Former doctor Robert Neulander was found guilty of murder and tampering with evidence Thursday in Onondaga County Court in a retrial for the 2012 death of his wife Leslie Neulander.
Neulander left Syracuse’s downtown jail in 2018 after a guilty verdict from his first trial was overturned by an appellate court three years after he was found guilty of murder and tampering with evidence in a trial that spanned nearly a month.
The appellate court overturned that verdict when a juror was found to be exchanging texts with family and friends throughout the trial. One text from her father read, “make sure he’s guilty!”
This time, the jury came to the same conclusion — that Neulander killed his wife and it was not a slip and fall like the defense argued.
The retrial lasted nearly three weeks and the prosecution said this outcome was the only one possible.
"When you see it, when you see the physical evidence and you see the carnage and the last thing on your mind that comes to is slip and fall in the shower, and I don't know what analysis the jury used, but I used the phrase from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — 'when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, has to be true' and that's true in this case. It's not a slip and fall in the shower, and once that possibility is eliminated, then the only thing left is homicide."
Many in Neulander's family stood with him every step of the way, even supporting him on the stand during the defense's argument.
His son, Ari, believes in his father's innocence — even after this second guilty verdict has come down.
"This is a travesty of justice once again and we're gonna get him out again however long that takes, we're gonna appeal the decision," Ari said.
Neulander faces up to a life sentence when sentenced on April 11.
More on the case
Leslie Neulander's death in the couple's DeWitt home was initially ruled an accident due to a fall in the shower and the investigation ended.
After an anonymous letter and effort of her friends got the Onondaga County district attorney to take a new look at the case, a new investigation was launched.
Neulander was then arrested, convicted and stripped of his medical license, before being freed in 2018.
During his 2015 trial, prosecutors said the doctor killed his wife while the defense maintained she fell in the shower — with her sister testifying that Leslie Neulander suffered from severe vertigo.
During closing arguments, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Neulander smashed his wife’s head on a bench in the shower and then tried to cover it up.
Throughout the trial, a number of expert witnesses took the stand for both sides, sometimes contradicting each other.
Neulander’s children maintained their father's innocence. The day the guilty verdict was reached, his children sobbed, his daughter Jenna saying, “I was there. You didn’t do it.”