Mclver Found Guilty of Murder
After 5 days of deliberation, the jury of seven women and five men found Tex Mclver guilty of felony murder of his wife, Diane, as well as four other charges. According to the AJC, the jury said on Monday that they were deadlocked. After some urging from the Judge, they were able to come to a consensus.
The charges are as follows:
1. Murder: “Unlawfully and with malice aforethought, cause the death of Landa Diane McIver, a human being, by shooting her with a handgun” NOT GUILTY
2. Felony Murder: “Unlawfully during the commission of felony, to wit: Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, cause the death of Landa Diane McIver, a human being, by shooting her with a handgun” GUILTY
3. Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon: “Unlawfully commit an assault upon the person of Landa Diane McIver, by shooting her with a handgun.” GUILTY
4. Possession of a Firearm in Commission of a Felony: “Unlawfully have on and within arm’s reach of accused’s person a handgun during the commission of” certain felonies. GUILTY
5. Influencing Witnesses: “Unlawfully and knowingly engage in misleading conduct” by instructing Dani Jo Carter to tell law enforcement officers that she was not present when he shot Landa Diane McIver.” GUILTY
The saga that started almost a year and a half ago in September of 2016, occurred in the couple’s car near Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Mclver has maintained it was accident and that he fell asleep in the backseat of the SUV with his finger on the trigger when he was startled awake and fatally shot his wife.
According to the AJC article, sentencing will come later and it will then be determined if Mclver is eligible for parole. Felony murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
Prior to September 2016, Mclver was a prominent attorney who served on the Georgia Elections Board. He announced he would not seek reappointment just after the death of his wife. Former State Senator Seth Harp, of Columbus, replaced Mclver.
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Theresa Garcia Robertson
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Considering he’s 75 y.o. the question of parole eligibility seems academic. Isn’t a life sentence a mandatory 25 years to serve or somewhere around that?
I know that a natural life sentence means no parole.
I thought they over-charged him. They could have considered felony manslaughter.
But, in the end he would probably die in prison either way.
Well, it couldn’t be voluntary manslaughter because the State had a hard enough time coming up with a motive and I didn’t think you can charge someone with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
A juror was on the local news this afternoon explaining how they arrived at the verdict and it appears much of their deliberations were over the charges and not so much over his actual guilt. One juror was not convinced on the premeditation for the murder charge but in the end when they found that they were 100% on his culpability for the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge this automatically mandated the felony murder conviction. They found that regardless of his story there was no reasonable cause for him the pistol out in his lap and the dominoes fell from there. This jury did their jobs deliberately and is to be commended. I personally think justice has been served given the more limited information we have received from the press.