x
Breaking News
More () »

Tex McIver trial a ‘character assassination from the very beginning’ sister tells Dateline

A month following Tex being sentenced in his wife's murder, NBC's Dateline takes you back to the beginning, when Diane was fatally shot in her SUV September of 2016.
Credit: Haney, Adrianne
Tex McIver is accused on shooting and killing his wife

ATLANTA – For over the last year and a half, thousands have invested their time in the murder case of Diane McIver, the wife of former prominent Atlanta attorney Tex McIver.

A month following Tex being sentenced in his wife’s murder, NBC’s Dateline takes you back to the beginning, when Diane was fatally shot in her SUV September of 2016.

Dani Jo Carter and Dixie Martin, Tex's sister, spoke out for the first time since he was sentenced to spend life in prison for the murder of his wife.

THE CRIME

On September 25, 2016, Tex and Diane spent the day playing golf at Reynolds Plantation. That night before heading back to Atlanta, they had a steak dinner with their friend Dani Jo Carter.

On the way back, Dani Jo was driving the McIver’s white 2013 Ford Expedition with Diane in the passenger seat and Tex sleeping in the rear seat directly behind her. They stopped when they encountered heavy construction traffic on the Downtown Connector.

Tex allegedly became concerned for their safety and asked for his revolver from the center console. It was wrapped in a brown plastic bag.

While driving down Piedmont Avenue, Tex allegedly dozed off again. At some point, the Smith & Wesson snub-nose revolver fired, striking Dianne in the back.

Tex alerted Dani Jo, who was still driving, to go to Emory University Hospital where Diane was rushed into surgery and died.

Following her death, Tex called the shooting “a terrible accident.”

He was originally charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and felony involuntary manslaughter in September. Tex was released on a $200,000 bond with conditions that included wearing an ankle monitor, surrendering his passport and having no contact with anyone employed with Diane's business.

At the time, he was also told he was not allowed to carry any weapons. However, a judge revoked Tex's bond after a gun was found inside of his Buckhead condominium.

In April 2017, a grand jury indicted him for malice murder. Tex then faced several charges including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and three counts of influencing witnesses.

He was again released on bond in December.

THE TRIAL

Jury selection began for the murder trial on March 5, 2018, but the jury was not finalized until March 12. For a week, Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney had a difficult time filling the jury because many potential jurors had already formed opinions due to the exposure of the case in the news. At one point, legal experts thought if a jury could not be filled the trial would have moved to Albany, Columbus or Savannah.

The makeup of the jury played a very crucial role in the outcome of the trial with five white men, four white women, two black women and one black man. The prosecution and defense struck more than 100 potential jurors from the pool to reach this jury.

During Day 2 of court proceedings, the prosecution spent most of the day pounding away at a possible motive, asking witness after witness about Diane as a person and the couple's finances.

The prosecution called up witnesses who knew Diane best – employees and friends who all described her as having a sharp tongue and a shrewd business sense but, they said, Diane was also a loving and caring person.

Her employees said they could come to her with their personal issues, several of them crying on the stand about how compassionate she was. She was also willing to lend her friends money – but always expected to pay back in full at a 5 percent interest rate.

On Day 3, jurors watched, again and again, the final moments of Diane's life, caught on hospital surveillance video. The raw video showed her arrival at Emory hospital. It was a vital piece of evidence in the murder trial.

As the video played, lawyers from both sides were pushing jurors not to look at Diane, but at Tex and his demeanor as his wife was dying in front of him. Prosecutors argued that Tex appeared to be lazy, slow and uncaring about his wife's well-being in the video. They pointed out that he walked up to the valet and spent time holding the door of the car, instead of holding his wife.

Also, one detail the prosecutors were careful to point out was that Diane was brought all the way to Emory Hospital, even though they were closer to Grady Hospital and Emory Midtown.

On March 19, Day 5 of the proceedings, Dani Jo took the witness stand where she recounted in detail the moments before and after her friend of 40 years was fatally wounded.

When recalling the moment Tex shot Diane, Dani Jo said she froze with her hands on the steering wheel looking at the red light - not yet aware that her passenger had been shot. That realization was provided by Diane herself.

"She said, 'Tex, you shot me'," Dani Jo said.

Dani Jo said, at first, she didn't believe Diane, thinking her comment was a joke. When she saw Diane lean over, she realized her friend was actually injured. That’s when Dani Jo began taking directions from Tex as he held his wife's head. Carter said she was directed to go to Emory and, not knowing the area well enough, took his directions - a trip she estimated at around 15 to 20 minutes.

While at the hospital, Dani Jo said Tex shared a warning with her: "He said, 'I don't trust these guys, 'I hate to see you get wrapped up in this, I've seen how these things can go down. You just need to say you came down here as a friend of the family.’”

Dani Jo said the request took her "breath away" as she explained that as the driver, it wouldn't make sense that she was there without a vehicle. His response, she said, was that "they don't know that."

