ATLANTA – Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills was slated to testify for the state in Claud Lee “Tex” McIver III’s murder trial—but he was never called upon. However, off the witness stand, he said, his friend of 20 years, is innocent of intentionally shooting and killing his wife, prominent Buckhead business woman, Diane McIver.
Sills, 62, sat down exclusively with 11Alive’s Jessica Noll to talk about the couple, whom he and his wife Janet considered friends—and the case against the man he called a “consummate gentleman.”
The 40-year veteran of law enforcement, with a self-proclaimed high conviction rate himself, said this is the first time he has been on the defense’s side of any criminal trial.
“If I thought Tex McIver murdered his wife, I'd help put him in prison,” Sills admitted.
But he believes the motive pinned on Tex is flimsy, that an accidental discharge is highly plausible, and that the couple he knew had a solid relationship, including financially.
“I'm as convinced, as I am that the sun will come up tomorrow, that he did not commit the crime of murder,” Sills argued on behalf of 75-year-old Tex.
Tex, who has worn his gold wedding band every day of the trial, is facing murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during a felony and three counts of influencing witnesses.
Closing statements started Tuesday morning.
“Everything that I know of, right now—and I'm not saying that I know everything—everything that I know of, quite candidly shows evidence that he did not murder his wife,” Sills said.
And, he said that the most profound thing showing his friend’s innocence is the testimony from three nurses and a doctor stating that Diane told them that Tex shot her by accident. Sills said that Diane would never have covered for him if he had shot her on purpose.
“I knew Diane McIver. She was as good a friend of mine as Tex. She was not a bashful woman; she was the forceful entity in their marriage—there's no question about that. She would not have said that,” if it was not the case, he said.
Further, he said, the McIvers had a strong relationship.
“I never noticed any discord between them at all,” Sills revealed about Diane and Tex.
The state and defense, however, have portrayed two different marriages for the court, including the one that Sills said he witnessed first-hand.
While the prosecution has argued that not only did Tex murder his wife, Diane, with intention, but that he tried to cover it up, tampering with witnesses—and that he did so because he was fearful of going broke after living up a lavish lifestyle with Diane for the past decade.
His attorneys have defended Tex and Diane’s relationship as a loving, caring relationship, stating that her shooting death was a horrific accident.
That’s the married couple Sills and his wife knew.
“He had a great personality. He was a consummate gentleman at all times. If you got up, he got up. She was the life of the party. She was always in charge of everything. I'm surprised she didn't run her own funeral. That was just their persona,” he said.
Fulton County’s chief senior assistant district attorney, Seleta Griffin, addressed the jury during the state’s opening statement in March, telling them that Tex killed his wife in an effort of “maintaining an image of wealth and power,” because, she said, the once-prominent attorney for Fisher Phillips was in financial ruins.
However, Diane was in the prime of her financial success as a CEO for Corey Enterprises. In fact, when she died, she was worth $12 million, the state revealed to the jury.
Diane was a “very career-driven… shrewd business woman,” Griffin said, who painted a picture for the jury of a partnership between two well-established, career-driven individuals.
The couple met in 2000 and married five years later, keeping their finances separate.
“The McIvers had it all,” Griffin said, detailing their lavish Buckhead condo and their country ranch outside the city.
“They had a picture-perfect, storybook life.”
But, Griffin alleged, “Things weren’t as they seemed.”
PHOTOS | Tex McIver Murder Trial Evidence
Accident or cold-blooded murder?
On Sept. 25, 2016, after spending the weekend at their 60-acre Putnam County ranch together, along with Diane’s best friend, Patricia Diane Carter, known as “Dani Jo,” the three went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner in Conyers, Ga.
They left dinner around 9 p.m., and headed back to Atlanta for the impending work week.
Carter was driving the couple’s white Ford Expedition. Diane was in the front seat and Tex was sitting in the seat directly behind her.
