DECATUR, AL - A chiropractor who was accused of poisoning his wife with lead has been found guilty by a jury after she testified against him. On Thursday, June 12th, after three days of trial, 36-year-old Brian Mann was found guilty of attempted murder. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 27th.
Testifying against him was his estranged wife, 25-year-old Hannah Pettey, who thankfully has since recovered from her husband's attempt to poison her with lead that came from a construction project at his chiropractic business. Her testimony revealed that Mann took out several life insurance policies on her after she became ill. He also, according to her testimony, discouraged her from going to the hospital.
Court documents state that Mann and Pettey were in the middle of a divorce when he "intentionally caused her to unwittingly ingest particles of lead," WHNT reported. Mann was arrested after police received a tip saying he had lead leftover from the construction of an X-ray room at his office.
Pettey testified that Mann took out several life insurance policies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the event of her death. Three of those policies were taken out after she got sick, as she spent multiple months in the hospital, and medical staff identified she was experiencing lead poisoning.
While testifying, Pettey said her husband was very concerned about the insurance covered, and at one point made her wear ankle weights after she got sick so doctors wouldn't notice her weight loss and notify insurance companies. She said that he opposed her going to the hospital, and she only did so after her mother urged her to go. Mann was unaware of that doctor's visit.
Between September 2021 and January 2022, Pettey testified that she had lost 40 pounds. She said she first began experiencing symptoms in August 2021 including severe, even excruciating pain in her back and abdomen, dizziness, and nausea. She said that she believed Mann was giving her what she thought were multivitamins from his office.
During the trial, the couple's insurance agent also testified, discussing the details of those insurance policies. Several life insurance policies across multiple companies were taken out in Hannah Mann's (Pettey) name with Brian Mann listed as the beneficiary.
While on the stand, the insurance agent pointed out that it is highly unusual for a wife to have more life insurance coverage than her husband when he is the primary breadwinner. Hartselle Police Chief Alan McDearmond also took the stand, saying that this was an unusual investigation. He said he was contacted by Pettey's family, who told them that they suspected she had been poisoned by her husband.
McDearmond said he searched the couple's home for evidence, but it wasn't until later on that the lead was connected to Mann. Danny Hill was the contractor who worked to remodel Mann's chiropractic office. He said his crew installed lead-lined walls in an X-ray room, and that after the process was completed, several pieces of lead were left over.
Hill testified that Mann told him he would take care of disposing of the lead himself. During her testimony, Pettey said that there was still lead in her bones from Mann's attempt to kill her. The levels were high enough to keep her from having children, and she said she still experiences pain in her hands.
While she was sick, Pettey testified that Mann "was probably the nicest he'd been throughout our marriage during those critical months." She said he would bring her "vitamins and water" since she was unable to keep food down.
Mann tried to convince authorities that he and his children were also being poisoned with lead, to the extent that he told a nurse practitioner about it and claimed to have done an X-ray on himself. When the nurse told him he needed to do another X-ray to see if the poisoning had been new or been an ongoing issue, she told police that he became "visibly nervous" and wanted to leave.
