Cops mum on progress in probe of double murder
Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS
and JASON METHOD
STAFF WRITERS
TEN DAYS after two stock promoters with a string of questionable business dealings were gunned down execution-style in a Colts Neck mansion, authorities remain mum on their progress in solving what the county prosecutor calls a classic "whodunit."
But law enforcement experts say in complex cases like the murders of penny-stock boosters Maier S. Lehmann and Albert Alain Chalem it is not unusual for weeks, if not months, to pass before an arrest is made.
"The length of the investigation is normally a measure of the complexity," said James R. Sutton, a former FBI counterterrorism agent who now trains students on criminal and government intelligence analysis at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. "You may have investigations that go on for five to six months, and the length of time is no indication that the case is weak, or the case is cold."
The men were found shot to death in Chalem's 3 Bluebell Road home early Oct. 26. Lehmann, of Woodmere, N.Y., and Chalem apparently were working the prior evening when they were shot, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye. He has declined to comment on the case since last Thursday.
Authorities are tracing every phone call that the two dead men received in their business dealings, and tracking down everyone whose name turns up in the victims' phone lists, wallets or computer databases. An investigator "has to knock on this person's door and say 'we want to talk to you,' " Sutton said.
Chalem and Lehmann were partners in www.stockinvestor.com, a Web site that was shut down this week.
There is no shortage of potential suspects.
Lehmann, a convicted insurance fraud felon, turned state's evidence six years ago in a case that led to 120 people being arrested in a $120 million insurance scam. Chalem and Lehmann both were heavily involved in penny stocks and Internet promotions, in which stock prices can swing widely in a day, making a fortune for those in the know at the expense of life savings for the unwary.
Chalem once worked for A.S. Goldmen Inc., a defunct New York stock brokerage recently indicted on charges of defrauding thousands of people of $100 million and operating as a criminal enterprise. Chalem was not named in the indictment, but The New York Times reported that people involved in the Goldmen case said Chalem had provided some information to authorities.
The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are involved in the case. Kaye has said the killings looked like an organized crime hit.
Authorities aren't prepared to clear up a number of unanswered questions about the crime: Was there more than one killer? Authorities say they won't know until ballistic tests are completed on the 10 bullets taken from the victims' bodies. Was one victim the target, the other unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Were the killings for revenge, profit or to protect someone? Why did Lehmann rent a gray Dodge sedan and park it in Chalem's driveway at the time of the murders? Why was the trunk open, with a suitcase inside? According to crime scene photos shown to USA Today, the victims were dressed in business suits, and their cellular telephones, resting a few feet from the bodies, were pierced by bullets. Did they try to call someone when their attacker confronted them, or were they already talking to somebody? Chalem told friends he planned to drive to Tennessee the next day -- a trip of at least 700 miles -- to meet a friend who was chartering a plane to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., so he could visit his girlfriend. Why did they need a private jet? Whose plane was it? Was he going to leave in the middle of the night?
The Colts Neck mansion is owned by Russell W. Candela, the father of Chalem's girlfriend, Kimberly Scarola, 39. The couple, who had dated for about 10 years, moved in this spring or early summer, according to neighbors.
Candela, 62, of Brooklyn, bought the house for $1.1 million in December. He has declined repeated requests for an interview.
Candela has a son, also named Russell W. According to records from the National Association of Securities Dealers, which licenses stockbrokers, a Russell W. Candela serves in the New York Air National Guard and also served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and worked for two beverage distributors until 1991.
In 1994, a Russell W. Candela worked for about six months for the now-defunct Greenway Capital Corp., New York, which the Securities and Exchange Commission has cited for violating penny stock trading rules.
Neither Candela was named in any of the SEC charges.
The murders have sparked interest from news outlets previously contacted by Lehmann. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Lehmann began a crusade several years ago to become an informant to securities regulators in the world of penny stocks and had contacted that publication about his efforts. And an article in this week's Barron's reported that Lehmann called the financial paper last year after it ran an expose on penny stock corruption. The Barron's report said Lehmann claimed two convicted Russian mobsters threatened people they believed were sources for the story.
James A. Churchill, executive assistant to the Ocean County prosecutor and former chief of detectives who has worked on about 300 homicides in his career, said the passing of time without an arrest doesn't mean Monmouth County authorities don't have strong leads.
In 1984, Churchill headed one of the most celebrated murder cases in recent New Jersey history, the contract killing of Maria Marshall of Toms River. Her husband, Robert, was convicted and is on death row.
"Monmouth may have the information, they are just not letting you know, as we did not let the press know then" about developments in the Marshall case, Churchill said.
"We knew Marshall was involved within hours after it happened, but it took us two months to arrest him because we didn't have (the evidence) we needed," he said.
A review of Asbury Park Press news stories since 1987 show at least 11 homicides remain unsolved in Monmouth County. In cases where there was no immediate arrest, though, authorities remain persistent. Investigators have sometimes spent years to find a killer or killers.
Authorities took nearly three years before they arrested the husband of Wanda C. Pandure for her 1991 Red Bank murder. Husband Jamie Pandure, who plotted Mrs. Pandure's death along with his brother for $500,000 in insurance money, is now serving 75 years in prison.
Former FBI agent Sutton said investigators in the Colts Neck killings are likely looking at the following possibilities: Did the killer or killers feel they personally had a lot to lose if the men remained alive? Were they vulnerable because of what Chalem and Lehmann could say?
Both victims were shot repeatedly. Chalem received five wounds to the head and neck, Lehmann three to the head.
"The fact that they were able to cluster the shots in the head is an indication of a person who is familiar with using firearms," Sutton said. "This is not some person who's never shot before and went there with an old-fashioned gun and things got out of control. I would tell you that this is organized, this is cold and deliberate."
James W. Prado Roberts: (732) 922-6000, Ext. 4317; or jwr@app.com.
Investigations Editor Paul D'Ambrosio contributed to this story.
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