Shooting witness says Tex 'needs to be in hell'

The woman who witnessed Claude “Tex” McIver shoot and kill his wife said the convicted killer deserves to be in prison.

“I think he needs to be in hell,” Dani Jo Carter told Channel 2 Action News.

Carter was driving the McIvers’ SUV in September 2016 when Tex McIver, seated behind the passenger seat, shot his wife, Diane McIver. She later died at Emory University Hospital.

Carter and Diane McIver had known each other 40 years and were best friends.

“I could not imagine it being anything other than a horrible accident initially,” Carter told Channel 2.

But as the star witness in Tex McIver’s murder trial, Carter said her feelings later changed toward him.

“I didn’t care if t hey found him innoce n t or guilty,” she said. “I knew that God would—he’d have to deal with whatever he had done. But I could not say that he had intention- ally done it.”

By the end of the sensational trial, which lasted more than a month and drew worldwide interest, Carter said she believed he had done it intentionally.

On April 23, Tex McIver was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He is currently an inmate at Long State Prison in Ludowici, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. Carter and McIver have been named co-defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of Diane McIver.

BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM Dani Jo Carter, who was driving the SUV when Diane McIver was shot in the passenger seat by her husband, listens as a jury finds Tex McIver guilty of murdering his wife.