U. S. killer shot dead in Israeli prison gunbattle
SHARON PRISON, Israel — Israeli special forces raided a prison in central Israel Sunday, killing a notorious prisoner who was serving time for a gruesome murder carried out in the U. S. Police identified the inmate as Samuel Sheinbein, an American who fled to Israel after murder-ing and dismembering another man in Maryland in 1997 and whose case sparked a high- profile row between the two allies.
Police special forces rushed to this prison in central Israel after Sheinbein stole a weapon and shot three guards, wounding two of them seriously. He then barricaded himself inside the compound where a standoff ensued, with counter- terrorism units dispatched to the scene.
The inmate then opened fi re again, wounding three more guards, before the forces shot him dead, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Hospital offi cials said one of the wounded guards was fi ghting for his life. Police and the Israel prison service have opened investigations into the incident. Sheinbein’s lawyers told Israeli TV that their client was under duress and that the Israeli prison service has ignored their warnings.
Sheinbein, 34, was tried in Israel in 1999, two years after he fl ed to the country and successfully sought refuge from extradition, enraging Maryland authorities and briefly threatening U. S. aid to the Jewish state.
An Israeli court sentenced Sheinbein to 24 years for his slaying and dismemberment of 19year- old Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr. Sheinbein was 17 at the time of the killing and could have faced a life sentence in Maryland. His extradition to Maryland was blocked after a yearlong battle between Israel and the United States over an Israeli law that prohibited it.
Following that embarrassment, Israel changed its laws to allow the extradition of Israeli citizens on condition that they are returned to Israel to serve any sentence imposed.
Sheinbein, of Aspen Hill, Md., confessed to strangling Tello with a rope and hitting him several times with a sharp object.
Sheinbein then dismembered the body with an electric saw and burned it, authorities said. Another teenager charged in the killing, Aaron Needle, committed suicide while in jail in Maryland.