Deadly Detour

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She was more than a high powered business woman.

She touched a lot of people's lives.

I was devastated.

I can't really go back there.

He was rich.

She was richer.

The lawyer and the tycoon lavish didn't begin to describe it.

I'm a very flamboyant.

She was the life of the party.

A good mix of wealth and power.

They knew how to live life.

Then came that deadly night.

I hear a big explosion.

I just knew immediately that I had to get out of there.

A single gunshot and she was gone.

You said text was emotional and distraught.

Yes.

I've never been the same since.

What happened in that dark SUV and what was hiding beneath the surface?

It's trying to cover up something.

It just took my breath away.

She said I cannot trust anyone else.

Power and privilege, love and greed.

She was in control of the money.

This had to be an intentional act.

Did a secret lead to murder?

I just slipped in and I said I can't lie.

All that glitters is not actually gold.

I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

All they wanted was to get home, turning off the interstate to escape the crawling Atlanta

traffic.

He says girls this is the wrong place.

We don't need to be here.

This is a bad idea.

It's still hard to fathom what happened next or why.

I was trying to figure out where the explosion was.

But here's what's pretty clear.

One wrong turn really can destroy your life.

To think that one moment in time you have an accident and you lose everything after that.

Our story begins and ends with her, Diane McIver.

Nobody knows her better than Danny Joe Carter.

Oh she's beautiful, she's funny, she's brilliant, and she was driven.

Oh she's very driven.

Diane was born in Auburn, Alabama where she survived a sad and difficult childhood.

She realized her dreams in Atlanta, a place that matched her ambition.

What was she looking for?

She was looking for success.

Diane was barely out of high school when she went to work at US Enterprises, a company

in Atlanta.

She was a bookkeeper, but soon caught the eye of her boss, Billy Corey.

There were some people that were working there that weren't really doing their jobs and

she told him that she could do her job and their job and the same thing.

I think he fired them and she did their job.

It was back in the 80s when Danny Joe and Diane first teamed up, best friends and confidants.

Danny Joe was a cosmologist with a front row seat to Diane's brilliant career.

She loved crunching numbers and along with Billy Corey I think she learned how to wheel

and deal.

She rose through the ranks and with her boss's blessing became president of the company,

hiring, firing and calling the shots.

She would say, I don't want to hear about the labor pains, just show me the baby.

Jay Grover was a vice president at Diane's company.

When she started in business here in Atlanta, there were not a ton of female executives.

Absolutely.

I think that's what one of the things that really set Diane apart, I mean she was a woman

in a man's world.

She had a big personality, loved clothes, fur, hats and kids, although she never had

any of her own.

She survived one bad marriage and was in her 50s when she met Tex McIver.

He was self-made too, a military brat from San Antonio who earned a rep in Atlanta

as a labor lawyer and a champion of Republican candidates.

He had great relationships, he had everybody's direct eye on mobile number.

Bill Crane is a political commentator and public relations consultant in Atlanta and a long

time friend of Texas.

Tex always describes it as gentleman.

He was a gentleman, he is a gentleman, both in terms of that old courtly ship manners

and standing on a lady in his room.

Tex was divorced too, that's how he ended up living in the same condo complex as Diane.

They started going out.

She said she enjoyed talking to him but he was too short and he was too old and obviously

she got over that.

It didn't hurt that he had this ranch east of Atlanta.

It was nice enough back when Tex first bought it but it was fabulous after Diane got through

with it.

It had a pool, a gun range, ponds, horses, a saloon and some Texas longhorn cattle.

That's Diane.

They were there a lot.

Diane was a great hostess, she was the life of the party.

Soon Tex and Diane decided to make it permanent and a wedding date was set.

November 5th, 2005.

At the ranch, everyone at the rehearsal could tell this wedding would be over the time.

And it was.

It looked like something out of a dish in the movie.

The air of Howard Sills was on the guest list.

There were hundreds of people here, people, all aspects of society here.

They'd both been married before and decided this time to keep finances separate.

Nearly a year later, their lives were blessed with a little boy.

Sort of.

A couple of friends asked Tex and Diane to be godparents to their baby, named Austin.

Diane's assistant Terry Brown says Diane would do anything for that little boy.

He was there a son for her, a moon in the sun, I guess, and stars.

He was the whole thing.

It's all about Austin.

That was never more obvious than at the birthday bash as she and Tex threw for Austin.

An annual exercise in excess.

We love you very much, don't we, don't we?

Yes, forever and ever.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I love you.

Three weeks after Austin's 10th birthday, Tex and Diane, with their friend Danny Joe,

were headed home after a weekend at the ranch.

They were driving a King Ranch Ford Expedition, virtually identical to this one, and they

made a short stop for dinner.

It was September 25, 2016.

The day everything changed.

After dinner, they headed for home a trip of about 45 minutes.

Thanks and Diane had had a little wine at dinner, so Danny Joe drove.

Diane sat next to Danny Joe here in the front seat, and Tex was right behind Diane in the

back seat, and off they went.

Well, we headed on into Atlanta on our 20, and as we got off of 20 to get onto the connector,

it was just eight lanes of brake lights.

Danny Joe says Tex was dozing in the back seat, as the two women decided to get off the

interstate to avoid the traffic.

