- I'm Craig Melvin,
and this is "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered".
- He had already told me
the guys were flying up
from Florida,
the Black Ops.
At that point,
it got a little scary.
They're here to do a job,
and they're gonna kill someone.
This is crazy.
- In a marriage,
three is a crowd.
- You're seeing another woman.
- Right.
- What do you think it was?
- Chemistry.
- And chemistry
can be explosive.
- This is now
the marriage from hell.
- Enter the hit man.
- Here's a name.
I'm gonna bring you pictures
of the person
we want to have killed.
- You say you now feared
for your own life?
- Yes.
- A hit that
couldn't miss?
Or a surprise
to die for?
- He actually notices
a camera inside the car.
- This was a big moment.
- A huge moment.
Everything just
took off real fast.
- No fairytale ending
for this love story.
It would end either
in murder or prison.
- He said, "My guys don't
back down from a plan."
**
- Hello, and welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered"
Ira and Susan Bernstein
were college sweethearts.
In time, Ira's successful
medical practice
would have them living
a life of luxury.
But as their fortune grew,
so did the secrets
and lies.
Divorce seemed likely.
Then a murderous scheme
was hatched.
To uncover the truth,
an amateur sleuth
would need to deliver
an Oscar-worthy
performance.
Here's Andrea Canning
with "The Target".
- In this quiet,
wealthy neighborhood,
behind the gates
of this lavish estate,
a fuse was lit.
New-found money led
to explosive fights,
torrid affairs,
deadly secrets,
and a wicked plot
that disturbed even
seasoned detectives.
- Someone approached him
to be hired as a hitman.
- A scheme with a twist.
- This is where
this whole story
goes a little bit Hollywood.
- Yeah, literally.
- The starring characters--
an unhappy housewife.
A luxury
car salesman.
- The only thing I
could ask is, "Why?"
- A former mortician
and aspiring model.
- It was horrible.
- And a prominent doctor.
- We were both scared.
We both didn't
know what to do.
- Our story begins in
Rockland County, New York,
nestled along
the Hudson River,
about an hour's drive north
of New York City,
the home of
Dr. Ira Bernstein,
a well-respected
podiatrist.
- I've always wondered
why someone chooses feet
as a doctor.
- Feet are extremely
important, yes.
- He took us back
to where it all began,
Penn State University,
where he first met
his future wife, Susan.
Here they are,
smiling from the pages
of their college yearbook.
It was the mid '90s
when the couple
bumped into each other
at a fraternity party.
- She was just so caring
and compassionate.
She was supportive of me.
Um, she was there when
I had to study long hours.
- It sounds like
a great relationship.
- It was.
- After college, Susan
worked toward her masters
and eventually her
doctorate in education,
and Ira went to
podiatry school.
- Some of my fondest memories
of being in the med school
was spending
time with Susan.
It was great.
We'd go out to dinner for $20,
and we were both grateful.
- Not a lot of money.
- We had no money.
- A few years after that,
in 2002, they got married.
- And when-when you both said
your I do's,
did you feel like
it was right?
- I did.
- The couple decided to move
back to Rockland County
near Ira's Hometown,
and it wasn't long
before he and Susan
were raising three children.
Ira says he worked
day and night,
and it quickly paid off.
He opened multiple
foot surgery centers
and also invested
in real estate.
The couple was grateful
for their good fortune.
- My house was
13,000 square feet
on 14 acres of land,
and we had tennis courts,
a pool, a pool house,
a lake, a dock, boats.
- Did you have
other houses?
- I had about 20 different
buildings and houses
that I would
rent out.
- But Ira soon realized
all that money
came with problems.
Even with his success,
he says he was struggling
to keep up with the cost
of their extravagant lifestyle,
and he says
Susan had developed
quite the appetite
for the finer things.
- I overextended myself,
and then her spending
just started amplifying
and amplifying
to the point where,
you know,
$40,000 a month
on her credit cards
was standard
operating procedure.
- What was she buying?
- Everything from
vacations she would plan,
clothes, jewelry.
- The way Ira saw it,
he was the one
doing all the working,
while Susan, a stay-at-home mom
with a live-in nanny,
was doing
most of the playing.
