Jury selection advanced quicker than expected Monday in the much-anticipated trial of Andrea Sneiderman, who is no longer facing murder charges in the 2010 shooting of her husband, Rusty.
And despite the withdrawal of the most serious charges — malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault — interest in the case remains high, with “Sneiderman” trending on Twitter through much of the afternoon. The 37-year-old mother of two also remains a hot topic of conversation on 24-hour cable channels such as HLN.
Back in the same DeKalb County courtroom where her former boss, Hemy Neuman, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for killing Rusty Sneiderman, attorneys qualified 22 jurors on Monday from a pool of 283. That’s more than half the number needed to proceed to the next phase, meaning opening statements could begin as this week.
The progress made on Day One of the trial came as a surprise since, as one potential juror put it, “Everyone in Atlanta has heard (Andrea Sneiderman’s) name.” Some in the pool claimed no knowledge of the case, but they were in the minority. The majority did offer an opinion.
Sneiderman has denied any involvement in the death of Rusty Sneiderman, who was gunned down Nov. 18, 2010, in the parking lot of the Dunwoody Prep day care.
She still faces 13 felony counts — seven charges of perjury, four charges of making false statements and one count each of hindering the apprehension of a criminal and concealing a material fact in connection with the death of her husband. The maximum sentences for each count range from five to 10 years in prison.
Former DeKalb Chief Assistant District Attorney Don Geary, who prosecuted Neuman and selected juries in the county for more than 20 years, recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the process won’t be as difficult as some had speculated. It took nearly three days to seat a jury in the trial of Neuman, who was sentenced to life in prison.
“It may take longer than a normal trial; I don’t think it’ll be that out of line,” Geary said, noting DeKalb’s racial and socio-economic diversity. “The closer they are either to (Sneiderman), the Jewish community in Dunwoody, is the closer they’re going to be to the case, and I think they’re going to have to stay away from that group.
“Once they back out of that community I think it’s going to be a lot easier, and they’ll find a lot less people that have formed an opinion,” he said.
A friend of Sneiderman’s said Friday that the defendant is looking forward to the trial, confident her name will be cleared. Two people with direct knowledge of the case told the AJC she turned down a generous plea deal that would have resulted in little prison time.
Sneiderman, who at one time was held in jail, is no longer under house arrest. And her bond has been reduced from $500,000 to $50,000.
Going forward is something of a gamble for Sneiderman, as DeKalb Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams is known as a tough sentencing judge.
Sneiderman was arrested in August and indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. She was reindicted twice this year, charged as a “party to the crime” of murder rather than a conspirator. Georgia law defines that, in part, as intentionally advising, encouraging, hiring, counseling or procuring another to commit a crime.
DeKalb District Attorney Robert James said Friday that he opted to withdraw the murder charges after reviewing the defense’s discovery evidence.
“I think it would be unjust and unethical for the District Attorney’s Office to move forward on a charge I’m not 100 percent sure of,” he told Adams.
Defense attorney Tom Clegg questioned the reversal, saying there was “no smoking gun” in the discovery.
Most of the charges leveled against Sneiderman revolve around allegations of an affair with Neuman. She has steadfastly denied any romantic relationship with her former supervisor at GE Energy.
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