48 Hours: Daddy's Girl

Did A Brother And Sister Conspire To Murder Their Stepfather?

(CBS)  Nearly three weeks after the trial began, juries are now separately deciding if Brae Hansen and her brother, Nathan Gann, murdered their stepfather, Tim MacNeil.

"Why would I even want to harm Tim? I’m not guilty of the crime, I can tell you that," says Nathan.

"I believe in redemption," Brae says. "I really believe that God is gonna get me out of this."

Brae’s hoping that she’ll get off, but that her brother won’t. "He’s done enough damage already," she says. "If he were to get out, I would be afraid to walk down the street."

Brae may just get her wish. Nathan’s attorney is not sounding terribly optimistic.

"If I did my job right, we’ll be doing this again, you know, in six months," Ricardo Garcia says, realizing the best he can hope for is another hung jury. "You know, the facts are the facts in this case. And there are some problems."

As for Brae’s own attorney, Troy Britt says, "There were 7 of 12 jurors who looked very stern and didn’t look like they wanted to listen to anything I had to say."

It's clear that Brae Hansen has been thinking a lot about a possible guilty verdict, but in a most disturbing way.

"Maybe it’s a good thing that you’re talking to me now in case things don’t go well," telling Tracy Smith, "I've been suicidal since I was 11." Brea says she would kill herself "without a second thought. I would be dead within a few months."

Brae and her lawyer are shocked and concerned when the jurors in her case announce they’ve reached a verdict not long after they began deliberating.

"The thing that gnaws at my soul is that these jurors were only out for 6 hours. It’s a first-degree murder case," Britt says. "I’d like to think that means they bought my argument. But in the end, it might just mean they didn’t buy it and that’s why they reached a decision so quickly."

It may have been a quick verdict, but Brae and her attorney will have to wait to learn what it is. The judge decides to delay revealing it until her brother’s jury has also reached a verdict.

Garcia believes Nathan Gann deserves a second chance. "I'll feel very responsible if he doesn't," he says.

Nathan's jurors take much longer to consider his fate. They deliberate for two-and-a-half days before reaching their verdict: guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree.

Nathan must serve a minimum of 25 years to life in prison.

"The prosecution basically proved that you’re the masked intruder," Tracy Smith says to Nathan.

"I was convicted, he says."I don't agree with it."

"Do you think you could have saved yourself by testifying?"

"I think that if I had testified there would have been a non-guilty verdict. Can’t talk about that right now… I have to wait till appeal time, you know what I mean?"

For Tim MacNeil's family, the guilty verdict is most welcome news. At a press conference, Rick MacNeil has a brief message for his brother's stepson: "Rot in prison and burn in hell. That’s basically it."

The next morning, the judge brings Brae Hansen's jurors together for a reading of their verdict. The jury found Brae guilty of the murder in the first degree.

Brae is treated far harsher by her jury. Besides the murder conviction, she is also found guilty of lying in wait - in effect, ambushing her stepfather. So she could end up spending the rest of her life in prison with no chance of parole.

"I would give anything to have my dad back," Brae sobs. She tells Tracy Smith, "The reality is there’s no time machine. I can’t change the past. I can't, you know, undo it."

Despite the overwhelming loss of her father, Erin MacNeil Ellison, who was close to Brae, has sympathy for her stepbrother and stepsister.

"I genuinely care about her,” Ellison says. She says she feels bad for them, "because of the life they could have had. They didn't have enough love in their heart or enough love in their life to know that something like this decision wouldn't be worth it.

"Seeing her fall apart, I mean, my dad wouldn't want that. I don't want that," she says. "At one point, I wanted to just go over and hug her and just tell her it was gonna be OK."

Compassion is something that Brae Hansen may never fully understand.

When asked if she forgives herself, Brae says, "To a certain extent I do." She also says she thinks "almost everyday" of how none of this would have happened if she had not called Nathan.

"She'll have the rest of her life to decide if it was worth it to her," says Ellison. "And she’ll have to live with that."

Brae Hansen’s jurors found the trial emotionally grueling, the evidence overwhelming and the guilty verdict the only fair decision they could reach.

"I think there was one piece of evidence that was introduced on the last day that will live with me forever and - I’m sorry," the male juror says as he becomes overwhelmed with emotion. "'It was supposed to be one clean shot to the head... instead of three that missed and one at point blank range.'"

Those shocking words were contained in the letter Brae Hansen had written to her family.

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Brae's Letter
Read the three-page letter Brea wrote to her family from jail.

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A female juror says, "There was no feeling in there, you know - they didn't care. They just wanted to get it done and over with."

"I've cried over this for days," the male juror says.

The jurors said they wanted to find Brae not guilty.

"I want to believe in the good of everyone and that people aren’t capable of these things….let alone a young woman of 17," the male juror says.

But jurors convicted Brae Hansen of murder.

"That’s right. She knew the plan. She went along. And she never stopped it. Clearly she was a party to the murder," the male juror says. "Heroes are born from people you’d never expect. Murderers are born from people you’d never expect."

Brae tells Tracy Smith, "I honestly didn't think it was ever gonna happen. You know, I was mad at my dad. We all get mad at our parents."

"But not all of us plan their murder," Tracy Smith says.

To this, Brae has no response.

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Brae and Nathan will both be sentenced on June 19th.