- So her days were filled
with lunch dates with friends,
spa appointments,
mani-pedis.
She started book clubs
and cooking clubs.
She would be out literally
about four nights a week.
- Ira claims he was
lonely and resentful.
- You and Susan hit
a major bump in your marriage
when she discovers
you're seeing another woman.
- Right.
- He says Susan discovered
the affair
from messages she found
on his computer,
but instead of filing
for divorce,
they planned to stay together
with unorthodox rules.
- We decided to have
an open marriage,
and she could start
dating people.
- He says it was an attempt at
saving a marriage in shambles,
and he thought
the open marriage was working,
but apparently,
his wife didn't.
Three months after
their new arrangement,
Ira says he was shocked
when police came
knocking on his door.
Susan had filed
a restraining order.
- The sheriff gives me
20 minutes to pack my stuff,
whatever I could grab.
I am escorted
out of my house.
I wind up in
my parents' house
living in my old
high school bedroom.
- Ira says Susan claimed
he was physically
and verbally abusive to her
and their children.
Ira says not true.
- I am the least abusive
person in the world.
I don't even discipline
my children, okay?
They walk all over me
like I'm a teddy bear.
- And in fact, several
months later, Ira says,
Susan withdrew
the restraining order
and wanted to reconcile.
He agreed to try,
but soon enough, he says,
the fighting
flared up again,
and that's when a beautiful
former patient
reached out to him.
- So she was calling me
out of the blue
to say she'd like
to meet with me
and see if we can do
business together.
- Her name was
Kelly Gribeluk,
a woman with
an eclectic career--
a former mortician
now in the business of
selling orthotics for shoes.
Since Ira was
a podiatrist,
Kelly asked him to be
part of her company.
He agreed, and their
professional relationship
quickly turned personal.
- She completely
understood me.
Like, I found someone
that actually got me,
and she's got a sexy
kind of look to her.
- Were you physically
attracted to him as well?
- Of course.
- What do you think it was?
- Uh, chemistry.
- Kelly was a mother
of three young boys
who had gone through
a traumatic divorce
that left her family
in tatters,
something Ira
could relate to.
- He started opening up to me
about his separation,
and we had shared some
intimate things
and that we were going through
very similar things.
- But as much
as she cared for Ira,
she says she felt
that it was more important
he give his marriage
another shot.
- I wanted them to do what
was best for their family.
So I really,
truly loved him,
and I thought that whatever
would make him happy
is what I wanted
for him.
- So she says
she stopped seeing Ira
and even met with Susan
to tell her she had bowed out
of the relationship.
- At the end
of the conversation,
she actually said to me,
"If it doesn't work out
"between me and Ira,
I wanna see him end up with you.
"I think you're
really good for him."
- And just a few months later,
Ira ran back to Kelly.
The reconciliation with
Susan wasn't going well.
Nobody was happy.
- Ira started
recording Susan,
claiming her anger was
escalating into threats.
And it was taking
a big toll on him.
- He was having
panic attacks.
He couldn't sleep at night--
nightmares.
- What's that
doing to you?
Watching the man you love
go through that?
- It's devastating.
- Someone in this heated
love triangle
was getting desperate.
- That desperate someone
will go to a car dealership,
but she will not
be shopping for a car.
- She brought me a picture
in a Ziploc bag.
- A picture
of the target?
- Along with the phone number
for the target.
- Someone's
planning a hit.
It's all caught
on hidden camera.
- In early April, 2016,
as the love triangle
between the podiatrist,
his estranged wife,
and his new girlfriend
reached a slow burn,
a new character
entered the scene--
a luxury car salesman.
He says he got
an unexpected visit
from a former customer.
She came into his office
and asked the unthinkable.
She wanted
someone murdered.
- Did she look like
the kind of woman
who would be coming in
to hire a hit man?
- No way.
Not in a million years
I wouldn't think that.
- His name is Marckensy,
originally from Haiti,
a father of four
who'd been selling cars
for more than 16 years.
- So the only thing
I could ask is, "Why?"
- Marckensy thinks
she came to him
because of an earlier
conversation they had
when he offered to help her
with her marital problems.
- "If you need any help
in any kind of situation,
"we know, you know, a few people
that could help you out."
