Georgia Engineer Murder Trial: Widow Calls Her Boss ‘Delusional’
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Dunwoody Police Dept(ATLANTA) — The General Electric worker whose former boss and alleged lover admits he killed her husband said on Wednesday the ex-boss was, “a self-proclaimed delusional individual” who fooled her using “masterful manipulation.”
Testifying at Hemy Neuman’s murder trial in Atlanta, his former employee, Andrea Sneiderman, described the former high-level GE operations manager as a “predator.”
“Every time we spoke, it was like he was my best friend. Every time we had a verbal conversation, ‘Oh, I understand. I respect your marriage,'” Sneiderman said of Neuman. “But what he liked to do was jab at my marriage. But then, ‘I respect you. You’re a good mother.’ That was his mode of operation.”
Neuman, 48, is charged with shooting and killing Sneiderman’s husband, Rusty Sneiderman, 36, in the parking lot of the Sneidermans’ son’s preschool in November 2010.
Neuman has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His defense claims he and Andrea Sneiderman were involved in a hot-and-cold affair when she worked for him at General Electric. Sneiderman denies any affair.
Neither the defense nor the prosecution denies that Neuman pulled the trigger and killed Sneiderman, but they tell divergent stories of what led to the killing.
Neuman’s defense attorney, Doug Peters, said in his opening statements that Neuman believed he had been visited by an angel resembling Olivia Newton-John and a demon resembling Barry White, who told him that Sneiderman’s children were Neuman’s and that he needed to protect them by killing Rusty Sneiderman.
The prosecution painted Neuman as a calculating killer who planned Sneiderman’s shooting for months — going to gun shows, taking a gun safety course, going to target practice, renting a car for the shooting and wearing a disguise.
Sneiderman told the court that after Neuman read her a poem at dinner during a business trip, she realized that, “he had deeper feelings for me than just friends.”
“None of those feelings were ever returned and I made myself completely clear where I stood,” Sneiderman said. “I did nothing but try to help Hemy Neuman — suggested he get counseling in his marriage, not move out of his home. I would do that for any friend.”
“I remember walking out of that dinner like we were best buddies,” she said. “It was a masterful manipulation.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio