Andrea Sneiderman: Murder Charges, Perjury Conviction, and Sentence

Andrea Sneiderman is the Georgia widow of Russell “Rusty” Sneiderman, the Dunwoody father shot to death outside his son’s preschool in November 2010 by her boss at GE Energy, Hemy Neuman. She was indicted in 2012 as an alleged co-conspirator in the killing, but prosecutors dropped the murder-related charges before trial. A jury convicted her instead of perjury and related counts for lying to police and under oath about her relationship with Neuman. She served roughly 10 months in prison, completed parole in 2017, and later had her record cleared under Georgia’s First Offender Act.

The Murder That Put Her in the Spotlight

On the morning of November 18, 2010, Rusty Sneiderman, a 36-year-old Harvard-trained entrepreneur and father of two, was fatally shot in the parking lot of Dunwoody Prep after dropping off his son. Witnesses described a man in a disguise that included a fake black beard driving up in a silver minivan and firing four shots at close range before fleeing.¹

Investigators traced the rented minivan and synthetic hairs from a costume beard to Hemy Neuman, an engineer and executive at GE Energy who was Andrea’s direct supervisor.¹ Prosecutors would later describe the killing as a premeditated act motivated by Neuman’s affair with Andrea and a desire to claim Rusty’s $2 million life insurance benefit.² Neuman was ultimately convicted of malice murder; his 2012 conviction was reversed on appeal, and a second jury convicted him again in August 2016, sentencing him to life without parole.³

In the weeks before he was killed, Rusty had twice contacted police about suspicious activity at the family’s home, including a reported attempted break-in about a month before the shooting and, a week before the murder, a person hiding outside who appeared to be armed.¹

The Affair at the Center of Both Cases

Andrea had moved to the Atlanta area from Boston with Rusty and started as a quality manager at GE Energy in March 2010, working under Neuman.⁴ Whether she was romantically involved with him became the pivot of everything that followed.

Prosecutors called it a “forbidden romance” and produced witnesses to support it. A waitress, Christine Olivera, testified that she saw the two share a “passionate” kiss during a 2010 business trip to South Carolina.⁵ A former friend, Shayna Citron, said Andrea’s eyes were “dark and cold” when she talked about her husband but “sparkling” when the topic turned to her boss, and that she appeared to have “checked out of this marriage.”⁶

Andrea denied any affair. Testifying under oath at Neuman’s 2012 murder trial, she called him a “pest” and a “nuisance” whose advances she had rejected.⁵

Murder Charges and Why They Were Dropped

On August 2, 2012, a DeKalb County grand jury indicted Andrea on eight counts, including malice murder as a party to the crime, criminal attempt to commit murder, racketeering, and insurance fraud, along with perjury and false-statement counts. The indictment alleged that she and Neuman “developed and carried out a plan to murder Rusty Sneiderman” to collect the $2 million life insurance benefit and more than $960,000 held in bank accounts.⁷ She was arrested that day at a lake house near Eatonton and booked into the DeKalb County jail, and a judge froze her assets, including the insurance payout.²

The murder case was entirely circumstantial. On July 26, 2013, DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James asked the court to drop the three most serious charges, telling Judge Gregory Adams that after reviewing evidence from the defense and re-interviewing witnesses he was “no longer sure of Sneiderman’s guilt” on those counts. The judge granted the dismissal.⁸ Thirteen lesser charges remained.

What She Was Convicted Of

Andrea went to trial in August 2013 on 13 counts alleging she lied to police and under oath during the investigation into her husband’s murder. Prosecutors argued that by hiding her relationship with Neuman she had obscured his motive and impeded the case.

Court records identify the specific statements at issue:⁹

On November 19, 2010, the day after the killing, she told a Dunwoody officer that Neuman had made only one romantic overture, which she rejected, and that they were “just friends.”
On January 5, 2011, she denied to detectives that she had been with Neuman in Longmont, Colorado, in July 2010. Evidence showed she had changed a hotel reservation to include him and requested a king-size bed.
In the same January interview, she said she had never suspected Neuman of involvement in Rusty’s murder before December 28, 2010.
At Neuman’s February 2012 trial, she testified under oath that she was not romantically involved with him.