Meaning that I have a friend of
mine in a police station nearby
I always call for
any reason whatsoever.
- Do you think she took what
you told her the wrong way?
- I think she did.
She believed that I would--
that I would harm the guy.
- But he says
he's no hitman.
The woman was just hearing
what she wanted to hear.
- She sound like she was
so desperate to get this done,
I think any little
affirmation--
she would force herself
to believe it.
- He says
he played along,
trying to see
if she was serious.
- I told her that it was
not something that I do,
but I could potentially
get her in touch
with the people
that could possibly do.
- And did you have any
background in law enforcement?
- No.
- You're just a regular guy?
- Just a regular guy
who hangs out with cops.
I pick up a few things
here and there.
- His unofficial police
training kicked in.
To make his story
more believable,
he says he got specific
about the men he would use
to do the hit.
- These guys are,
like, top Black Ops.
- Was she interested?
- She was.
- After she left,
Marckensy immediately texted
his friend on the force,
but got no response.
In the meantime,
to keep her on the hook,
he had arranged
a second meeting.
You can see them together
on this gas station
security footage.
- She brought me a picture
in a Ziploc bag.
- A picture of the target?
- Along with the phone number
for the target.
Now I come to realize
I do have something
that is potentially serious
in my hand,
and I don't know, uh,
exactly which way to go.
- Finally, his cop friend
called him back
and directed him
to Ramapo New York Police.
Robert Fitzgerald
and Peter Louzan
were the detectives
assigned to the case.
- The thing
we needed to do
was to get Marckensy's
cooperation.
- Since the woman
trusted Marckensy,
detectives wanted him to keep
playing the role of the bad guy.
He didn't hesitate.
- That's gotta be
really daunting.
- It was kind of cool
in a way.
You know, like, that's, like,
"007" type thing.
- Detectives then
devised a plan.
They rigged his car
with cameras
and audio recording devices.
- The microphone was
hanging over here,
and under my seat here,
I had a-a phone.
- And they asked Marckensy
to set up another meeting
with the woman.
The location?
This large Wal-Mart
parking lot
directly across the street
from the police station.
- We can literally see
the police department.
- Yeah, I mean,
you can throw a rock
and hit the police station
from here, you know?
- Marckensy,
the newly-minted informant,
alerted police
the meeting was set.
A team of detectives
raced to the parking lot
to get in position.
- It's an intense moment,
because when, you know,
the case is just,
you know, starting,
and she gets--
actually gets out of the car
and gets into that car,
we're like, "This is fantastic".
- As she got into
Marckensy's car,
detectives could watch
and listen to every word
in real time.
And it didn't take long before
she started talking money.
How much to have
the target murdered?
The next day,
detectives were watching
when the woman met
with Marckensy again.
This time, she suggested
how the target should be killed.
Over the course
of two meetings,
the woman also managed to
negotiate the price
down to $100,000...
...agreed to pay
a $2,000 deposit,
and then asked about
his refund policy.
So who was the woman?
Well, you've
already met her.
Yup, it was Ira's girlfriend,
Kelly Gribeluk.
And her target?
- Um, Susan.
Susan Bernstein.
- Ira's wife.
Apparently his girlfriend had
cooked up a cold-blooded plan
to end his marriage problems
for good,
but Detectives Fitzgerald
and Louzan
didn't think Kelly
was working alone.
So they asked
Marckensy to push Kelly
for a meeting
with her partner,
and she agreed
it was a good idea.
And then
it happened.
Later that night,
they both showed up.
- Kelly's partner in crime
steps out of the shadows,
and the case takes
a staggering turn.
Together, they have
a new job for the hit man.
- This is a huge moment
in our case.
- This is where this whole story
goes a little bit Hollywood.
- Yeah, literally.
- As Ramapo detectives
continue to investigate
the plot to kill
Susan Bernstein,
they became convinced
that Kelly Gribeluk
was not acting alone,
that someone else
was the mastermind.
Investigators had their
suspicions about who that was,
but they needed proof,
and less than a week later,
they got it.
At the parking lot across the
street from the police station,
detectives were in their
unmarked cars waiting.
- All of a sudden,
I think he's pulling in.
- He finally showed?
- Right.
