Hemy Neuman’s lawyers on Wednesday reiterated that the widow of the man he killed will factor heavily into their defense.
“Our defense in this case is, first of all, [Hemy Neuman] is sick,” defense attorney Doug Peters said. “Secondly, that he has been manipulated by Andrea Sneiderman.”
Neuman has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the November 2010 fatal shooting of Andrea’s husband, Rusty Sneiderman, outside Dunwoody Prep. Neuman was the woman's former supervisor at GE Energy.
Two defense psychiatrists who evaluated Neuman said he alternately confirmed and denied an illicit relationship with his former charge.
References to apparitions resembling singers Barry White and Olivia Newton-John, who Neuman says directed him to kill Rusty Sneiderman, were likewise inconsistent, according to testimony Wednesday.
At one point, forensic psychologist Dr. Julie Rand Dorney said, Neuman compared himself to King David and Andrea Sneiderman to the Biblical character’s paramour, Bathsheba.
“As that relationship evolved, [Neuman] became more and more consumed by it but depressed at the same time,” Dorney testified. “At points he said he had sex with this woman, and then I’d ask, and he’d say, ‘I don’t know if it’s true.'"
“He seemed to be all over the place,” she said, adding Neuman appeared to have symptoms of a “psychotic disorder” and that he was possibly driven by “obsessive thoughts.”
Neuman also told the psychiatrists that he believed Andrea Sneiderman’s two young children were in danger, saying, “I feel like I need to protect them.”
According to Dorney, Neuman went “back and forth” as to whether he believed the Sneiderman children were actually his.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Don Geary, defense psychiatrist Peter Thomas was referred to his notes where he concluded Neuman’s mission “was to be with [Andrea] and her to be happy."
Thomas said Neuman also told him of a demonic image that “tried to engulf him, tried to choke him,” when he was younger and sent to boarding school in Israel. Thomas acknowledged his findings were not conclusive.
Earlier Wednesday the prosecution filed a motion to prevent the defense from delving into an alleged confrontation between Andrea Sneiderman and her former friend, Shayna Citron, who testified for the prosecution last week.
The motion was upheld by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams, leading Neuman’s defense team to call for a mistrial. The judge denied the motion.
Peters said Andrea Sneiderman made a “veiled threat” to Citron after she provided testimony that contradicted the Dunwoody widow’s account of when she first learned her husband had been shot.
That interaction led Adams to bar Sneiderman from the DeKalb courthouse for the duration of the trial, though she may be called to testify again. She is not charged in connection to her husband's shooting.
Jurors on Wednesday also heard from Neuman’s younger sister, Monique Metsch, who testified the siblings were raised by an abusive father.
"He was a very angry man," Metsch said, referring to her father. She recounted several examples of physical and mental abuse.
Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
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