In January 2022, the ache coursing by Hannah Pettey’s physique for six months was hitting her more durable than ever.
Hannah Pettey: It was insufferable … I used to be within the mattress at this level for in all probability like per week straight.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: Had been you even in a position to care on your youngsters?
Hannah Pettey: I did as a lot as I may.
Hannah’s son Lincoln was 3, and her daughter Gracie had simply turned 2. However Hannah was too sick to attend Gracie’s birthday celebration.
Hannah Pettey: I used to be so weak that I could not hardly stroll. I had a bit of workplace chair that I might roll round in our home as a result of I actually did not get out of the home …
Hannah says her husband Brian Mann was there when she wanted him probably the most.
Hannah Pettey: Once I actually began getting sick is when he was the sweetest to me …
Hannah Pettey
Brian was a chiropractor, however he says he couldn’t diagnose what was flawed with Hannah.
Brian Mann: I had no thought … that is out of my forte. Um, that is somebody that I might refer out, confer with a specialist, which is what I wished to do.
On Jan. 18, 2022, Hannah checked in along with her mom Nicole Pettey. After they hung up, Nicole says she was haunted by one thing she heard in her daughter’s voice.
Nicole Pettey: Simply know that feeling, I knew one thing was flawed.
Nicole Pettey: I referred to as and referred to as and referred to as and texted … Hannah referred to as me lastly … however she wasn’t in a position to converse. … So she simply sort of gasped … after which she’d requested me, she mentioned, “Mother, can you’re taking me to the hospital?”
What was the reason for Hannah Pettey sick?
Brian was at work, so Nicole rushed over and drove Hannah to UAB, the hospital on the College of Alabama at Birmingham. Whereas there, Nicole took a number of images and movies.
Nicole Pettey: The physician … mentioned, clearly she could be very sick … I wanna maintain her, however there’s … no means that they are gonna let me maintain her. Her, um, vitals are secure … I mentioned … “in the event you ship her residence, she’s gonna die …”
It was proper then that Hannah suffered a terrifying seizure, and, within the frenzy, she ripped off her hospital robe. For Nicole, that second is frozen in time.
Nicole Pettey: … she was pores and skin and bones … they instructed me that she was really ravenous to loss of life once we acquired there, they mentioned she was, had hours to stay …
Nicole Pettey 
One physician directed her anger at Nicole.
Nicole Pettey: She’s like, does she stay with you? Like clearly somebody ought to have seen that this particular person was dying, . This particular person was ravenous to loss of life. … She mentioned, “who’s answerable for her?”
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What’d you say?
Nicole Pettey: And I mentioned, she’s married they usually mentioned, “she’s married?”
The seizure was so extreme Hannah misplaced consciousness. Medical doctors wished to speak with Hannah’s husband, so Nicole says she texted Brian:
“Hey Brian, Hannah had a seizure about 2 hours in the past. She nonetheless has not come to but…they mentioned she might be out all day lengthy, so I wished to let if she’s not texting you that’s the reason…”
Nicole Pettey: And I, after all, did not get a response from him …
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: So you do not get … a textual content again — from Brian …
Nicole Pettey: No, by no means.
It had been that means for years, she mentioned; all by his marriage to Hannah, Brian ignored Nicole.
Nicole Pettey: … by no means seen him the entire time they have been married … by no means … any interplay with him in any respect.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: By no means for any household gatherings, any holidays, he simply by no means got here?
Nicole Pettey: By no means.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Brian did not such as you.
Nicole Pettey: No.
That evening, Brian by no means acquired again to Nicole, however he had realized about Hannah’s situation from his mom, who was in contact with Nicole. He organized for childcare and started driving.
Nicole Pettey: He acquired to the hospital round 9:30 that evening …
Below COVID restrictions, the hospital was permitting just one customer at a time and with Nicole inside, Brian was saved out.
Brian Mann: I used to be very irritated that Nicole was not switching out with me, um, letting me in, as a result of I stood exterior of that hospital for a very long time, attempting to get in that room with Hannah.