- Who was the other person?
- That was Ira Bernstein.
- Incredibly, this was a man
all the detectives knew well.
- He's your police foot surgeon?
- Yes.
- Is that just
blowing your mind
that it's Ira?
- Well, one of the funny things
we were both patients of his.
- A long time ago.
- Now we had
to be concerned.
Is he gonna
recognize us
when we're doing
these surveillances?
- Rockland County Executive
Assistant D.A. Richard Moran,
was on the case
from the beginning.
- Ira, he actually
got in the car,
uh, with the informant...
...and started
talking to him
about how he wanted
his wife killed.
It was a game changer.
- Wasn't that enough
to arrest him
right then and there?
- No money had
been exchanged.
In New York, uh,
you do need an overt act,
and we had--
we had some stuff,
but we did not wanna
jump the gun on this.
- How are you?
- So they arranged
another meeting,
hoping Ira
would show again.
He didn't, but something
big happened.
Kelly finally handed
over money for the hit.
A $2,000 deposit.
As detectives waited for Ira
and Kelly to give the go ahead,
this melodrama
took a new turn.
Kelly added
two new targets.
- Kelly shows up to one of
the meetings and says,
"He hasn't committed yet,
but he wants you
"to take care of
two insurance investigators."
- Kelly didn't ask
for them to be killed,
but to be beaten up.
Detectives believe
this new job
was a way to test Marckensy
to see if he was
the real deal.
- And Kelly asked him, like,
"Are you a police officer?"
- We believe that
they don't think that
someone working with the police
would actually have
two innocent people
just doing their job beat up.
- And they were willing
to pay quickly to get it done.
Kelly handed Marckensy
a brown bag filled with cash.
$2,500--
half of the $5,000 fee.
Detective Louzan reached out
to the insurance investigators
and quickly discovered
why they were
the selected targets.
- I called them and said,
"Listen, I really wanna
speak to you in person."
I didn't wanna tell them
over the phone.
They said, "well, we're
coming to Rockland anyway
because we have an investigation
into Ira Bernstein".
- Louzan says they were
investigating Ira
for insurance fraud,
suspecting that he'd been
illegally padding
his insurance claims.
How did these insurance
investigators feel
when you told them
that there was this plot out
to have you beaten up?
- They couldn't
believe it.
They were shocked, and then
they were very concerned.
- The detective asked
the investigators
for their help.
- This is where this whole story
goes a little bit Hollywood.
- Yeah, literally.
- Would the investigators
be willing to be actors
for the day?
A theatrical plan
was in the works.
- This might sound crazy,
but maybe we can get
a makeup artist,
make it look like they were
actually beat up.
- How did they
react to this idea?
- Well, I think
one of them was like,
"I gotta talk to my wife first,"
but they agreed.
- Police set up
in this parking lot,
where they had a few
of their undercover guys
pretend to throw
some punches.
- And we took
a lot of pictures
of them
beating them up.
You know, we had to actually
tell the investigators, like,
"Don't overdo it.
Just fight back a little bit."
This is a huge moment
in our case, you know,
and if they believe
this ruse
about the beating up
the investigators,
then we can probably
get to the--
the big thing with,
you know,
where he's trying
to kill Susan.
- The pressure was now
on the car salesman.
He texted Kelly to meet him
in their usual spot.
He had three photos
tucked inside a newspaper
ready to show her.
- And we had coached him
ahead of time.
No matter what happens,
she's probably gonna say,
"I wanna take these
pictures to Ira."
Like, no, we don't--
We want Ira to come out,
and we need him
to start-- to commit.
No matter what happens,
you make sure that
the pictures stay with you.
- Everyone was in place,
waiting.
Kelly was late.
Then, finally she showed.
With his heart pounding,
Marckensy showed her the photos.
She seems satisfied.
And just as
the detectives predicted,
Kelly asked to take the photos
to show Ira.
The salesman followed
the detective's
instructions perfectly.
But then, he came up with
an idea all on his own.
He knew law enforcement
wanted Ira,
so he told Kelly
to call him.
So he suggested to Ira that
he could swing by his office
to show the doctor
the photos in person.
It sounded like
the perfect plan,
but is there really
ever such a thing?
