A forensic psychiatrist for the prosecution testified Thursday it was “implausible” Hemy Neuman could have manic episodes, as claimed by the defense, without anyone knowing it.
“There’s going to be some evidence somewhere of marked impairment,” said Pamela Crawford, called as a rebuttal witness.
But, as colleagues of Neuman’s testified, the defendant, charged in the fatal shooting of Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody daycare on Nov. 18, 2010, exhibited no such signs.
Neuman’s attorneys wrapped up their case Thursday without calling their client to the stand. The defendant, who has acknowledged shooting Sneiderman but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, told DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams he would not testify.
Earlier, forensic psychiatrist Tracey Marks testified for the defense that Neuman was battling suicidal thoughts a few months before he hired Rusty Sneiderman's wife, Andrea, to work for him at GE Energy.
In February 2010, a "demon" in a black cloak appeared to Neuman, telling the Cobb County engineer he was "worthless," Marks said. That apparition had first visited Neuman when he was a teen at an Israeli boarding school, she said.
He was visited by another apparition in July 2010, three months after Neuman developed a relationship with Andrea Sneiderman, Marks testified.
This time, an "angel" in white instructed Neuman that the Sneidermans' two children belonged to him, the psychiatrist said the defendant told her.
One month later, the angel told Neuman he needed to kill Rusty Sneiderman “to protect them from suffering the same fate he did as a child in terms of being abandoned or rejected,” Marks testified.
Though there was no evidence Rusty Sneiderman had ever abused or neglected his two young children, as defense attorney Bob Rubin noted, Neuman’s interactions with Sneiderman’s widow “stoked the fire,” said Marks, who diagnosed the defendant as bipolar.
Andrea Sneiderman testified she told Neuman she would never leave her husband, as emails introduced as evidence in the trial have confirmed.
But she did discuss “tension” in her marriage, telling Neuman she was “dissatisfied, to say the least, with his involvement in taking care of the children," according to Marks.
And when she sent her boss hundreds of snapshots from her daughter’s birthday party, none of which included the girl’s father, Neuman “saw that as proof [Rusty] was harming the kids,” Marks told jurors.
“He did not see this as murder. He saw this as a mission to protect the kids,” she said.
The prosecution will resume its rebuttal on Friday morning, with closing statements possible as early as Monday.
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