Tex McIver trial: Defendant, star witness tell different version of events
ATLANTA - Jurors hearing the case of a prominent Atlanta attorney who shot and killed his wife got to hear from the suspect Thursday via video of a police interview that took place two days after the shooting, reports CBS affiliate WGCL. Claude "Tex" McIver, 75, is accused of intentionally shooting his wife, Diane, while they both rode in a car driven by a friend.
Diane, 64, was in the front passenger seat and Tex was sitting in the back when the shooting took place in September 2016.
Prosecutors argue that McIver shot his wife intentionally, while his defense attorneys say the shooting was an accident.
During the police interview shown to jurors on Thursday, McIver, who was accompanied by two attorneys, told police he fell asleep in the car on the way back to Atlanta. He said he woke up when he felt the car going downhill and told police he asked Diane for his gun because "every turn we made seemed like the road was getting darker and darker, and more and more people were out," McIver added. He said it made the hair on the back of his neck raise.
McIver then told police he must have drifted back to sleep, and then the friend who was driving, Dani Jo Carter, came to a stop.
"Dani Jo came to a stop, and I was handling the gun. I didn't realize it was in my lap and it went off," he said in the video interview.
McIver told police that after the gun went off, he yelled, "Is everyone all right?" but that's inconsistent with what Carter told the jury in previous testimony.
Carter said McIver didn't say anything. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported earlier this week that when Carter testified she said that after they brought Diane to the hospital, Tex McIver called his lawyer and asked Carter to change her version of events.
"'I don't trust these guys. Dani Jo, I hate to see you get wrapped up in this,'" Carter testified Tex McIver said. "'I've seen how these things can go down ...You just need to say you came down here as a friend of the family.'"
Carter reportedly said she replied, "Tex, I just drove you into the emergency room."
"He looked at me and said, 'Well, they don't know that,'" Carter said, reports the AJC. "That took my breath away. I said, 'I can't lie.'"
In the video interview, McIver also told police that he only had a few sips of wine at dinner. But Carter told the jury he had wine on the way to the restaurant, wine at the restaurant bar and a glass of wine at dinner.
According to WGCL, police said that at one point during the interview, McIver said, "I think I'm about to cry," but a detective testified he never actually saw McIver cry before or after he made that comment.
The AJC reports that on Friday morning, Jay Grover, one of Diane's co-workers, testified that in the days after his wife's death, McIver seemed preoccupied with money and asked him whether he knew how he could collect Diane's Social Security.