However ultimately, Nicole did come out and Brian was allowed in.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: It will need to have been surprising to see her in that hospital mattress like that?
Brian Mann: Sure … however I used to be glad that she was there … and — and folks have been attempting to determine one thing out.
When Mann left to go to work, Nicole went in. Hannah was nonetheless unconscious and had been that means for practically 48 hours. Nurses had simply completed checking on her when Nicole bent over her daughter.
Nicole Pettey: I kissed her head, and I mentioned, “I really like you” … Her eyes simply popped open. After which she mentioned, “I really like you too.”
Nicole says nurses have been amazed and rushed to her facet.
Nicole Pettey: I simply began crying and Hannah mentioned, “have I not been speaking?”
However Hannah’s ordeal was removed from over. Days after Hannah was admitted, Nicole says docs put her in a medical coma whereas they drained the surplus fluid from inside her mind.
Nicole Pettey: … after which they needed to paralyze her as a result of even being in a coma, um, there was simply a lot fluid in her mind that any sort of motion … she would’ve died…
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: However, Nicole, it is like issues are going from dangerous to worse.
Nicole Pettey: Yeah, yeah.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: Did you ever quit hope?
Nicole Pettey: No. Oh no. No. By no means. Not one time …
Brian says he was questioning why Hannah’s well being had gone downhill so rapidly the day Nicole had picked her up and drove to the hospital.
Brian Mann: … that’s curious how dangerous she acquired from getting within the automobile along with her mom to being admitted to the hospital.
His dislike and mistrust of Nicole boiled over.
Brian Mann: … she is a merciless particular person … she was not proud of the truth that Hannah appeared blissful being with me …
Hannah Pettey’s physique was “filled with lead”
Eight days after Hannah was admitted to the hospital, her neurologist instructed Nicole that docs had discovered what was responsible for Hannah’s signs.
Nicole Pettey: Her actual phrases have been, “she has an astronomical quantity of lead within her.”
Lead. It was an uncommon discovering, and Nicole says docs instructed her they’d by no means seen a affected person like Hannah.
Nicole Pettey: They mentioned her colon was so packed, stuffed with lead … it was nearly 100% lead. … there was no room in her abdomen to carry something. It was simply full lead plus there was lead simply in her bones, simply in every single place …
Hartselle Police Division 
Medical doctors instructed Nicole there was no means Hannah may have ingested all that lead accidentally — it needed to be deliberate, they usually instructed her precisely what they thought.
Nicole Pettey: They let me know that that is an tried homicide …
The hospital reported Hannah’s case to the Division of Human Sources, the state company that protects susceptible adults. Hospital directors instantly put Hannah in a secluded room with somebody on the door to maintain all guests out. Nicole says she and Brian have been instructed to depart and have been now not allowed to see Hannah as a result of they have been thought-about attainable suspects.
CBS Information 
Nicole Pettey: I used to be beside myself … as a result of I needed to depart her … they needed to ship me away from the hospital.
Brian Mann: I instantly began pondering that is Nicole. … This must be Nicole pointing fingers … I did not actually suppose it might get anyplace as a result of I assumed it was, once more, simply Nicole making waves to make waves.
Brian Mann: Hannah’s mother simply induced so many issues and never a lot instantly at me, however she was simply terrible to Hannah …
Brian says Hannah instructed him that Nicole might be important of her.
Brian Mann: Why do not you set make-up on, um, are you positive it’s best to eat that? Simply stuff like that on a regular basis.
Brian Mann: I might say … why would you like this lady in your life? And it at all times all she may come again to, “she’s my mother.” … “She’s my mother.” And that is actually the one protection she had for her, “she’s my mother.”
Hannah denies Brian’s allegations. She did transfer away from Nicole and acquired her personal condominium in June 2017, the month she turned 18 years previous. She had simply graduated from highschool. That is when she met Brian, a 29-year-old chiropractor together with his personal enterprise.
Hannah Pettey: He was very, very candy at first and … he is very charming, good trying. (Laughs) And yeah, I actually favored him.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Sounds prefer it was nearly type of on the spot attraction.
