In the final pre-trial hearing before jury selection, lawyers representing the Dunwoody widow accused of plotting to kill her husband said the charges against their client remain too vague.
“What is she supposed to have done?” argued John Petrey, an attorney for Andrea Sneiderman. “The state has only said she is party to a crime.”
Sneiderman has denied any involvement in her husband’s death and insists she was never romantically involved with alleged paramour Hemy Neuman, who was sentenced to life in prison in March 2012 for the fatal shooting of Rusty Sneiderman in November 2010.
Petrey said charges that Andrea Sneiderman concealed evidence from Dunwoody police and gave false statements while testifying in the trial of Neuman, her former supervisor at GE Energy, also lack specifics.
“They are so vague and uncertain that the truth or falsity of such statements can’t be obtained,” said Petrey, arguing that portions of the third indictment against Sneiderman should be quashed.
Prosecutors said they’ve met the legal threshold.
“We gave them the information. They just don’t like the information we gave them,” said DeKalb County Deputy Assistant District Attorney Lee Grant.
But Petrey said Sneiderman’s right to due process has been violated because she has not been informed exactly what it is she said or did to merit the charges.
“What did she do to conceal a fact with the jurisdiction of Dunwoody Police Department?” he said. “They certainly haven’t alleged any affirmative act on her part.”
Prosecutor Anna Cross said Sneiderman is being tried on the statements she made to investigators, referencing her denial of an affair with Neuman and her claim that he did not accompany her on a business trip to Colorado.
“She made a statement and we believe it is false. We intend to prove at trial it is false,” Cross said.
Dunwoody Police Chief Billy Grogan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last year that his investigators believed Sneiderman, currently living with her parents in Johns Creek under house arrest, lied about her relationship with the Cobb County engineer.
A ruling on the latest motions is expected next week. Sneiderman’s trial is scheduled to begin July 29.
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