Teen Indicted on Maryland Murder Charge in Israel

An American teenager accused of killing an acquaintance in Maryland was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder Monday, a day after Israel’s high court made a final ruling against his extradition.

The two-page indictment said that 18-year-old Samuel Sheinbein and a friend, Aaron Needle, killed Alfredo Tello Jr. in Montgomery County, Maryland, in September 1997, dismembered the body and burned it.

Sheinbein fled to Israel three days after Tello’s body was found, and will stand trial in Israel after successfully fighting extradition. Needle committed suicide in a U.S. jail before his trial.

Sheinbein sat at one side of the courtroom Monday, looking around impassively during the 15-minute hearing. The court did not provide a translator even though he understands only basic Hebrew. Judge Sara Sirota said a translator will be present in the future.

Away from the proceedings, prosecutor Hadassah Naor said Sheinbein will be asked to enter a plea within a month and that the trial itself will take from six to nine months. The state lists 25 prosecution witnesses, most from Maryland.

The trial may conclude sooner, however, if the defense goes ahead with plans not to contest the facts of the case.

Defense attorney David Libai, a former justice minister, said during an extradition hearing in November that the defense would focus on Sheinbein’s mental condition and that there would be no need to run up the cost by bringing witnesses from the United States.

Libai suggested that he would not seek to get his client free on bail during the trial, saying it was in the public interest that Sheinbein remain in custody.

The extradition issue revolved around Sheinbein’s claim to Israeli citizenship through his father, Sol, who was born in pre-state Palestine. The younger Sheinbein had never lived in Israel, though he visited his grandmother in Israel several times as a child, according to one of his lawyers.

Under a 1978 law, Israelis cannot be extradited to stand trial abroad.