The only eyewitness in the Tex McIver murder case took the stand on Monday. McIver claims it was an accident when he shot his wife Diane while they were riding in a car on Sept. 25, 2016. Dani Jo Carter was driving at the time, with Diane in the front passenger seat and Tex in the back, and Carter got the chance to tell the jury her side of the story.
Carter talked about how on the weekend of the shooting, she was with the McIvers on their ranch. Other friends had backed out of joining them, so Carter drove down with Tex and Diane, meeting at Diane’s office.
Carter said that on the day of September 25, they all drove from the ranch to a restaurant, with Tex and Diane drinking wine. When they got the restaurant, they sat at the bar while waiting for a table, and the McIvers each had another glass of wine, she said.
After they left the restaurant, they were driving back to Atlanta and got stuck in traffic, so Carter decided to get off the highway and take an alternate route. She said that after they got off the highway and were stopped at an intersection, Tex said to Diane, “Darling, hand me my gun.” She did. Carter told the court that she wasn’t familiar with the surroundings, and noted that there were people gathered on the sidewalk with boxes around them. They didn’t seem to be going anywhere, she said.
The prosecutor then had Carter reenact what happened in a recreation of the inside of the vehicle. Sitting in the driver’s seat, she described how Diane reached into the car’s console to get the gun after Tex asked for it. She then identified the weapon, after the attorney showed it to her.
All of a sudden, Carter said, she heard a bang, not realizing what it was at first. Diane reacted first.
“She turned around” Carter recalled, “and she said, ‘Tex! What did you do?'”
After that, Tex said, “The gun discharged,” according to Carter.
“There was a puff of smoke, and I could see his hands,” she said. After that, she thought there was a bullet hole in the bottom of the car, “because the gun was pointed down.”
At that point, she said, she still didn’t realize Diane had been shot. Then Diane spoke.
“I could see out of the side of my eye,” Carter said, “and she leaned forward,” before saying “Tex, you shot me.”
He didn’t say anything in response.
Carter said at first she thought it was a joke, and then realized she had to take her friend to the emergency room. She thought about going to Piedmont Hospital, thinking it was close by. She didn’t say this though, and asked Tex where the closest ER was. Tex said they should go to Emory.
“I wanted to panic, but I knew that I couldn’t,” Carter recalled. She said Diane then started making noises.
“I thought she was dying.”
Diane eventually lost consciousness, and Tex held her head. Carter described Tex’s reaction as “contained,” and “not yelling or hysterical.”
[Image via Law&Crime Network screengrab]
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