The Last Ride Home

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1:51I loved you before this ceremony, and I love you more because of it. You may kiss your breath. They were inseparable. Tex absolutely adored Diane, and Diane adored Tex. I feel like the prosecution has tried to make this out to be about someone who is successful and powerful trying to get away with something like murder. They don't know Tex and Diane personally like I do. A woman died after she was shot inside a car on this block. Previously on Breakdown. Welcome back. Before we plunge back into the story of Tex McIver... I'm a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and we've been covering the Tex McIver case since day one.

2:43This was an enormously high-profile case. They were a big-time power couple. We're going to have plenty of beverages over here, so just everybody start walking, please. Tex owned a ranch out in Putnam County, which is a pretty nice place for a vacation home.

3:06They woke up that morning. Tex made sausage biscuits and coffee and took them upstairs to Diane and Danny Jo, her longtime friend. They spend the afternoon playing golf and they drive back to Atlanta. They're on their way back to their condo in Buckhead. They stop on the way at Longhorn to get something to eat. They have some wine at dinner. Danny Joe was driving because she didn't drink. My name is Bruce Harvey, and I represent Tex McIver. Tex is seated right behind his wife in the back passenger seat. They're going to hit traffic that just stops them still. So they're thinking, we've got to get off of the interstate.

3:51We've got to find a better way to get to Buckhead. According to Tex, he had been asleep, but when they go down this ramp, he wakes up. and says, I think this is a bad idea, ladies. It's a dangerous area. Will you hand me my gun, honey? And she does. He fell back asleep. I think he fell into what he said was sort of a between being fully asleep and being fully awake. According to Tex, the car comes to a stop. He was jolted awake.

4:31And it went off. OK.

4:35Can a.38 special just accidentally go off? Never known it to happen. You have to pull the trigger. Jiminy. Ooh. The gun would be right here in his lap, according to what he said. So he was startled. He pulls the trigger. And the bullet goes just to the left of the middle here. If you're trying to kill someone, you know that's going to be devastating to whoever's sitting there. Especially if you're trying to make it look like an accident. Yes, I think so. Yes. I think there are people who absolutely believe that he killed his wife for whatever reason, probably for money. People get killed over money all the time.

5:14That's the dumbest plan on the history of the planet. And anybody that thinks that that is the way that Tex McIver deliberately killed his wife is just living in a fantasy world.

5:34They drove back to Atlanta on a Sunday night. They were headed to Tex and Diane's luxury condominium in Buckhead. On the night of September 25, 2016, Tex McIver shot and killed his wife Diane. They'd been together for 16 years, married for 11 years. I remember the first time I ever met Diane. She just had such a commanding presence about her. According to close friend Anne Schwall, Diane was the love of Texas life. She was beautiful, and there was such an energy and electricity about her. The year was 2000. 47-year-old Diane was recently divorced with no children and a thriving career as the executive vice president of a real estate and advertising company.

6:25In search of a fresh start, she moved into this luxurious condominium in Atlanta's swanking neighborhood, Buckhead. Everyone in the building was talking about her. Linda and Rance Winkler say their new neighbor was hard to miss. She wore St. John and Chanel on the golf course. She wore hats just about every day, and she had a presence and a way of carrying herself. But, says Linda, no one paid more attention to Diane than another popular divorcee in the building, wealthy labor lawyer Tex McIver. Before he met Diane, did he have a love life that you knew of? Or a dating life? No. He was so consumed with his work.

7:12He'd been through a very painful, difficult divorce. It wasn't until Diane came along that he was interested in having a romantic life. Tex was a decade older than Diane, but they soon became inseparable, spending much of their free time at Tex's weekend home, fondly known as The Ranch, where the couple was known for throwing parties for Atlanta's rich and powerful, says friend and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills. They were big entertainers. They were always having somebody there for some kind of party or some kind of political thing like that. We have had the best yet party. Diane was always the life of the party.

8:02She was always the boss of the party, too. After five years together, Diane agreed to become Mrs. Tex McIver. He cared about her, which was probably the very first time she had that experience in a lot of years. He didn't need her. That somebody cared about her? For her. Just for her? Just for her. Not for her money. He had as much as she. In fact, in terms of liquid assets, he was further along than she. So having both suffered through painful and expensive divorces, the couple decided to keep their finances separate. I don't know anyone, actually, who's combined their assets, having married at the age that they married.

8:49And you have to remember that Tex had this terrible, painful... Expensive. ...divorce. And he was never going to put himself in a situation like that. Was there an issue of money between them? Not in the conventional sense, but when they started building this place, you can see this place. You see what it's like. Showplace. Yes. Linda is talking about this guest house on Tex's property. Before the wedding, they say Diane insisted on building the massive party house that she named the Saloon. Tex really didn't want all this. Diane wanted it. The scale of it. And he told her that if she wanted it, she would pay for it.

