An Atlanta legal professional was sentenced to life in jail for killing his spouse after a weekend getaway. Now he could quickly be launched
All Dani Jo Carter heard was a bang.
It was September 25, 2016, however it nonetheless felt like a heat, summer season evening. Stopped at a pink gentle within the coronary heart of downtown Atlanta, Carter gripped the steering wheel of the white Ford Expedition and appeared to her proper, the place Diane McIver, a well known enterprise government and her finest pal of greater than 30 years, sat in shock.
Behind Diane sat her husband, Claud Lee “Tex” McIver, an legal professional with highly effective political connections, with a gun in his lap.
“Tex, you shot me,” Diane muttered, slumping ahead. Hours later, she was pronounced lifeless at an Atlanta hospital.
Her husband was charged in the killing, and his 2018 felony trial, which spanned greater than a month and featured dozens of witnesses, led to his felony homicide conviction.
Jurors discovered McIver responsible of deliberately taking pictures his spouse, and he was sentenced to spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
However now, almost six years since that trial, McIver, 81, could quickly stroll out of jail after a plea deal that would mark the top of a tragic and convoluted case of wealth, energy and controversy that captured international headlines.
A second trial ends as quickly because it begins
In 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court docket threw out the guilty verdict against McIver, ruling jurors ought to have been allowed to think about a lesser cost. Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis introduced she would retry McIver for felony murder, setting the stage for a second trial in December 2023.
However the brand new trial was halted indefinitely as quickly as jury choice started over proof points.
And final Friday, with the second trial by no means making it any additional, McIver took a negotiated deal and pleaded responsible to the lesser cost of felony involuntary manslaughter, admitting he acted recklessly with the gun however didn’t deliberately shoot his spouse.
“This decision that the legal professionals on each side have reached is one that can permit the best variety of folks to maneuver ahead as finest they’ll,” Fulton County Superior Court docket Choose Robert McBurney stated final Friday.
McIver’s negotiated sentence – together with eight years in jail – is essentially offset by the roughly 6.5 years he’s already spent behind bars, his legal professional Don Samuel advised CNN, including he may very well be launched on parole any day – if the parole board approves. As soon as he’s launched, McIver will likely be on probation at house, with a strict curfew and ankle monitor, in accordance with the plea settlement.
A darkish evening, a visitors jam and a gunshot
On that evening in 2016, Carter and the McIvers had been on their means again to Atlanta after a weekend at their sprawling ranch about an hour away in Putnam County, the place that they had horses, a visitor home and a saloon-style leisure space amongst different facilities. Carter and Diane chatted for a lot of the drive after the group stopped for dinner. Within the again seat, Tex appeared to nod off.
CNN gathered particulars of Diane’s final evening from witness testimony throughout McIver’s 2018 homicide trial and from the June 2022 state Supreme Court ruling that reversed his conviction.
For a Sunday night, visitors was heavy on the interstate. A string of pink brake lights stretching far into the space welcomed them to the town. On the urging of her pal, Dani Jo Carter took an early exit off the freeway, to return to the McIvers’ lavish Buckhead apartment by means of the downtown streets.
“This can be a actually dangerous space,” McIver complained from the backseat as they exited the freeway, saying they had been in a foul a part of city. He would later tell investigators the realm was darkish and had a “notably excessive inhabitants” of homeless folks.
McIver requested his spouse for his gun, and she or he reached into the SUV’s middle console and handed again a .38 caliber revolver inside a Publix bag.
Quickly, they reached a stoplight.
The dialog stopped. Carter heard Diane locking the automobile doorways as they waited. Then, got here the bang.
An enormous public sale, conflicting statements and questions
Prosecutors within the 2018 trial argued McIver had deliberately killed his spouse for her cash.
Diane was described by those that knew her as pal and an excellent businesswoman. She rose from a bookkeeper to the president of an actual property enterprise and owned, or partly owned, no less than three different firms. Tex was a associate at a big legislation agency with workplaces throughout the US and sat on the state’s election board, which oversees voting and election procedures. When the pair obtained married, they saved their funds separate, prosecutor Seleta Griffin had advised jurors.
Tex McIver’s life had begun “spinning uncontrolled” earlier than Diane’s demise, Griffin stated. His wage noticed a steep decline as he ready to retire and he borrowed massive sums of cash from Diane to attempt to sustain together with his prosperous life-style, together with a $350,000 mortgage that may permit her to foreclose on the couple’s ranch if he couldn’t pay on time. Who would get that ranch after the couple died was some extent of rivalry, prosecutors stated. McIver needed to depart it to a son from a earlier marriage, whereas Diane needed it to go to their godson.
Within the months after Diane’s demise, McIver auctioned off her costly belongings – a fast sale prosecutors argued confirmed he was targeted on cash. McIver stated he was suggested by an legal professional to promote his late spouse’s issues to satisfy her will’s tasks.
“He offered her hats, footwear, purses, her fur coats. Why?” lead prosecutor Clint Rucker stated in 2018 closing statements, arguing obligations in her will nonetheless weren’t fulfilled after these gross sales. “He didn’t care about Diane McIver; he simply needed her cash.”
The state additionally argued McIver’s feedback and actions after his spouse’s demise instructed he was dishonest and lacked regret.
An emergency room nurse advised the court docket she heard him say he shot Diane whereas cleansing the gun in his rest room. (Protection attorneys identified no different nurses heard McIver make that remark.) A person who had labored for Diane testified McIver advised him that they had been in a automobile accident and his spouse was killed.
