Chapter 1: What led to the tragic shooting of Diane McIver?
I loved you before this ceremony, and I love you more because of it. You may kiss your bride. They were inseparable. Tex absolutely adored Diane, and Diane adored Tex. I feel like the prosecution has tried to make this out to be about someone who is successful and powerful trying to get away with something like murder. They don't know Tex and Diane personally like I do.
A woman died after she was shot inside a car on this block.
Previously on Breakdown. Welcome back. Before we plunge back into the story of Tex McIver... I'm a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and we've been covering the Tex McIver case since day one. This was an enormously high-profile case. They were a big-time power couple.
We're going to have plenty of beverages over here, so just everybody start walking, please.
Tex owned a ranch out in Putnam County. which is a pretty nice place for a vacation home. They woke up that morning, Tex made sausage biscuits and coffee and took them upstairs to Diane and Danny Joe, her longtime friend. They spend the afternoon playing golf and they drive back to Atlanta. They're on their way back to their condo in Buckhead.
They stop on the way at Longhorn to get something to eat.
They have some wine at dinner.
Danny Joe is driving because she didn't drink. My name is Bruce Harvey and I represent Tex McIver.
Tex is seated right behind his wife in the back passenger seat. They're gonna hit traffic that just stops them still. So they're thinking, we've got to get off of the interstate. We've got to find a better way to get to Buckhead. According to texts, he had been asleep.
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Chapter 2: How did Tex McIver's background influence the case?
According to close friend Anne Schwall, Diane was the love of Texas life. She was beautiful and there was such an energy and electricity about her. The year was 2000. 47-year-old Diane was recently divorced with no children and a thriving career as the executive vice president of a real estate and advertising company.
In search of a fresh start, she moved into this luxurious condominium in Atlanta's swanky neighborhood, Buckhead. Everyone in the building was talking about her. Linda and Rance Winkler say their new neighbor was hard to miss. She wore St. John and Chanel on the golf course. She wore hats just about every day. And she had a presence and a way of carrying herself.
But, says Linda, no one paid more attention to Diane than another popular divorcee in the building, wealthy labor lawyer Tex McIver. Before he met Diane, did he have a love life that you knew of or a dating life? No. He was so consumed with his work He'd been through a very painful, difficult divorce. It wasn't until Diane came along that he was interested in having a romantic life.
Tex was a decade older than Diane, but they soon became inseparable, spending much of their free time at Tex's weekend home, fondly known as The Ranch. where the couple was known for throwing parties for Atlanta's rich and powerful, says friend and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
They were big entertainers. They were always having somebody there for some kind of party or some kind of political thing like that.
We have had the best yet party.
Diane was always the life of the party. She was always the boss of the party, too.
After five years together, Diane agreed to become Mrs. Tex McIver. He cared about her, which was probably the very first time she had that experience in a lot of years. He didn't need her. That somebody cared about her?
For her. Just for her?
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Chapter 3: What were the key events on the day of the shooting?
It was in the middle of the night. And as soon as I heard his voice, and he said, we lost Diane.
And my immediate reaction was, how am I going to tell Austin?
And says Austin never once blamed Tex for Diane's death. He actually was just really worried about, you know, how Tex was doing. He's never said I didn't shoot her. He's never said I didn't kill my wife. He is profoundly regretful. It was all a tragic accident, according to Tex's defenders. But here's the biggest problem.
No one, including Tex, can explain how his gun went off and killed his wife. We just asked him that day before yesterday.
He still cannot give an answer to exactly what happened.
Who do you remember after the gun was off? Peter, the shaman.
Two days after Diane's death, Tex and his then-lawyer met with Atlanta Police Department homicide detectives.
As detectives set out to investigate the shooting of Diane McIver, they focused on their best witness.
Have you ever taken any, like, And they focused on their best piece of evidence.
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Chapter 4: What evidence was presented regarding the gun's discharge?
Your finger's automatically on the trigger. You pull this trigger, and you do one shot. A kill shot, in my mind, is not likely. Lean into it. Cock the weapon.
And Hill is not alone in his opinion. That's why I asked former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Burt Davis to take me out to a gun range not far from Texas Ranch. I wanted to understand the gun.
How well are you doing? You know, the revolver can be fired two ways.
The handgun, which only shoots one bullet at a time, can be fired in two very different ways, single action or double action. Either way, it does not look good for Tex, because experts say this gun only goes off if the trigger is pulled. In single action, the shooter pulls back the hammer, like this.
With the gun already cocked in this position, it hardly takes any effort at all to pull the trigger. It only takes about two pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, which is why experienced gun owners say you only cock this gun if you know you are about to use it. No one that I know of would sit there with a gun in single action. A double action is a different story.
This gun is not loaded, but I want to show you what happens. In double action, you pull the trigger and the gun automatically pulls the hammer back, rotates the cylinder, and fires. But it's not easy because it takes about 12 pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, making it much harder to fire it accidentally. It would be difficult. But not impossible. But not impossible.
