DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A second mental health expert testified Wednesday that he believes admitted killer Hemy Neuman is faking mental illness.
Neuman has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and claimed he didn’t know right from wrong when he shot and killed Rusty Sneiderman outside of Sneiderman’s son’s day care in November, 2010.
Dr. Joseph Browning, a forensic psychiatrist from Georgia Regional Hospital, told jurors Neuman was too methodical and thoughtful in his planning and carrying out of the crime to be manic.%
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“When Mr. Neuman was talking to us about how methodical he was in his planning and how thoughtful he was, he was very thoughtful about not harming other anyone else,” Browning testified. “He took a gun safety class. He wanted to make sure no one else was harmed. That goes against what a manic person would do."
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Browning said Neuman’s description of his symptoms and the belief that an angel told him to rescue the Sneiderman children from their father were not in line with someone who had an actual mental illness. Browning said Neuman told him he first planned to blow up Sneiderman’s car, then pondered poisoning him, before eventually settling on shooting him.
He testified Neuman’s actions were more in line with someone angry about a relationship ending than someone who was delusional.
Prosecutors said Neuman was having an affair with Sneiderman’s wife, Andrea, his subordinate at GE Energy.
Browning said Neuman told him the pair had sex “about half a dozen times,” over the course of their tryst, during business trips the pair took. Neuman said Andrea Sneiderman had told him she had no plans to leave her husband for him.
Andrea Sneiderman has repeatedly denied the affair.
Despite objections from Neuman’s attorneys, jurors also heard a jail house phone call Neuman made a few weeks before his retrial.
Neuman was speaking to his sister about a man he called “crazy” sitting on the bus with him to the courthouse.
"If I win my case, he's the kind of guy I'm going to be with,” Neuman said.
He can be heard saying on the recording, "I told my lawyers, ‘Well, better to have that for a few years than to have all these gang bangers and hardened criminals for the rest of my life.’”
There is no court on Thursday. On Friday, the defense will call any re-rebuttal witnesses and then rest. Once that happens, closing arguments will begin. Follow Channel 2's Mike Petchenik for LIVE updates.