The court found these statements were “deliberately designed to deceive the officers and impede the investigation by creating the false impression that Neuman had no motive to murder her husband.”⁹

The jury convicted her on 9 of the 13 counts: four counts of perjury, three of making false statements, one of hindering the apprehension of a criminal, and one of concealment of material facts. She was acquitted on three perjury counts and one false-statement count.¹⁰

Sentence, Parole, and Record Clearance

On August 20, 2013, Judge Gregory A. Adams sentenced Andrea to five years in prison, with all nine counts running concurrently. She received credit for time already served in custody and under house arrest, leaving roughly four years.¹¹

At sentencing she asked the judge, “Please let me go home to my kids. Please don’t let them live without their mother,” and called one of her “greatest regrets” allowing “this predator into my life.” Rusty’s brother, Steve Sneiderman, called her a “common criminal and a liar” who could only “lie about it again and again.” District Attorney Robert James, who had sought 20 years, said Andrea “spoke today and she never took responsibility or accountability.”¹²

Her attorneys pursued a new trial, arguing that even if her testimony was false it was not “material.” The trial court rejected that argument.¹³ The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on March 11, 2016.¹⁴

Andrea did not serve close to the full sentence. In April 2014 the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles determined she had to serve at least 22 months; with credit for jail and house-arrest time, she was released on parole on June 16, 2014, after about 10 months of actual imprisonment.¹⁵ Her parole ended on August 21, 2017.¹⁶

After she completed her sentence and parole, Andrea’s criminal record was cleared under Georgia’s First Offender Act. Former District Attorney Robert James described the mechanism: “Once you have served out your sentence, probation included, then your crimes are erased from the record.” He said this was the standard application of the statute rather than special treatment.¹

Custody of the Children

By the summer of 2012, Rusty and Andrea’s two young children were living with Andrea’s parents, Herb and Bonita Greenberg. Rusty’s parents, Don and Marilyn Sneiderman, filed a court motion seeking emergency custody, alleging that the Greenberg family had engaged in conduct that included obstructing law enforcement and tampering with evidence to cover up Andrea’s affair with Neuman.¹⁷ In September 2012 the two families reached a custody settlement in Fulton County Superior Court. The terms were not disclosed, and attorneys on both sides declined to comment.¹⁸

1
ABC News. Beloved Georgia Father Gunned Down After Dropping Off Son at Preschool
2
CNN. Georgia Day Care Trial
3
Findlaw. Neuman v. The State, S20A1143
4
Appen Media. The Sneidermans and the Neumans: Two Families With Different Finances
5
ABC News. Andrea Sneiderman Trial: Victim’s Wife Accused of Lying About Affair
6
Fox 5 Atlanta. Former Friend: Sneiderman Checked Out of Marriage
7
Rough Draft Atlanta. Andrea Sneiderman Charged With Murder of Her Husband
8
CBS News. Andrea Sneiderman Gets Murder Charges Dropped but Trial Still Proceeds
9
Findlaw. Sneiderman v. State
10
CBS News. Andrea Sneiderman Guilty on 9 of 13 Counts in Perjury Trial
11
CBS News. Andrea Sneiderman to Serve About 4 Years in Prison
12
Jacksonville.com. Andrea Sneiderman Gets 5 Years for Lying During Investigation of Her Husband’s Murder
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sneiderman Attorney Attacks State Hypocrisy in Bid for New Trial
14
Fox 5 Atlanta. Appeals Court Upholds Andrea Sneiderman’s Conviction
15
USA Today. Georgia Woman Released on Parole in Perjury Case
16
Fox 5 Atlanta. Andrea Sneiderman Completes Sentence on Parole
17
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Andrea Sneiderman In-Laws Seek Custody of Grandchildren
18
Online Athens. Andrea Sneiderman, In-Laws Settle Child Custody Case