- Did the sting
just get stung?
- Are you on
the edge of your seats
when he's pointing
to that camera?
- This is it.
We're done.
- Welcome back to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered".
I'm Craig Melvin.
Ira Bernstein
and his girlfriend,
Kelly Gribeluk,
thought they had devised
a foolproof plan to have
Ira's estranged wife,
Susan, killed.
They had no idea
the "hit man" they hired
was secretly working
with police.
But now, it looked like
the undercover sting operation
might be blown.
Was Ira on to them?
Here's Andrea Canning
with "The Target".
- The investigation
had entered its third week.
Ira had agreed to meet
Marckensy, the informant,
outside his
medical practice.
Here are Ira and Kelly
walking towards his car.
- The doctor comes
out of his office.
He's in his scrubs,
goes into the car.
- Hey, how's it goin'?
- How are ya?
- All right.
- Marckensy showed Ira
the photos
of the insurance investigators
looking like
they were being
roughed up.
Ira immediately
seemed suspicious.
- And he's like,
"Why are they wearing
a baseball cap
and, you know,
regular jacket?"
I said, "I don't know."
- You're really having
to think on your feet.
- Mm-Hmm.
- So Marckensy
started talking about
keeping the photos.
- At this point,
Ira seemed satisfied.
- He's like,
"Okay, good, good".
And I-- we're like,
it's a big relief.
Yeah.
It-- yeah, yeah.
- 'Cause remember,
if he thinks they're fake,
now he's really gonna think
something's up here.
- And detectives had coached
Marckensy on what to do
after he showed
Ira the pictures.
- Ask him what's going on
with the wife.
Or give them a deadline.
Say, listen, it has to be
by this time,
or we're walking away.
You know?
But it has to be
his decision.
Don't-don't force him
to do anything.
- Then, the good doctor
said what law enforcement
was waiting to hear.
- To detectives' ears,
Ira was admitting
he was the one
pulling the strings,
not Kelly.
It was a critical moment.
But just as they were
ready to high-five each other,
Ira turned around and pointed
to something in the back seat.
- He was looking directly
at the hidden camera.
- Are you on the edge
of your seats
when he's pointing
to that camera?
- Oh, yeah, are you kidding me?
- Definitely.
- It was-- this is it.
He's looking right at
the camera.
What-- we're done.
But Marckensy
does a great job.
He leans back and goes,
"Oh, that's something
for the kids' games
where they plug into it."
- Crisis averted.
Then, without skipping a beat,
Ira moved onto the details
of how Susan
should be killed.
They agreed she would
be hit by a car.
- Detectives waited
five more days.
Finally, Kelly
contacted Marckensy.
- She's calls.
"Hey, let's have
another talk."
Like, this is gonna be
the answer.
It's either gonna be
yes or no.
And she shows up again
in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
This time, she doesn't
get in the car.
- Detectives were worried
since Ira had spotted
their hidden camera,
that he might have warned Kelly
to stay out of the car.
- So is that game over?
- No, it's not game over,
'cause we have audio
on Marckensy himself.
- Kelly said Ira
had been checking up
on the insurance investigators
to make sure
they had actually
been beaten up.
- Then, despite
all of her reservations,
Kelly finally gave an answer
about the hit
on Susan Bernstein.
- We don't hear any answer,
'cause she's holding up a phone.
She had typed the word "yes"
inside the phone,
so she wasn't verbally
gonna say it.
- But it didn't matter.
Detectives now had confirmation
Ira and Kelly were in.
And the date was set.
They believed Susan
would be run over
four days later on Thursday,
May 5th: Cinco de Mayo.
The prosecutor was
now satisfied they had
enough to arrest them.
- Once Kelly says yes
and agrees to give him money,
the investigation is,
for the most part, complete.
- The police made plans
for Kelly's arrest
at the Wal-Mart
parking lot.
- And how did
this go down?
Was it, like,
a SWAT situation?
Was just a couple
of officers?
- It was-- well, there were
several officers
in plain clothes
surrounding the area,
but it was just two officers
who approached her.
- She was shocked.
- Yeah, she was shocked.
Actually, I went to the door
and I said,
"You know, I believe you know
what this is gonna be about."
