00:00:01
♪♪ -When you look in the mirror, and you see
the tracheotomy scar, does it bring back
those memories?
00:00:16
-It does. Yes, it does. I just try not to
to dwell on it, you know. -Have you thought about
what you'll tell
00:00:24
your children in the future? -I want to be honest with them, because they do have
a right to know the truth.
00:00:36
I started first feeling like I
was getting sick of August 2021. I started getting
severe abdominal pain.
00:00:44
I was feeling so nauseous
all the time. November is when it started
getting really, really bad.
00:00:51
-How worried were you
at this point? -So, on the bad days,
I would ask, "Do you need to go to a doctor?
What do you want to do?"
00:00:58
And she says, "No, I'm okay.
It'll go away." And most of the time, it did. -I mean,
I had lost so much weight.
00:01:06
-Things finally got to
the point where I said, "Hey, you're you're losing
a lot of weight."
00:01:11
That's when I started
getting concerned. -Why did you take her to see the nurse practitioner,
Kari Griffith?
00:01:17
-She was yellow by that time. She was pure yellow. -Her mom grabbed my arm,
and she said,
00:01:24
"Promise me whatever this is,
you'll find it." She was terrified. -I was just in
such immense pain all the time.
00:01:34
It just progressively got worse
and worse. -And I thought,
this little girl has two babies,
00:01:39
and she is dying,
is what I'm thinking. -That's what it looks like.
-She's dying. Yes.
00:01:44
We've got to get her help.
And we got to get her help fast. -I insisted she go to
the hospital.
00:01:51
-And did she go?
-She did. -What was that drive like? -Oh. Fast. Fast. -I just remember just praying
and driving.
00:02:01
That's all I did
was just praying and driving. -How long do you wait
in that emergency room?
00:02:05
-Ten hours. And then she said, mom,
something's wrong. And then that's
when she broke into the seizure.
00:02:12
That was terrible. Just complete jerking
and foaming, and eyes just never stopped
moving back and forth.
00:02:18
-When you see a picture
of Hannah when she was in the hospital, I think everyone had
the same thought.
00:02:22
What on earth
put her in this position? What could have made her
body deteriorate to the point
00:02:29
where she's unrecognizable? It's heartbreaking. -How close was Hannah
to dying? -I don't think it's
an overstatement
00:02:37
to say hours, maybe days. -Someone said, "We figured
out what's wrong with you. It's lead poisoning.
You've been lead poisoned."
00:02:48
-That's the lead. -Yeah, that's just
the shaving of the lead. -Soft enough to scrape
off with a knife
00:02:54
and put in a little capsule. -Absolutely. -I was,
at that time, a suspect. Everybody had to be a suspect.
00:03:01
-I'm gonna ask you
a direct question. Did you try to poison your wife? -No. The first thing
that Hannah said to my friends
00:03:09
when she got home was she believed Nicole
had concocted this whole thing. -One of the other doctors
00:03:15
I spoke to said,
You have to leave because she is now
under protective order." I remember them saying,
"Either he's done it,
00:03:22
she's done it,
or you've done it, but someone is intentionally
trying to kill your daughter."
00:03:28
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -In January 2022, the pain coursing
through Hannah Pettey's body for six months was
hitting her harder than ever.
00:04:24
-It was unbearable. I was in the bed at this point for probably like
a week straight.
00:04:30
-Were you
even able to care for your kids? -I did as much as I could. -Hannah's son, Lincoln,
00:04:36
was three, and her daughter
Gracie had just turned two. But Hannah was too sick to
attend Gracie's birthday party.
00:04:43
-I was so weak
that I couldn't hardly walk. I had a little office chair that
would roll around in our house
00:04:51
because I really
didn't get out of the house. -Hannah says her husband,
Brian Mann,
00:04:56
was there
when she needed him the most. -When I really started
getting sick is when he was the sweetest to me.
00:05:03
-Brian was a chiropractor, but he says he could
not diagnose what was wrong with Hannah.
00:05:09
-I had no idea.
That's out of my forte. That's someone
that I would refer out, refer to a specialist,
which is what I wanted to do.
00:05:17
-On January 18th, 2022. Hannah checked in
with her mother, Nicole Pettey. After they hung up,
00:05:25
Nicole says she was haunted
by something she heard in her daughter's
voice. -Just, you know, that feeling.