Brian Mann: Sure … it was head over heels. … umm the whole lot was simply working proper.
Inside weeks of Brian’s first date with Hannah, his buddy Walker Snyder says Brian instructed him Hannah was “the one.”
Walker Snyder: And I am like, man, you simply met her like per week in the past or she’s 18. (laughs) she would not know what she needs. … She would not even know what she would not need. And he was like, “No, we each know what we wish” …
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Hannah instructed pals she was pregnant.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How lengthy have been you guys courting … earlier than you proposed?
Brian Mann: We began courting in November. I consider I proposed after Valentine’s Day … so not — not too lengthy.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Had been you nervous?
Brian Mann: I used to be … I take marriage very severely. And, so, yeah … I used to be, I used to be positively nervous about it.
Hannah was nervous, too. She says she had seen that Brian might be controlling however she plunged forward — at the very least till her marriage ceremony day in Might 2018. Hannah’s buddy, Alyson Holmes.
Alyson Holmes: Proper earlier than we have been all about to stroll down the aisle … Hannah expressed to us that she was, … very nervous. She had chilly ft …
Nicole Pettey: We instructed her 100 instances over. You do not have to do it. … if that is chilly ft, , it’s what it’s. But when that is un — uncertainty, stroll away, it is not too late to stroll away.
In the long run, Hannah smiled by her ceremony, and married Brian.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Whenever you walked as much as the altar and also you checked out him, you had no questions?
Hannah Pettey: I imply, I did. … I imply, deep down I did. I used to be like, I do not actually know if I am making the suitable determination and the whole lot …
Chelsea Vaughn Pictures 
The couple moved into Brian’s residence and began their lives collectively.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How was he as a husband?
Hannah Pettey: For probably the most half, he was actually good as a husband … I imply, it was good and dangerous.
Hannah Pettey: We acquired in numerous bodily fights … in order that’s a foul factor, nevertheless it wasn’t … on a regular basis although, so …
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: , like, as I am listening to you speak, , it sounds nearly a bit of bit like —
Hannah Pettey: Mm.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: — you are explaining away –
Hannah Pettey: Mm-hmm.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: — the dangerous stuff. Do you suppose you probably did that within the marriage a bit?
Hannah Pettey: Uh, yeah, I positively did, I feel …Yeah. Yeah, my mother tells me that, too.
Even their son’s beginning was a minefield of emotion.
Hannah Pettey: , I used to be 9 months pregnant, and I had began, um, bleeding. And so, I went to the hospital, and he got here in and he acquired so offended at me … and he was yelling at me … and “you should not have been out strolling like on this warmth” … like, “that was so silly and irresponsible”
Alyson Holmes: … he was performing so simply outrageous that the nurses … even instructed her … in the event you want us to do one thing, you then say this particular phrase and we’ll know … that we have to step in and intervene in what is going on on …
Hannah by no means used that “secure phrase” however as time went on, Brian says the couple got here to an understanding.
Brian Mann: I might say, Hannah, speak to me. I’m in your facet…. I am your largest fan, your largest supporter … sooner or later she mentioned … I’ll belief you. And I wish to do that with you. And I wish to construct this with you. … from then on, it simply acquired higher and higher.
Hannah Pettey: … that is after I began to essentially fall in love with him.
The couple had one other baby, a daughter, and life was good, they are saying, till Hannah started to really feel sick and went to the hospital emergency room in January 2022. She was left combating for her life, and docs have been attempting to assist her, however they instructed Nicole they needed to know extra.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: They mentioned the one means she will get this a lot lead in her system —
Nicole Pettey: Is to ingest it. Is to ingest it. They mentioned she needed to have ingested it.
Nicole Pettey: I bear in mind them saying, we do not care in the event you give her crack … we simply wish to find out about it. We have now to know the whole lot she’s taken.
And that is when Nicole remembered one thing that she’d utterly neglected: Hannah instructed her that Brian had given her particular dietary supplements – capsules — every evening.
Searching for proof
Medical doctors saved asking Nicole what Hannah had been consuming within the months main as much as her hospital keep.
