Deli Owner Made a Killing Slicing Ham & Cheese, Now Going to Prison for Murder Plot of Wife
A successful deli owner in Florida has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty during his criminal defense trial to paying for the attempted murder of his wife and then trafficking cocaine as a means to save some money on the kill. Glenn Sandler, 54 and owner of the Gourmet Deli House in Lake Worth, was apparently going through a messy divorce with his wife Betty when he attempted to have her killed in 2005. Little did Sandler know that the hitman he was working with was an undercover sheriff’s agent who had been tipped off by a convict whom Sandler once paid to have his wife killed in an “automobile accident.”
During the sting, the undercover sheriff’s agent agreed to kill Sandler’s wife for $25,000. Sandler specifically instructed the “hitman” to kill his wife and bury her in a remote spot all the while asking her “Is this enough?” A Palm Beach Post story detailed how Sandler had offered his wife a $2.5 million divorce settlement, and that this cryptic comment had to do with the fact that he thought he was being extorted by her.
Always the businessman looking to save money, Sandler agreed to ship about $100,000 worth of cocaine via his small airplane in exchange for $10,000 being knocked off the murder contract. Authorities said that Sandler eventually flew cocaine to the North County Airport in Palm Beach Gardens.
So when exactly was Sandler nabbed for this atrocity? Sandler was arrested in November 2005 when he met with the agent posing as a hitman in an Office Depot parking lot. When the “hitman” handed Sandler his wife’s cell phone and car keys as proof that she had been killed, he pony-upped the $15,000. To his surprise, he was then handcuffed.
Sandler was originally facing as much as 60 years in prison for the charges against him. As part of the plea deal, Sandler got one-fourth of that time but did have to relinquish his personal airplane, a motorcycle and $15,000 in contraband (and who said Jared Fogle was the only well-off guy in the deli business). While being fined $250,000, Sandler did not have to forfeit ownership of his deli.
