Aug. 28—Hartselle resident and Decatur chiropractor Brian Thomas Mann was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for attempting to kill his wife, and the judge made clear he had no sympathy for a man who fed his wife poison for six months.
“I want to ask the DA’s office to personally notify me for whenever Mr. Mann comes up for parole,” Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott said. “So, in the event that 30 years from now if I’m not in this position anymore, I will drive to Montgomery myself to speak against it.”
Mann, 36, was shackled and dressed in jail garb, standing alongside his attorney, Chad Morgan of Huntsville, and Morgan County Assistant District Attorneys Garrick Vickery and Kelly Cimino as they faced Elliott’s bench.
Before Elliott handed down the sentence, Morgan asked for mercy for his client, while Vickery requested life in prison because of the nature of the crime.
“It’s not some small issue that got out of control; it was a daily decision to kill his wife,” Vickery told Elliott.
Elliott also told Mann he was stunned by how he acted during closing arguments in his June attempted murder trial.
“I’ve seen a lot in the six and a half years I’ve been a circuit judge, and I saw a lot when I was a prosecutor with the DA’s office,” Elliott said. “I’ve sat through and participated in hundreds of trials over the last six and a half years, and I have never seen a defendant snickering during the state’s closing arguments until you. I’ve never even heard of anything like that.”
After reviewing his trial notes, Elliott said he was appalled that Mann tried to conceal Hannah’s worsening condition from their life insurance company.
“Your wife’s condition continued to deteriorate, and yet, you continued to push her to take out more and more life insurance policies on herself, and then you have the gall to berate her when she doesn’t like wearing ankle weights to defraud an insurance company,” Elliott said. “The testimony from your wife’s medical providers was jarring to say the least.”
Elliott said sentencing Mann felt wholesome and gave “a circuit judge in Morgan County the chance to feel like his job actually makes a difference and matters.”
“And for that, I’m going to sentence you to life in prison,” Elliott said.
Mann stood motionless as the sentence was announced.
“If the state or anyone wishes to attempt to collect restitution or anything like that or any civil suit should be filed, I want any money that you may gain from repairing furniture or stamping out license plates to go towards restitution,” Elliott said.
Vickery said it was the first time he had heard remarks from a circuit judge vowing to speak against a defendant’s parole, but he was not surprised given the significance of the case. He said he will also be driving to Montgomery if that time comes and will speak against Mann’s parole alongside Elliott.
“If a judge were to be emotional about a case, this would be the case where they would feel that emotion,” Vickery said.
Vickery described Mann’s actions as “unimaginable.”
“We’ve seen the best and worst of humanity all in one case,” Vickery said. “I can’t imagine seeing your spouse or loved one slowly die over a series of months. It was in the pursuit of money; that was his only goal.”
In August 2021, Hannah Mann began feeling ill after taking vitamin supplements provided by her husband. Doctors at UAB Hospital later diagnosed her with severe lead poisoning, and she was hospitalized from January through March 2022, undergoing intensive treatment, including continuous colon irrigation. Physicians said the only plausible way the lead entered her body was through ingestion, and Hannah testified in court that Brian pressured her to wear ankle weights to conceal weight loss during doctor visits.
According to testimony, Mann had taken out multiple life insurance policies on his wife, listing himself as the beneficiary, despite her being a stay-at-home mother.
Hartselle Police Chief Alan McDearmond, the lead investigator on the case, said Hannah initially believed Brian was caring for her by giving her vitamins, while in reality, they were poisoning her.
Hannah was present in the courtroom during the sentencing along with her mother, Nicole Pettey. They both declined to speak to the media.
Vickery said Mann will remain in Morgan County Jail until he is transported to Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery, the state’s intake and evaluation center for male inmates. From there, the state Department of Corrections will assign him to a long-term state prison.
He said the sentence was just and fit the crime but acknowledged the lasting impact on Hannah Mann.
“She will suffer for the rest of her life,” Vickery said. “We can never give that back to her. This is as close to justice as we can get.”
McDearmond said he believes Brian Mann’s sentence should resonate with victims of domestic violence in Morgan County and show them there is a way out.
“I think it sends a good statement to the victims of domestic violence that if they are trying to seek justice, that justice may be served for them,” McDearmond said.
He reflected on Vickery’s statement that Mann’s crime was not a single act, but rather recurring actions over several months intended to kill his wife.
“I think the sentence was very reasonable for that,” McDearmond said.
McDearmond said he was first contacted about the case by the Department of Human Resources on Jan. 26, 2022, when doctors at UAB Hospital suspected Hannah had been poisoned by lead.
“She had been there for a few days prior to them contacting us,” McDearmond said. “(DHR) immediately told us that Brian was a suspect. I don’t want to walk into a case with just tunnel vision, so we talked with everyone involved and Brian was always on the forefront.”
He said Brian initially cooperated with police, but three days later would only communicate through his attorney.
“To me, that’s a pretty red flag when we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with your wife and you’re not giving us all the information you can to help us,” McDearmond said.
McDearmond said he gathered all evidence and presented it to the grand jury, which indicted Mann for attempted murder in September 2022. He said X-rays shown to the jury illustrating lead in Hannah’s colon were significant in persuading them to convict Brian Mann in June.
“The lead that was in her colon was very pronounced; it is something you can say tangibly is there,” McDearmond said. “It shows 100% that this stuff was ingested, that it was in her body. It looked like glitter on the X-ray.”
He said he is convinced Brian emptied vitamin capsules Hannah had been taking and inserted small portions of lead. She testified in court that Brian began administering the capsules after she started to feel sick.
“He stood there while she took them,” McDearmond said. “So, all that together just points more and more towards him.”
— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.