- When they brought Kelly
into the police station,
there was another staged
Hollywood moment.
They had handcuffed
Marckensy
and put him in
a holding room.
- She saw him in there.
I saw her eyes
meet his eyes
and I was, "All right,
so now she knows
the supposed
hit man's arrested."
- You have any weapons
or anything on you?
- No.
- They were hoping she would
point the finger at Ira,
but it didn't
work out that way.
- A few hours later,
on his way home
from dinner in the city,
Ira was pulled over
near his house
and arrested.
- He was so nervous
he was shaking away.
He was saying,
"My life is over.
My life is over."
- I think he said,
"I should just kill myself"
at that point.
- Yeah, a little later
on that night.
- Yeah.
"'Cause I'll never
practice again."
- Ira and Kelly were
charged with conspiracy
and solicitation
to commit murder.
You've heard law enforcement's
side of the story,
but the couple has
a very different version.
- Coming up...
- Things had reached
a horrible point.
She was trying to
blackmail me in every way.
- I saw someone
that I loved being hurt
and it was not
gonna come to an end.
- He made it very clear
that we were gonna be
fed to the alligators
if we didn't
go through with this.
- Ira Bernstein,
a respected doctor,
and his girlfriend,
Kelly Gribeluk
had been caught
on hidden camera--
- How are you?
- Planning the murder
of Ira's wife.
- But they say the video
doesn't tell the whole story.
- Did you want
Susan Bernstein dead?
- In the beginning, yes.
But at the end, no.
- There was no way in hell
I was ever going
to go through with this
and hurt Susan.
- While out on bail,
Ira and Kelly agreed
to sit down
with "Dateline."
They shared with us
how this whole
murder for hire plot
got started.
For Ira, it was
out of desperation.
- Things had reached
a horrible point.
- Ira had a secret.
He'd been stealing
from an insurance company,
overbilling
for medical services,
and he says his wife,
Susan, knew it.
- Did you feel like
Susan was trying
to blackmail you
in any way?
- She was trying to
blackmail me in every way.
And she would look at me
and she would say,
"Listen, I have broken
into your emails.
I have printed out
and recorded
all of your business
dealings.
And I'm telling you now,
if you don't give me
everything I want,
I'm going to the prosecutor.
I'm gonna expose you
for everything
and try to put you
in jail."
- Remember, Ira recorded
Susan threatening him.
- Ira claims Susan was using
that information
to pressure him into signing
a postnuptial agreement
that stated if they divorced,
he would give her
most of their assets.
Fearing Susan would make
good on her threats,
he signed it.
- Only a moron
would have signed
this postnuptial agreement
if they weren't
under severe coercion
and distress.
- So you're the moron
in this story?
- I am the moron.
- Remember, this is
Ira's version of what happened.
Susan and her lawyer
never responded
to our repeated requests
to hear her side.
Ira says it was
during this volatile time
that Kelly came up with
the idea of hiring a hitman.
- So Kelly did this
on her own?
- Yes.
I had a conversation
with her about it.
It was more fantasy.
There was nothing
legitimate to it.
- What's hard is that
a respected doctor
was capable of even
going down this road.
- I don't understand
it either.
That was not me.
That was
a different person.
- You both actually
crossed over
from just
thinking about it
to doing something
about it.
- Unfortunately.
Unfortunately, we did.
And I was the one
who put it into motion.
- Did you worry about
those kids not having--
- I did.
- Their mom?
- I did.
- But it didn't stop you?
- No.
- Why was this more important
than those kids
having their mom?
- Because I saw someone
that I loved being hurt
and it was not gonna come
to an end.
She was never
gonna stop.
- Did you both imagine
life without Susan?
- Of course.
- And what was that life
without her around?
- Peaceful.
- Despite her fantasy
of a peaceful life
with Susan out of the picture,
Ira and Kelly claim
they had second thoughts.
But there was a problem.
- Did you say to Marckensy,
"We don't wanna do this"?
- Yeah, I told him.
- And what'd he say?
- He said, "There's
no backing out".
- In an impromptu meeting
where there were
no police recordings,
Kelly claims Marckensy
told her a terrifying story
about another client
of his who wanted out.
