Delaware County murderer dies in prison at 67

Mar. 4—A Delaware County man who spent nearly four decades behind bars for the 1982 murders of a Chenango County man and a Broome County woman died in state prison last month.

Herman D. Neu, 67, formerly of Deposit, was pronounced dead at 5:20 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Mohawk Valley Correctional Facility in Rome, where he was serving a 52-years-to-life sentence.

Neu was sentenced in 1983 on two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree robbery in the deaths of James Wilcox, 19, of Afton, and Christine Kamide, 22, of Binghamton.

"We are relieved that a part of this nightmare is over and we don't have to worry about him getting out and endangering another family," the Wilcox family said in a statement Wednesday.

Neu's earliest parole eligibility date was scheduled for February 2033.

Wilcox, a 1981 Afton Central School graduate saving up for college, was working alone at the Afton Country Store on state Route 41 at the time of his Sept. 16 death. Prosecutors said Neu waited until all other customers left the store before entering around 9:30 p.m., shooting Wilcox in the head and the chest with a .22-caliber revolver and removing $283 in cash from the register.

"Jimmy was very family-oriented and very compassionate," his sister, Liz Wilcox, told The Daily Star. "He had lots of friends, he played guitar and he liked drawing."

The Afton Sertoma Club set up a memorial scholarship fund for art students in Wilcox's honor.

Five days after Wilcox's murder, between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m. Sept. 21, Christine Kamide was alone, working behind the counter of a convenience store at the corner of Robinson and Moeller streets when Neu entered, shooting her in the head with the same revolver and similarly removing about $200 in cash from the register before fleeing.

"Goodbye and good riddance," said Vestal resident Paul Kamide, Christine's husband. "You kill two people in cold blood, you deserve to die."

"I don't have any bad feelings about Neu being dead," he continued. "He took two people's lives in cold blood. This was premeditated. It's not like they were suddenly faced with danger."

Neu was convicted alongside fellow Deposit resident Thomas H. Marlowe, now 71, whom prosecutors said was the getaway driver.

Marlowe was sentenced in November 1983 to 23 1/2 years to life in prison, which he has been serving in Elmira Correctional Facility. He became eligible for parole in August 2006 and again every two years since, but has been denied release each time. Marlowe's next parole hearing is scheduled for June 2022.

"We'll address the parole commissioners at every opportunity," Kamide said. "We'll remind them how he turned our lives upside-down and inside-out."

Neu and Marlowe were apprehended in the village of Deposit on Dec. 10, 1982. Witnesses reported seeing the pair buying rounds of drinks — allegedly with the stolen cash — at a bar in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, the night of Kamide's murder.

Kamide said the news of Neu's death brought a sense of relief to the family.

"He should've died a long time ago," he said. "It's one down, one to go."

"Some people will say everybody's got a family; their death is somebody's loss — I don't care," Kamide continued. "He tore mine apart."

Kamide said he got word of Neu's death from his son, Paul Jr., who was three months old at the time of his mother's death. The younger Kamide, now 38, was informed of Neu's death by his mother's sister, who had previously submitted to the state a written request to be notified of the inmate's passing.

Kamide described his late wife as a "fun-loving person who enjoyed being a mother" whose death was a matter of "wrong place, wrong time."

Christine wasn't scheduled to work the night she was killed, Kamide said. She had been covering the shift for a coworker.

"My father gave me the best advice a father could give his son: you've got to play the cards you're dealt; sometimes you don't have much to play, but you still have to play them," Kamide said. "My life was turned upside-down and inside-out. I didn't murder anyone. I didn't run my car off a bridge. I've been a good citizen."

Kamide, a retired probation officer, said Christine's death did not inspire his career choice.

"I was a single-income, single father," he said. "I had to do something to make some money."

Kamide said he took the civil service exam and worked in social services for several years before becoming a probation officer. He remarried in 1989 and now has a daughter.

Kamide said he plants flowers at Christine's grave at nearly every visit to her hometown, Carthage, where the pair met.

"I remember her in my prayers every day," Kamide said. "I'm playing the cards I was dealt."

Sarah Eames, staff writer, can be reached at seames@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7213. Follow her @DS_SarahE on Twitter.