00:05:32
I knew something was wrong. I mean, I called and called
and called and texted. Hannah called me finally,
but she wasn't able to speak,
00:05:39
so she just kind of gasped. And then she asked me.
She said, "Mom, can you take me
to the hospital?"
00:05:44
-Brian was at work, so Nicole rushed over
and drove Hannah to UAB, the hospital at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham.
00:05:53
While there, Nicole took
several photos and videos. -The doctor said,
"Obviously she is very sick.
00:06:00
I want to keep her, but there's no way that they're
going to let me keep her. Her vitals are stable."
00:06:05
I said, "If you send her home,
she's going to die." -It was right then that Hannah
suffered a terrifying seizure.
00:06:12
And in the frenzy, she ripped off her
hospital gown for Nicole, that moment is frozen in time.
00:06:20
-She was skin and bones. They told me that she
was actually starving to death. When we got there.
00:06:25
They said she
had hours to live. -One doctor directed
her anger at Nicole. -She's like,
"Does she live with you?
00:06:31
Like, obviously someone
should have seen that this person was dying." You know this person
was starving to death."
00:06:37
She said,
"Who was responsible for her?" -What did you say?
-And I said, "She's married."
00:06:41
And they said, "She's married?" -The seizure was so severe,
Hannah lost consciousness.
00:06:46
Doctors wanted to talk
with Hannah's husband. So Nicole says she texted Brian. "Hey, Brian.
00:06:53
Hannah had a seizure
about two hours ago. She still has not come to yet. They said she could be
out all day long,
00:07:01
so I wanted to let you know
if she's not texting you, that is why. -And I, of course,
didn't get a response from him.
00:07:08
-So you don't get
a text back from Brian? -No. Never. -It had been that way
for years, she said,
00:07:14
all through his marriage
to Hannah, Brian ignored Nicole. -Never seen him the whole time
they were married.
00:07:20
Never any interaction
with him whatsoever. -Never for any family
gatherings, any holidays.
00:07:25
He just never came. -Never. -Brian didn't like you?
-No. That night,
Brian never got back to Nicole,
00:07:33
but he had learned about
Hannah's condition from his mother,
who was in touch with Nicole.
00:07:39
He arranged for child care
and began driving. -He got to the hospital
around 9:30 that night.
00:07:46
-Under COVID restrictions, the hospital was allowing
only one visitor at a time,
00:07:52
and with Nicole inside,
Brian was kept out. -I was very irritated that Nicole was
not switching out with me,
00:08:00
um, letting me in, because
I stood outside of that hospital for a long time trying
to get in that room with Hannah.
00:08:06
-But eventually
Nicole did come out, and Brian was allowed in. -It must have been shocking
to see her
00:08:13
in that hospital bed like that. -Yes, but I was glad
that she was there and people were trying
to figure something out.
00:08:20
-When Brian left
to go to work, Nicole went in. Hannah was still unconscious and had been that way
for nearly 48 hours.
00:08:30
Nurses had just finished
checking on her when Nicole bent
over her daughter. -I kissed her head,
and I said, "I love you."
00:08:38
Her eyes just popped open,
and she said, "I love you, too." -Nicole says nurses were
amazed and rushed to her side.
00:08:44
-I just started crying,
and Hannah said, "Have I not been talking?"
[ Chuckles ]
00:08:49
-But Hannah's
ordeal was far from over. Days after Hannah was admitted, Nicole says doctors put her
in a medical coma
00:08:57
while they drained the excess
fluid from within her brain. -And then they had
to paralyze her
00:09:02
because even being in a coma, um, there was just
so much fluid in her brain that any type of movement,
she would've died.
00:09:12
-For Nicole, it's like things
are going from bad to worse. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Did you ever give up hope?
00:09:18
-No. Oh, no. Never.
Not one time. -Brian says he was wondering why Hannah's health
had gone downhill so quickly.
00:09:28
The day Nicole had picked her up
and drove to the hospital. -That is curious how bad
she got from getting in the car
00:09:36
with her mother to
being admitted to the hospital. -His dislike and distrust
of Nicole boiled over.
00:09:43
-She is a cruel person. She was not happy with the fact that Hannah seemed
happy being with me.
00:09:52
♪♪ ♪♪ -Eight days after Hannah
was admitted to the hospital, her neurologist told Nicole
00:10:13
that doctors had figured
out what was causing Hannah's symptoms. -Her exact words were,
"She has an astronomical amount
00:10:20
of lead inside of her." -Lead. It was an unusual finding,
and Nicole says doctors told her they had never
seen a patient like Hannah.