They were traveling on Interstate 20 west to Atlanta, when Carter merged onto the I-75/85 connector to downtown—but wound up in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Three blocks down, Carter took the Edgewood Avenue exit and turned right onto Piedmont Avenue.
That account of events is not disputed.
Tex asked Diane to hand him his gun from the console. It was in a plastic bag when she obliged, handing it to her husband.
At a stop sign around 12th and Piedmont avenues, Carter heard a pop.
According to the prosecution, she turned around and saw Text with the gun and a puff of smoke and said, “Tex, what did you do?”
Diane said, “Tex, I think you shot me.”
Carter raced to Emory Hospital. Video showed the entrance and their arrival.
Griffin told the jury that the 38-revolver was in “perfect working condition… [with] no hair trigger.”
In fact, she said, the GBI-tested gun that killed Diane has a 12-pound trigger pull for it to be fired.
“[He] had to intentionally pull the trigger. It wouldn’t just go off,” she said.
In October 2016, Tex called the shooting of his wife a "tragic accident" and told 11Alive that he passed a polygraph test.
Tex admitted that he fell asleep holding a gun and then woke up minutes later and realized he had accidentally shot his wife.
In an emotional phone interview, Tex described losing the love of his life, in what, he said, was a tragedy, not a crime.
During the drive home from their Eatonton ranch, Tex said he woke up as they exited the interstate near Edgewood Avenue and saw at least two people approach the vehicle. He said he asked Diane to hand him his revolver.
At some point, Tex said he dozed off, but was jarred awake by the flash of light and the sound of the gun firing. He said he didn't recall pulling the trigger and is still unsure as to what exactly happened.
That’s the story that Sills said is most likely.
Sitting in his office at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department, Sills pulled out a black revolver from his desk drawer and demonstrated how easy an accidental discharge can occur.
“I've had two accidental discharges with a gun. And I've had a gun on my side for the last 44 years,” the sheriff said.
Sills believes that Tex likely cocked his gun and fell asleep.
“Something startled him when he woke up, and it doesn't take much when it's on single-action,” Sills concluded.
Financial motive for murder ‘absurd’ and 'bogus'
According to Griffin, Tex was spiraling out of control financially.
Between 2013-2016 his salary plummeted, but he wanted to maintain the lifestyle he had been used to. He started to rely heavily on Diane’s earnings, Griffin argued—including to care for the ranch that cost nearly $20,000 a month in expenses.
“He had become dependent on Diane,” Griffin told the jury during the state’s opening statement.
Tex borrowed $350,000 in 2011 from Diane, in the form of a loan, to keep the ranch afloat. But, according to Griffin, he was struggling to pay it off—only paying on the interest, not the principal.
Furthermore, Griffin said, Diane had plans to change her will, leaving the ranch to her and Tex’s Godson—if she foreclosed on the ranch.
And based on the state’s estimate of his pension, Tex was going to run out of money in two years.
Prior to Diane’s death, Griffin said, he had -$5,000 in his bank account. But after her death, he had $1.1 million in cash.
“The easiest way for him to maintain control was to kill Diane,” Griffin alluded.
But, to Sills, this motive is preposterous.
“I don't understand the motive and I know that the motive is absurd. Unless there's something that I don't know,” he said.
“The state's evidence or motive behind this, was that she had a new will—that of course they don't have,” Sills said.
They deeded the property, he explained, as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and therefore makes changing it without both consenting impossible.
“That means when either of those two people die, that property automatically becomes the property of the other. If you do a will after that, it don't [sic] affect that,” Sills said.
“That will have no effect on that deed. None at all. I mean, it's just bogus. That's bogus. It doesn't matter what your will says until the two of us change that deed back. That deed stands no matter what—either of our wills can't touch it.”
For Sills, the state has the case all wrong and while, he believes his friend should be held accountable for Diane’s death, he does not believe he should be convicted of murder.
“You've got all these medical people saying that the victim says it was an accident; you've got a motive that purely doesn't exist. So, where's the case?”
For complete coverage of the case, visit, http://www.11alive.com/tex-mciver-trial.
