The murder trial of prominent Atlanta attorney, Claud ‘Tex’ McIver continues on Friday. 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.
On Thursday, the jury viewed security video that showed the McIvers arriving at the hospital.
Mary Windom, an emergency room nurse who was working then, said that Diane McIver was in bad shape by the time she got to the hospital. At one point, Windom told the court, Diane regained consciousness and when Windom asked her what happened, Diane said Tex shot her, but stated “it was an accident.”
Emergency room nurse Shahinda Cyclewala also testified, saying she saw Tex McIver in the hallway that night. She said she overheard him say what she thought was, “I was cleaning my gun in the bathroom and shot her,” but she couldn’t tell who he was talking to.
Stay with Law&Crime.com and the Law&Crime Network for continuing coverage of the trial.
Aaron Keller contributed to this report.
[Image via WSB screengrab]