Brae’s lawyer will ask that she be eligible for parole in 23 years because she was a minor at the time of the murder.

[veritoSuchil]

The girl is a sociopath who is a danger to society and evil to the core based on the evidence and her general nature and lack of remorse. However, the boy was both guilty of bad decisions and a victim of his sister's manipulative and strategic mind games. He has suffered from a severe lack of love throughout his life, and loved his sister, the same sister that now threw him under the bus for her disgusting wishes. Not an excuse, if he was actually a participact, but definitely no more likely to land him in hell than the lack of sympathy I have seen in these comments will land their makers in hell.

I personally don't think Nathan is guilty. Why would he leave his life in Arizona to murder someone he had no connection to? He was an honor student, could speak different languages, had a girlfriend that loved him,it just doesn't make sense.
On the other hand,he did not have gun powder residue on his hands.Many neighbors that saw a man run out of the house, could not identify him or his truck at the crime scene. A long hair was found on the gun that belonged to Brae, the gun was found placed in a way,that would have been a natural way for a right handed person to drop-but Nathan is left handed, whereas Brae is right handed. There is no physical evidence that shows that he was in Tim's house.
He may have well confessed in that video that we saw, because the cops are telling him that his sister is going to fry, his poor little sister. Maybe he felt he had to stand up for her, and thus say what he said on that video. The video doesn't clearly show that he actually knew what had happened.
When the sister slipped and said his name, it was when one of the detectives was asking her again, to state what had happened in the murder house.(The Macneil's brother said, that at gun point Tim would not have refused to give the combination of the safe, he thought there had to be more to the story and asked the detective to interrogate brae one more time) She said, she was zip tied, and then "since her dad wanted to go to the bathroom" Nathan unzipped her hands so she could take off her dad's pants, and then zip tied her again.
¬¬...I think she took down his pants to humiliate him,it makes no sense that someone at gun point would ask to go to the bathroom. It also makes no sense that nathan would take the time, to unzip her, then zip her up again, just so she could take off her dad's pants. she had to explain why her fingerprints were on her dad's belt, and she may have panicked and started making that part up, and since she usually blamed her brother for everything she said his name...

[hercule1122]

I find the comments about the father's lack of dress amusing. I often strip down at home and am not a sexual freak. Comfort is paramount for me and my home is private so there is no stupidity involved. My children are as well-adjusted as one could hope for, and the Puritans can return to the Mayflower. Americans never cease to amaze me with their frigidity and close-mindedness.

[bajajohn1]

The genesis of this unforgivable crime is that Brae felt rejected by her stepfather in light of his new relationship. What a shame! He was moving on and she wanted him all to herself.

[hercule1122]

I think the jury get it right, and hope the judge will mete out life in jail for these evil young people. The mother was a drug addict, and what the father saw in any of these slimeballs says that he was not very discerning. I guess love is blind!

[cliffps]

The daughter implicated her own brother AND was dumb enough to talk about the perp's face not being what the sketch claimed and so she did herself in, forget what the jury decided. And with that, they spend a very long time behind bars... justice, sweet justice.

[cepe10-2009]

Bogus and backward jury there, certainly reasonable doubt and many mistakes in the prosecution of this case. what a justice system.

[Dgunner]

YESTERDAY THERE WAS A ARTICLE POSTED ON CARRYING LOADED GUNS IN NATIONAL PARKS. A IMPORTANT ISSUE AMONG AMERICANS. TODAY IT IS NOT POSTED ON CBS. HOWEVER SOMETHING HORRIFIC AS THIS HAS BEEN POSTED NEARLY A WEEK NOW. THIS SAYS LOUDLY A LOT ABOUT THE MENTALITY OF CBS AND THIER EDITORS.

[48hrzfanz]

The stepfather loved them. He tried his best to be the father those kids never had. What's wrong with that? It just wasn't enough for a girl who had everything to live for.
I don't care if that girl was 17 at the time. She had sense to plot a murder like an adult. She spoke so eloquently and calm. Her brother was just a plain Liar. A rapist, murderous Liar.
What's wrong with our kids today? We try to give them all that we can out of love and caring. I guess it just isn't enough, ever. To the stepfather Tim MacNeil. Rest In Peace.

[SiliconDoc1]

Since Nathan was visiting his stepdad and Brae, he could have had the mask on his head in that home at ANY TIME over the past number of months. He said he built a computer for his stepdad.
I hate it when people are so stupid as to accept DNA evbidence and never think beyond the DNA on the item.
Of course by the whole of what as shown they did it as a team, nonetheless, to claim the DNA on the mask proves anything by claiming Nathan's DNA should not be on it is ridiculous. With Brae in the house she could have grabbed it after Nathan left it then handed it off to the real shooter. Simple. Not saying it happened that way at all - I'm just saying people ought to THINK before they declare a piece of evidence something that proves guilt, then make a false statement trying to back that up.
I'll tell you it's scary how easily people are fooled nowadays.

[lottainfo]

When I viewed this story last Saturday, May 16th, 2009, I knew something was up when I observed Brae's demeanor. I still cannot understand what the motive was; I heard Brae felt left out or was angry. Could you imagine the bloodbath our country would have if teens killed their parents because they were angry at them?

This Brae character seems very spoiled, even though she is from a broken home. Her step father opened his heart, home, & wallet for her; this murder was the ultimate betrayal.

I hope she rots in jail.