An Alabama man accused of attempting to poison his estranged wife with lead reportedly claimed that she was not the only one being poisoned.
Brian Mann, 36, was charged with attempted murder after authorities allege that he poisoned his wife with lead leftover from a construction project.
The now-divorced couple was in the middle of their divorce in September 2022 when the woman was hospitalized for about two months.
According to court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate WHNT, the Hartselle Police Department was notified of her condition and launched an investigation into what may have caused her to become unresponsive.
Investigators eventually concluded that Mann “intentionally caus[ed] her to unwittingly ingest particles of lead.”
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According to court documents, investigators were instructed to look for sources of lead in the couple’s home. Mann reportedly cooperated with investigators during the home search, providing them with vitamins and prescription medications that his wife was taking at the time.
However, they left the house without discovering a source of lead. A second search of the house revealed nothing.
Investigators reportedly inquired whether Mann or the couple’s children had been tested for lead poisoning. According to the documents, Mann told them he was “still trying” to find a testing location.
According to an affidavit obtained by the Hartselle Enquirer, a nurse practitioner at Decatur General Hospital contacted police after Mann told her that he “did an X-ray on himself and observed a substance in his gut, which he believed to be lead.”
Mann reportedly became “visibly nervous” and indicated that he wanted to leave after she told him that they needed to do another scan to determine whether the possible poisoning had just occurred or had been ongoing.
Mann underwent a follow-up scan, and the nurse practitioner informed Hartselle Police Captain Alan McDearmond that she discovered “a substance in his colon that didn’t appear to have been there for long.”
According to the affidavit, McDearmond obtained Mann’s medical records for the scan and concluded that he “intentionally ingested lead to provide the impression he was also being poisoned.”
According to court records, the fateful doctor’s appointment was quickly followed by a tip. According to WHNT, someone contacted the police after learning that Mann’s wife may have had lead poisoning.
According to court documents, the tipster told police that he worked on a construction project in 2021 where he installed lead in the walls of Mann’s X-ray room — and that he left the unused lead with Mann.
Mann was arrested on September 2, 2022, and charged with attempted murder against his estranged wife.
According to the Hartselle Enquirer, Mann’s defense team has questioned the validity of the evidence collected that allegedly incriminated their client, stating in a motion that the “procedure to extract the alleged lead from [Mann’s wife’s] urine was done in the back parking lot of the Hartselle Police Department using a five-gallon bucket and a strainer” and could not be admitted in court.
Mann’s attorneys argued in the motion that the alleged evidence was mishandled, improperly labeled and packaged, and lacked a chain of custody.
Mann, who posted a $500,000 bond after being arrested and has been wearing an ankle monitor since his release, is set to stand trial at the Morgan County Courthouse after several delays. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
