Samuel Sheinbein

Samuel Sheinbein (25 July 1980 – 23 February 2014) was an American-Israeli convicted murderer.

On 16 September 1997, Sheinbein, a 17-year-old senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Aaron Benjamin Needle, a former classmate, killed Alfredo "Freddy" Enrique Tello, Jr. They subsequently dismembered and burned the corpse in Aspen Hill, Maryland.

Sheinbein fled to Israel, where his father was born and of which he was a citizen.

At the time, Israeli law prohibited extradition of Israeli citizens.

The case strained U.S.–Israeli relations and prompted an overhaul of Israeli extradition policy, which now requires a defendant seeking to avoid extradition to also demonstrate a "residential connection" to Israel.

The Washington Post wrote that it became "a Sensational legal tug of war involving Congress, the State and Justice departments and the upper echelons of Israel's political and judicial establishments".

In September 1997, Needle had gotten into an altercation in which Tello had punched Needle in front of Choi, on whom Needle had had a crush.

Choi told police that Needle appeared to be embarrassed and immediately called his friend Sam.

According to McCarthy, this event led to Needle giving Sheinbein his practice victim.

Sheinbein created what prosecutors called a Recipe for Murder.

On a single sheet of notebook paper, Sheinbein wrote "'Zap, pepper, metal restraints, rainsuits ... X-Acto hobby knife, plastic bags' and other items".

On 19 September 1997, a realtor was preparing the vacant home for a showing, and detected a strong odor coming from the garage.

The realtor found Tello's torso wrapped in garbage bags.

The body was so charred and mutilated that it was initially believed to be a deer carcass.

The realtor called the Montgomery County Police Department and officers quickly responded to the residence.

Investigators determined the contents of the garbage bags were human remains and ruled it as a homicide.

Police found the Makita electric circular saw used to dismember the victim at the scene.

Montgomery County investigators were initially unable to determine the victim's identity.

They began to interview neighbors who reported seeing the suspects.

Using police canines, authorities discovered a trail of blood leading from the scene of the body to the garage of the Sheinbein residence.

Subsequent investigation led authorities to rule Sheinbein as a suspect, and based on physical evidence and eyewitness accounts, Needle was determined to be a second suspect.

Warrants for the arrest of Sheinbein, for first-degree murder, and Needle, for first-degree murder, the conspiracy to commit murder, and being an accessory to murder after the fact, were issued shortly thereafter.

On 22 September 1997, Freddy Tello was reported missing by his mother.

Police investigation of the missing-persons report revealed that Tello had told friends that he would meet them at the Plaza del Mercado shopping center in Silver Spring along with Needle and Sheinbein, but never showed up.

Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison by an Israeli court in 1999.

He also "listed the Dujitsu 2000 knife and had a check mark next to 'recommended by Consumer Reports'".

The piece of paper also listed size 14 shoes (according to McCarthy, both Sheinbein and Needle wore about size 10 shoes) and had written, "If they don't fit, u must acquit", a reference to Johnnie Cochran's famous line in the O. J. Simpson trial.

Authorities believe that this murder was premeditated by Sheinbein and Needle.

Sheinbein and Needle allegedly incapacitated Tello with a stun gun, and then choked and stabbed Tello, finally beating him to death with a sawed-off shotgun.

The autopsy report concluded that the cause of death of the victim was "a combination of blunt force injuries to the head, cutting wounds on the neck and chest, and ligature strangulation".

The two stored the body of Tello in Sheinbein's garage, where they dismembered the victim's limbs and burned the torso so that Tello could not be identified as the victim.

Sheinbein arranged to dispose of the body in a vacant home for sale previously owned by his classmate.

Sheinbein told the classmate he wanted to use the vacant residence to be with a girl in private.

Authorities believe Sheinbein and Needle transported the body to the neighborhood residence in a garbage bag in the back of Needle's Honda.

The two then allegedly transported their tools of mutilation in a wheelbarrow to the vacant home.

In 2014, he was killed in a shootout with Israeli police special forces in Rimonim Prison after he shot and wounded six officials and another prisoner with a gun that had been smuggled into the prison.

At age 17, Sheinbein informed a friend that he offered $5,000 for someone to kill the boyfriend of his crush and $1,000 for someone to lure his rival into a vehicle.

Sheinbein sought someone to murder as practice for his intended target, according to the Montgomery County, Maryland Deputy State's Attorney, John McCarthy.

Around the same time Sheinbein was planning to murder his rival, Needle and Tello became acquainted.

Needle was introduced to his fellow Montgomery County classmate, and a friend of Tello, Hannah Choi.