Nicole Pettey: From what they will see, it appears like somebody has gave her lead each single day for, at the very least … three months.
Was Hannah consuming one thing that contained lead? Nicole says she had no thought as a result of she hardly visited her daughter within the months earlier than the seizure. And by no means if Brian was residence.
Nicole Pettey: I may solely go when he was working … and I must depart earlier than he acquired off work. … I by no means really bumped into him.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Whoa.
Nicole Pettey: Yeah, He did not come residence till I left.
As docs pressed her for info, Nicole remembered Hannah telling her about particular complement capsules that Brian positioned on her nightstand each evening. Nicole says it did not strike her as uncommon as a result of Brian was a chiropractor, however she instructed docs anyway.
Nicole Pettey: I instructed ’em that I do know that they have been large on dietary supplements.
Nicole says docs repeatedly requested Brian to herald the capsules described by Hannah, however he by no means did. As a substitute, he gave them a photograph of frequent over-the-counter dietary supplements.
DHR investigators, who have been getting info from Hannah’s docs, contacted Lt. Alan McDearmond of the Hartselle Police Division.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: They mentioned that I wanted to go arrest someone for trying to kill their spouse. And I am like, properly, maintain up. I imply, we will not simply go arrest individuals. What are you speaking about?
Investigators instructed McDearmond that docs suspected Brian had given Hannah some sort of lead-filled capsules time and again.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: … you’ll be able to take a capsule and open it up, empty the contents after which put the lead in …
McDearmond instructed Brian concerning the hospital’s allegations.
Brian Mann: McDearmond … mentioned … your spouse’s been lead poisoned. … And so they suppose it was intentional. And so they mentioned, you are the primary suspect … So, I used to be sort of dumbfounded … I did not know what to consider that.
McDearmond requested Brian if the police may search his home, and he agreed.
Brian Mann: So, I took him all by the home. I let him search my home … And we went by and tried to determine what she was consuming, capsules, make-ups and — and issues like that.
McDearmond says Brian supplied a bottle of dietary supplements and a laxative that he mentioned Hannah had taken.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Hannah says you made her take dietary supplements.
Brian Mann: That isn’t true …
Brian blamed all his issues on Nicole.
Brian Mann: I instantly began pondering that is Nicole …This must be Nicole pointing fingers.
Investigators eliminated the youngsters from Brian’s residence. They have been positioned together with his mother and father. He had supervised visitation.
Brian Mann: Nicole had simply performed a lot over time and Hannah had instructed me a lot about her that I simply had little question … Nicole was one way or the other stirring this all up.
Brian mentioned he remembered one thing Hannah had instructed him that now appeared to carry extra significance. In second grade, in a narrative that Hannah confirms, she recalled being so sick for thus lengthy that she visited the varsity nurse dozens of instances.
Brian Mann: … and she or he ultimately acquired actually dangerous, and her mom took her to UAB. She says she remembers staying there a couple of week.
Hannah Pettey Fb 
Flash ahead to 2022. Hannah was again at UAB Hospital. On January 29, McDearmond went to see Hannah for himself, however she was in a coma.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: I had no thought the situation she was in till I went to the hospital and noticed her for myself …
Medical doctors confirmed him Hannah’s X-rays.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: What did you suppose?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Oh, gosh, I used to be simply floored. I imply, her complete insides was lit up from the — the lead reacting to the X-ray … I imply It was loopy.
McDearmond requested Brian to return in.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: And at that time is when he refused to additional cooperate with the investigation.
On February 1, McDearmond cleared Nicole, and she or he was as soon as once more allowed to go to Hannah.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How have been you in a position to clear Nicole?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: , simply by conversations … whether or not you possibly can inform that she was very involved about Hannah … she was the individual that was caring for Hannah …
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: It sounds to me such as you similar to Nicole’s conduct. She acted the best way you anticipate a involved mom to behave. … And Brian did not act the best way you anticipated a involved husband to behave.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: That is appropriate.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Is that proof?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: That is not proof. No … and the issue with this case was there was not numerous proof.
