Dunwoody daycare shooting trial | Day 14: Closing statements begin

Judge: Gregory Adams

3:48 p.m.: Judge completes reading of instructions and then asks the jury to retire to jury room to deliberate.

3:25 p.m.: Judge Adams calls in the jury to give them instructions for reaching a verdict. He reads the instructions to the jury.

3:01 p.m.: The state finishes its closing arguments. The judge gives the jury a rest break.

3 p.m.: On Nov. 18, the defendant, Hemy Neuman, took this good man, took a husband, took a father, took a son, took a brother. This is what he did and they have the temerity to call him a good man. Good men do not sleep with another man's wife... He killed Rusty Sneiderman and he wore a mask to conceal his identity. A year and a half later he's still wearing a mask. This time he's hiding behind insanity. James asked the jury to remove the mask by finding Neuman guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

2:57 p.m.: James shows a picture of Rusty Sneiderman. He says the evidence speaks for Rusty Sneiderman. Rusty was a good man. He was a real man. He did not deserve this. He deserved a wife who loved him and honored him and to see his children grow up, not to be shot down in the street like some stray dog. You can't give him that, but you can give him justice."  He then shows a picture of Sneiderman's wounds after the shooting.

2:55 p.m.: James asks the jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but mentally ill. He asked them to find for the first one -- guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

2:50 p.m: Was it the imaginary demon that told him to kill Rusty Sneiderman, or was it the demon he was sleeping with? James asks. He mentions how well planned and well executed the killing of Sneiderman was. He details the lengths that Neuman went through to hide the crime.

2:45 p.m: James said Neuman is a co-conspirator with Andrea Sneiderman, but Hemy couldn't keep his story straight. He told police that Andrea said it was an accident when he talks to Dr. crawford, he said Andrea said Rusty's been shot. They were covering for each other but wasn't able to keep their stories straight. Andrea didn't say anything at first because she wanted to protect herself and him. if that's true, that makes him a co-conspirator, not crazy."

2:40 p.m.: James mentioned Neuman's attended the Shiva and shoveled dirt on Sneiderman's grave during the Jewish ceremony and then went to the house after the funeral and shook the hand of Sneiderman's father. It was ingenious because no one expects the person who committed the murder to be at the funeral or at the house of the deceased. "It was ingenious, but it was evil."

2:35 p.m.: James said the defense didn't prove Neuman didn't know right from wrong. He said Neuman said himself that he knew what he did was not right. He said the defense omitted that fact that Neuman said he knew what he did was not right. He said if he knew he was legally wrong or morally wrong, then he is guilty. He bought a gun that was untraceable; he threw the gun in the lake. "Why would he do that if you didn't want the police to find it? Was Andrea going to be searching the lake?" James asked.  James mentioned all the ways Neuman hid what he had done and lied about killing Rusty Sneiderman.

2:30 p.m.: James said Neuman was not delusional about the number of children he had and he wasn't delusional about whether Sneiderman was going to hurt 'his' children. He was so worried about how much danger the Sneiderman kids were in, he went out and had lunch with Rusty Sneiderman. The mission wasn't to rescue the children. It was to be with Andrea Sneiderman.

2:25 p.m.: James said Neuman did not have autoerotic delusions. he said  Neuman and Sneiderman were having a full-fledged affair. Neuman wasn't confused about the affair. He wasn't crazy, he was correct about the relationship, James said.

2:20 p.m.: James also disputes Neuman's testimony to psychiatrists about his numerous suicide attempts. James says When he's trying to kill himself reality sets in; but when he sets out to kill Rusty Sneiderman, reality doesn't set in. "Ladies and gentleman, he had five razor blades in his cell and he didn't have a scratch on his body. If he wanted to commit suicide, he would have taken that same handgun and hollow tip shells that he killed rusty with and put it to his own neck and kill himself. This man didn't want to commit suicide, he wanted Rusty's woman, his money and his life. You can't have that when you're dead."

2:15 p.m.: James plays a clip where Neuman discusses his financial difficulties. He says Neuman isn't insane because he is broke. He's broke because he spends too much money to please his wife's desires. James also explains that Neuman wasn't insane because of the number of phone calls and emails between he and Sneiderman. He was having an affair, that's all the phone calls meant.

2:12 p.m.: James plays another clip where Neuman talks fondly about working in his father's jewelry store and snorkeling in the Virgin Islands as a child: "Hemy's hard-knock life," James says. "No evidence whatsoever."

2:05 p.m.: James attacks defense claims about Neuman's abuse as a child. "Smacking with a belt every once in awhile? That's the abused childhood they've been talking about for five weeks? ... If he'd been smacked with a belt more, maybe he wouldn't have killed a man." He plays tape where Crawford asks if his father ever really hurt him, and Neuman doesn't answer.