- He explained to me
that he has to
pick up a girl
and bring her to the men,
and they're gonna be
feeding her to alligators.
- Did you take that
as they could feed us
to the alligators?
- Absolutely.
- He made it very clear
that we were
gonna be fed
to the alligators
if we didn't
go through with this.
- You did have
another option.
You could have just paid them
the money and walked away.
- We thought about that.
It was $100,000 that he
wanted at that point.
I don't think they would
have went away,
and we both came to
the same conclusion.
- But isn't it easier, though,
to just not kill someone
and walk away
and take the money?
- Yes. It just--
At the time,
we did not feel that
that was an option.
We didn't feel they
were gonna stop.
- Despite their fears,
Kelly says she and Ira had
decided to back out anyway.
- We both came
to our senses.
We're like, "This is crazy.
We're not doing this."
- I think people are
going to have a hard time
believing that you really
didn't want it to go through
after everything you had done
to set the plan in motion.
- If we really
wanted to do this,
he would have been paid.
- Coming up with hundred
thousand dollars for me
would have been
a piece of cake.
If I wanted it done,
it would have been done.
- Ira did, though,
admit to paying
to have those insurance
investigators beat up.
- And I made the biggest
wrong decision of my life,
which was to put
the welfare of myself
above the welfare
of those investigators
and to allow them to be
subjected to getting hurt.
- What would
you say to them?
- I don't even know what
I could say to them.
What I did
was disgusting.
Thank God this is all a sham,
and nothing happened.
- Did you ever think
that you could have been
part of a sting operation?
- You know, the weird thing is,
I was almost hoping
it was part of a sting operation
at that point,
because I wanted to
get out of this so badly.
- Why should people
believe you?
People could think, "Yeah,
he's just trying
"to change his story now,
because he got caught."
- Anyone that knows me knows
that I am not a violent person,
and I really believe
that Susan
knows me
for 23 years,
and even she knows
there is no way
I would have ever
let this happen.
- The prosecutor
thought Ira was lying,
and to prove it,
he wanted Kelly's help,
but she refused
to cooperate,
at least when they
were first arrested.
Then, Moran spotted
a potential crack
in their relationship.
Ira had gotten out of jail
in four days,
while Kelly,
four months later,
was still
behind bars.
Why didn't Ira
bail her out?
- I think you'd
have to ask him.
She might have
the same question.
- This was Moran's
chance to pounce.
He knew Kelly was angry,
and hoped she would finally
agree to roll on Ira,
so he offered her
a plea deal.
In exchange for testifying
against Ira,
she would get 12 years
in prison
with a chance
for parole in four.
Her attorney,
Jonathan Ripps,
explains why
she took the deal.
- If she were convicted
after trial,
I'm fairly confident
the judge would give her
close to the max,
which would be
eight and a third
to 25 years,
and that's an
awfully long time.
- Plea deal felt safe?
- Anything involving state
prison that is years in length
is gonna be
an ugly number,
but the alternative, uh,
had there been a conviction,
would have been much
more drastic.
- With the plea in place,
Kelly was all set
to be the prosecution's star
witness against Ira,
but in this twisted tale
of greed and lies,
could anyone be trusted?
- Coming up...
- ...answering
for the past...
- What I did was wrong.
- ...and thinking
about the future.
- Some people call this
a twisted love story.
- I think it's true love.
- Welcome back.
Ira Bernstein
and Kelly Gribeluk
were caught
on police recordings
plotting the contract
killing
of Ira's estranged
wife, Susan.
Kelly agreed
to a plea deal
requiring her
to testify against Ira.
To investigators,
the couple's red hot romance
appeared to have
gone stone cold,
but soon they
would wonder
if they were
about to get burned.
Here's Andrea Canning
with the conclusion
of "The Target".
- As the case headed
towards trial,
it looked like
the estranged lovers
would point fingers
at each other.
Kelly was now cooperating
with the prosecution.
And Ira's defense?
To throw his girlfriend
under the bus.
He claimed he never gave
the go ahead
to have his wife murdered
and says
that was all Kelly.
- She came home
on that evening,
and she told me
she had to tell him yes.
- So she went rogue on
you, you're saying?
- I-- pretty much.
- Rockland County
prosecutor Richard Moran
wasn't buying it.