Inside days, McDearmond acquired the outcomes of the checks performed at Brian and Hannah’s residence.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: The whole lot was adverse.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you ever discover any capsules?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Um, no.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you ever discover any dietary supplements that have been tainted?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Um, no.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you ever discover proof of lead being floor down or scraped, or become little particles that might go right into a capsule?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: No.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: So, is not that sort of a giant gap within the concept?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Effectively, he bought dietary supplements.
McDearmond says he saved on the lookout for the supply of that lead. In mid-February, Hannah started to rally and McDearmond went to see her once more.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: I instructed her in a really good means, , why she was within the hospital and … requested her, , do you might have any thought who might have given you some substance? She mentioned, “No.”
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Do you might have any ideas of self-harm? I imply, did you set your self right here? And he or she mentioned, “No.”
McDearmond mentioned Hannah was coherent one minute and never the following. She mentioned she noticed “individuals popping out of the partitions.”
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Once I first began speaking to the medical workers, I imply, they did not give her any hope … they mentioned if she got here out of this, that, uh, she would actually not have any cognitive features … they did not suspect that, that we’d be capable of even speak along with her.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: Wow.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: They mainly instructed us that we wanted to do the whole lot that we may, as a result of we did not must depend on her as a witness as a result of they did not suppose she would ever make it to that time.
However Hannah stunned everybody by getting stronger every day with the assistance of a group of devoted nurses.
Nicole Pettey: They have been all sort of near her age … they knew she had youngsters, and they might say to her, “you have acquired your infants, you have acquired your infants.”
Nicole Pettey: And I bear in mind she simply at all times acquired a life in her while you talked about the youngsters. She was like … I am gonna get higher. I am gonna get out right here and get higher, .
Nicole says Hannah did get higher and stronger — sturdy sufficient that Hannah’s neurologist instructed her the entire story.
Hannah Pettey: She grabbed my hand and she or he simply sort of began giving me a coronary heart to coronary heart about why they’ve sturdy causes to consider that it was Brian.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And what is the dialog like after that, between you and Hannah?
Nicole Pettey: Oh, it was horrible. That was horrible. Sorry, of the whole lot that she went by, the heartbreak … The heartbreak was horrible … She simply would sit there and cry.
On March 3, after practically two months, Hannah was properly sufficient to depart the hospital. She went to her mother’s home, reunited along with her kids, and filed for divorce. However pals like Kyle Golden have been apprehensive.
Kyle Golden: We did know that Hannah was nonetheless in touch with Brian —
Alyson Holmes: Yeah.
Kyle Golden: And that did upset us … It was scary.
Alyson Holmes: Yeah.
Kyle Golden: Realizing that she may probably return to this man that we consider tried to kill her.
Hannah Pettey goes again to Brian Mann; Considers halting her cooperation
Within the days after Hannah acquired out of the hospital, Hannah says she felt susceptible and confused.
Hannah Pettey: I used to be on so many various medicines, so many various psych medicines the docs had me on …
Regardless of the dangers, Hannah had made up her thoughts to sit down down with Brian nose to nose. Only one week after being discharged, she met him at their former residence.
Hannah Pettey: I simply needed to determine it out for myself. As a substitute of everybody telling me that is what occurred.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And so that you sit down with him.
Hannah Pettey: Mm-hmm.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And did you ask him outright? Did you do that? Did you attempt to poison me?
Hannah Pettey: No, I used to be so emotional. I imply I did not cease crying that evening. I bear in mind I cried all by the evening.
Hannah Pettey: I wished him to say … like there is no means that I may have, like what … or like, are you loopy? Like that is loopy … And I used to be anticipating him to exit and say that to everyone. I do not care if he even made a Fb publish about it or simply something.
Hannah says Brian by no means instructed her what she wanted to listen to. However then, extremely, she modified her thoughts concerning the divorce.
Hannah Pettey: I referred to as my lawyer. I used to be like, I do not wish to undergo with the divorce … like I do not suppose he did it. I mentioned there have to be one thing else.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Hannah instructed you to not signal the divorce papers?
