samanthajane13
10-16-2008, 03:42 PM
By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
RALEIGH, N.C. - A Georgia grandmother charged with hiring someone to kill one of her five dead husbands was released from a North Carolina jail Thursday, but it wasn't immediately clear if she would be allowed to leave the state.
Betty Neumar, 76, posted $300,000 bond late Thursday morning at the Stanly County jail, where she's been held since her arrest in May, Sheriff Rick Burris said. He did not know the conditions of her release or where she got the money.
Neumar is charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder in the 1986 death of husband No. 4, Harold Gentry.
"I can't believe they let her out. It's just wrong, flat out wrong. I don't understand," said Gentry's brother, Al, who pressed law enforcement for more than two decades to get the case reopened.
Prosecutors allege Neumar tried to hire three people to kill Gentry in the six weeks before his bullet-riddled body was found in his rural North Carolina home.
Since her arrest, police in Florida and Ohio have begun to re-examine the deaths of her first child — Gary Flynn — and three of her other husbands, though she faces no charges in those cases. Georgia police recently closed their re-examination of the death of her fifth husband, John Neumar, saying they have no evidence she was involved.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with Neumar's attorney, Charles Parnell. He has said in the past that prosecutors have been using the other deaths to unfairly paint his client as a black widow.
Al Gentry said law enforcement officers have told him to be careful since he was instrumental in Neumar's arrest.
"Now my back has a big target on it," said Gentry, who said he regularly carries a gun for protection.
Burris said he was surprised Neumar was able to post the bond, recently lowered from $500,000, but confident in the prosecution's case. Burris said it will likely take several months for prosecutors and defense attorneys to review all the court documents.
"It's going to take a lot of time," he said. "I wish it was going to court today. But I don't make the rules, I just abide by them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/ap_on_re_us/wife_cold_cases
RALEIGH, N.C. - A Georgia grandmother charged with hiring someone to kill one of her five dead husbands was released from a North Carolina jail Thursday, but it wasn't immediately clear if she would be allowed to leave the state.
Betty Neumar, 76, posted $300,000 bond late Thursday morning at the Stanly County jail, where she's been held since her arrest in May, Sheriff Rick Burris said. He did not know the conditions of her release or where she got the money.
Neumar is charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder in the 1986 death of husband No. 4, Harold Gentry.
"I can't believe they let her out. It's just wrong, flat out wrong. I don't understand," said Gentry's brother, Al, who pressed law enforcement for more than two decades to get the case reopened.
Prosecutors allege Neumar tried to hire three people to kill Gentry in the six weeks before his bullet-riddled body was found in his rural North Carolina home.
Since her arrest, police in Florida and Ohio have begun to re-examine the deaths of her first child — Gary Flynn — and three of her other husbands, though she faces no charges in those cases. Georgia police recently closed their re-examination of the death of her fifth husband, John Neumar, saying they have no evidence she was involved.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with Neumar's attorney, Charles Parnell. He has said in the past that prosecutors have been using the other deaths to unfairly paint his client as a black widow.
Al Gentry said law enforcement officers have told him to be careful since he was instrumental in Neumar's arrest.
"Now my back has a big target on it," said Gentry, who said he regularly carries a gun for protection.
Burris said he was surprised Neumar was able to post the bond, recently lowered from $500,000, but confident in the prosecution's case. Burris said it will likely take several months for prosecutors and defense attorneys to review all the court documents.
"It's going to take a lot of time," he said. "I wish it was going to court today. But I don't make the rules, I just abide by them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/ap_on_re_us/wife_cold_cases