00:10:31
-They said her colon was
so packed full of lead, it was almost 100% lead. There was no room in her stomach
to hold anything.
00:10:40
It was just completely -- Plus, there was lead
just in her bones. Just everywhere.
00:10:45
-Doctors told Nicole
there was no way Hannah could have ingested all
that lead by accident.
00:10:52
It had to be deliberate. And they told her
exactly what they thought. -They let me know that
this is an attempted murder.
00:11:01
-The hospital reported
Hannah's case to the Department
of Human Resources. DHR. The state agency
that protects vulnerable adults.
00:11:10
Hospital administrators
immediately put Hannah in a secluded room. With someone at the door
to keep all visitors out.
00:11:18
Nicole says she and Brian
were told to leave and were no longer allowed
to see Hannah
00:11:24
because they were considered
possible suspects. -I was beside myself
because I had to leave her.
00:11:30
They had to send me away
from the hospital. -I immediately started
thinking, this is Nicole.
00:11:36
This has to be Nicole
pointing fingers. I didn't really think
it would get anywhere
00:11:40
because I thought it was again, just Nicole making waves
to make waves. Hannah's mom just caused
so many problems, and
00:11:50
not so much directly at me, but she was just awful
to Hannah. -Brian says Hannah told him
00:11:59
that Nicole could be
critical of her. -"Why don't you put makeup on? Um, are you sure you
should eat that?"
00:12:05
Just stuff like that,
all the time. I would say, "Why do you want
this woman in your life?"
00:12:12
All she'd come back to is,
"She's my mom. She's my mom." And that's really the
only defense she had for her.
00:12:17
"Well, she's my mom." -Hannah denies Brian's
allegations. She did move away from Nicole
00:12:24
and got her own apartment
in June 2017, the month she turned
18 years old. She had just graduated
from high school.
00:12:33
That's when she met Brian, a 29 year old chiropractor
with his own business. -He was very,
very sweet in the beginning.
00:12:42
And, you know, he's
very charming, good looking. And, yeah, I really liked him. -Sounds like it was almost
sort of instant attraction.
00:12:51
-Yes,
it was a head over heels. Um, everything was
just working right. -Within weeks of Brian's
first date with Hannah,
00:13:00
his friend Walker Snyder says Brian told him
Hannah was the one. -I'm like, "Man, you
just met her like a week ago."
00:13:08
Or, "She's 18. She doesn't know
what she wants." She doesn't even know
what she doesn't want.
00:13:16
And he's like, "No,
we both know what we want." -It wasn't long before Hannah
told friends she was pregnant.
00:13:23
-How long were you guys dating before you proposed? -We started dating
in November.
00:13:28
I believe I proposed
after Valentine's Day, so not -- not too long. -Were you nervous?
00:13:36
-I was.
I take marriage very seriously. And so, yeah, I was. I was definitely nervous
about it.
00:13:41
-Hannah was nervous, too. She says she had noticed
that Brian could be controlling,
00:13:47
but she plunged ahead
at least until her wedding day in May 2018. Hannah's friend, Alyson Holmes.
00:13:56
-Right before we were all
about to walk down the aisle, Hannah expressed to us that
she was, you know, very nervous.
00:14:03
She had cold feet. -We told her a hundred times
over, "You don't have to do it."
00:14:07
If this is cold feet,
you know it is what it is. But if this is uncertainty,
walk away.
00:14:13
It's not too late to walk away. -In the end, Hannah smiled
through her ceremony and married Brian.
00:14:20
-When you walked up to
the altar and you looked at him, you had no questions. -I mean, I did. I mean,
deep down, I did.
00:14:26
I was like, "I don't really know if I'm making the right decision
and everything."
00:14:30
-The couple moved
into Brian's home and started their lives
together. -How was he as a husband?
00:14:36
-For the most part,
he was really good as a husband. I mean, it was good and bad.
00:14:42
We got in a lot
of physical fights, so that's a bad thing. But it wasn't all the time,
though.
00:14:48
-You know, like as
I'm listening to you talk, you know, it sounds
almost a little bit like
00:14:53
you're explaining away
the bad stuff. Do you think you did that
in the marriage a bit?
00:15:01
-Uh, yeah,
I definitely did, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
My mom tells me that, too. -Even their son's birth was
a minefield of emotion.
