CAMDEN, N.J. — A Philadelphia journalist who received a contract killer's private confession before urging him to turn to authorities read from articles she wrote about the experience Monday as she took the stand in a once-reknowned rabbi's capital murder trial.

"'I'm sitting on so many secrets...'" Nancy Phillips, a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer read in a storyteller's careful voice, quoting a confessed hitman, "'that before I can reveal them, I might need prosecutor's immunity.'"

Earlier in the day, two jailhouse snitches — one a convicted child molester, the other a multiple felon convicted in each of the past three decades — testified that the confessed hitman, Leonard Jenoff, said in jail that the rabbi had nothing to do with the Nov. 1, 1994, murder, which he claimed was originally just a robbery attempt.

Fred J. Neulander, the founder and former lead rabbi of the successful Cherry Hill, N.J., synagogue M'Kor Shalom, is charged with offering Jenoff and Daniels $30,000 to arrange the murder of his wife of 28 years.

According to prosecutor James Lynch, Neulander, 60, wanted his wife dead so that he could continue an affair with Philadelphia radio show host Elaine Soncini. Lynch has said he intends to seek the death penalty if Neulander is convicted.

Neulander's lawyers contend that although the rabbi may have had a problem with adultery, he has being wrapped up in a conspiracy by the prone-to-fantasy Jenoff, his former congregant, a former alcoholic and the rabbi's counselee.

Nancy Phillips, who took the stand in a deep blue dress and had her short blonde hair coiffed in layers about her head, testified only to verify information in the articles she had written about Jenoff.

She confirmed Jenoff's claim that the rabbi told him the victim was an enemy of Israel (and therefore the murder could be forgiven), his claim that he didn't know the victim was Carol Neulander until the day after the killing when he heard on the radio — as well as the hitman's claim to have taken several thousand dollars from the purse he had stolen from Carol Neulander.

In his testimony, Jenoff refuted a number of the statements made in articles written by Phillips, saying sarcastically that "Miss Phillips is a very good writer."

Jenoff, 56, and Paul Michael Daniels, 27, his accomplice, have both confessed to manslaughter and are awaiting sentencing.

David Beardsley, a convicted sex offender who is now serving a 20-year term at Southwood State Prison in Bridgeton, testified that Jenoff told him that Nancy Phillips promised immunity from prosecution, and "a lifetime of [sex] and a Pulitzer prize" if he turned himself over to authorities.

The wiry, red-spectacled inmate said that Jenoff bragged about traveling to Mexico with the journalist, and expected to start a new life with her funded by the proceeds from a book she planned to write about the case.

Jenoff first confessed to investigators on April 28, 2000. He testified earlier that he did so because "I hated myself for what I did. I was burning inside because I had done something so terrible. I felt that I had to get it out."

Beardsley, who lived in a cell adjacent to Jenoff's at the Camden County Correctional Facility and shared a common space with the former private investigator, said that Jenoff told him that the killing was the result of a botched robbery attempt, predicated because "he knew that the lady had a lot of money because she owned a cake business. He was hurting because he was financially strapped. He told me Mr. Neulander had absolutely nothing to do with it."

Beardsley told the jury that Jenoff told him that he hired Paul Daniels after "he chickened out" of a first attempt and left the Neulander household after using their bathroom and handing Carol Neulander an empty envelope.

The convict, who bore a black heart-shaped tattoo on his left arm and lifted a Styrofoam cup with his two handcuffed hands intermittenly, said that his impetus for coming forward with what Jenoff had told him was to uphold the truth.

"After talking to Mr. Jenoff I asked him outright," Beardsley said. "I said 'Don't you feel it's wrong to finger this rabbi man when he didn't do anything?' He said 'I gotta do what's best for me.' I said 'Well, I gotta do what's best for the truth.'"

Prosecutor James Lynch attacked Beardsley's seemingly noble intentions in his cross examination, stabbing at the air and lunging toward the witness like a swordsman for emphasis. "It's certainly a commendable cause," he commented. "I always tell the truth," Beardsley replied. "Did you tell the truth, sir, when you told Mr. Jenoff that you hate Judge Baxter?" With a grin and a tilt of his head, the witness replied, "I never said I hate Judge Baxter."

Lynch also asked Beardsley whether he had reason to hate the prosecutor's office, and might therefore benefit indirectly from helping the defense with it's case.

I'm a criminal, you know," Beardsley said, chuckling. "I've never been fond of the prosecutor's office. I don't like the way they manipulate poeple. I don't like the way they use people to pay them to lie ... In my case they abused a mentally retarded person."

James Keeny, currently serving a five-year sentence at Bayside State Prison for forging checks, also testified that Jenoff said the defendant had nothing to do with his wife's murder. Keeny said that Jenoff "acted as if we were friends" after two prison AA meetings, and said that the robbery only turned into a murder when Daniels "went crazy" on Carol Neulander.

On cross-examination, Lynch pointed out that Keeny could have gleaned details about the Neulander case, including those he revealed to the defense after contacting the office in the summer of 2000, from newspaper articles.

The hulking roommate of Daniels and Jenoff, Rick A. Plum, testified in a sonorous voice about his time with the two confessed killers in the Landmark apartment complex in Cherry Hill. While he remained cordial with both men, Plum testified, he was not a close friend and never socialized with them. Plum testified that neither Jenoff nor Daniels appeared to have any extra money in the months before the murder, when Jenoff testified that Neulander paid more than $14,000 of the $30,000 he offered for the murder. Plum told the court that, in fact, he often lent the two men money, when he could.

On cross-examination, Lynch unleashed a wave of laughter when he asked "Mr. Plum, can I call you Big Rick?" "Yessir, or Tiny," the gigantic man bellowed.

Also taking the stand on Tuesday was the janitor from the M'Kor Shalom synagogue, who testified that he saw the rabbi often; an FBI agent detailed his contacts with Len Jenoff when the former alcoholic claimed he was being recruited by the Israeli secret service the Mossad; a member of Weight Watchers said Jenoff told a group of "Weight Watchers" that he needed to trim down because the case was going to put him on TV; and a lawyer testified Jenoff called Phillips "on a scale of one to 10, a 15."

The trial, which is being broadcast live by Court TV, will continue tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET, when the defendant is expected to take the stand.