9:34And she said, fine. But money and who paid for what in that relationship would come back to haunt Tex, becoming a possible motive for murder. Is there any scenario where you can think that Tex would have shot Diane intentionally? Never. Never once. Ann Schwall says she admired Diane and Tex so much that she asked them to be godparents to her youngest son, Austin. They just adored him, and they just poured so much love into him. Tex was all the family Diane had, and after his divorce, he was estranged from two of his children. Too old for children of their own, Ann says they focused all their attention on Austin.

10:22And how did Austin feel about them? Oh, he adored them. The ranch was their special place. And every year, it's where Tex and Diane insisted on hosting extravagant birthday parties for Austin. The birthday parties were legendary. A sign of how much they loved him.

10:47Tell me when you heard about what happened. So he called me. It was in the middle of the night. And as soon as I heard his voice, And he said, we lost Diane. And my immediate reaction was, how am I going to tell Austin? Anne says Austin never once blamed Tex for Diane's death. He actually was just really worried about, you know, how Tex was doing. He's never said I didn't shoot her. He's never said I didn't kill my wife. He is profoundly regretful. It was all a tragic accident, according to Tex's defenders. But here's the biggest problem. No one, including Tex, can explain how his gun went off and killed his wife.

11:39We just asked him that day before yesterday. He still cannot give an answer to exactly what happened. Who do you remember after the death was gone? You had her a shock. Two days after Diane's death, Tex and his then-lawyer met with Atlanta Police Department homicide detectives. I immediately called out. I said, is everybody all right? And Danny Joe said yes. And Diane was kind of slanted. She said, I've been shot. As detectives set out to investigate the shooting of Diane McIver, they focused on their best witness.

12:28And they focused on their best piece of evidence.

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13:55There is no doubt that Tex McIver pulled the trigger on the gun that killed his wife, Diane. The question is why? Previously on Breakdown. Reporter Bill Rankin's Breakdown podcast takes a deep dive into the Shakespearean drama surrounding Tex McIver. He's a 48 hours consultant on the case. Holding a loaded handgun, pointing it at your wife, falling asleep. Seems pretty reckless. Using a similar car, Rankin showed us how the bullet that killed Diane McIver traveled through the passenger seat of Tex's SUV. It hits there. And it goes from right to left through the seat. And exits out here. Right.

14:39And goes down slightly downward path through his wife's body. The bullet went through Diane's left ribcage and diaphragm, severed a vein and artery in her spleen, and then hit several organs, including her left kidney and stomach.

15:06That night, detectives were anxious to hear Danny Jo Carter, the car's driver, explain what Tex did after he shot his wife.

15:19area. This is now Emory's closure. Tex decided to go to Emory University Hospital. There were four hospitals, all approximately less than five miles from where the shooting is believed to have taken place. Emory was the farthest, at about 4.3 miles. But one of the best trauma centers in all of Georgia, Grady, was only about 3.2 miles away. Anybody who lives in Atlanta knows about Grady Hospital, and it's a level one trauma center. There were people who have said that he went to Emory Hospital because it was going to take longer and maybe let her bleed out. Family friend Sheriff Howard Sills, who is not involved in the case, says no way, and explains that Grady just was not on Texas radar.

16:11If you're rich and you're affluent, then you don't want to go to Grady Hospital. This dramatic surveillance footage shows the SUV arriving at Emory's emergency room and Tex helping Diane into a wheelchair. Then, before surgery, Diane made a critical statement to her doctors. Her husband did not mean to shoot her. She said it was an accident. But two hours later, Diane McIver died on the operating table at 1249 a.m.

17:02Now, it was up to detectives to determine, was it truly an accident? Or was it cold-blooded murder? This Smith & Wesson.38 caliber revolver that killed Diane was in the car's center console, inside a plastic bag, when it was handed to Tech's by Diane.

17:27The gun was still in the bag when it went off. The gun was still in the bag? Yeah. I mean, he might have had his finger on the trigger. The first rule of firing a gun is don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to pull and you have your target in sight. Law enforcement analyst and former police officer Vincent Hill says a guy like Tex should have known better. So to wake up out of this sleep, you're startled. Your finger's automatically on the trigger. You pull this trigger and you do one shot, a kill shot. In my mind, it's not likely. Lean into it. Cock the weapon. And Hill is not alone in his opinion.

18:11That's why I asked former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Bert Davis to take me out to a gun range not far from Texas Ranch. I wanted to understand the gun. See how well you're doing? You know, the revolver can be fired two ways. The handgun, which only shoots one bullet at a time, can be fired in two very different ways, single action or double action. Either way, it does not look good for techs, because experts say this gun only goes off if the trigger is pulled. In single action, the shooter pulls back the hammer, like this. With the gun already cocked in this position, it hardly takes any effort at all to pull the trigger.