00:15:10
-I was nine months pregnant,
and I had started, um, bleeding. And so I went to the hospital,
00:15:17
and he came in,
and he got so angry at me, and he was yelling at me. "You shouldn't have been
out walking, like, in this heat.
00:15:25
Like, that was so stupid
and irresponsible." -He was acting
so just outrageous that the nurses even told her,
00:15:35
if you need us to do something, then you say this specific word,
and we'll know that we need to step in and
intervene in what's going on.
00:15:43
-Hannah never used
that safe word. But as time went on, Brian says the couple came
to an understanding.
00:15:50
-I would say
"Hannah talk to me. I am on your side. I'm your biggest fan,
your biggest supporter?"
00:15:58
One day she said,
"I'm going to trust you, and I want to do this with you, and I want to build this
with you."
00:16:06
From then on,
it just got better and better. -That's when I started
to really fall in love with him.
00:16:11
-The couple had another child,
a daughter, and life was good, they say, until Hannah began to feel sick
00:16:18
and went to the hospital
emergency room in January 2022. She was left fighting
for her life, and doctors
00:16:26
were trying to help her, but they told Nicole
they had to know more. They said the only way she gets
this much lead in her system --
00:16:35
-Is to ingest it,
is to ingest it. They said she had to
have ingested it. I remember them saying,
00:16:42
"we don't care
if you give her crack. We just want to know about it. We have to know everything
she's taken."
00:16:47
-And that's
when Nicole remembered something that she'd completely
overlooked. Hannah told her
that Brian had given
00:16:55
her special supplements,
capsules each and every night. ♪♪ ♪♪ Doctors kept asking Nicole
what Hannah had been eating
00:17:21
in the months
leading up to her hospital stay. -From what they can see, it looks like someone has gave
her lead every single day
00:17:28
for at least three months. -Was Hannah eating something
that contained lead? Nicole says she had no idea,
00:17:37
because she
hardly ever visited her daughter in the months before
the seizure. And never if Brian was home.
00:17:44
-I could only go
when he was working, and I would have to leave
before he got off work.
00:17:48
I never actually ran into him. Yeah, he didn't come home
until I left. -As doctors pressed her
for information,
00:17:54
Nicole remembered
Hannah telling her about special supplement
capsules that Brian placed
on her nightstand every night.
00:18:03
Nicole says it didn't strike
her as unusual because Brian was
a chiropractor, but she told doctors anyway.
00:18:10
-I told him that I knew that
they were big on supplements. ♪♪ -Nicole says doctors
repeatedly asked Brian
00:18:20
to bring in the capsules
described by Hannah, but he never did. Instead, he gave them this photo
00:18:29
of common over-the-counter
supplements. -DHR Investigators
who were getting information
00:18:36
from Hannah's doctors contacted
Lieutenant Alan McDearmond of the Hartsville
Police Department.
00:18:43
-They said that
I needed to go arrest somebody for attempting
to kill their wife.
00:18:47
And I'm like, "Well, hold up. I mean,
we can't just go arrest people. What are you talking about?"
00:18:53
-Investigators told McDearmond that doctors suspected
Brian had given Hannah some type
00:18:59
of lead-filled capsules
over and over again. -You can take a capsule
and open it up,
00:19:05
empty the contents,
and then put the lead in. -McDearmond told Brian about
the hospital's allegations.
00:19:12
-McDearmond said "Your wife's
been lead poisoned, and they think it was
intentional,
00:19:18
and they said you're
the number one suspect." So I was kind of dumbfounded. I didn't know what
to think about that.
00:19:25
-McDearmond asked Brian if the police could search
his house, and he agreed. -So I took him all
through the house.
00:19:32
I let him search my house, and we went through and tried to figure
out what she was eating --
00:19:36
pills, makeups,
and things like that. -McDearmond says Brian
provided a bottle of supplements
00:19:43
and a laxative
that he said Hannah had taken. Hannah says you made
her take supplements.
00:19:49
-That is not true. -Brian blamed
all his problems on Nicole. -I immediately started
thinking, this is Nicole.
00:20:00
This has to be Nicole
pointing fingers. -Investigators removed
the children from Brian's home.
00:20:06
They were placed
with his parents. He had supervised visitation. -Nicole had just done
so much over the years,
00:20:14
and Hannah had told me
so much about her that I just had no doubt Nicole was
somehow stirring this all up.