Brian Mann: Sure.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: As a result of why?
Brian Mann: As a result of she knew her mom had made up this complete factor and it was simply one other loopy Nicole episode.
When Hannah’s household physician heard what was occurring, Nicole says he wished to have Hannah involuntarily dedicated as a result of he feared Brian would kill her. And Hannah’s subsequent transfer induced much more consternation: she requested McDearmond to drop the investigation.
Hannah Pettey: I mentioned, “he is a household man.” I mentioned, “he loves me. He loves the youngsters.” … It simply would not make sense.
McDearmond knew with out Hannah’s assist, the prison case towards Brian would seemingly collapse. However he understood what Hannah was feeling.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: It is typical of home violence … to forgive your abuser …
McDearmond requested Hannah to signal a selected kind that he’d ready.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: And he or she mentioned, properly, what do I’ve to signal this for? … And I mentioned, properly, if … Brian have been to kill you sooner or later, and someone from your loved ones … comes and says that we did not do our due diligence within the investigation, then I can present them that you simply did not wish to pursue it. … So, if you wish to go forward and signal that, then we’ll shut it up. And he or she mentioned, “No, I am not going to signal that.” … She mentioned, “I need you to maintain going.”
Finally, she determined to proceed with the divorce and cooperate with the prison investigation.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: What do you be taught from Hannah?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: … greater than something insurance coverage insurance policies.
Hannah instructed McDearmond that Brian had taken out life insurance coverage insurance policies on her whereas they have been nonetheless courting. McDearmond realized that when Hannah was within the hospital combating for her life, Brian tried to take out much more insurance policies. In the event that they have been accredited, Brian would have collected greater than $5 million upon Hannah’s loss of life.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And that gave you what?
Lt. Alan McDearmond: Effectively it offers you motive … cash’s a motive, cash’s an enormous motive.
At that time, McDearmond felt he’d collected sufficient proof to maneuver forward and so did prosecutor Garrick Vickery.
Garrick Vickery: We knew Hannah had been poisoned, that it was intentional and that it was ingested.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You have no capsules with lead. You’ve a concept, you might have a suspect, and you’ve got what you consider is a motive. Why have been you assured that this was sufficient to place in entrance of a grand jury?
Garrick Vickery: Nothing else made sense … On this case, the proof was clear that lead was moving into her system. So, you then rewind the tape, you again up, and also you see how that lead may have gotten into her system. … And Brian Mann was the one one who had entry to Hannah.
Morgan County Sheriff’s Workplace 
The grand jury agreed and in September 2022, Brian Mann was arrested and pleaded “not responsible” to tried homicide. He was freed on a $500,000 bond however was required to report back to jail each weekend.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Can I see the ankle monitor?
Brian Mann: Certain.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What’s it like having to put on that?
Brian Mann: … I imply, it is positively annoying.
Police nonetheless had nothing connecting Brian to any type of lead. However then, they acquired an sudden name. Seems Danny Hill thought he knew precisely the place the lead got here from.
All of it started when Brian requested Hill, a contractor, to line his X-ray room at his chiropractic workplace with, you guessed it: lead. Hill had acknowledged Brian from a newspaper article about his arrest and acquired in contact with McDearmond.
Danny Hill: You do an X-ray room, the partitions need to be lined with lead … for the safety of the individuals exterior the room. … We did it with rolls of sentimental lead that we simply coated the partitions with after which put drywall everywhere in the high of that.
“48 Hours” requested Hill to acquire a pattern of the identical sort of lead he put in in Brian’s workplace.
The lead was heavy however surprisingly smooth and malleable. Hill confirmed us how simple it’s to scrape the sheet of lead into tiny shavings — similar to pencil shavings —and the way simple it’s to place these shavings into an empty tablet capsule.
CBS Information 
Danny Hill: … that is simply the shaving of the lead.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Oh.
Danny Hill: This smooth.
After Hill was performed with the V-ray room, he requested Brian if he ought to eliminate the remaining lead.
