Robert R. Reldan was convicted of the murders of two young women in Bergen County, New Jersey, who died eight days apart in October 1975. The case went through two trials in 1979, a reversal on appeal in 1982 and a retrial in 1986. It then went on in the parole system for decades. A hearing on his parole in 2008 began a series of denials, three Appellate Division rulings on how the State Parole Board set his waiting periods, and, in March 2025, a remand in which the denial of parole was left in place while a new determination was ordered.
Susan Heynes, 26, lived in Haworth, New Jersey. The count of the indictment that named her charged a murder on October 6, 1975. Susan Reeve, 22, lived in Demarest, New Jersey. The second count charged a murder on October 14, 1975. Both towns lie in northern Bergen County.
Reldan had been paroled in May 1975. Police interviewed him on October 22, 1975, and he was arrested in Closter, New Jersey, on October 30 or 31. A grand jury indicted him on January 20, 1977, on two counts of murder.
He was also prosecuted for offenses committed while he was an inmate in State prison. In 1978 he was sentenced to concurrent terms of twenty to twenty-five years for four counts of advocate homicidal death and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. One of the offenses was a conspiracy to murder a relative.
The murder charges were tried together before a jury in the Bergen County Superior Court. The first trial ran from May 21 to June 16, 1979, and ended in a mistrial when the jury could not agree.
The second trial began on September 19, 1979. During it, on October 15, 1979, Reldan attempted to escape. In 1981 he was sentenced to an aggregate term of twenty-two years for escape, possession of an implement of escape, aggravated assault of a police officer, robbery and theft, committed during an escape in October 1979. The sentence ran consecutively to the terms already imposed.
On October 17, 1979, the jury returned its verdicts. On count one, the death of Susan Heynes on October 6, 1975, it found him guilty of "second degree murder." On count two, the death of Susan Reeve on October 14, 1975, it found him guilty of "first degree murder." The court imposed "a mandatory term of life imprisonment" on count two, consecutive to sentences he was already serving, and "a term of 30 years" on count one, consecutive to the count two sentence.
Reldan appealed. The Appellate Division, in an opinion by Judge McElroy joined by Judges Michels and J.H. Coleman, decided the case on May 11, 1982, after argument on March 9. It held that the trial judge had erred in admitting evidence of other incidents under Evidence Rule 55 on the question of identity. The earlier incidents, the court found, were not so distinctive as to work like a signature, and the error was not harmless. The judgment was reversed and the matter remanded for a new trial. The court affirmed the trial judge's decision on severance, rejected a jurisdiction argument as clearly without merit, treated the impartial-jury and sentencing points as moot, and declined to treat the speedy-trial and witness points as plain error.
The third trial began on January 17, 1986, with Reldan representing himself. He was found guilty again and sentenced to "life consecutive to thirty years for two murders committed in 1975": a life term for one murder and a consecutive 30-year term for the other.
Other sentencing followed. The 1983 sentences on the escape-related matters were reversed. In 1987 he was resentenced to an aggregate fifteen-year term, with seven and one-half years of parole ineligibility, for conspiracy to commit escape and an offense under the arms law, committed in 1981 while he was a State prison inmate. All of these sentences ran consecutively to those already imposed.
Reldan became statutorily eligible for parole in July 2008.
In April 2009 a two-member panel denied parole and recommended a 240-month future eligibility term. A three-member panel denied parole in October 2010 and set the 240-month term, and the full Board affirmed in June 2011. On July 9, 2012, the Appellate Division reversed and remanded, holding the 240-month term arbitrary and unsupported. In March 2013 the Board reduced the term to 228 months. On April 24, 2015, the Appellate Division again reversed and remanded, directing the Board to give a clear and specific statement of reasons with a factual basis in the record.
A two-member panel denied parole again in 2017 and set a 120-month term; a three-member panel did the same in 2018, giving fifteen reasons. The full Board affirmed. On December 4, 2019, the Appellate Division, in an opinion by Judges Moynihan and Mitterhoff after argument on September 23, affirmed. The opinion gave August 2023 as the projected date of his next eligibility.
On May 15, 2023, a panel denied parole and set a 36-month term. The notice was dated May 22, 2023. Reldan filed an administrative appeal on October 4, 2023, accepted as timely on October 18. The Board's Final Agency Decision of February 28, 2024 affirmed the denial and the 36-month term. Reldan filed a notice of appeal on April 10, 2024, amended April 18, with his amended brief filed August 30 and the Board's letter brief on October 15, 2024.
The Appellate Division decided that appeal on March 26, 2025, in a per curiam opinion by Judges Sabatino, Gummer and Jacobs, after argument on March 5. It described him as an eighty-four-year-old State inmate. The court vacated the 36-month term without prejudice and remanded for a new determination within 90 days, leaving the denial of parole in place for the time being. It found that the Board had twice called a risk score of 17 a "moderate risk" when both experts described it as "low to moderate," and had then treated the assessment as an aggravating factor, which the court called a fundamental error. It also noted that the Board had not addressed the fall in his score from 23 to 17, had set aside his age as "not dispositive" without analysis, and had listed letters of support without examining them. The Board had leaned on the gravity of the 1975 crimes, which cannot alone justify denying parole under the 1979 parole act. His counsel stated that a two-member panel denied parole again in January 2025.
A book on the case by the prosecutor who obtained the first conviction and a co-author was the subject of a talk at the Mahwah public library in June 2012.
October 6, 1975: date of the death charged in count one (Susan Heynes).
October 14, 1975: date of the death charged in count two (Susan Reeve).
October 30 or 31, 1975: arrest in Closter.
January 20, 1977: indictment on two counts of murder.
1978: sentenced to twenty to twenty-five years on four counts of advocate homicidal death and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, committed while an inmate in State prison.
May 21 to June 16, 1979: first trial, mistrial.
September 19 to October 17, 1979: second trial; escape attempt on October 15; verdicts on October 17 of second degree murder (count one) and first degree murder (count two).
1981: sentenced to an aggregate twenty-two years for escape-related offenses.
May 11, 1982: Appellate Division reverses the murder convictions and remands for a new trial.
January 17, 1986: third trial begins; he is convicted again and sentenced to "life consecutive to thirty years."
1987: resentenced to an aggregate fifteen years on the 1981 prison matters.
2008 to 2025: repeated parole denials; Appellate Division rulings of July 9, 2012, April 24, 2015, December 4, 2019 and March 26, 2025.