He says the evidence
told the real story.
- When you look at the meetings
and you listen to them,
Kelly couldn't
make one decision.
Ira was the one
calling the shots.
Was she the person
who was the conduit?
Sure,
but in the end,
Ira had a goal.
- This was all about
money in your eyes?
- Yes.
- He believes Ira had no
intention of honoring
that postnuptial agreement
where he consented to give
Susan most of their assets
if they divorced.
- Ira Bernstein was a man who
wanted to keep everything,
that in his eyes,
he worked so hard for,
and he was going to
do what he had to do,
whether it be have the insurance
investigators beat up
or, um, having
his wife killed.
- The cornerstone, really,
of the defense of the case
is that-that Ira tried to
call it off at the end,
but that there
were threats.
If you don't go through
with this,
harm could
come to you.
- That's simply,
um, not the case.
In fact, um,
after they claimed
they were subject
to duress,
they actually hire him
to do the other job--
to beat up
the two men.
- And he says nowhere
on the tapes or in text messages
did Ira and Kelly say
they changed their minds
about killing Susan.
- Even if they did
change their mind,
they never called the police
to tell the police,
"Hey, there's a hitman
out there
"hired to kill Susan."
They never called Susan
to say, "Watch out."
They did nothing.
- And Moran says there was
another indicator
Ira and Kelly planned to go
through with the murder.
- On the day that Kelly
told the informant yes,
she called and made
dinner reservations
for the entire doctor's
office for May 5th,
and that was the day that
Susan was going to be run over.
It's an alibi.
Kelly and Ira wanted
everybody from work to see
that they were with them
acting normal, um,
when Susan got killed.
- As the trial date
drew closer,
Moran was feeling
pretty good
about his case
and his star witness,
but there was a hitch.
After Kelly got out of jail,
instead of rolling on Ira,
she moved in with him.
- Kelly seems like she has
this fierce loyalty to Ira.
- She certainly does.
- Kelly was now too
much of a wild card.
So instead of
going to trial,
the prosecutor
offered Ira a deal--
15 years in prison,
eligible for
parole in five.
- There was a
real defense here.
- Ira's attorney,
Jeff Millman, says
even though he believed Ira
had a strong defense,
he knew going before a jury
could be a gamble.
- Here you have
two people
who've been talking about
planning a murder,
and then you're supposed
to take their word for it
that they were trying
to call it off.
- That's one of the obstacles of
trial. Absolutely.
- And there were
Ira's other charges,
insurance fraud
and ordering the assault
on those investigators,
so he accepted the deal,
and pleaded guilty
to grand larceny
and conspiracy involving
the plot to kill his wife.
- We resolved everything
with the plea.
All the financial
investigations,
all crimes alleged to have
been committed.
- As for his estranged wife,
Susan, the intended target,
she didn't find out
about the plot
until after Ira
was arrested.
- She actually
wasn't surprised.
- Susan had the opportunity
to say her piece
at Ira's sentencing.
She requested not
to be on camera.
- Ira is evil and cold-hearted
and a narcissist.
The only remorse
Ira has
is that the murder
did not occur.
He is the scariest
type of criminal--
smart with no remorse.
- But Ira says
he is remorseful
for all the pain
he's caused his family,
especially his children.
- I love my
children very much.
What I did is wrong.
I will spend every day for
the rest of my life
making it up to them.
- Ira and Kelly were now
living 300 miles apart
in his and her prisons,
so how would this
saga end for them?
It depends
on who you ask.
- I don't know where
this is gonna go.
I know I still care
about her a lot.
I'm hoping we can
get through this.
- The only good thing that
came out of this
was that we've both
come to the realization
that we really
love each other.
- Some people call this
a twisted love story.
- I think it's true love.
- And Marckensy,
the car salesman
who played the role
of a lifetime,
said he was happy
for the Hollywood ending.
The good guys won.
- The detectives
and the prosecutors
said that you're the hero
in this.
Do you feel that?
- No, not at all.
And I felt like,
you know what?
That was the
right thing to do.
Being a hero?
No, they're the hero,
the one out there every day.
Not me.
- That's all
for this edition
of "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered".
I'm Craig Melvin.
Thank you for watching.