HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — A chiropractor accused of poisoning his wife with lead took out $1 million in life insurance policies on her, including one two days before she was admitted to a hospital, Alabama prosecutors said.
Brian Mann, 36, was sentenced to life in prison August 27, WHNT reported. In June, a jury convicted him of attempted murder after Mann’s wife was hospitalized with excessive lead in her system, according to the Morgan County District Attorney’s Office.
McClatchy News reached out to Mann’s defense attorney, Chad Morgan, for comment on the sentencing August 27 but did not immediately receive a response.
The attorney said in court he didn’t think the state met its burden to prove Mann was the person who poisoned his wife, according to WAAY.
“I didn’t think that they proved that there was an overt act on his part by any means anywhere by any kind of evidence,” Morgan said.
Prosecutors said Hartselle police learned Mann began giving his wife daily supplements that actually contained lead while taking out life insurance policies on her totaling over $1 million.
The supplements sickened his wife, who was admitted to a hospital with eight times the expected amount of lead, a doctor testified during the trial, AL.com reported.
Prosecutors said Mann may have faked being poisoned as well. The couple’s kids tested negative for lead, then Mann was tested at a hospital, according to the state attorney’s office.
“A few hours later, Mann appeared at the main campus of Decatur Morgan Hospital, advising he had given himself an X-ray at his chiropractic clinic and saw something in his stomach,” prosecutors said. “Upon reviewing X-rays, it was determined that the lead in his system had been ingested only hours before.”
A contractor came forward to say he suspected Mann had obtained the lead used to poison his wife during a construction project to fortify his chiropractic office’s X-ray room with lead, WHNT reported from an affidavit.
Mann’s wife spent months in the hospital, prosecutors said.
Hartselle is a 35-mile drive southwest from Huntsville.
By OLIVIA LLOYD/McClatchy News
Olivia Lloyd is a National Real-Time Reporter for McClatchy covering the Southeast. She is based in South Florida and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Previously, she has worked for Hearst DevHub and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
