Siblings sentenced for ‘cold, calculated execution’

EAST COUNTY COURTS —  The trials are over, the sentences ordered. But questions remain.

Why did a young brother and sister devise a plot to kill their stepfather, a veteran San Diego criminal defense attorney, who by many accounts had not harmed them?

Did anger drive them to murder Timothy MacNeil in his Rolando home and try to make it look as though he was shot during a home-invasion robbery? Or was it greed?

Brae Hansen, 19, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in MacNeil’s death in July 2007. Her brother, Nathaniel Gann, 20, was sentenced to 25 years to life.

“This was a planned, cold, calculated execution,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic Link, who pondered the pair’s motives during back-to-back hearings.

“I don’t understand, I don’t think anybody understands, and I don’t think anybody will ever understand.”

Both were convicted in April of first-degree murder. Hansen was also found guilty of a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait.

Gann made no statements during the emotional proceedings yesterday except to answer a few questions from the judge. But Hansen tearfully told the packed courtroom that she was sorry for what she had done.

“I’m sorry that I robbed the world of his goodness,” Hansen said of MacNeil. “He was not a perfect man, but he was good.

“I’m sorry that I’ve disappointed so many people, and I’m sorry that I made some really horrible decisions.”

Hansen’s apology seemed little comfort to MacNeil’s family members and supporters, many of whom did little to hide their anger.

“You killed the one person who truly loved you and shattered the lives of those who loved him,” said Bonnie MacNeil, who is married to the victim’s brother, Richard.

The attorney’s girlfriend, Kim Bieda, said she believed MacNeil was killed for money. Police had said the siblings planned to share any inheritance Hansen received.

However, comments from Erin Ellison – MacNeil’s daughter from his first marriage – had a slightly different tone. She said her father cared deeply for both of his daughters, including Hansen.

“I will miss you and I will think of you; I can’t help it,” she told Hansen. “I’m sorry you didn’t have enough love in your life to know that this decision would never be worth it.”

According to testimony during the three-week trial, Hansen called 911 on July 19, 2007, and reported that she and her stepfather had been surprised by a masked gunman. She said the intruder shot MacNeil after he refused to reveal the combination to a safe.

MacNeil, 63, was shot four times, including twice in the head.

When police arrived at his Marraco Drive home, they found Hansen – then 17 – standing in a downstairs game room several feet from the body with her wrists bound behind her back with plastic ties. She told police she had dialed the telephone with her tongue.

At first, police treated Hansen like a victim, but a detective became suspicious when Hansen used the name “Nathan” when describing her attacker.

The murder weapon, a revolver, was found outside the house. It had belonged to the siblings’ mother, Doreen, who committed suicide the previous summer.

Witnesses testified that they saw a man fitting Gann’s description run from the house after the shooting. A black shirt and mask were found in a nearby tree; Gann’s DNA was found on the mask.

Gann was arrested in Arizona, where he lived with his grandmother. Attorney Ricardo Garcia, who represented Gann, argued that Hansen was the mastermind and recruited her brother. Garcia stressed that Hansen played the victim after the slaying and lied repeatedly to police.

Troy Britt, a deputy public defender who represented Hansen, argued that she participated in the plan to kill MacNeil, but changed her mind. When she tried to back out, her brother threatened her with a gun, Britt said.

Britt unsuccessfully argued yesterday that Hansen should get 25 years to life in prison, noting that the diminutive woman, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, was not the shooter.

But Deputy District Attorney George Bennett said Hansen didn’t deserve leniency, and that the murder never would have happened if she hadn’t set it in motion.

“The only thing Brae Hansen cares about in the whole goddamn world is herself,” Bennett said.

Dana Littlefield: (619) 542-4590; [email protected]