The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
McIver bond revocation hearing steeped in drama
Ownership of Glock pistol latest twist in fatal shooting saga.
What started as a bond revocation hearing for Claud “Tex” McIver ended in a cliffhanger over the ownership of a Glock pistol, the latest bizarre twist in a saga filled with them.
The gun was found in McIver’s sock drawer last Friday by an investigator with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office — a clear violation of his bond. The Atlanta attorney was charged last December with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct for the shooting death of his wife, which he maintains was an accident.
McIver’s lawyer, Stephen Maples, said the gun did not belong to his client, or his late wife, Diane McIver, who he shot and killed in September as they rode in their SUV near Piedmont Park.
“Tex did not put the gun there. He didn’t know it was there,” Maples said.
So who’s gun was it, and why did they plant it in McIver’s Buckhead condo? Maples wouldn’t say though promised to reveal the answer next week in court.
Until then, McIver remains free on bond. But he could face jail time if the Fulton DA is able to convince Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney that the gun belonged to McIver.
Prosecutors are investigating whether foul play was involved in Diane McIver’s death, targeting a possible financial motive. Last week’s search warrants were for documents related to their investigation.
“His actions demonstrate a tremendous, tremendous safety concern to the point where his actions constitute a danger to others,” Fulton Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker argued, citing McIver’s “propensity for dangerous conduct.”
Brian Salters, an investigator with the DA’s office, testified he found the Glock 19-9 MM semi-automatic handgun inside a box that was “big enough to have a USB port in it.”
The gun was not seized because it wasn’t targeted in the search warrant. Another warrant was obtained, Rucker said, but when they returned to McIver’ condo on Monday, the gun wasn’t there.
“We kind of came up empty,”
Rucker said.
Maples — who sought to quash the motion to revoke bond, saying the search that produced it was “unlawful” and “illegal” — questioned why the DA’s office waited until Monday to procure the second warrant.
“The DA should’ve seized it,” Maples said. Instead, prosecutors, he said, were using the weapon as “leverage, a bargaining tool.”
After investigators left McIver’s condo, Maples asked Diane McIver’s estate manager, Tammy Johnson, to remove the gun.
Then, Johnson testified Friday, Tex McIver instructed her to photograph the weapon and its serial number and give the pictures to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
“I’ve touched that gun twice,” last Friday and Sunday, Johnson testified.
On Monday, she hired an attorney.
McIver had turned over all his weapons, roughly 20 in all, to Sills after his bond was set. Defense co-counsel William Hill said he did so because Sills had an inventory of all of McIver’s weapons.
That interaction between McIver and Johnson prompted the state to file an emergency motion in probate court to have McIver removed as executor of his wife’s estate.
The hearing will resume next week with Johnson’s cross-examination.
McIver’s gun troubles go back to at least 1990, when he faced criminal charges for firing at a car containing three teenagers outside his DeKalb County home. A grand jury charged McIver with three counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm in connection with a crime, and criminal damage to property. But prosecutors declined to pursue the case after the parties settled it privately, according to court records.
No one was injured in that incident.