Jury selected in Neuman trial

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By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A jury comprised of 12 women and four men will determine the fate of an east Cobb engineer accused of killing businessman Russell “Rusty” Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody day-care facility.

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Christian Boone, cboone@ajc.com Andrea Sneiderman, widow of shooting victim Rusty Sneiderman, enters the courtroom Monday morning.

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Four of the 16 selected jurors will serve as alternates. Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday.

Earlier this week, prosecution and defense attorneys began culling from a pool of 250 jurors for the trial, which is expected to take four to six weeks.

Sneiderman's widow, Andrea, who appears on both the state and defense witness lists, was present in court Monday for the first time. Members of her late husband's family, including his parents, Don and Marilyn Sneiderman, and older brother, Steve, flew in from Ohio and say they plan to be in court for the duration of the trial.

Hemy Neuman, 49, has, through his attorneys, acknowledged shooting Sneiderman outside Dunwoody Prep on Nov. 18, 2010. He changed his initial plea of not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity in September; defense lawyers say Neuman could not differentiate between right and wrong at the time of the slaying.

Rusty Sneiderman, 36 at the time of his death, likely did not see his shooter approach, according to investigators. The victim knew his assailant, who was his wife's supervisor at GE Energy.

Interest in the case spreads far beyond Dunwoody’s close-knit Jewish community, where both the victim and his killer were well-known, as national media outlets are also covering the trial.

While what happened is not in dispute, — Neuman's motivation is expected to be fiercely debated.

Prosecutors are likely to argue the shooting occurred because of an alleged extramarital affair between Neuman and Andrea Sneiderman, according to court documents released last fall. Neither she nor her attorney has commented on the specific allegations made within prosecution filings and more directly by attorney Esther Panitch, who represents the defendant's estranged wife, Ariela Neuman.