"Where's the evidence. We haven't seen it, because it doesn't exist," James says.

1:55 p.m.: James plays tape of Neuman interview in which he talks about his job evaluation. James says Neuman's supervisor testified that Neuman's statements were false. More of the interview is played and James notes that Rich DeManche, who Neuman said he worked on a project with, testified that he never worked on the project with Neuman. Neuman, he says, "is guilty all day, every day."

1:50 p.m.: James points to discrepancies in Neumans' statements to psychiatrists and psychologists. He says Neuman's story grew over time and changed depending on whether he thought the conversation was confidential or not. He says Neuman started out saying he had attempted suicide once before the shooting and grew to seven times.

1:45 p.m.: James says a malingering test is "not foolproof. ... are you all expected to throw out all your common sense and give credence to a malingering test?" James points to a portion of one test, shown on a slide in the courtroom, that cautions the results may indicate Neuman was malingering. James plays a video of Neuman's jailhouse interview with Dr. Crawford saying he forgets things at times.  He then blasts defense experts who said Neuman never had memory lapses.

1:43 p.m.: James derides psychiatrists for believing Neuman's statements. Neuman has "lied to everyone ... is it possible for a human being to lie more than this person has lied?" he asks. "He's lied about everything ... yet they ask you to take his word that he's insane. It doesn't make sense."

1:36 p.m.: James asks the jurors why Neuman's mother and father didn't testify about Neuman's troubled childhood. "Because there's nothing wrong with him," he says. He says everyone who knew Neuman said he acted normal. Neuman's odd behavior in calling the motel in Colorado doesn't make him legally insane, he says.

1:33 p.m.: James says defense got 8,000 pages of evidence and reduced it to 80 pages. "How do they know what's relevant to a psychiatrist ... do you really trust when they sent that report to a defense psychiatrist that they didn't leave anything out." He said the defense psychiatrists "had the temerity" to say they didn't miss anything by not reading the full report: "How do they know?"

1:28 p.m.: James says that under the law, for a defendant is legally insane when "there is a mental defect, there is something wrong with his mind ... and he did not know the difference between right and wrong. He has to prove both of them."

1:26 p.m.: James tells jurors the defense has the burden of proving Neuman is in sane, the prosecution does not have to prove he is same. He says under the law there is a presumption of sanity. "The law presumes he is sane."

1:22 p.m.: James goes through the charges and explains to the jurors what they mean legally. He says Neuman "shot Rusty Sneiderman down in the street like a dog. .. He planned it for three months, he planned it like some project at work." He said Neuman's guilt is "crystal clear." Neuman says "because I'm insane, it's OK to kill Rusty Sneiderman," James says.

1:20 p.m.: DeKalb District Attorney Robert James opens for the prosecution: "Why did Hemy Neuman shoot and murder Rusy Sneiderman?It was not because of some made-up, some contrived, some constructed mental defect. Hemy Neuman killed Rusty Sneiderman because he wanted his wife, he wanted his money, he wanted his wife. Period. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not insanity ... in Georgia courtrooms we call that good old fashioned malice murder, and he's guilty of it.

11:45 a.m.: Peters ends his closing arguments. Judge Adams gives the jury an early break until 1:15 p.m. 

11:40 a.m.: Peters tells the jury that the "gun was in Hemy's hand, but the trigger was pulled by Andrea Sneiderman."  "There's only one verdict in this case, not guilty by reason of insanity." He noted that Hemy would not go free. "He is paying the price for what he's done." A verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is a version that speaks the truth, that says Andrea Sneiderman is responsible for the death of her husband. It's a verdict that says Hemy was used, Hemy as manipulated."

11:30 a.m.: Peters notes that Neuman never said he saw a 6-foot vision of Barry White or a 6-foot version of Olivia Newton-John. He continued to hammer away at Andrea Sneiderman. "On Nov. 18, when Andrea made the phone calls saying Rusty was shot before she got to the hospital, she knew Rusty had been shot, because she had primed the pump...stoked the fire, she knew that what she had set out to do with someone who was sick, she had accomplished."

11:28 a.m.: "I suggest to you there's one thing that we and the DA's office and each of you have in common in this case -- that Andrea Sneiderman is playing each of us for a damn fool." He then tried to discredit the testimony of Dr. Pam Crawford, the state's expert witness, who he noted was not board-certified.

11:25 a.m.: Peters notes that Neuman told the truth about all the details of the killing, including the disguises, but he he did it to hide it from Sneiderman because if she knew what he was doing they couldn't be together forever. Peters talked about what effect  Sneiderman's push and pull of Neuman had on Neuman's delusional state of mind, according to the psychologists who testified. Dr. Marks said it's like stoking the fire at a time when Neuman was spinning out of control, according to Peters.

