During the trial of Hemy Neuman a question was often raised: Why isn't Andrea Sneiderman, the victim's widow, sitting at the defense table?
Now that Neuman has been convicted and Sneiderman faces murder charges, another question surfaces: Will Neuman, her former boss and alleged lover, be sitting in the witness stand?
Neuman is said to be willing to testify. And veteran attorneys who have observed the case say they're convinced DeKalb County prosecutors secured Neuman's testimony before they obtained an indictment this month.
Former prosecutor Jack Mallard and defense attorney Jerry Froelich have often disagreed in court. But both lawyers believe Neuman will testify against the woman he once obsessed over.
"It was obvious to me from the beginning she'd be targeted, but I didn't think they could make a case until they turned the boyfriend," said Mallard. "I don't think they'd go to the grand jury without him. You have to show a conspiracy between the two."
Sneiderman is accused of having an affair with Neuman and conspiring with him to kill her husband, Rusty, to get $2 million in life insurance so they could "enjoy a life together," according to the indictment. Rusty Sneiderman was shot to death by Neuman in November 2010 outside a day care center in Dunwoody after dropping off his young son. Prosecutors allege she provided Neuman with her husband's schedule.
Andrea Sneiderman denies there was an affair and says she had nothing to do with her husband's death.
She will return to court Tuesday from a jail cell when her lawyers ask a judge to release her on bond. Her lawyers are expected to bring in a parade of character witnesses to resurrect a reputation devastated by both prosecutors and Neuman's defense attorneys earlier this year. Both sides painted her as a cold-hearted, conniving "black widow," a portrayal her defense team has vigorously disputed.
In theory, Neuman would be the person who could connect Sneiderman to her husband's murder. But he's a problematic witness.
At his trial, he was found guilty but mentally ill. If called to testify against Sneiderman, prosecutors will have to convince a jury that a convicted felon ruled mentally ill in one court of law can now be regarded as a credible witness in another.
Neuman would be willing to testify, his attorneys said in an interview last week, but they say their client would not provide the prosecution proof of the conspiracy they allege.
"On one hand, he can prove the affair," said Bob Rubin, who, along with Doug Peters, serves as Neuman's defense counsel. "On the other hand, he can't prove a conspiracy."
Rubin said he's seen no evidence that would prove the state's version of a conspiracy between the two. In Neuman's trial, his attorneys argued Sneiderman took advantage of his fragile mental state to manipulate him into killing Rusty.
"He was being used, and he didn't know he was being used," Peters said.
But now, "[Neuman] sees it more clearly for what it was," Rubin said.
If called, Neuman would testify he alone planned the murder.
"There was never a time when [Andrea Sneiderman] said, 'This is what we're going to do, and this is how we're going to do it,' " Peters said. Instead, they say Sneiderman was more subtle in "planting the seed" by telling Neuman her husband was not an attentive father. That, they say, conjured up insecurities concerning his own damaged childhood and drove him to save the children and Andrea by committing murder.
While Neuman's testimony may or may not be part of the upcoming case, Andrea Sneiderman's combative time in the witness stand earlier this year certainly will be a linchpin.
Most doubt she will testify in her own trial. But "you'll hear her statements [repeated in court] backwards and sideways," Froelich said. "They'll open, close with her statements and air them throughout the trial."
Also, there are a trail of phone calls between the two. The night before the killing, Sneiderman and Neuman exchanged three calls, the last of which was 18 minutes long, Peters pointed out during the trial. During the trial, Peters noted she called Neuman six times in the hour after her husband was shot. Later, during her testimony, Sneiderman acknowledged she didn't call her husband.
Perhaps the most damaging testimony came when Sneiderman told jurors she did not know her husband had been shot until she went to Atlanta Medical Center, where his body lay. But Rusty Sneiderman's father and Andrea Sneiderman's best friend later testified that Andrea Sneiderman called them from her car, telling them her husband had been shot before she ever made it to the hospital.
Prosecutors allege Sneiderman misled investigators by not divulging information about Neuman and lying in court that they were not having an affair.
"I've honestly never seen a more negative public reaction to a witness than I've seen with Andrea," Rubin said.
"It almost puts the burden on them to prove otherwise," agreed Mallard.
The jury in the Neuman trial shared that view, according to foreman Cynthia Rivers, an administrative assistant who said she "leapt for joy" when she learned Sneiderman had been indicted.
"Without a doubt, I think that had she not come into his life at that time, Hemy Neuman would not have been in that spot," Rivers said.
Jurors were convinced "there was much more to the story," Rivers said. "I'm elated now because I think we're headed to complete closure for the Sneiderman family and justice."
John Petrey, one of Sneiderman's lawyers, said people's thoughts about his client are just that - opinions.
"Someone's assessment of another person's personality or level of cooperation is such a subjective evaluation," said Petrey, who once worked under former DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who is also representing Sneiderman. "There's no 'right way' for the widow of a murdered man to respond. There's no kit that tells you, 'Here's how you're supposed to do it.'"
"During the Neuman trial it fit both the prosecution's theory of the case and the defense theory of the case to demonize Andrea, to use her as a pawn," Petrey said. "Nobody was allowed to defend Andrea at the hearing; she was a witness."
Attorney Froelich, who has no part in this case, agreed with Petrey.
"She got attacked both ways, so she got no defense in the Hemi Neuman trial, so you don't have a good feeling how a jury would feel [in an upcoming trial]," Froelich said. "The press went after her. There was no one standing up for her. The jury was making their own determinations without anyone defending her."
The defense must get a change of venue to a jurisdiction outside Atlanta's media market, where potential jurors have not formed opinions in the case, said Froelich. "They also need to get a good timeline" explaining the events in the case, he added. "You have to have one that disputes the state's."
Froelich believes the defense needs to "get some distance, to put it off for a while, get away from the emotions" that are still brewing in the public.
That might be fine to do, said attorney Ken Hodges — if she gets released on bond.
"She's certainly a candidate for bond," said Hodges, a former district attorney from Albany and a friend of defense attorney Morgan. "There's a very good chance she could get bond."
Prosecutors will argue Sneiderman is a risk to flee because of the seriousness of the charges and because she tried to tamper with witnesses in the first trial, Hodges said.
But she has family in the area, can be monitored with an electronic bracelet and is probably not a danger to the community, he added.
If a judge denies bond, Hodges believes the defense should move for a "speedy trial" so she wouldn't stew in jail for months or even years.
If so, this could all be playing out by the end of the year.
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