00:20:22
-Brian said he remembered
something Hannah had told him
that now seemed to hold more significance.
00:20:28
In second grade,
in a story that Hannah confirms, she recalled being so sick
for so long
00:20:36
that she visited the school
nurse dozens of times. -And she eventually got
really bad,
00:20:42
and her mother took her to UAB. She says she remembers
staying there about a week.
00:20:48
-Flash forward to 2022. Hannah was back at UAB Hospital. On January 29th, McDearmond went to see
Hannah for himself,
00:20:57
but she was in a coma. -I had no idea the condition
she was in until I went to the hospital
and saw her for myself.
00:21:05
-Doctors showed him Hannah's
X-rays. What did you think?
-Oh, gosh, I was just floored.
00:21:11
-I mean,
her whole insides was lit up from the lead reacting
to the X-ray. I mean, it was crazy.
00:21:24
-McDearmond asked Brian
to come in. -And at that point is when he refused
to further cooperate
00:21:30
with the investigation. -On February 1st, McDearmond cleared Nicole, and she was once again allowed
to visit Hannah.
00:21:39
How were you able to clear
Nicole? -Uh, you know,
just through conversations, whether you could tell that she
was very concerned about Hannah.
00:21:47
She was the person
that was caring for Hannah. -It sounds to me like you
just liked Nicole's behavior.
00:21:56
She acted the way you expect
a concerned mother to act. And Brian didn't act the way
00:22:02
you expected
a concerned husband to act. -That's correct. -Is that evidence? -That's not evidence. No.
00:22:10
And the problem with this case was there was not a lot
of evidence. -Within days, McDearmond
received the results
00:22:16
of the test done
at Brian and Hannah's home. -Everything was negative. -Did you ever find
any capsules?
00:22:24
-Um, no. -Did you ever find any
supplements that were tainted? -Uh, no. -Did you ever find evidence
of lead being ground down
00:22:36
or scraped,
or turned into little particles that could go into a capsule? -No. -So isn't that kind of
a big hole in the theory?
00:22:45
-Well, he sold supplements. -McDearmond says he kept
looking for the source of that lead.
00:22:54
In mid-February, Hannah began to rally, and McDearmond went
to see her again. -I told her,
in a very nice way,
00:23:03
you know why she was in the
hospital and ask her, you know, "Do you have any idea who may
have given you some substance?"
00:23:10
She said no. Do you have any thoughts
of self-harm? I mean,
did you put yourself here?
00:23:14
And she said no. -McDearmond said
Hannah was coherent one minute and not the next.
00:23:22
She said she saw
people coming out of the walls. -When I first started
talking to the medical staff,
00:23:28
I mean,
they didn't give her any hope. They said,
if she came out of this, that she would really not have
any cognitive functions.
00:23:36
They didn't suspect that we would be
able to even talk with her. -Wow. -They basically told us
that we needed to do everything
00:23:44
that we could, because we didn't need to rely
on her as a witness, because they didn't think
she would ever make
00:23:49
it to that point. -But Hannah surprised everyone
by getting stronger each day with the help of a team
of dedicated nurses.
00:24:00
-They were all
kind of close to her age. They knew she had kids,
and they would say to her,
00:24:03
"You've got your babies.
You've got your babies." And I remember she
just always got a life in her.
00:24:08
When you mentioned the kids,
she was like, "I'm going to get better. I'm going to get out of here
and get better", you know?
00:24:12
-Nicole says Hannah
did get better and stronger, strong enough that Hannah's neurologist told
her the whole story.
00:24:22
-She grabbed my hand, and she just kind of started
giving me a heart-to-heart about why they have
strong reasons
00:24:33
to believe that it was Brian. -And what's the conversation
like after that between you and Hannah?
00:24:42
-Oh, it was horrible.
That was horrible. I'm sorry. [ Voice breaking ] Of everything
that she went through,
00:24:53
the heartbreak,
the heartbreak was terrible. She just would sit there
and cry. ♪♪
00:25:02
-On March 3rd,
after nearly two months, Hannah was well enough
to leave the hospital.
00:25:12
She went to her mom's house,
reunited with her children, and filed for divorce. But friends like Kyle Golden
were worried.
00:25:23
-We did know that Hannah was
still in contact with Brian, and that did upset us.
00:25:29
It was scary knowing that she could
potentially go back to this guy that we believe tried
to kill her.