11:20 a.m.: Peters notes that Sneiderman tells her friend in late December that she thinks Neuman killed her husband, but doesn't go to the police for six days, but continues to email Neuman and sends him an email about wanting to meet him when she visits the office. "It means she wants to further manipulate him so that the trail does not leave back to her."

11:15 a.m.: Peters tells the jury: "When you now for a fact that she is a liar when she says she didn't have an affair, that you know for a fact that she is a liar when she says she didn't manipulate Hemy."

11:10 a.m.: Peters says that on Nov. 19, the day after the shooting, Sneiderman lies to police about whether Neuman tried to break up her relationship. In this case, Andrea has said two things: I didn't have an affair and I didn't manipulate Hemy. I suggest to you it's up to you to decide whose telling the truth in this case."

11:07 a.m.: Peters mentions phone records that show that the morning before Neuman earlier tried to shoot Rusty at his home. He notes that one hour before that Andrea put in two calls to Hemy and that 30 minutes after he ran away unable to carry out the shootng, they were back on the phone." Andrea Sneiderman set it in motion. Neuman was crazy."

11:05 a.m. Peters: "Andrea knew Hemy was losing his mind. No one else did." He asked the jury to consider the testimony of Dr. Flores and Dr. Marks. He mentions their second trip to Greenville where the couple were groping and kissing and dancing together.

11 a.m.: Peters reviews some of the those emails, especially those where Neuman asks Sneiderman to marry him and told her how close he felt to her children. "You telling me she didn't understand that he was losing his mind?" Peters reads other emails where  Sneiderman is pushing and pulling at Hemy Neuman.

10:56 a.m.: Peters notes that in Greenville, S.C., the couple had dinner, dancing and sex, but then Sneiderman pushed Neuman away again. Dr. Flores reviewed telephone records in the case. Andrea and Rusty shared almost 1,500 telephone messages and calls between them over a short span of time. Peters mentions the hundreds of photos that Sneiderman sent to Neuman of herself and her children.

10:55 a.m.: Peters: Please consider what Dr. Marks and Dr. Flores have shared with you: under erotomatic delusions, a person will try to pursue the object of his delusion by  trying to rescue him or her from some imagined danger. "What they have told you is fundamental medical science that has been put in the bible of medical science and it fits just like a glove for what Hemy was experiencing."

10:50 a.m.: Peters mentioned Dr. Marks' testimony about a common characteristic of delusion is the apparent normality when their delusions are not being discussed or acted on. "What does that tell us about who knew that Hemy was spinning out of control. The person who knew that was the object of his delusion, Andrea Sneiderman."

10:46: Peters says a trip to Melbourne, Fla. and other business trips with Sneiderman began Neuman toward his decision to kill Rusty Sneiderman. After expressing an interest in being with her, Sneidrman tells Hemy that will never happened. "I am committed to Rusty." But she then tells him she fantasized about him and allowed him to give her a foot rub back in the hotel. "

10:43: The testimony in this case was that Andrea was a shrewd, smart lady on her own. She was smart and knew what she was doing. The evidence shows she guided Rusty through several jobs, none of which paid out." For the first time in their marriage, she takes on the role of breadwinner and takes a job at GE, he notes. For the first time, Rusty Sneiderman was staying at  home and that caused problems in their relationship.

10:40 a.m.: "This case is also about one bad, really bad woman, Andrea Sneiderman --  adulterer, tease, calculator, liar and master manipulator. I respectfully suggest to you that following this trial that Webster's dictionary should be changed and this day forward, anyone who looks up the definition of evil will see nothing more than a photograph of Andrea Sneiderman."

10:35 a.m.: Court resumes with Defense attorney Doug Peters. "This case is about two good men, Rusty Sneiderman, 36 years old, from a great family, bright well-educated, graduate of Harvard, a hard worker; a great father to two precious children. Hemy Neuman, 48 years old, from a good family but clearly a troubled family. Bright, well-educated; honor graduate from Georgia Tech, a hard worker, a great father to three precious children. On Nov. 18, the lives of each of these good men were altered forever. and so we are all left here asking why. why is it that this could ever possibly have happened?

10:22 a.m.: Rubin concludes: "At the end of the day we have shown, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Hemy Neuman is not guilty by reason of insanity. Thank you."

10:20 a.m.: Rubin tells jurors that if they find Neuman not guilty by reason of insanity, he will not go free but will be committed to a state mental health facility and "only Judge Adams can decide when, if ever, he is released."

10:12 a.m.: "There is not a single piece of evidence that Hemy researched how to malinger," Rubin says. "Which brings me to Pam Crawford, a psychiatrist in South Carolina ... who was a board certified forensic psychiatrist but let that lapse in 2008 and never thought to notify the South Carolina board ... the truth is, she's not board certified." Rubin says Crawford testified that she called the medical board in Georgia to make sure she wasn't committing a crime by practicing in Georgia, but "didn't get it in writing" and didn't know who she talked to. Rubin tells jurors, "Two people sat in that witness stand and lied to you: One is Andrea Sneiderman and the other is Pam Crawford. One got $2 million and the other got $60,000. That's the state's expert."