Danny Hill: And he mentioned, I will care for it …
Hill’s info despatched cops on to Brian’s workplace. Previous to Hill’s revelations, the Hartselle Police Division didn’t have possible trigger. Now they did.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: And we acquired a search warrant. We went in and we took a piece of that out …
Hartselle Police Division 
Lt. Alan McDearmond: The lead that we recovered from the workplace was very skinny … it might be skinny sufficient that it might be shaved or no matter.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Inform me about how necessary that cellphone name was from the contractor.
Garrick Vickery: It was vitally necessary. It is at all times vital … to place your homicide weapon into the fingers of a defendant.
However Brian insists the state’s case is weak, and so he acquired himself a robust advocate — bodybuilder and protection lawyer Chad Morgan.
Chad Morgan: There isn’t any cause that any of their proof ought to be capable of get right into a courtroom …
Going into the trial in June 2025, Brian had been forbidden any visitation together with his kids for greater than two years. He says it was simply unfair.
Brian Mann: I ought to have by no means been separated from my youngsters. … I’ll be again of their lives. … I’ve simply been ready for my probability.
The trial of Brian Mann
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How does it really feel to know that somebody tried to kill you?
Hannah Pettey: … at evening I get actually creeped out serious about that somebody poisoned me for a protracted, very long time …
BEN HOOVER [ Local news report]: The state began its case at this time towards a Morgan County chiropractor charged with trying to kill his spouse … Mann maintains his innocence …
In June 2025, defendant Brian Mann walks right into a Decatur, Alabama, courthouse, going through a attainable life sentence. No cameras are permitted contained in the courtroom through the trial.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What was your working concept as to what occurred on this case with this crime?
Garrick Vickery: It actually begins months earlier than Hannah ever seems at UAB Hospital …
Lead prosecutor Garrick Vickery.
Garrick Vickery: By way of a — a concept, it principally was that he decided to slowly poison her, to realize this life insurance coverage, to rid himself of a candy, candy particular person …
Brian’s protection lawyer Chad Morgan tells the jury that police by no means discovered any lead-filled capsules in Brian’s residence, workplace or anyplace else.
Chad Morgan: … they searched your entire home high to backside, by no means discovered one piece of lead.
Garrick Vickery: One of many points we had was that Brian Mann had months and months … to execute his plan after which to do away with the proof. …
However the state does have Hannah, and prosecutors make her the primary witness.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you take a look at Brian while you walked into the courtroom?
Hannah Pettey: I did …
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: … was that the person that you simply had fallen in love with?
Hannah Pettey: No, I imply, I noticed somebody completely totally different …
Hannah tells the jury how Brian equipped her with vitamin capsules every evening even when her ache was so intense she may barely swallow.
Hannah Pettey: I bear in mind, um, being in mattress one evening and I used to be in a lot ache, and I used to be so nauseous … and Brian was like … I put your nutritional vitamins in your nightstand. … And he was like, “it is advisable to take ’em.” And I used to be like, I simply cannot tonight. I don’t suppose I can maintain the rest down. … and he was like freaking out about it. Like he was like, “you gotta take it” …
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How simple would it not have been to place lead in these capsules?
Garrick Vickery: Tremendously simple … Anybody that is sharpened a pencil may see how simple it’s to get lead shavings. … And after you have that and you’ve got two fingers to separate a tablet and put it again collectively, you have acquired all of the devices it is advisable to attempt to homicide your partner.
Brian’s lawyer alleges Hannah’s personal mom Nicole may have been the one poisoning Hannah.
Chad Morgan: I am suggesting they’re trying within the flawed place.
He claims Nicole gave Hannah milkshakes that might have been laced with lead.
Chad Morgan: … inform me why her mother was coming to her home day-after-day for nearly a 12 months, giving her a milkshake.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you look into her mom?
Kelly Cimino: The thought was thought-about … you — you do not wish to rule anybody out earlier than.
Assistant District Lawyer Kelly Cimino.
Kelly Cimino: And Nicole simply did not have that sort of entry to her daughter.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did your mother deliver you milkshakes?