00:25:36
♪♪ ♪♪ -In the days after
Hannah got out of the hospital, Hannah says she felt vulnerable
and confused.
00:26:05
-I was on so many
different medicines, so many different psych
medicines the doctors had me on.
00:26:10
-Despite the risks,
Hannah had made up her mind to sit down with Brian
face-to-face.
00:26:16
Just one week
after being discharged, she met him at their
former home. -I just had to figure it
out for myself
00:26:23
instead of everyone telling me
this is what happened. -And so you sit down with him.
00:26:29
And did you ask him outright? Did you do this?
Did you try to poison me? -No. I was so emotional.
00:26:36
I mean,
I didn't stop crying that night. I remember I cried
all through the night.
00:26:43
I wanted them to say, like,
there's no way that I could have, you know. Like, what?
00:26:48
Or like, are you crazy?
Like, this is crazy. And I was expecting him to go
out and say that to everybody.
00:26:53
I don't care if he even made
a Facebook post about it or just anything. -Hannah says Brian never told
her what she needed to hear.
00:27:03
But then, incredibly, she changed her mind
about the divorce. -I called my attorney,
and I was like,
00:27:09
I don't want to go through with
the divorce. Like, I don't think he did it. I said,
there must be something else.
00:27:15
-Hannah told you
not to sign the divorce papers? -Yes.
-Because why? -Because she knew her mother
had made up this whole thing.
00:27:23
And it was just
another crazy Nicole episode. -When Hannah's family
doctor heard what was going on,
00:27:31
Nicole says he wanted to have
Hannah involuntarily committed because he feared
Brian would kill her.
00:27:38
And Hannah's next move caused
even more consternation. She asked McDearmond
to drop the investigation.
00:27:46
-I said, he's a family man. I said he loves me.
He loves the kids. It just doesn't make sense.
00:27:50
-McDearmond knew
without Hannah's help, the criminal case against Brian
would likely collapse.
00:27:57
But he understood what
Hannah was feeling. -It's typical of domestic
violence to forgive your abuser.
00:28:07
-McDearmond asked Hannah
to sign a specific form that he'd prepared. -And she said, "Well, what do I
have to sign this for?"
00:28:15
And I said, "Well, if Brian were
to kill you in the future, and somebody from your family
comes and says
00:28:20
that we didn't do our due
diligence in the investigation, then I can show them that
you didn't want to pursue it.
00:28:25
So if you want to go ahead
and sign that, then we'll close it up." And she said, "No,
I'm not going to sign that."
00:28:32
She said,
"I want you to keep going." -Ultimately, she decided
to proceed with the divorce
00:28:39
and cooperate
with the criminal investigation. What do you learn from Hannah? -More than anything?
Insurance policies.
00:28:46
-Hannah told McDearmond that Brian had taken out
life insurance policies on her while they were still dating.
00:28:53
McDearmond learned that when Hannah was in the
hospital fighting for her life, Brian tried
to take out even more policies.
00:29:01
If they were approved, Brian would have collected
more than $5 million dollars upon Hannah's death.
00:29:08
And that gave you what? -Well, it gives you motive.
Money's a motive. Money's a huge motive.
00:29:15
-At that point, McDearmond felt he'd collected
enough evidence to move ahead, and so did prosecutor
Garrick Vickery.
00:29:22
-We knew Hannah
had been poisoned, that it was intentional,
and that it was ingested.
00:29:28
-You don't have
any capsules with lead. You have a theory, you have a suspect, and you have
what you believe is a motive.
00:29:37
Why were you confident that this was enough
to put in front of a grand jury? -Nothing else makes sense.
00:29:43
In this case, the evidence was clear that lead
was getting into her system. So then you rewind the tape,
you back up,
00:29:50
and you see how that lead could
have gotten into her system. And Brian Mann was the only
person who had access to Hannah.
00:30:00
-The grand jury agreed,
and in September 2022, Brian was arrested and pleaded
not guilty to attempted murder.
00:30:09
He was freed
on a half million dollar bond, but was required
to report to jail every weekend.
00:30:15
-Can I see the ankle monitor? What's it like having to wear
that? -I mean,
it's definitely annoying.
00:30:21
-Police still had nothing
connecting Brian to any form of lead. But then they got
an unexpected call.
00:30:30
Turns out this man, Danny Hill, thought he knew exactly
where the lead came from.