One other witness additionally testified that a few month after Diane’s demise, McIver spoke a few girl he had dated and stated perhaps he might “get her again.”
Prosecutors additionally argued McIver had a monetary motive by saying his internet value shot up when Diane died, and after her demise, he grew to become the executor and one of many beneficiaries of her multimillion-dollar property.
“On September 25, 2016, Diane was making all the cash. Diane owned the 2 condos in Buckhead. Diane might take the ranch – this ranch, in accordance with the witnesses, that was his satisfaction and pleasure,” Griffin stated within the trial. “The best means for him to achieve management was to kill Diane.”
However the protection argued that as a result of McIver served because the executor of his spouse’s property, he didn’t have management of her cash, however needed to fulfill bequests in her will and repay different obligations, together with funeral bills. And, the protection stated, Diane’s demise minimize off a daily money circulate McIver acquired from her.
“There is no such thing as a doubt that Tex McIver trusted his spouse’s cash,” protection legal professional Bruce Harvey stated in trial. “It could have been financially detrimental to him to concoct a plan to intentionally take the lifetime of his spouse.”
Protection attorneys argued the taking pictures was a horrible accident and the gun was unintentionally fired when McIver, who they stated suffered from a sleeping dysfunction, was startled. And, the protection stated, killing Diane on that drive simply didn’t make sense – some extent additionally made by the state’s highest court docket.
“If McIver meant to fatally shoot Diane, why would he do it within the presence of Carter, and why would he do it in midtown Atlanta, inside a couple of miles of a number of main hospitals, as a substitute of on a rural interstate, removed from any medical help?” the state’s supreme court docket ruling stated.
Georgia’s Supreme Court docket sides with McIver, throws out verdict towards him
Jurors discovered McIver responsible of felony homicide, aggravated assault with a lethal weapon and possession of a firearm in the course of the fee of a felony. They acquitted him of malice homicide, discovering whereas he didn’t deliberately kill his spouse, he did purposefully shoot her.
He was additionally convicted on one depend of influencing a witness, stemming from a remark McIver made to Dani Jo Carter on the evening of Diane’s demise, instructing her to inform authorities she was not within the SUV on the time of the taking pictures. He has already served the five-year sentence for that depend and the state’s supreme court docket didn’t overturn that conviction.
McIver appealed his homicide conviction, arguing there was sufficient proof offered at trial for the choose to have allowed jurors the choice to think about a lesser cost of misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter – which carries a a lot lighter sentence.
The state’s supreme court docket agreed with him.
“The jury might have concluded that the revolver was not intentionally or deliberately fired, however somewhat, as McIver suggests, discharged because of his being startled awake, reflexively or involuntarily clutching on the bag holding the firearm, and inadvertently contacting the set off,” the court docket dominated.
And, it stated, the proof prosecutors offered that the taking pictures was intentional was “not overwhelming and even sturdy,” and that witnesses stated the couple was “very a lot in love” and nobody testified about any quarrels between them.
The court docket additionally dominated that proof of a brand new will Diane had allegedly created earlier than her demise was “irrelevant and inadmissible.” Prosecutors had tried to make use of Diane’s alleged new will to show McIver had a monetary motive to kill her.
Diane’s authentic will was executed in 2006 – earlier than the McIvers’ godson was born – and included “substantial bequests to (Tex) McIver and established a belief for his profit,” the supreme court docket’s ruling stated.
However a coworker and pal of Diane testified {that a} yr and a half earlier than her demise, Diane entrusted her with making copies of a “new will.” The court docket additionally heard testimony Diane had ready a codicil – a doc modifying an individual’s will – which added their godson as a beneficiary, however that codicil was by no means executed.
Prosecutors couldn’t show a brand new will existed, and the state supreme court docket dominated there was no proof McIver knew about it or its contents – nor that there was proof the alleged new will would give him a purpose to wish to kill Diane.
As an alternative of a brand new trial, a responsible plea on lesser expenses
Lower than a month after the court docket’s ruling was printed, the district legal professional’s workplace stated it might retry McIver on felony homicide and the aggravated assault and firearm possession expenses, highlighting jurors beforehand “unanimously convicted (McIver) of intentional crimes of violence towards his spouse.”
As an alternative, prosecutors allowed him final month to plead responsible to unintentionally inflicting his spouse’s demise. He was sentenced to fifteen years: eight in jail and 7 on probation, with the primary 5 probation years served below house confinement with a curfew and an ankle monitor, in accordance with the plea settlement. The time he’s already served behind bars will likely be counted towards his eight-year jail time period.
“The decision reached permits those that beloved, cared, and admired Diane McIver to shut this chapter and transfer ahead the most effective they’ll by honoring the reminiscence of Mrs. McIver who was vigorous and touched and adjusted the lives of many along with her bigger than life persona and vigor,” Chief Deputy District Legal professional Adam Abbate stated in an announcement emailed to CNN.
McIver is already eligible for parole as a result of he has served greater than what’s required by Georgia law for the involuntary manslaughter cost, Samuel advised CNN, including the choice is in the end as much as the parole board.
Amanda Clark Palmer, one other of McIver’s attorneys, stated the plea “acknowledges that Tex by no means meant to harm Diane. He beloved her deeply and nonetheless loves her immediately. He would by no means do something to harm her, a lot much less intend to kill her.”
In an announcement earlier than the choose on Friday, McIver apologized for the killing.
“She died because of my actions, plain and easy.”
CNN’s Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.
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