Prosecutors will no longer have to prove Andrea Sneiderman plotted directly with her former boss to have her husband killed, according to legal observers who reviewed the reworked indictment handed down Tuesday by a DeKalb County grand jury.
The new 16-count indictment drops language from the original document alleging the Dunwoody widow and her former boss, Hemy Neuman, “conspired together to murder Rusty Sneiderman so that they could enjoy a life together, eliminate Neuman’s debt problems and fully benefit from the assets the Sneidermans had acquired as well as the proceeds of Rusty Sneiderman’s life insurance policies.”
The revised indictment also omits any reference to a financial motive, referring to the defendant as a “party to the crime.” Georgia law defines that in part as intentionally advising, encouraging, hiring, counseling or procuring another to commit a crime.
Andrea Sneiderman, a 36-year-old mother of two, has denied any involvement in her husband’s death and insists she was never romantically involved with Neuman, her former supervisor at GE Energy.
Neuman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in March for the fatal shooting of Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody daycare facility in November 2010.
“I think the (new) indictment remains consistent with our defense that Hemy wasn’t guilty by reason of insanity in that was manipulated, or susceptible to manipulation,” Neuman co-counsel Doug Peters said.
Sneiderman now faces seven counts of perjury, four counts of giving false statements and one count each of concealing material facts and hindering the apprehension of a criminal. One count of felony murder was added, along with a count of aggravated assault, while charges of attempted murder, insurance fraud and racketeering were dropped from the indictment handed down in August.
Eliminating the RICO charges makes the case against her less confusing for jurors, veteran defense attorney Steve Sadow said.
“I’d call it a wise strategic move by (DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James),” Sadow said. “Felony murder convictions are generally easier to obtain.”
It also lessens the need for a “smoking gun,” which prosecutors seemed to lack.
The new indictment also points to Sneiderman’s alleged behavior after her husband’s death. Prosecutors say she “destroyed text messages and a record of telephone calls between herself and Hemy Neuman exchanged on the date of the murder.”
They also accuse her of concealing her affair with her ex-boss along with “knowledge of Hemy Neuman’s culpability in the murder of Rusty Sneiderman.”
Altogether five counts of perjury and two counts of false statements were added in the new indictment. Neuman co-counsel Bob Rubin said those additional charges could be significant in coloring the jury’s impression of Sneiderman.
“If she’s lied about one thing, has she lied about other things?” Rubin said.
Sneiderman is due in DeKalb County Superior Court on Thursday for a hearing in which it’s anticipated a trial date will be set. She is under house arrest after posting bond last August.
During her time in jail, Sneiderman mused with alleged paramour Joseph Dell about who might play her in a movie version of her life, according to a motion filed Tuesday by attorney Esther Panitch on behalf of her client, Neuman’s ex-wife Ariela.
“I was thinking if Sandra Bullock wasn’t so old, she’d be a good choice,” Sneiderman said in audio recordings captured at DeKalb County Jail. “I watched the Miss Congeniality movie … and I thought that she kind of has my personality.”
Panitch’s motion seeks to quash a request by the defense for Neuman’s ex-wife to produce documents pertaining to communications she may have had with key figures in the case.
“The trial against Andrea Sneiderman involves whether Andrea Sneiderman killed Rusty Sneiderman,” Panitch wrote. “None of the items sought are relevant to that determination.”
Attorneys representing Sneiderman, along with prosecutors, are bound by a gag order preventing them from commenting on these latest developments.
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