They met roughly 10 years ago at a book club. Before long Andrea Sneiderman and Shayna Citron became the closest of friends, talking on the phone most every day.
Their families vacationed together. The two women got pregnant at the same time and, when Citron’s father became ill, she trusted Sneiderman to watch her children.
"They called her ‘Aunt Andrea,' " Citron testified Wednesday in DeKalb County Superior Court.
That friendship began to unravel in the winter of 2010, around the time Hemy Neuman was charged with fatally shooting Sneiderman’s husband, Rusty Sneiderman, outside Dunwoody Prep preschool. By the time Citron took the stand last week in Neuman’s murder trial, the two friends had barely spoken in a year.
The friendship between two women became a focal point during the first week of Neuman's murder trial.Citron's account was relayed through court testimony and her attorney, Jay Abt, who spoke with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. Andrea Sneiderman's representatives declined to comment for this article.
“I think Andrea has pretty much taken the position that, as difficult as it may be at times, she will not be commenting about anything during the trial,” said her rabbi, Hirshy Minkowicz, who has attended much of the trial.
Called to the stand last Thursday, Citron told jurors that Sneiderman phoned her the morning of Nov. 18, 2010 to tell her Rusty had been shot and she was on the way to the hospital.
One day earlier, Sneiderman testified she did not know her husband had been shot until she arrived at Atlanta Medical Center. Sneiderman’s father-in-law, Don Sneiderman, also testified that Andrea informed him his son had been shot before she got to the hospital.
The implication of prior knowledge could place the victim’s widow in legal jeopardy, so Citron was surprised when, after she testified, her old friend embraced her in the courtroom.
"I felt a sense of relief," Citron said Wednesday in testimony out of the presence of the jury. The defense was allowed to present the evidence for the record in case of an appeal.
Any relief she felt, however, would not last long. Following their hug, Sneiderman walked with Citron outside the courtroom and, according to Abt, announced they were no longer friends.
“Now you’re going to have to live with what I have to do,” Sneiderman said to Citron, according to Abt. The next day, Judge Gregory Adams, approving a motion by the prosecution, barred Sneiderman from the courtroom and courthouse for interfering with witnesses .
In her Wednesday testimony, Citron said she found Sneiderman's words to be threatening and went so far as to notify administrators at her children's school.
The confrontation outside the courtroom ended a whirlwind 24 hours for Citron, who had only offered to testify for the prosecution the night before she was called. At that time she was unaware of the potential significance of the Nov. 18 phone call.
During her testimony, Citron said that Andrea Sneiderman had told her of her relationship with Neuman but denied they were having an affair. When asked by the prosecution whether she had believed Sneiderman's denial, Citron answered, "No, but my heart wanted to."
When Rusty Sneiderman was shot, Citron told Dunwoody police she believed Neuman was the gunman. Her friend, Andrea, told Citron she had given police Neuman's name but according to a detective present that day, Andrea Sneiderman “minimized” the extent of their relationship.
Abt would not say what Citron thinks of Sneiderman now but added, “Their friendship is over.”
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