is considered an abuse of power."

Mazo also testified about an incident that could corroborate Jenoff's earlier claim that the Rabbi paid him a large amount of cash in mid-October, 1994. About two weeks before Carol Neulander was killed, Mazo testified, he went into Neulander's office and found Neulander at his desk counting a large sum of cash in a manilla envelope. "It was very clear that I took him by surprise," Mazo told the jury. "He seemed embarrassed, flustered. I wanted to just close the door and get out of there, it was a very uncomfortable situation."

Mazo returned to his office, but minutes later, Neulander came to see him. He apologized again for putting Mazo in an "uncomfortable situation," and explained that the sum of money was the cash payment of a loan from a person whose check had bounced.

Jenoff testified last week that Neulander gave him the down payment for the killing, $7,500 in cash, in a manilla envelope.

Mazo also testified that the night of the murder, the rabbi came to observe his evening religious class, something that he found "very unusual."

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Zucker, representing Neulander along with Wixted, used the opportunity to question Mazo, who was one of the first civilians to arrive at the Neulander residence the night of the murder, on what the rabbi's demeanor was like that evening. "When I first saw him, he seemed confused, withdrawn, somewhat detached," Mazo said. "Clearly, he was not himself."

Zucker also pointed out that after Mazo's grand jury appearance, Neulander may have asked whether he was a major suspect in the investigation but did not question the nature of the questions that were asked.

Anthony Federici, 41, a former driver for Myron "Pepe" Levin, testified that Neulander's former racquetball partner came out from a game with Neulander and said "F------ rabbi would like to see his wife dead on the floor when he comes home." Federici said that Levin also told him on a later occasion "You know that crazy rabbi called me again about his wife, and he's asking me if I can find someone to murder her."

Levin testified last week about the rabbi's post-game wish to find his wife dead. Federici was the second witness to testify on behalf of the state to corroborate the testimony of Levin, 76, who was plagued by memory troubles during his time on the stand.

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