I’ve changed my mind. I believe Andrea Sneiderman when she says no affair with Hemy Neuman ever happened. It didn’t look like she was lying when on the witness stand yesterday. It could have been, it almost occurred, but she brushed off Hemy’s advances before things got too out of hand. Here’s the pickle. This is what drove Hemy insane. He wanted Andrea, but she didn’t want him. His killing of Rusty was a subconscious strike at Andrea for subverting his romantic overtures.
I don’t believe Mr. Neuman is insane. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was locked in a destructive mode of behavior. He had violent tendencies, but didn’t care to curtail them. Hemy used his position at GE and as Andrea’s boss to manipulate her. She was scared of losing her job if she blew the whistle on him. Did Rusty know of these unwanted advances on his wife? I believe he suspected something.
When did Andrea know that Hemy was the shooter? Apparently, she did tell a friend in December of 2010 that she thought Hemy had done it. This would be about a month after the shooting. Did she know earlier? This may come out in the trial later, maybe even today, when she takes the witness stand again. But what about the phone calls between Neuman and Andrea the day before the shooting and the day of (November 18, 2010, at precisely 9: 16 A.M.)?
Defense attorney Doug Peters documents some of the calls. Three on the day before the Dunwoody incident. One call was 18 minutes long. What were they talking about? Was it all just business? Did she say anything to him that might have egged him on? That encouraged him to do what he would do the next day? Did Hemy only imagine she was covertly or symbolically encouraging him to commit a violent action?
On a destructive day that would turn so many lives upside down, it was actually Andrea who was calling Hemy, and no less than six times. But she didn’t know that Rusty had been shot yet. Only that she had to go to the emergency unit of the hospital. She may have just been alerting her boss that she couldn’t come in because of the pending emergency. This makes perfect sense to me!
What we have here, actually, is layers and layers of a tangled, psychological mess. It’s very hard to determine just what any set of people are thinking at one given moment (as they react to events in their dynamic environment), much less trying to use this as fodder (evidence) to prove anything in court. Neuman was clearly stalking Rusty Sneiderman, and fully intended on killing him. He was consummately rationale in his planning of the crime and in carrying it out.
What was going through his mind is a very different question. Did he live in a fantasy la la land where he believed that he and Andrea would be united and live happily ever after? That could very well be, but that’s not insanity really! But what about the violent part where he wants to kill Rusty to get to Andrea? That’s got to be insane! And why would Andrea want to be with him when she knows he’s killed her husband? No way!
And yet you might argue, all murders are a form of insanity. It looks like the defense has cooked up this bit about Barry White and Olivia Newton-John to coax the jury into believing Mr. Neuman is certified CRACKERS! My impression is that he is a highly intelligent, yet conniving GE bureaucrat who couldn’t get his way with a lady, so he decides to destroy his life and the lives of people around him. Purely selfish!
