Report: Tex McIver pleads guilty to manslaughter charge in wife’s fatal shooting

Caption

Claud “Tex” McIver and his wife Diane McIver.

Credit: File photo / Rough Draft Atlanta

Claud “Tex” McIver pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the 2016 shooting death of his wife, Diane McIver. 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that McIver, 81, took a plea deal that includes a recommended 8-year prison sentence. He also pleaded guilty to charges of reckless conduct and gun possession.

McIver, a once prominent Atlanta attorney, was originally convicted of felony murder and aggravated assault and sentenced to life in prison. However, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned those convictions in 2018, ruling that the jury should have been allowed to consider involuntary manslaughter.

He is likely to get credit for the 18 months he spent in jail awaiting retrial, the AJC reported. 

The notorious case sparked both Internet outrage and curiosity after McIver claimed he was holding his .38-caliber revolver to defend the SUV occupants from a Black Lives Matter protest as they drove through Downtown. 

McIver claimed he fell asleep and accidentally fired the gun, with the bullet passing through the passenger seat into his wife’s back.

Rather than calling 911 for help, McIver instructed the friend driving the SUV, Dani Jo Carter, to drive to the Emory University Hospital campus in DeKalb County instead of several nearby Midtown or Downtown hospitals. 

Diane McIver, an advertising executive, later died of her injuries while in surgery.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Rough Draft Atlanta.