The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just 2 1/2 days later, Mclver defense rests
Defense team ‘did a great job framing their case,’ attorney says.
The defense in the Claud “Tex” McIver murder trial rested Friday after just two-and-a-half days — about one-eighth the amount of time taken by the prosecution to argue that the 75-year-old attorney is a soulless killer.
That’s not unusual in high-profile cases such as this one. The defense has no burden of proof. And “you never want to call a mediocre witness,” said Atlanta criminal defense attorney Page Pate, who has been following the trial closely as an observer.
Sometimes, doing no harm is the best the defense can do. But in Pate’s opinion, McIver’s lawyers — Bruce Harvey, Don Samuel and Amanda Clark Palmer — exceeded that. He thinks McIver’s team “did a great job framing their case.”
The defense started on a high note, when the judge threw out two of the three charges against McIver (for influencing a witness) on Wednesday. If convicted, McIver faced up to five years in prison on each count.
Then they managed to make what at first seemed a flimsy rationale for the shooting — McIver’s
alleged sleeping disorder — seem credible.
Also, the defense was able to turn the state’s innuendo about an extramarital affair on its head with testimony from the alleged “other woman,” Annie Anderson, a masseuse who had worked for the McIvers for years. Suspicions were aroused when she maintained a constant presence at Tex McIver’s side in the week following his wife’s death.
The prosecution denied making any suggestions that the defendant and Anderson were having an affair but, as defense co-counsel Don Samuel said on Thursday, “Had we not called Annie Anderson to the stand ... I guarantee 12 out of 12 jurors would have thought he was having sex with the masseuse.”
But Anderson, who was adamant that she had never been sexually involved with the defendant — “1,000 per- cent never” — likely altered that ratio considerably.
She explained that she stayed in McIver’s bedroom on the night after Diane’s death to keep tabs on Tex, at his doctor’s request.
“We knew we needed to watch out for Tex because he had an anxiety attack at the hospital,” Anderson testified. She said they monitored him constantly “because we honestly didn’t know what state of mind he had.”
She said she accompanied McIver to his interview with police, and later to his Putnam County ranch, for one simple reason: The medica- tion he was taking precluded him from driving.
Anderson’s testimony also buttressed the defense’s claims about McIver’s sleeping disorder, and how it likely caused him to inadvertently pull the trigger on his .38 revolver, sending a fatal bullet into his wife’s back.
She said he almost always fell asleep during massages and would routinely flail his arms or punch his fist when he’d wake up.
That was consistent with the testimony from Emory University professor of neurology David Rye, who specializes in sleep disorders. He said McIver first sought treatment for his sleeping issues in 2004 — a year before he married Diane — at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
In January, Rye examined McIver and diagnosed him with REM behavior disor- der, which causes sufferers to act out their dreams. He said McIver once fell asleep in just two minutes during testing at Emory. Another
time, Rye said McIver fell asleep for a nap in five minutes and “fell directly into a dream,” or REM sleep.
On Monday, the state will call its own sleep expert to rebut Rye’s testimony. Lead prosecutor Clint Rucker also
will call Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who allegedly advised McIver that being alone with Anderson at his ranch didn’t look good.