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Doctor: Andrea Sneiderman manipulated Neuman

DECATUR, Ga.,None — Defense attorneys in the Dunwoody day care murder trial continue to question a doctor to prove the defendant was insane at the time of the killing. Their witness said the victim's wife manipulated him.

"She was planting these suggestions and manipulating him into believing what she believed and thinking what she thought," Dr. Adriana Flores said in court Monday.

Lawyers on both sides believe the defendant, Hemy Neuman, was having an affair with Andrea Sneiderman, his subordinate at GE Energy. Neuman has admitted he shot Sneiderman's husband, Rusty, outside a Dunwoody day care in November 2010, but he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Neuman said angels and demons resembling celebrities told him the Sneiderman children were his own and that he must kill their father to protect them. Flores, a forensic psychologist, diagnosed him as bipolar and delusional, adding there was a family history of such mental illnesses.

Throughout the trial, witnesses have testified about Neuman's professional successes and apparent stability, but Flores said appearances can be deceiving.

"He wasn't like somebody that you see in the movies. … That's not his presentation because he doesn't have schizophrenia," Flores said. "Delusional people will look normal."

She said there was one person though, who would have known about Neuman's condition.

"The only person that would have known that he was in fact delusional was Andrea Sneiderman," Flores said.

She said Sneiderman knew Neuman was hallucinating because his visions involved her children, whom they frequently discussed. Flores said Sneiderman led him on and fostered a strong bond between the two.
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"What Andrea Sneiderman was doing was pulling him and pushing him. She was all along giving him some very real cues, further cementing his delusion about the nature of their relationship," Flores said.

She said Sneiderman led Neuman to believe the Sneiderman household was a tumultuous one, and Neuman didn't want the children to experience a traumatic childhood like his own.

The prosecution questioned Flores' method of analysis, noting that some have attacked a test she used to form her diagnosis. Prosecutors are expected to call a rebuttal witness, another doctor who will testify that Neuman was faking his illness.

If Neuman is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he will go to a mental institution for evaluation instead of prison.