00:30:38
It all began when
Brian asked Danny, a contractor, to line his X-ray room
at his chiropractic office with,
00:30:46
you guessed it, lead. Danny had recognized Brian
from a newspaper article about his arrest and got in
touch with McDearmond.
00:30:55
-You do an X-ray room. The walls have to be lined
with lead for the protection of the people outside the room.
00:31:01
We did it with rolls
of soft lead, that we just covered
the walls with, and then put drywall
over the top of that.
00:31:08
-We asked Danny to obtain a
sample of the same type of lead he installed in Brian's office.
00:31:15
The lead was heavy, but
surprisingly soft and malleable. Danny showed us how easy it is
to scrape the sheet of lead
00:31:24
into tiny shavings,
just like pencil shavings. And how easy it is
to put those shavings
00:31:30
into an empty pill capsule. -That's just a shaving
of the lid. It's soft. -After Danny was done with
the X-ray room,
00:31:41
he asked Brian if he should
dispose of the remaining lead. -He said,
I'll take care of it.
00:31:47
-Danny Hill's information sent
cops directly to Brian's office. Prior to Danny's revelations,
00:31:54
the Hartselle Police Department
did not have probable cause. Now they did. -And we got a search warrant.
00:32:02
We went in and we took
a section of that out. The lead that we recovered
from the office was very thin.
00:32:08
It would be thin enough that
it could be shaved or whatever. -Tell me about how important
00:32:14
that phone call was
from the contractor. -It was vitally important. It's always necessary
to put your murder weapon
00:32:22
into the hands of a defendant. -But Brian insists
the state's case is weak. And so he got himself
a strong advocate,
00:32:33
bodybuilder and defense
lawyer, Chad Morgan. -There's no reason
that any of their evidence
00:32:38
should be able to get into
a courtroom. -Going into the trial
in June 2025, Brian had been forbidden
any visitation with his children
00:32:48
for more than two years. He says it was just unfair. -I should have never
been separated from my kids.
00:32:56
I'm going to be back
in their lives. I've just been waiting for
my chance. ♪♪ ♪♪
00:33:16
-How does it feel to know
that someone tried to kill you? -At night, I get really
creeped out thinking about
00:33:22
that someone poisoned me
for a long, long time. -The state started
its case today
00:33:27
against a Morgan County
chiropractor charged with attempting
to kill his wife. Man maintains his innocence.
00:33:34
-In June 2025, defendant Brian Mann walks
into a Decatur, Alabama, courthouse facing
a possible life sentence.
00:33:45
No cameras are permitted inside
the courtroom during the trial. What was your working theory
as to what happened
00:33:52
in this case with this crime? -It really begins months before Hannah ever appears
at UAB hospital.
00:34:00
-Lead prosecutor,
Garrick Vickery. -In terms of a theory, it mostly was that he made
a decision to slowly poison her,
00:34:10
to gain this life insurance, to rid himself of a sweet,
sweet person. -Brian's defense attorney,
Chad Morgan,
00:34:20
tells the jury that police never found
any lead-filled capsules in Brian's home office
or anywhere else.
00:34:28
-They searched
the entire house top to bottom. Never found one piece of lead. -One of the issues we had
00:34:36
was that Brian Mann had months
and months to execute his plan, and then to get rid of
the evidence.
00:34:43
-But the state does have
Hannah, and prosecutors make her the first witness. Did you look at Brian when
you walked in to the courtroom?
00:34:51
-I did. -Was that the man that
you had fallen in love with? -No. I mean,
I saw someone totally different.
00:34:58
-Hannah tells the jury
how Brian supplied her with vitamin capsules
each night. Even when her pain was
so intense she
00:35:07
could barely swallow. -I remember, um,
being in bed one night, and I was in so much pain,
00:35:16
and I was so nauseous,
and Brian was like, "I put your vitamins
on your nightstand."
00:35:21
And he was like,
"You need to take 'em." And I was like,
"I just can't tonight. I do not think I can keep
anything else down."
00:35:27
And he was, like,
freaking out about it. Like, he was like,
"You got to take it."
00:35:30
-How easy would it have been
to put lead in those capsules? -Tremendously easy. Anyone that's sharpened
a pencil could see
00:35:38
how easy it is
to get lead shavings. And once you have that, and you have two hands
to separate a pill
00:35:44
and put it back together, you've got all the instruments you need to try
to murder your spouse.
