Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Suspect claims demon visited him before killing
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Prosecutors urged jurors on Tuesday to reject a murder suspect’s claims that he was visited by a demon that sounded like Barry White and an angel that looked like Olivia Newton-John before he shot and killed a toddler’s father outside a preschool.
Prosecutor Don Geary said Hemy Neuman, who is charged with murder, carefully planned the November 2010 killing of Russell Sneiderman, who had just dropped off his 2-year-old at a suburban preschool near Atlanta.
“I’ll boil it down to a sentence: A man wanted someone else’s life so he killed her husband. He got caught,” Geary said. “We ask you to return a verdict that speaks the truth.”
Neuman’s attorneys will argue their client was not guilty by reason of insanity. They say he was incapable of telling the difference between right and wrong. They have suggested the shooting could have been linked to an affair between Sneiderman’s wife and Neuman.
Andrea Sneiderman denies an affair and said Neuman may have been hallucinating, prosecutors said.