With the victim's widow banished from the DeKalb County courthouse Friday morning, the murder trial of Hemy Neuman finally got to the details of the crime.
Yet Andrea Sneiderman still figured heavily in the testimony, particularly from the emergency room physician who broke the news to her of her husband’s death. Neuman has acknowledged shooting Rusty Sneiderman but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
“Her reaction was not very emotional,” said Dr. Mark Waterman, who was unable to resuscitate the 36-year-old entrepreneur, shot four times in the neck and torso area. “Her first request was to ask for a child psychologist so that person could inform her children of their father’s passing.”
It was “unusual to say the least,” Waterman said.
On Tuesday, Andrea Sneiderman testified she did not know her husband had been shot outside a Dunwoody day care before she arrived at Atlanta Medical Center, where Rusty Sneiderman had been taken and where he was pronounced dead.
But her father-in-law and a friend testified Thursday that Andrea called them on Nov. 18, 2010 and told them – before she arrived at the hospital – that Rusty had been shot. En route to the hospital, she called Neuman six times but never attempted to contact her husband, phone records reveal.
Shayna Citron, whose testimony Thursday contradicted her onetime friend’s, was embraced by Andrea Sneiderman after leaving the witness stand. Citron had also testified that she did not believe Andrea when she denied ever having an extramarital affair with Neuman.
Prosecutor Don Geary said an investigator with the district attorney’s office tried to stop Andrea Sneiderman from making contact with Citron, but Sneiderman ignored him.
Sneiderman then followed Citron out of the courtroom where, Geary said, she told the witness they were no longer friends.
Geary said the victim’s widow had also entered the witness room -- the holding area where witnesses wait before being brought to court to testify -- after being told not to.
The defense did not object to the state’s motion to expel Andrea Sneiderman from the DeKalb courthouse. She remains under subpoena and is likely to take the stand again as the trial progresses
The widow was not in the courtroom when Judge Gregory Adams ordered her sequestered, though her attorney, Seth Kirschenbaum, was present.
Rusty Sneiderman's brother told the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the family has been troubled by his former sister-in-law’s actions following the shooting.
“As a result of Andrea’s actions yesterday, today’s extraordinary action is yet another example of Andrea’s behavior that has been deeply troubling to our family for some time,” Steve Sneiderman said Friday of the judge's order barring the woman from the trial.
“It is comforting to us that there has been a public recognition of this egregious behavior,” the brother said.
A witness to the shooting outside Dunwoody Prep testified Friday afternoon that she, too, found Andrea Sneiderman’s behavior odd.
Alyah Stotter said she found it “really weird that [Andrea Sneiderman] didn’t have a tear in her eye” as her husband was being loaded into an ambulance.
Stotter and her husband, Craig Kuhlmeier, heard the four gunshots that felled Rusty Sneiderman in the Dunwoody Prep parking lot. Both testified they saw Neuman calmly walk toward his minivan after the shooting
“I’ll never forget that face,” Kuhlmeier said, pointing to Neuman from the witness stand when asked if the gunman was in court.
As Neuman drove away, Rusty Sneiderman fought for his life.
“There was a quite a bit of a blood everywhere and shell casings around his body,” Stotter said. “I said to my husband, ‘I think he’s still alive.’”
Kuhlmeier checked for a pulse. “[Sneiderman] was gasping for air,” he said.
Terrence Gfroerer, a doctor with Dunwoody Pediatrics, arrived on the scene and, for five minutes, administered CPR, he testified Friday. The blood loss was significant, Gfroerer said, and by the time first responders arrived, Sneiderman had no pulse.
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