Naman Shrestha
In the spring of 2016, popular podiatrist Ira Bernstein reportedly tried to get his estranged wife, Susan Bernstein, killed. When that attempt failed, he attempted another assassination attempt on her a few years later. Both times, he was apprehended by the authorities and brought to justice for his crimes. All the intricate details regarding the former podiatrist’s involvement in the attempted murder-for-hire plots against Susan are covered in NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Target’ and ‘Dateline: Take Two,’ both of which feature insightful interviews with the officials linked to the investigation.
Ira Bernstein and Kelly Gribeluk Tried to Hire a Car Salesman to Kill Susan Bernstein
Ira Bernstein was a student at Penn State when he met Susan in the 1990s. As sparks flew between them, the two began dating while also focusing on their respective careers. Ira earned a doctorate in podiatry and went on to become a successful podiatrist. After going out for several years, the couple tied the knot in 2002 and made their relationship official. In the years that followed, they welcomed three children into the world, including two daughters and a son. Besides running his podiatry practice, Ira also invested in multiple properties. About a decade into the marriage, cracks began to surface between Ira and Susan as they argued frequently. As per Susan’s claims, Ira allegedly threatened, humiliated, and intimidated her regularly.
In the early 2010s, the podiatrist began having an affair with a patient named Kelly Gribeluk, a divorced woman who also had three children of her own. While Ira’s relationship with Kelly blossomed, Susan filed for divorce in 2014. The divorce settlement was suspended after he signed over four of his rental properties to Susan’s name. Around the same time, he had to pay thousands of dollars for a failed foot operation and over a $1 million for another botched foot procedure. Moreover, despite having Ramapo Police Department members as his clients, he was under investigation by authorities for possible insurance fraud. With the financial pressure mounting on him, Ira and Kelly decided to hire a hitman to get rid of his estranged wife and physically assault a couple of insurance agents.
Thus, in the spring of 2016, Kelly got in touch with one of her friends, a luxury car salesman named Marckensy Louissaint. However, instead of being a part of their murderous plot, Marckensy went straight to the police and informed them about the situation. In order to get enough evidence against Kelly and Ira, the police installed a hidden camera in his car and ordered the salesman to play along with her requests and get her to explicitly mention the hitout on Susan and the attack on two insurance agents. On the recordings, she was heard telling Marckensy that the murder should “look like an accident.” She added, “He’s in such conflict. The guy can’t sleep. He can’t eat. It’s a hard enough decision emotionally that his kids will be without a mom. … So it’s like, he knows what he’s gotta do, but it’s killing him.”
Ira Bernstein Tried to Get Susan Killed Again After His Release From Prison
Before finalizing the talk about Susan’s murder, the police worked with a make-up artist and the two insurance investigators to create photographs that showed them bruised and beaten. After the car salesman showed the photographs to Ira, he told him that Kelly would contact him regarding the murder. Within the next few days, Kelly met with Marckensy again and discussed the murderous plan and how much he would get paid for carrying out the killing. Armed with enough evidence against the couple, the police arrested Ira and Kelly on the night of March 2, 2016, and charged them with second-degree conspiracy, second-degree solicitation, fourth-degree conspiracy, and a misdemeanor count of fourth-degree solicitation.
Several months later, in 2017, Ira Bernstein pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree conspiracy and two counts of fifth-degree conspiracy. Consequently, he was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison and placed under a 10-year protection order in favor of his estranged wife. After serving about five years behind bars, Ira was released on merit on July 1, 2021. Not long after his release, the former podiatrist reached out to a Haverstraw-based landscaper to hire him to kill Susan. Just like Marckensy Louissaint, the landscaper also cooperated with the authorities.
Between August and September 2022, Ira believed that the landscaper had audio recordings of their conversations about the murderous plot and was planning to use them in an official legal proceeding, as the man was in the midst of a civil lawsuit against Ira’s father. According to reports, the Bernsteins told the landscaper that they would give him back control of his business in exchange for providing them with the recorded evidence. They also tried to alter or destroy the evidence that could incriminate Ira of soliciting the murder of his estranged wife. On May 24, 2023, Ira was indicted for the same.
Ira Bernstein Was Sentenced to State Prison For a Second Murder-For-Hire Plot
Several months later, on August 25, 2025, Ira Bernstein, of Montebello, New York, pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence in connection with the second murder-for-hire plot. By that time, the divorce between Ira and Susan had been finalized. During his sentencing hearing in early March 2026, Susan took the stand and talked about the trauma caused by the convict. She stated, “Ira repeatedly said it was cheaper to have me killed than divorce me…The possibility of yet another murder attempt is not speculative.”
Before his sentencing, Ira also addressed the court and Susan directly, stating, “I never asked or solicited him to hurt you in any way. I never wanted to have you harmed, and I said no to him.” In the end, he was sentenced to 1.5 to 3 years in state prison in the Rockland County Court. He was also warned about the possibility of a life imprisonment sentence if he was convicted again in the future. As of today, the 51-year-old convict is seemingly jailed in a county jail in New York.