Hannah Pettey: No, not that I recall …I do not even like milkshakes. I actually do not even like milkshakes … I do not drink milkshakes.
Hannah tells the jury how the ache affected her. Her physique, in a way, the crime scene and her mind scans, blood work and X-rays are mentioned in open court docket. However there’s one thing she’s been holding again till she takes the stand.
Hannah Pettey: It’s sort of emotional to speak about the truth that I can not have kids anymore.
On the day she was discharged, Hannah was smiling however, inside, she was heartbroken. Medical doctors had simply instructed her she may now not have kids. She was solely 22 years previous.
When it is Nicole’s flip to take the stand, she thinks she is aware of what’s coming from Brian’s protection lawyer.
Nicole Pettey: I do know … that he was gonna attempt to say that, presumably say that I had did this. … And I wasn’t actually involved about that as a result of … I did not do it …
Cimino explains why prosecutors consider Brian used lead-filled capsules as an alternative of blending the lead into her meals.
Kelly Cimino: … she would have tasted it. … And in order that’s the place … the … concept of the capsule is available in as a result of it is the one means that she would’ve willingly put it in her mouth and swallowed it and never seen something totally different …
After a day-and-a-half and 7 witnesses, the state rests its case. After which so does the protection. Chad Morgan calls no witnesses.
Hannah Pettey: I used to be shocked that they’ve had three years to place this collectively after which it comes out that he has no protection in any respect.
Brian’s lawyer says he did his job and maintains that the dearth of proof within the state’s case is one of the best proof of all.
Chad Morgan: There was numerous assumptions about that is lead and that is lead, however there was not one individual that testified to something that they really noticed him do, contact and even start to consider that … she ingested one thing he gave her.
The jury will get the case on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following day returns a verdict: responsible.
Jeff Sollee: There was a — a couple of second of shock … I do not suppose he was anticipating that.
Juror Jeff Solee.
Jeff Sollee: That man’s a monster.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Why do you say that?
Jeff Sollee: The vanity it takes to primarily watch someone waste away … After which not solely watch through the poisoning, but additionally watch throughout, , the downfall. … I feel that takes a really particular particular person.
Hannah Pettey: … it took me a number of seconds for it to — to … sink in that it was a responsible verdict. …I simply instantly began feeling the tears properly up as a result of it was simply this construct up and I simply needed to step out.
Lt. Alan McDearmond: This can be a nice win for all home violence victims, particularly these which are scared to return ahead.
McDearmond is now chief of the Hartselle Police Division. And after numerous reflection, Hannah permits herself to contemplate a tough reality.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Do you suppose he ever liked you?
Hannah Pettey: No, I actually do not suppose that he did … I simply do not suppose any of it was actual.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: It is gotta be laborious to say.
Hannah Pettey: Yeah.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Trigger it was actual for you.
Hannah Pettey: Sure. It was very actual for me.
Now it is very actual for Brian who was sentenced to life in jail in August 2025. And Hannah, who was as soon as feared to be so brain-damaged that she would by no means be capable of testify, graduated from faculty with a instructing diploma.
Carly Humphries Pictures 
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And what does Hannah’s new life seem like?
Hannah Pettey: I am a trainer, so I am beginning at a brand new faculty this 12 months. So, I am simply gonna concentrate on being one of the best trainer that I will be and … being one of the best mom I will be.
Life acquired even sweeter for Hannah when she and the youngsters moved again into their previous residence, the one they used to share with Brian.
Hannah Pettey: I’ve repainted … I redecorated the whole lot, cleaned it up actually good. … I acquired all my stuff moved in there and simply photos of us three all in there. So now it seems like ours.
Hannah and Brian stay married. The subsequent court docket date for the divorce proceedings is December 2026.
For those who or somebody is a sufferer of home violence, contact the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Produced by Paul La Rosa. David Dow and Tamara Weitzman are the event producers. Charlotte Fuller is the sphere producer. Wini Dini and Greg Kaplan are the editors. Dena Goldstein is the sphere producer. Nancy Bautista is the affiliate producer. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