00:35:50
-Brian's attorney alleges
Hannah's own mother, Nicole, could have been
the one poisoning Hannah.
00:35:56
-I'm suggesting
to looking in the wrong place. -He claims Nicole gave
Hannah milkshakes
00:36:01
that could have been laced
with lead. -Tell me why her mom
was coming to her house
00:36:05
every day for almost a year,
giving her a milkshake. -Did you look into her mother?
00:36:09
-The thought was considered. You don't want to rule
anyone out... -Assistant district
attorney Kelly Cimino.
00:36:15
-... And Nicole just didn't have that kind of access
to her daughter. -Did your mom bring you
milkshakes?
00:36:22
-No, not that I recall.
I don't even like milkshakes. I really don't even
like milkshakes.
00:36:28
I don't drink milkshakes. -Hannah tells the jury
how the pain affected her. Her body, in a sense,
the crime scene,
00:36:36
and her brain scans, blood work and X-rays
are discussed in open court. But there's something
she's been holding back
00:36:45
until she takes the stand. -It is kind of emotional
to talk about the fact that I can't have
children anymore.
00:36:52
-On the day she was
discharged, Hannah was smiling, but inside she was heartbroken.
00:37:00
Doctors had just told her she
could no longer have children. She was only 22 years old.
00:37:10
When it's Nicole's
turn to take the stand, she thinks she knows
what's coming from Brian's
00:37:16
defense attorney. -I knew he was going to try
to say that, possibly say
that I had did this,
00:37:21
and I wasn't really concerned
about that because I didn't do it. -Cimino explains
00:37:27
why prosecutors believe
Brian used lead-filled capsules like this one instead of mixing
the lead into her food.
00:37:36
-She would have tasted it. And so that's where the theory
of the capsule comes in,
00:37:41
because it's the only way that she would have
willingly put it in her mouth and swallowed it and
not noticed anything different.
00:37:49
-After a day and a half
and seven witnesses, the state rests its case,
and then so does the defense.
00:37:59
Chad Morgan calls no witnesses. -I was shocked
that they've had three years to put this together,
00:38:07
and then it comes out
that he has no defense at all. -Brian's lawyer says
he did his job,
00:38:14
and maintains that the lack
of evidence in the state's case is the best evidence of all.
00:38:20
-There was a lot
of assumptions about this, is lead and that's lead. But there was not one person
that testified to anything
00:38:26
that they actually saw him do,
touch, or even begin to believe that she ingested something
he gave her.
00:38:33
-The jury gets the case
on a Wednesday afternoon, and the next day returns
a verdict.
00:38:41
Guilty. -There was about
a second of shock. I don't think
he was expecting that.
00:38:47
-Juror, Jeff Solee. -That guy's a monster. -Why do you say that? -The arrogance it takes to essentially watch
somebody waste away,
00:38:57
and then not only
watch during the poisoning, but also
watch during the downfall.
00:39:03
I think that takes a
very special person. -It took me a few seconds
for it to sink
00:39:10
in that it was a guilty verdict. I just immediately started
feeling the tears well up,
00:39:17
because it was just this build
up, and I just had to step out. -This is a great win for
all domestic violence victims,
00:39:27
especially those
that are scared to come forward. -McDearmond is now chief of the
Hartsville Police Department,
00:39:36
and after a lot of reflection, Hannah allows herself
to consider a hard truth. Do you think he ever loved you?
00:39:44
-No.
I truly don't think that he did. I just don't think
any of it was real. -It's got to be hard to say.
00:39:51
-Yeah.
-Because it was real for you. -Yes, it was very real for me. -Now it's very real for Brian,
00:40:00
who was sentenced to life
in prison in August 2025, and Hannah, who was once feared to be
so brain damaged
00:40:10
that she would never be
able to testify. She graduated from college
with a teaching degree.
00:40:17
And what does Hannah's
new life look like? -You know, I'm a teacher, so I'm starting
at a new school this year.
00:40:23
So I'm just going to focus
on being the best teacher that I can be and
being the best mother I can be.
00:40:30
-Life got even sweeter
for Hannah when she and the children
moved back into their old home,
00:40:38
the one they used to share
with Brian. -I've repainted. I redecorated everything,
cleaned it up really good.
00:40:46
I got all my stuff
moved in there and just pictures of us
three all in there. So now it feels like ours.
00:40:58
♪♪ ♪♪