Inset: Brian McManus (Houston County District Attorney). Background: The home at 202 Wake Forest Dr. in Warner Robins, Ga., where Brian McManus tried staging his wife’s murder as a suicide (Google Maps).
A former cop from London, England, was found guilty last week of murdering his American wife in Georgia, with prosecutors saying he “bludgeoned” her to death with a rubber mallet and then staged it to look like a suicide in a bid to “walk away without consequence” — and a green card.
Brian McManus, 57, was convicted on Saturday for killing his wife, Lucille McManus, in November 2023 in the city of Warner Robins, which is about 100 miles south of Atlanta. Court documents outline how McManus attempted to cover up the slaying by claiming Lucille McManus shot herself, even though “no gun or shell casings were found at the scene,” according to the Houston County District Attorney’s Office, which announced McManus’ conviction on Facebook Wednesday.
“McManus tried to cover the murder up, pin it on the victim’s family, and walk away without consequence,” the DA’s office said in a post. “He failed. Because of the work of the Warner Robins Police Department, forensic experts, and Houston County Asst. DAs Justin Duane and Lauren Fletcher, the truth won out.”
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McManus was convicted by a Houston County jury after a six-day trial, according to court documents. He faced mounds of evidence presented by prosecutors in various filings over the past year and a half, including security footage that showed McManus taking his dog for a walk on the day he claimed to find his wife dead while carrying a bag containing what police believed was the rubber mallet used to bludgeon Lucille McManus to death. The footage showed him walking along a path where the mallet was recovered, and then returning home without the bag.
“Further, the defendant had multiple conversations with law enforcement where the defendant repeatedly bragged about his time as a police officer in London,” prosecutors alleged in a March 17 reply to a motion for bond reconsideration.
“Specifically, the defendant bragged about his training and knowledge of impact weapons including how to use them properly because police in London carry impact weapons and not guns,” the reply said.
Prosecutors accused McManus of killing his wife for multiple reasons, including to prevent her from telling the government that their marriage had been arranged to get him a Green Card, which would’ve resulted in his deportation. Multiple witnesses corroborated this at trial and testified that the pair wed just months after meeting on Tinder, local Fox affiliate WAGA reports.
McManus also reportedly had a secret girlfriend in Florida whom he had planned to run off with after the slaying, WMAZ reported.
Officers with the Warner Robins Police Department were dispatched to 202 Wake Forest Dr. at around 9 a.m. that morning after McManus called 911 and claimed he had found his wife. Cops later determined that the couple was at the residence by themselves.
“Mr. McManus reported that he found the victim deceased by what he advised was an obvious self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” prosecutors alleged in a November 2023 warrant application.
“There was not a firearm located in proximity to the body to suggest a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the document said. “It was determined Mrs. McManus was not shot but rather struck multiple times … in her head. There were inconsistent time frames of events and statements provided to officers by Mr. McManus. Mr. McManus had fresh scratches to his right arm that he was unaware of until officers pointed them out.”
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McManus was not only unable to explain where or when the scratches occurred, but he also “further admitted to changing his clothes prior to officers arrival and washing the clothing he previously had on,” per the warrant application.
“As part of law enforcement’s investigation, law enforcement learned that the defendant stashed a large sum of money in his vehicle either before or immediately after the murder,” prosecutors said in the March 17 filing. “At one point during the investigation and prior to the defendant’s arrest, the defendant attempted to retrieve his vehicle from the incident location. Luckily, law enforcement seized the vehicle and did not let him drive away in the vehicle. The State believes that if the defendant had been able to retrieve his vehicle that day, he would have fled with the cash.”
This was not the first American marriage that failed for the British killer. Before moving to Warner Robins, McManus was married to a woman in Idaho, who divorced him after an alleged domestic violence incident, WMAZ reported.
McManus was due to be sentenced on Wednesday afternoon.
