A jury found an Alabama man guilty of attempted murder after his wife testified against him.
Brian Mann, 36, received a guilty verdict on Thursday, after his trial began earlier this week. The woman he tried to kill testified against him: his estranged wife, Hannah Pettey, 25, who has since recovered from her husband’s attempt to poison her with lead from a construction project at his chiropractic practice.
Her testimony revealed that Mann took out several life insurance policies on her after she became ill, discouraging her from seeking medical attention.
This week, local CBS affiliate WHNT reported from the courtroom, relaying details from both Pettey’s testimony and that of an insurance agent who worked with the former couple. According to WHNT, Pettey testified that Mann signed up for “a lot of insurance policies” totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Pettey reportedly stated that many of those policies were developed after she became ill and was hospitalized for what was later discovered to be lead poisoning. Pettey stated that while she was in the hospital, her husband appeared to be more concerned with the policies than her health. Because she had to be in good health to be insured, Pettey claimed that Mann made her wear ankle weights when she was weighed by doctors to compensate for the weight she had lost due to her illness.
Between September 2021 and January 2022, Pettey testified that she lost 40 pounds. She first noticed symptoms in August 2021, which included severe, even excruciating pain in her back and abdomen, dizziness, and nausea. She claimed that Mann was giving her what she thought were multivitamins from his office.
During her illness, Pettey testified that Mann “was probably the nicest he’d been throughout our marriage during those critical months.” She stated that he would bring her “vitamins and water” because she was unable to consume food. He also discouraged her from visiting the hospital, despite her severe symptoms. Pettey was finally admitted to the hospital after her mother took her to her doctor, who suspected she had stomach cancer.
Mann was unaware of the doctor’s visit.
Pettey testified that Mann isolated her from her family while she was ill. After being admitted to the hospital, her condition worsened to the point where she was experiencing “hallucinations.” When it was discovered that Mann had poisoned her, Pettey’s family prevented him from communicating with her, making her “distraught.” She admitted, “I didn’t understand that at the time.”
Pettey also informed her husband’s defense attorney that Mann was “begging” her to halt the investigation into him.
She later admitted, “Looking back, I was isolated.” On the stand, she claimed that Mann did not want her to work and deleted her social media accounts after their marriage in 2018.
During her testimony, Pettey stated that Mann’s attempted murder left lead in her bones. The levels were high enough to make her infertile, and she claims she still has pain in her hands.
When it came to Mann’s multiple insurance policies, agents became suspicious of his requests to increase payments on existing policies and purchase several new policies. State Farm agent Chris Humphreys, who helped Mann with his policies at the agency, testified that if someone applies for too many policies with the same company, it will be investigated.
Humphreys also testified that Mann had additional life insurance policies on his wife through other insurance companies. He was quoted as saying: “If someone is going to go around and get a whole bunch of policies at different companies, it’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall.”
Mann also attempted to persuade authorities that he and his children were being poisoned with lead, to the point where he told a nurse practitioner about it and claimed to have taken an X-ray of himself. When the nurse practitioner informed him that he needed another X-ray to determine whether the poisoning was new or an ongoing problem, she reportedly told police that he became “visibly nervous” and wanted to leave.
Mann underwent an X-ray, which revealed a substance in his stomach that had only been present for a short time.
Mann was convicted of attempted murder on Thursday. On Wednesday, a jury deliberated for two hours, took a break, and then deliberated for another 45 minutes before reaching its decision.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 27.
