Her attorney at the time, Seth Kirschenbaum, said Andrea Sneiderman testified in the murder trial of Hemy Neuman to "help the prosecution" secure a guilty verdict against her former boss.
But her testimony ended up leading DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James to build a case against her, based on the eight-count indictment handed down Thursday by a DeKalb County grand jury.
Sneiderman was arrested Thursday in the 2010 killing of her husband, Rusty Sneiderman. The indictment charges her with racketeering, malice murder, attempted murder, insurance fraud, perjury and false statements. She has denied any involvement in her husband's death, and her attorneys on Thursday repeated that she is innocent.
"We categorically deny each and every one of the charges that were filed against Andrea today," attorney J. Tom Morgan said. "We are looking forward to a vigorous and complete defense to ensure that Andrea is fully exonerated of these false accusations. We are confident that, when an unbiased jury hears the facts of this case, it will be clear that Andrea is innocent."
Her actions on the day her husband was fatally shot outside Dunwoody Prep remain the cornerstone of the prosecution's case. That morning, she testified during Neuman's trial, she was contacted by an administrator at the day-care facility and told only there had been an accident not involving her son, Ian.
"Did they at any time tell you what happened to Rusty?" DeKalb Chief Deputy D.A. Don Geary asked Sneiderman on the first day of her testimony.
"Nope. They said you need to come here. I presumed it was Rusty," the widow replied.
She later testified she did not learn what had happened to her husband until she arrived at Atlanta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. It would prove to be a crucial statement: Her father-in-law, Don Sneiderman, and close friend, Shayna Citron, both testified that Andrea called -- before she got to the hospital -- to inform them Rusty had been shot.
"There were things she said on the stand ... it was the first time she had ever said those things," Geary told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview following Neuman's conviction.
Sneiderman, called as a witness to help establish motive, did that and more, according to prosecutors.
"We now have a day and a half of testimony from her," Geary said. "If she had been sitting next to [Neuman, as a co-defendant], she may have done the same thing he did [and not testified]."
Prosecutors say Sneiderman was not candid with them in interviews prior to the trial.
By the time the trial started, the D.A.'s relationship with the widow had become toxic.
"We had to tear apart our own witness," Geary said.
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