Tex McIver case: At Ga. lawyer's murder trial, nurse testifies to his wife's dying words
Update: Tex McIver won his appeal for a new trial in 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court ruling that jurors should have been able to consider the lesser charge of misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter. On Jan. 26, 2024, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a prison sentence of eight years. With credit for time served, he could be released by mid-2025. Read more here. Our earlier story is below.
ATLANTA - A nurse testifying in the trial of a prominent Georgia attorney accused of murdering his wife testified that the victim told her she'd been shot by accident, reports CBS affiliate WGCL. Claud "Tex" McIver, 75, faces charges including murder in the September 2016 death of his wife, 64-year-old Diane McIver.
Lawyers for both sides delivered their opening statements earlier this week in a trial that is expected to last through the end of the month.
Prosecutor Seleta Griffin told jurors in her opening statement that the McIvers appeared to live a storybook life but, she said, there were problems beneath the surface and Tex McIver intentionally killed his wife. Defense attorney Amanda Clark Palmer countered that the seemingly perfect relationship was genuine and the shooting was a tragic accident.
On Thursday, jurors saw surveillance video of Tex and his wife, Diane, arriving to the hospital after he shot her, and heard testimony from doctors and nurses.
According to WGCL, jurors got a first look at video of the white Ford Expedition Diane McIver was shot in arriving at Emory Hospital in DeKalb County. Tex McIver can be seen wearing a red shirt directing the driver, Dani Jo Carter, after he jumped out of the back passenger seat.
"Did he say 'I need help'?" Tex's defense attorney Don Samuel asked Paulos Weldegiorgis, a man who was working valet at Emory Hospital that night.
Weldegiorgis replied, "Yes."
WGCL reports that the surveillance video shows McIver putting his limp wife into a wheelchair.
"I looked at him and said can you lift up her leg and then I asked him what's going on and he said gunshot wound," testified nurse Blair Brown.
Brown reportedly said McIver didn't tell her he was the one who shot Diane.
Doctors said at one point Diane was able to speak.
"She looked at me and said 'I'm going to die,'" Brown testified.
The station reports that a nurse named Mary Wyndom told a jury she heard Diane say the shooting was an accident.
"Dr. Hardy said, 'What happened? Did you accidentally shoot yourself?'," she said. "And she said 'Yeah. No. My Husband shot me but it was an accident.'"
WGCL reports that nurse Allison Neely testified she was in the lobby on the night Diane was brought in, and that McIver's attorney was the first person to show up to the hospital.
She said at one point McIver and Dani Jo Carter were huddled close to his attorney and a man with shoulder length hair. Neely said McIver didn't appear to be upset.
"He was emotionless," Neely said.
McIver reportedly kept the same demeanor in court on Thursday, but at one point during testimony he turned away from the camera and began to tear up.