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Attorney Magically Discharges Gun While Riding in SUV | Tex McIver Case Analysis
Dr. Todd Grande's 15-minute overview: the quickest complete way into the case.
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Landa Diane McIver, 64, was fatally shot on September 25, 2016, while riding through Atlanta in an SUV. Her friend Dani Jo Carter was driving, Diane sat in the front passenger seat, and Diane's husband, Claud Lee “Tex” McIver III, sat directly behind her. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that McIver was holding a loaded revolver when it fired on Piedmont Avenue near Piedmont Park, striking Diane in the back. She later died at Emory University Hospital. McIver maintained that he had fallen asleep and fired accidentally.
Georgia prosecutors charged McIver with crimes including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, firearm possession, and influencing a witness. At his 2018 trial, the court acquitted him on two witness-influencing counts. The jury acquitted him of malice murder but convicted him of felony murder, aggravated assault, firearm possession during a felony, and the remaining witness-influencing count. He received a life sentence for felony murder and concurrent terms on the other surviving counts.
On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the felony-murder and firearm convictions. The court held that the trial judge should have instructed jurors on a form of involuntary manslaughter involving a lawful act performed unlawfully. Because some evidence supported that lesser offense and the error could have contributed to the verdict, the court ordered a new trial on the reversed counts. It left McIver's witness-influencing conviction intact. The decision did not find that no crime occurred or enter an acquittal on the homicide charge.
A retrial was planned, but the parties resolved the homicide case through a negotiated plea. On January 26, 2024, McIver pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct, and an associated firearm charge. Fulton County Superior Court sentenced him to eight years in prison, with credit for time already served, followed by seven years of probation. During the plea hearing, McIver acknowledged that Diane died as a result of his actions while continuing to characterize the shooting as unintended.
The “Killing of” title avoids implying that the final conviction was murder. Coordinates identify the documented Piedmont Park vicinity generally rather than a precise point on the moving vehicle's route.
