The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BEHIND THE VERDICT IN THE HEMY NEUMAN CASE
Jury rejects defendant’s claim of mental illness during retrial in 2010 slaying of Rusty Sneiderman.
Once again, DeKalb County deputies approached Hemy Neuman and clicked on the cuffs.
The former GE Energy executive, 53, was convicted Tuesday of malice murder and possession of a firearm while committing a felony in a retrial over the 2010 slaying of Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody day care center. The jury rejected claims that mental illness drove the defendant to kill.
Judge Gregory A. Adams took just a few moments to give Neuman life without parole, again.
Adams gave the same sentence in 2012 after Neuman’s initial conviction, which was overturned last year by Georgia’s Supreme Court because of an attorney-client privilege issue. Neuman also was sentenced five years, to run consecutively, on the gun charge.
Andrea Sneiderman, who was initially implicated in her husband’s death, released a statement to Channel 2 Action News, praising the verdict which sent away “this cold-blooded killer” to prison “where he belongs.”
Asked again to make a statement to the court, the killer declined. The victim’s brother is hoping Neuman doesn’t get another chance.
With contempt in his voice, Steven Sneiderman read a statement on the witness stand during the sentencing hearing. He repeatedly referred to the defendant as the “confessed and duly convicted killer.”
Neuman indeed has long admit-
ted killing Rusty Sneiderman as the victim dropped his son off at the day care, but Neuman claimed he was delusional and motivated by longing for Andrea Sneiderman, Neuman’s alleged mistress.
The first jury found Neuman guilty but mentally ill; the second found him guilty.
Steven Sneiderman said losing his brother was hard enough, but the legal process has only compounded his pain. Both Neuman and Andrea Sneiderman fought their charges, causing the victim’s family to return to court many times in the past six years. Andrea Sneiderman, who was initially implicated in the murder, was found guilty of perjury and hindering the apprehension of a killer.
“Again and again, we have been forced to listen through clinical and witness descriptions of his death,” Steven Sneiderman said. “How many times do we have to listen to him die?” He glared at Neuman. “He has caused this entire spectacle ... to be broadcast over the internet,” the brother said.
He asked Adams to impose the harshest sentence possible, life without parole. He said Neuman effectively gave the victim’s parents and young children a similar sentence: life without their loved one.
Rusty Sneiderman? He got the death penalty for simply being in Neuman’s way,” Steven Sneiderman said.
Andrea Sneiderman also spoke on the legal process in her statement. “After a sixyear ordeal, millions of taxpayer dollars spent, a DA’s personal vendetta, and my own public persecution by those who wanted to profit from my loss, this monster’s calculated efforts to destroy lives is finally over,” she said.
No one came to the hearing to speak on the defendant’s behalf. Neuman’s ex-wife, who divorced him after the murder, and his kids want nothing to do with him, defense attorney Letitia Delan said.
But Delan said Neuman is sorry. “He is deeply remorseful,” she said.
She added: “The defense team has no doubt the defendant is mentally ill.”
During the trial, a forensic psychologist testified that she believed Neuman suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and was experiencing a manic episode during the murder, according to Channel 2 Action News. The state didn’t buy it. District Attorney Robert James called it an “old-fashioned murder.”
“This murder was cold, this murder was calculated, this murder was cruel,” he said during the sentencing.
On Tuesday, the killer was in court, restrained in the cuffs, walking away to prison.
But later in the afternoon, Channel 2 reported that his attorney vowed to file another appeal.