By Kate Brumback
The Associated Press
DECATUR, Ga. — A judge set a $500,000 bond Tuesday for a woman charged in her husband’s slaying outside a suburban Atlanta preschool.
The decision was announced after a court hearing in which attorneys for Andrea Sneiderman argued she was not a flight risk.
Sneiderman was indicted Aug. 2 on charges of malice murder and criminal attempt to commit murder in the Nov. 18, 2010, killing of Russell “Rusty” Sneiderman. He was ambushed by a gunman shortly after dropping off the couple’s young son at a preschool in an affluent Atlanta suburb.
Prosecutors allege Andrea Sneiderman was having an affair with the gunman, Hemy Neuman, who also was her boss. They also say she conspired with him to kill her husband in part to collect $2 million in life insurance policies.
She has denied an affair and denied knowing anything about the shooting.
Found guilty of the murder but mentally ill at trial in March, Neuman was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In announcing bond, Judge Gregory Adams ordered Andrea Sneiderman to be placed under house arrest. The judge also ordered her to surrender her passport and the passports of her young children and to wear a monitoring device.
Sneiderman smiled when the judge announced his decision and later hugged her attorneys. It was not immediately known when she might post the bond.
Earlier, a prosecutor had argued against bond, saying Sneiderman faces serious charges that could carry a potential sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if she is convicted. The prosecutor also said she has the financial means to flee.
But defense lawyer Tom Clegg said she wants her day in court, adding “we expect she will be exonerated at trial.”