Crime & Safety

Neuman's Wife Files for Divorce

A week after his life sentence for murder, the East Cobb woman is asking to have family debts assigned to him.

Ariela Neuman was serious last week when she said she wanted to "delete" from her life as much of her 23-year marriage to Hemy Neuman as she could. 

The East Cobb woman has filed for divorce a week after he was given  without parole for the murder of Russell Sneiderman near a Dunwoody day care center. A DeKalb Superior Court jury found Hemy Neuman guilty of the crime but mentally ill. 

According to filing documents obtained by 11 Alive, Ariela Neuman is citing adultery and cruel treatment by Hemy Neuman as well has his conviction. The papers say she is seeking the family's home and other assets and custody of the couple's 18-year-old daughter, Addie Ann Neuman, and wants all debts the family accrued to be assigned to him.

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Ariela Neuman also will take back her maiden name, Barkoni, once the divorce is final, according to the documents.  

The documents indicate that the couple was separated in October of 2010, a month before Hemy Neuman shot and killed Sneiderman. Hemy Neuman moved to Buckhead after the separation, and Ariela Neuman filed the divorce papers in Fulton Superior Court. 

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He remains in the DeKalb County Jail and is awaiting permanent assignment to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Ariela Neuman continues to live in a home in the EastHampton neighborhood, near , but since her estranged husband's arrest she has worked several jobs to pay the bills. 

During the trial the prosecution and defense alleged that Hemy Neuman and Sneiderman's wife Andrea, whom he supervised at an East Cobb GE Energy engineering unit, were having an affair.

In her testimony, Andrea Sneiderman the accusation. DeKalb District Attorney Robert James contended during the trial that she "participated in the death of her husband" although she has not been charged. Since the verdict and sentencing, James has begun a formal investigation.

Andrea Sneiderman, who was barred from the trial after her testimony for interactions with other witnesses, has hired a new legal team.  

Earlier this week, Russell Sneiderman's parents, who live in Cleveland, Ohio, filed a petition in DeKalb Superior Court seeking visitation or custody of the Sneidermans' two small children. 

Ariela Neuman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after her divorce filing on Thursday that "I live by pennies. But I will keep smiling. I will keep being happy. I will keep my family moving on."


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