High court upholds Neuman conviction

Opinion states jury authorized to reject insanity defense.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld the murder conviction against Hemy Neuman in the Dunwoody day care center killing.

In its opinion, the court unanimously upheld Neuman’s convictions of murder and illegal firearm possession in his second trial, held in 2016.

Neuman was initially found guilty but mentally ill in a sensational 2012 trial. But those convictions were reversed because the trial judge wrongly allowed into evidence records of two mental health experts who examined Neuman — documents that should have been protected under attorney- client privilege, the state Supreme Court said in a 2015 opinion.

Shortly after 9 a. m. Nov. 18, 2010, after dropping off his son, entrepreneur Rusty Sneiderman was walking to his car outside a Dunwoody day care center. He was confronted by Neuman, who fatally shot Sneiderman in the neck and torso.

In his first trial, Neuman said he’d had an affair with Sneiderman’s wife. He acknowledged planning Sneiderman’s murder by buying a disguise, carrying out the killing and throwing the murder weapon into a lake. He unsuccessfully sought a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity.

In his second trial, Neuman tried the same strategy but the jury returned unqualified guilty verdicts, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. At that trial, the Dekalb County jury was “authorized to reject Neuman’s insanity defense and find no mental illness based on its assessment of the credibility of the witnesses and of any conflicts in the evidence,” said Monday’s state Supreme Court opinion, written by Justice Charles Bethel.

Andrea Sneiderman, who has insisted she was never romantically involved with Neuman, initially was accused of helping Neuman kill her husband. After murder charges against her were dropped, she was found guilty of perjury and hindering the apprehension of a killer. She was released from prison in 2014.