19:04It only takes about two pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, which is why experienced gun owners say you only cock this gun if you know you are about to use it. No one that I know of would sit there with a gun in single action. A double action is a different story. This gun is not loaded, but I want to show you what happens. In double action, you pull the trigger, and the gun automatically pulls the hammer back, rotates the cylinder, and fires. But it's not easy, because it takes about 12 pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, making it much harder to fire it accidentally.

19:45It would be difficult. But not impossible. But not impossible. But somehow, that gun was fired. And to this day, Tex cannot answer this question. Was the gun in single action or double action? Good question. Tex's lawyer, Bruce Harvey, is one of Atlanta's most successful and sought-after defense attorneys. What is your challenge with this gun? Clearly, a trigger was pulled, right? The question is, was that a voluntary knowing and intentional action or an involuntary action based upon an accident? But Tex was clearly no stranger to guns. Out at the ranch, he had what many would consider an arsenal of weapons.

20:32After Diane's death, Tex asked his buddy, Sheriff Sills, to go out to his ranch and collect his guns for safekeeping. So you cleared out how many guns? As I recall, it was about 35 guns. Including rifles, handguns, and AR-15s. Would you describe him as a gun guy? Yes and no. Here in the South, everybody's got a lot of guns. We're getting ready to put on a rodeo demonstration with real cows. But the idea that Tex McIver should have known better was about to become a central and recurring theme for the 75-year-old lawyer. It gets really crazy. I think we've called it a textbook example of what not to do after you kill your wife.

21:24Bruce Harvey is one of the most distinctive members of the Atlanta Defense Bar. He has worn a braided ponytail down his back for decades. Ruse Harvey was not Tex McIver's first attorney. How did you first hear about it? It was all over the media. It all started September 25th. New information in the shooting death of Diane McIver. Harvey, who knew Tex through mutual friends, says he watched the news coverage for almost a year, while McIver made a mess of the case and his reputation. A complete ongoing disaster. mismanaged from day one, I think resulting in the reason that we're sitting here to start with.

22:06It started right after the shooting. Atlanta's media immediately began clamoring for an answer to why on earth Tex had been sitting right behind his wife in his SUV with his finger on the trigger of a loaded gun. Four days after the shooting, Tex had an explanation in a statement made through a spokesman. He said that Tex told him that he asked for the gun because there were either homeless people, carjackers, or Black Lives Matter protesters. That gave Tex an air of being rich, white, and oblivious, igniting a real-life bonfire of the vanities. Why would you equate Black Lives Matter protesters with carjackers?

22:53Why would you inject race into this? That put the story into a whole other realm and it went national because of that.

23:04You have this very rich, very powerful white guy in a city that's predominantly black. I think that's why this case is so appealing to the public. Texas attorney at the time publicly denied that his client ever said he was afraid of black protesters but the damage was done and things were about to get even worse. TBS 46 has an exclusive look tonight at the diamonds the furs and the designer bags about to go on auction. This was pretty stunning. Just two months after shooting his wife Tex started selling off Diane's extensive collection of valuable belongings. Her most expensive jewelry, fur coats and handbags would go to the highest bidders at an auction.

23:54The district attorney's office filed motions to block the sales, but a judge denied their requests. And as the executor of Diane's estate, Tex said he had no choice. Why? According to Tex, he said that in her will, Diane had left a lot of money to some of her employees and some of her friends, so he needed that money to pay them. Now, all that money went into the estate and not to him. But timing in this case was everything. Tex has come under fire for holding the two sales while still at the center of the homicide case. Should it have gone forward at that time? Could it have waited? The answer clearly is yes, and that's something we just have to deal with.

24:38At least, Tech still had Danny Jo Carter. Danny Jo was his best witness, the only other person in the car when the gun went off. The night of the shooting, Danny Jo told detectives, in no uncertain terms, she believed Diane's death was an accident. There is not a doubt in my mind that it was completely one of the trouble accidents. But on February 2, 2017, a little over four months after the shooting, Danny Jo changed her story. He's not been nice to me and tried to manipulate me. In a third interview with investigators conducted inside of Tex's SUV, Danny Jo alleged that on the night of the shooting, Tex told her to lie.

25:33He tried to get me alive, supposedly to protect me from getting all wrapped up in this. Danny Jo said Tex walked up to her and said, why don't you just tell police you weren't in the car? There's no question she was in the car. There's no question she was driving. There's videotape at Emory Hospital. Bruce Harvey concedes that it is possible Tex was just trying to protect his friend. Danny Joe, at that particular time, was being hounded by the media. And I think a lot of this effort was to try to allow her to avoid the media crunch. Not designed for her not to talk to the police or not to give a particular statement.