She reiterated that she was not going to lie, to which he allegedly said he wasn't asking that. But that wasn't their only interaction that night. Dani Jo said Tex at one point began looking through his phone and said: "I know this doesn't look good."

After a week-long break, the trial returned on April 9, 2018, for Day 15 of the proceedings with testimony from a key witness and political analyst, Bill Crane. Crane first told reporters Tex was scared of Black Lives Matter protesters when they got off the exit in downtown Atlanta on the night he shot Diane.

When news reports came out specifically referencing Black Lives Matter, Tex said his attorneys were angry and wanted Crane to retract the statement. Crane said on the stand he was not willing to lie for Tex.

“I was doing a lot to help my friend. I wasn't, and am still not, willing to put my relationship on the line, to lie. Again, I thought it was helpful to the case. I wasn't going to lie,” Crane said during his testimony. “I made it clear on the phone that was a line I was not willing to cross.”

Crane told the jurors that he thought there were other things Tex said that night that didn't add up and he thought were bigger problems for Tex. One being that Tex told people he wasn't drinking when it came out later that he was.

On April 10, the prosecution rested after presenting nearly 70 witnesses over 16 days.

The next day before the defense began their argument, Judge McBurney threw out counts 6 and 7 – both connected to witness tampering. McBurney delivered a direct verdict that said the state didn't prove Tex tampered with witnesses in two cases: when he asked Crane to retract a Black Lives Matter statement and when Tex left a voicemail for Dani Jo Carter's husband.

Day 18 of the court proceedings the defense brought forth Diane and Tex’s massage therapist, who was the source of much speculation. There were some moments on the stand when Annie Anderson was in tears as she talked about her friendship with Diane.

The defense specifically asked Annie about her relationship with Tex. Annie said she had slept on the floor in Tex's bedroom in the days after Diane died, but Diane’s young godson was also in the room. She said she and other health aides frequently slept in Tex's room because he had health issues and needed medication at night.

After 21 days of testimony, on April 17, both the state and defense gave their final statements.

The state insisted that they had presented enough evidence to prove Diane's death was, in fact, murder while leading the jury away from a new charge possibility - involuntary manslaughter. However, the defense also took to the floor to fight the allegations with the goal of proving their point - that Tex did not intend to kill his wife.

Defense attorney Bruce Harvey described the case as "an accident in search of a motive," and said that the state had failed to establish that the gun itself was even aimed at Diane.

During the multiple days of deliberation, the jury asked the judge three questions, including whether Tex could be found guilty of certain charges and not others.

They also asked to get back inside the SUV where Diane was shot and review emails between the two. They even re-watched the first interview Tex and his attorneys gave to Atlanta Police.

On April 23, 2018, the jury found Tex guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was found not guilty of malice murder.

He also faced a fifth count of witness influencing involving Dani Joe and was found guilty on that count, as well.

THE AFTERMATH

Days before Tex’s sentencing on May 21, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against both Tex and Dani Jo. The lawsuit, filed by the administrator of Diane McIver's estate Mary Margaret Oliver in DeKalb County, claimed Tex and Dani Jo were both negligent in Diane's death, stating specifically Dani Jo "breached that duty she owed to Diane."

As a result, the lawsuit is seeking damages "representing the full value of the life of Diane Smith McIver," as well as funeral and burial expenses, to be determined by a jury.

On May 23, a month after Tex was found guilty in murdering Diane, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

During the sentencing hearing, Tex spoke for the first time in the courtroom. In a 13-minute speech, Tex thanked his supporters and talked about mail he received from “three people on three different continents,” specifically reading a portion of a note from a woman in Ireland.

Tex pointed out his fondness for Chick-fil-A stating, “One of my huge, huge favorites and one of the things I miss the most I guess." He also gave a shout-out to the Golden State Warriors.

When speaking about Diane, Tex described a “telepathic” connection with her.

“I could be on the other side of the room at an event, or I could be busy at our cow pasture, and my conscience would hear these words: Is this truly real?” he said. “I would spin around, look to where she was, see her gaze and know that she had telepathically communicated those words to me.”

As members of his defense team loudly coughed, Tex talked of “adjustments” or “corrections” that his wife “had delivered with love” on him and said, “I always accepted them with love.”

But there's one thing that Judge McBurney was quick to note Tex didn't say.

“I’ll tell you what’s most telling. You had as much as you wanted to share with me, what you thought was important for me to hear, and I guess your audience to hear. We heard about racehorses in Australia, and telepathy, a brief psychoanalysis of the male ego and ghosts,” Judge McBurney said. “I didn’t ever hear you say you’re sorry for what you did. To me, that silence speaks volumes.”

Then the judge delivered the sentence.

On June 4, the Supreme Court of Georgia announced they had accepted a request from Tex to suspend his law license pending an appeal of his murder conviction.

"Because we agree that such a suspension is appropriate, we accept McIver's petition," said an opinion released by the Georgia Supreme Court. "Accordingly, McIver hereby is suspended from the practice of law in this state until further order of this court."

At this point, McIver remains in state custody pending his appeal.

Before You Leave, Check This Out