Court documents released Tuesday in the Dunwoody day care shooting case reveal evidence allegedly tying suspect Hemy Neuman to what prosecutors call "the murder weapon."
The defense had filed a motion to suppress the identification of their client in a police lineup by Jan DeSilva, who the state claims sold Neuman a handgun prior to the Nov. 17 fatal shooting of Rusty Sneiderman outside Dunwoody Prep. DeSilva was shown a display of photographs on Feb. 22 that the defense claims "were designed to focus upon [Neuman]."
Prosecutors say that claim is without merit. It's still unclear whether the weapon was ever recovered by investigators but prosecutors may be able to link shell casings found on the scene to the gun in question.
The previously sealed documents, obtained exclusively by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News, were released Tuesday after an attorney representing the two media outlets successfully argued against defense claims that making the information public might taint the jury pool.
The filings give some insight into how Neuman's lawyers plan to mount their defense.
Besides challenging the lineup identification, attorneys Doug Peters and Bob Rubin have moved to dismiss all "statements and confessions" made by Neuman during his interrogation by Dunwoody police. The statements were made "in violation of his constitutional rights to remain silent," the defense claims. The prosecution disagrees and seeks a hearing to determine the admissibility of the statements.
Neuman, a longtime engineer with GE Energy and the former supervisor of Andrea Sneiderman, the victim's widow, has pleaded not guilty to the murder.
These latest documents shed no new light on an extramarital affair between the co-workers alleged by the suspect's estranged wife. But they do show how Andrea Sneiderman learned of her husband's death.
Alerted by Dunwoody Prep officials that her husband had been shot, Andrea Sneiderman arrived at the murder scene moments after her husband's body had been loaded into an ambulance. She exited the car screaming, the previously redacted police report said, before falling into the arms of a detective on the scene.
"What has happened?" she asked.
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