10:07 a.m.: All tests corroborate that Hemy Neuman is not faking and is bipolar with mania and delusions, Rubin says. The state hires Pam Crawford, but she didn't perform tests to determine if Neuman was "malingering." None of the state's experts performed such tests, he says. "They just chose not to confirm it ... they chose to ignore it."

10:03 a.m.: Rubin says in 2010, "things are falling apart" and sees the demon again. He's unhappy with his job, he's unhappy at home, he has financial difficulties. Neuman asks why Crawford, the prosecution expert, didn't explore these areas even though she took the time to read 7,000 pages of evidence.

10:00 a.m.: Rubin says Neuman never said the demon was "Barry White." Rubin calls it "significant" that in 1998 Neuman left a good job in Israel to move his family to Florida and "blows through" $100,000. And in 2008, despite being $70,000 in debt, he goes to his 401-K and pulls out $100,000 to pay off those debts but doesn't pay off the debts. He 'blows through' that money. Rubin says.

9:55 a.m.: Rubin talks about Neuman being sent alone to boarding school in Israel and says Neuman is still traumatized by it, as seen in the interview with Dr. Pamela Crawford, the state's expert witness. When he's left along on a Jewish holiday, "It hits him: He is alone, he is on his own and he is depressed, and for the first time he sees and feels ... the demon. And the demon tells him to "come with me," which means suicide.

9:50 a.m.: Rubin says Dr. Marks said the center of this case is Hemy Neuman's childhood. Some people who are abused as children suffer for the rest of their lives. Flores and Marks both reached the same conclusion without conferring with each other: that Neuman's father was abusive. "And there's no question that Hemy Neuman's mom was not there for him," Rubin says. "She was not there for them, she did not protect them ... she was out partying, she was out traveling, she was everywhere but home."

9:45 a.m.: Dr. Adriana Flores, who has treated and evaluated hundreds of people ... did a forensic evaluation, put her reputation on the line ... Dr. Tracey Marks, who also evaluated Neuman ... neither one of them a hired gun for the defense. Both of them told you that the dozens of evaluations they conducted ... Dr. Marks said she didn't need to read 6,000 pages of documents, most of which didn't have to do with why, most of them had to do with "who." They didn't need to spend 300 hours looking at 7500 pages of documents.

9:42 a.m.: Rubin says the first tests performed on Neuman indicated there was evidence of bipolar disorder.

9:40 a.m.: Rubin cautions jurors against viewing "guilty but mentally ill" as a compromise, because that is still a conviction.

9:35 a.m.: Rubin says the defense has to prove insanity by "the preponderance" of the evidence. The state, he says, must offer "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Neuman committed the act and knew it was wrong. Absent that proof, "you must acquit Hemy Neuman," he says. Rubin tells jurors they have four options for a verdict: Not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, guilty beyond reasonable doubt  and guilty but mentally ill. That Neuman did not kill Sneiderman "is not an option we're asking you to consider" but  Neuman  thought he was protecting the Sneiderman children and didn't know he was doing wrong, he says.

9:33 a.m.: Rubin says Georgia law requires that a person be able to distinguish between right and wrong to be convicted of murder. The law, he says, is for humane reasons. "There has to be both the act and the ability to know that the act was wrong."

9:31: Bob Rubin opens for defense. "On November 18 2010, two worlds collided with terrible, tragic consequences. Rusty Sneiderman died that day. Hemy Neuman is now on trial for murder." The Sneidermans "lost a brother, a son, two children lost a father. ... but we can't compound that tragedy by convicting Hemy Neuman of the murder. Hemy Neuman ... did not have the mental capacity to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the shooting ... in fact, he thought he was doing the right thing, as bizarre as that would be to any of  us."

9:30 a.m.: Adams explains procedure to jurors, says each side can take two hours.

9:25 a.m.: Adams returns, warns gallery there must be no outbursts during closing arguments. Adams orders jury in.

9:20 a.m.: Adams calls five-minute break.

9:00 a.m.: Judge Adams enters courtroom. Prosecutor Don Geary is arguing for a motion about what can be stated to the jury regarding Neuman's confinement if he is found not guilty by reason of insanity. Adams rules defense can state that Neuman will not be released if found not guilty. Geary files a second motion to "restrict allegations that were never proven at trial" regarding whether prosecution expert Dr. Pamela Crawford was practicing medicine without a license when she performed a forensic examination of Hemy Neuman. Adams rules the defense cannot accuse Crawford of committing a crime.