Attorneys file motion for bond
A light has appeared at the end of the tunnel for Claude “Tex” McIver, who was convicted in April 2018 in the shooting death of his wife, Diane, and sentenced to life in prison. Last week, the Supreme Court of Georgia overturned the murder conviction.
A once-prominent attorney, McIver and his wife resided in both the upscale Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta and in Putnam County, where he served on the Putnam County Development Authority. They had many close friends in the lake area, including Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills and his wife.
“I’ve been in communication a lot with Tex’s sister, and they are well pleased with the decision of the Supreme Court, as am I,” Sills said. “I have been saying since the day he was convicted that if it ever got to the Supreme Court, it would be overturned, because things went on in that trial that were outrageously improper.”
Tex and Diane McIver owned an 80-plus acre farm, known as the McIver Ranch, on Pea Ridge Road in Putnam County. They frequented the Putnam ranch and were active in the community, hosting events at the ranch and were regulars on golf courses around Lake Oconee.
The evening of Sept. 25, 2016, the McIvers were traveling from their Putnam home to their Buckhead condo. A close friend of Diane’s was driving, and Diane was in the front passenger seat. Tex McIver was seated in the rear passenger seat. They took an exit off the interstate into what they reportedly felt was an unsafe area, so Tex McIver asked his wife to hand him his gun from the center console. Diane McIver handed her husband the gun, a .38-caliber revolver. According to court testimony, McIver later fell asleep and pulled the trigger, striking Diane in the back.
At Emory University Hospital, Diane McIver told doctors the shooting was an accident, and her friend reportedly told the police it was a “horrible accident.” Diane McIver died during surgery as a result of internal injuries.
Tex McIver was indicted in April 2017 and reindicted in August 2017 for assorted murder charges. He was tried before a jury from March 5 to April 23, 2018, and convicted of felony murder, aggravated assault, firearm possession and influencing a witness. On May 23, 2018, he was sentenced to serve life in prison.
According to the Supreme Court’s documents, McIver appealed that the Fulton County trial court erred in refusing his request to charge the jury on the lesser grade of involuntary manslaughter and in allowing the state to introduce allegedly inadmissible and prejudicial evidence and make improper comments during closing argument.
“We conclude that the trial court erred in refusing McIver’s request to charge on the lesser grade of involuntary manslaughter because the charge was authorized by law, and some evidence supported the giving of the charge,” the court’s opinion reads. “We further conclude that the failure to give the charge was not harmless error because we cannot say that it is highly probable that this error did not contribute to the jury’s verdicts. We therefore reverse McIver’s convictions for felony murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.”
Although the murder and murder-related convictions were overturned, the Supreme Court did not overturn the conviction of influencing a witness, which Sills says carries a maximum penalty of five years.
“He’s already served four years and two months of that, so he’s past the probation date of that,” Sills said. “What’s going to happen is his lawyers will file a motion for bond.”
Putnam’s veteran sheriff said that McIver would be sent back to Fulton County, where he would either make bond on the murder charge and be tried later for murder, or held on no bond and/ or offered some kind of a plea. The sheriff said he was told that McIver was meeting with his attorneys July 5.