TOMS RIVER — A judge on Tuesday scheduled a September trial date for a Beachwood man accused a decade ago of carjacking and murdering a Middletown schoolteacher who secretly recorded her final words with her killer. Superior Court Judge James N. Citta scheduled jury selection to begin for Michael LaSane on Sept. 19.
LaSane, now 27, of Beachwood, is charged with the murder of Kathleen Stanfield Weinstein in Berkeley on March 14, 1996, and with felony murder, kidnapping, robbery and carjacking. Weinstein, 45, was a Tinton Falls resident and a special-education teacher at Thorne Middle School in Middletown. She had a son who was 6 years old when she was abducted from the former Caldor Shopping Mall on Route 37 in Dover Township and driven to a wooded area in Berkeley's Manitou Park section, where she ultimately was smothered with her own raincoat to stop her from screaming.
Before she was killed, she used a microcassette recorder to tape herself pleading with LaSane for 46 minutes to take her 1995 Toyota Camry and spare her life, authorities have said. LaSane reportedly had said he wanted Weinstein's car as a present to himself for his 17th birthday the following day.
In 1997, LaSane waived his right to juvenile treatment and pleaded guilty in Superior Court to felony murder. He had been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole before serving 30 years. However, in 2004, he won an appeal granting him the right to withdraw his guilty plea on the basis that he received ineffective assistance from his trial attorney, Kevin Daniels, because the attorney had a one-night stand with the defendant's mother. LaSane withdrew his guilty plea Feb. 17.