The murder trial of Atlanta lawyer Claud ‘Tex’ McIver goes into its second week on Monday. McIver is accused of murdering his wife Diane McIver on Sept. 25, 2016. He claims it was an accident. Watch live on the Law&Crime Network in the player above.
McIver has said that he was holding a gun while seated in the backseat of a car for protection as he rode with his wife and a friend through what he felt was a dangerous neighborhood. At some point, he claims, he fell asleep, and then awoke with a start and accidentally fired the weapon, shooting Diane through her seat in the process. Diane was taken to a local hospital. Tex’s defense claims that before she died, Diane said the shooting “was an accident.”
Prosecutors claim that Tex McIver had a financial motive for killing his wife, who was a business executive. They also recently hit him with additional charges of influencing witnesses, to go along with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Week 1 ended on Friday, with the testimony of several medical professionals who were working at Emory Hospital when Diane McIver was being treated for the gunshot wound. ER nurse Terri Sullivan described the situation as “controlled chaos.”
Sullivan said she found the situation suspicious, and recalled telling the DA’s office at the time that she overheard someone saying, “This is what you are going to tell them,” as if a plot was being hatched, but she wasn’t sure who said it, who it was said to, or in what context. She thought it was said by McIver’s friend and lawyer, who was with him at the time.
She also said Tex McIver was treated at the hospital then for anxiety.
She told the jury that she didn’t believe Tex’s story because no one called 911 and because they went to Emory instead of Grady Memorial Hospital, which is known in the community as a trauma center.
Dr. Susanne Hardy, who was also working in the emergency room that night, said she asked Diane where the gun had been, and she responded, “he was holding it behind my back.” Diane McIver also said, “It was an accident.”
Stay with Law&Crime.com and the Law&Crime Network for continuing coverage of the trial.
[Image via WSB screengrab]