But somehow, that gun was fired. And to this day, techs cannot answer this question. Was the gun in single action or double action? Good question. Texas lawyer Bruce Harvey is one of Atlanta's most successful and sought-after defense attorneys. What is your challenge with this gun?
Clearly, a trigger was pulled, right? The question is, was that a voluntary knowing and intentional action or an involuntary action based upon an accident?
But Tex was clearly no stranger to guns. Out at the ranch, he had what many would consider an arsenal of weapons. After Diane's death, Tex asked his buddy, Sheriff Sills, to go out to his ranch and collect his guns for safekeeping. So you cleared out how many guns? As I recall, it was about 35 guns. Including rifles, handguns, and AR-15s. Would you describe him as a gun guy?
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Chapter 5: What were the financial implications of Diane's death for Tex?
Why would you equate Black Lives Matter protesters with carjackers? Why would you inject race into this? That put the story into a whole other realm, and it went national because of that.
You have this very rich, very powerful white guy in a city that's predominantly black. I think that's why this case is so appealing to the public.
A Texas attorney at the time publicly denied that his client ever said he was afraid of black protesters. But the damage was done, and things were about to get even worse.
CBS 46 has an exclusive look tonight at the diamonds, the furs, and the designer bags about to go on auction. This was pretty stunning.
Just two months after shooting his wife, Tex started selling off Diane's extensive collection of valuable belongings. Her most expensive jewelry, fur coats, and handbags would go to the highest bidders at an auction. The district attorney's office filed motions to block the sales, but a judge denied their requests. And as the executor of Diane's estate, Tex said he had no choice. Why?
According to Tex, he said that in her will, Diane had left a lot of money to some of her employees and some of her friends. So he needed that money to pay them.
Now, all that money went into the estate.
And not to him.
But timing in this case was everything. Tex has come under fire for holding the two sales while still at the center of the homicide case.
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Chapter 6: How did the prosecution build its case against Tex McIver?
Based on their findings, the Fulton County District Attorney charged Tex with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. After spending his birthday behind bars, Tex McIver bonds out of jail just before Christmas weekend. But with the case now in the hands of the district attorney's office, they decided to launch their own investigation into the shooting.
There was a bond hearing where the lead prosecutor, Clint Rucker, strongly hinted that they didn't believe it was accidental. That made everyone think, whoa, okay, this is getting even more serious now.
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A little over a week after Tex McIver was charged with involuntary manslaughter, there was more breaking news in this case. Startling new information in the shooting death of Diane McIver. Our Atlanta affiliate, CBS 46, uncovered evidence that at the time of Diane's death, Tex owed his wife $350,000. He was supposed to pay her back with interest by December of 2014. That never happened.
Tex said that the money was Diane's contribution to the construction of that saloon on his ranch, and that for tax purposes, Diane wanted it to look like a loan.
There was $350,000, but it wasn't ever actually going to be paid back by him.
The $350,000 was a function of nothing more than taxes. But on paper, it does look like a loan, and one that Tex was expected to pay back.
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Chapter 7: What were the jury's deliberations and verdict in the trial?
The easiest way for him to gain control was to kill Diane. Is money a motive here?
No.
Very simple answer. He is much worse off without her. I think that is a huge red herring. You know why? Because they've got nothing else.
Now, this is a case about maintaining an image of wealth and power that the defendant created for himself and the lengths that he went through to keep it.
All rise for the jury.
Testimony in the murder trial of Tex McIver began on March 13th and lasted 20 days. By closing arguments, the jury had heard two very different theories of why Tex McIver shot his wife.
I'm going to talk to you about the facts.
Prosecutor Clint Rucker and his team painted an ugly picture of a man who they say was broke and so desperate for money that he murdered his wife. He was taking that money and he was regaining control. Evidence showed that McIver's salary at his law firm had been cut by more than half, while the state says he was living way beyond his means. And remember, the McIvers kept their finances separate.
Remember this email? This is a couple of months before the murder. This is what the defendant says to his wife.
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Chapter 8: What is the current status of Tex McIver's legal situation?
With the firearm. Harvey used the state's own gun expert to show that anyone can fire the gun accidentally.
Remember him demonstrating the weapon and pulling the trigger when he testified right here?
You notice the trigger.
Oops. He's demonstrating it for you on the witness stand. He accidentally pulls the trigger. He says, oops.
The shooting could not have been premeditated, says the defense, because it was Diane who told Danny Joe to take that exit when they hit traffic. And after Tex was handed his gun, he fell back asleep. The defense also presented an expert who said Tex suffered from a long-documented sleep disorder, which might explain why he unintentionally pulled the trigger and can't remember how.
Oftentimes when people arouse from these, they don't arouse quickly. They frequently have amnesia for this.
As the case was about to go to the jury, the defense suggested that the state had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
We do not convict people in fogs of speculation, but on the bedrock of fact.
Dan tried to stand up for herself. And on behalf of the state, Lent Rucker pleaded with the jury to punish Diane McIver's killer. Who will stand for Diane McIver? A great woman she tried to be. The jury deliberated for about 29 hours. At one point, each sat in the back passenger seat of McIver's SUV, holding the gun that killed Diane.
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