PUTNAM COUNTY
After the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed his conviction on June 30 and he was released from prison on Sept. 1, Claud “Tex” McIver was once again standing before a Fulton County judge on Friday, Oct. 7. And as he had done in hearings before the 2019 trial, Judge Robert McBurney denied McIver’s bond request Friday. The judge cited one of the reasons for the denial was McIver’s age.
McIver was convicted by a Fulton County jury in April 2018 of malice murder, aggravated assault, firearm possession, and influencing a witness.
A month later, he was sentenced to serve life in prison.
Tex and his wife, Diane, McIver had a farm, known as the “McIver Ranch” on Pea Ridge Road in Putnam County, and Diane also owned a condominium in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. They frequented the Putnam ranch and were active in the community, hosting events at the ranch and regularly playing golf in Reynolds Lake Oconee. Tex McIver, an attorney, also held a seat on the Putnam County Development Authority.
In September 2016, Tex, Diane, and friend Dani Jo Carter were traveling from their Putnam home to the McIver’s Buckhead condo in Atlanta.
As they traveled through what they believed to be an unsafe area of Fulton County, Tex was seated in the backseat holding a handgun for protection and he fired the handgun, striking Diane who was sitting in the front passenger seat. She died later that evening during surgery at Emory University Hospital.
McIver filed an appeal with the Supreme Court that the Fulton Country 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 the closing argument, according to the Supreme Court’s documents.
The Supreme Court concurred, and Georgia Supreme Court Justice Michael Boggs wrote in the Court’s conclusion that the lesser grade of involuntary manslaughter was authorized by law to give to jurors.
“We further conclude that the failure to give the charge was not harmless error,” Justice Boggs wrote. “We, therefore, reverse McIver’s convictions for felony murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.”
When he walked into the courtroom Friday, McIver was clad in a blue Fulton County jail jumpsuit with his hands cuffed in front of him, according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Defense attorney Don Samuel noted that the murder and assault convictions were overturned, but the firearm possession and witness tampering convictions were not, and the five-year sentence for those convictions expired on Sept. 1.
“He’s now serving time for nothing he’s been convicted of,” Samuel reportedly told McBurney before requesting a $220,000 bond.
The AJC says McIver’s attorneys asked that the judge allow their client to live with his sister, Dixie Martin, at her home north of Dallas, Texas, while he awaits his second trial because he no longer has property or family in the area. They offered to have McIver fitted for an ankle monitor while living in his sister’s home.
Prosecutor Adam Abbate countered that McIver is now 80 years old and thus less likely to return to court because he has less to lose.
McBurney evidently concurred.
“I have before me a man who has heard a jury say you are guilty of felony murder and will spend the rest of your natural life in prison,” McBurney is quoted saying in the AJC article. “That is a powerful incentive for you, Mr. McIver, not to come back to court and face some of the same evidence. … Given your age, you wouldn’t have to be a fugitive for very long to enjoy the rest of your life a free man. That worries me. I am concerned about your willingness to return to court for your trial.”
No date has reportedly been set yet for the new trial.