Ramapo Man Pleads Guilty to Evidence Tampering in Murder-for Hire Plot Against Wife

District Attorney Thomas E. Walsh II announced on August 25th that Ira Bernstein, 51, of Montebello, New York, has pleaded guilty to Tampering with Physical Evidence in connection with a second plot to murder his wife.

In the first plot, in 2016, Bernstein was arrested by the Town of Ramapo Police Department and charged with conspiring to murder his wife, Susan Bernstein, as well as conspiring to assault two insurance investigators. Bernstein pleaded guilty in 2017 to one count of Conspiracy in the Second Degree and two counts of Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree. He was sentenced by the Honorable David Zuckerman to five to fifteen years in state prison and placed under a 10-year order of protection in favor of Susan Bernstein.

Bernstein was released on merit from state prison on July 1, 2021, by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

In the second plot, on or about and between August 4, 2022 and September 21, 2022, Bernstein, believing that an audio recording of a conversation between him and another individual was about to be produced or used in an official proceeding or a prospective official proceeding, and intending to prevent such production and use, Bernstein suppressed the recording by an act of concealment, alteration and destruction, or by employing deception. The audio recording was in regards to a solicitation to have his wife, Susan Bernstein, killed.

Bernstein was indicted on May 24, 2023, by a Rockland County Grand Jury following an investigation conducted by the Town of Ramapo Police Department with the assistance of the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the Honorable Robert J. Prisco, promised Bernstein one and a half years to three years in state prison.

Bernstein’s attorneys John Edwards and Stacy Richman spoke to the Rockland County Times this past Tuesday regarding the case. The two stated that the plea did not involve pleading guilty to solicitation to have his wife killed, but solely to tampering with physical evidence.

Sentencing on this matter has been scheduled for Dec. 5, 2025, before the Honorable Robert J. Prisco.

The case is being prosecuted by Executive Assistant District Attorney Kristin Tirino.