As we're riding down the ramp, Tex becomes fully awake, I guess he looks around these

girls.

I really wish he hadn't done this.

This is a bad idea.

This is a bad area.

That's when Tex McIver made a request of his wife.

And Tex said, darling, will you hand me my gun?

Tex really, really kept a gun in that car.

It was right in the center console.

Smith and Wesson, 38 caliber revolver.

And so she reaches down and and gets it and hands it back to them.

The plastic bag.

In minutes, they were out of the sketchy area, and moving up Piedmont Avenue to the

cusher parts of Midtown, everything was normal, unremarkable.

We were talking about politics and the debates.

And what is Tex doing?

He wasn't really talking.

And I kind of, I thought that he'd gone back to sleep.

They were at Piedmont and 14th Street.

So we were just sitting there still waiting for the light turn.

And I hear a big explosion within seconds.

Diane turned around toward the back and said, Tex, what did you do?

He said the gun discharged.

Then she started moving.

She started moving forward.

And she kind of turned around.

And she was moving funny.

And she said, Tex, you shot me.

When we come back, Tex was calling her name.

And she was kind of breathing panicky.

He said there's been an accident.

What happened in that SUV?

The questions began.

It was handling the gun.

I realized he was in my lab.

I'm going to cry.

I love my lab.

When Dateline continues, Danny Joe Carter's best friend, Diane,

had just been shot right at Piedmont and 14th in Midtown, Atlanta.

What was crazy, impossible to understand

was that the shooter was Diane's own husband, Tex,

sitting right behind Diane in their SUV.

She started making these noises that I'd never heard before.

And I thought I was here in her die.

A street sign pointed the way to Emory University Hospital.

Tex told Danny Joe to head there.

Tex was calling her name.

And he leaned forward and kind of grabbed her head.

And she was kind of breathing panicky.

They arrived at Emory.

That's Tex in the red shirt.

Hospital personnel heard him yelling gun shot.

And Diane went into the ER.

Less than an hour later, the doctor came out

to tell Tex and Danny Joe that Diane was alert.

And she said that Diane had spoken.

And that her heart was strong.

They had taken her up to surgery.

By then, police had arrived.

They wanted to talk to Danny Joe outside.

They wanted to drive the route.

Oh, they drove the route with you right then?

Yes.

Then they took her to headquarters for questioning.

She told the police what happened in the car.

As she sat there, Danny Joe was still thinking Diane

was going to be OK.

But then, they had gotten a call.

And they both left the room.

I was sitting alone.

Then I get this text from my husband that Diane had died.

It turned out the gunshot wound through Diane's back

was catastrophic.

The blood loss, too great.

And I was devastated.

I was, I couldn't believe it.

Diane McIver, so much larger than life in so many ways,

was suddenly gone.

Tex called me in the early hours of the morning.

And he said, there's been an accident.

And we'd lost Diane.

Dixie Martin, Texas sister.

How long until you realized that the accident involved something

that he had done?

Later in the conversation.

And he was very emotional on the phone.

I mean, we were both crying.

What was it like to break that news to people at the office?

It was heartbreaking.

Diane's company put her picture up on their landmark tower

in Atlanta.

All the while, police were trying to figure out

what exactly had happened in that car that night.

Three days after the shooting, Tex and his attorney

Steve Maples went to answer their questions.

Maples offered a preview.

His only recollection is he had the brown paper bag,

I mean, plastic bag, and he told me it down like this.

He said, he didn't play with the hammer.

And he didn't put it back to full cost.

This is Tex's attorney saying the gun wasn't cocked.

You'll want to remember that part.

Tex himself entered shortly after and went over

the whole story, explaining why he was so scared on that drive.

He felt he needed his gun.

We went through an area I thought it was particular dangers.

Of the headnight, I'd seen police vehicles there.

It's a route I take from my office to her house.

That's one that has a particularly high population on homeless people.

And I quickly said, this is a big mistake

from where in a place that we don't belong.

That Tex said is when he asked for the gun.

A few minutes later, the threat seemed to pass.

And Tex said he fell back asleep.

Anyway, I just, just time to wake up.

But she came to us out.

And I was handling the gun.

I realized it was in my lap, right?

And it went off.

He seemed emotional as he recalled how doctors

told him his wife was dead.

Two surgeons and scrubs and a chapel

come out of the corner and start walking towards him.

I actually looked behind me hoping somebody else would come out of the car.

No, no, take it down.

A lot of my life.

If Tex McIver had done nothing after that,

if he'd kept his mouth shut, if he'd just grieved,

we probably wouldn't be telling you the story.

But doing nothing, that's just not Tex McIver.

Coming up, a media firestorm.

And Tex provides the match.

Tex is common.

It's grown up into he's making this up to get out of the fact that he shot his wife.

Could this have been more than an accident?

There were no tears.

There was no.

I never saw him cry.

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The death of Diane McIver at the hand of her husband, Tex,

was big news in Atlanta.

New at 5 and Atlanta lawyer, who says that he accidentally shot and killed his wife.

And with two wealthy, prominent people involved in a shooting,

rumors were on everyone's lips.

That's when Bill Crane, a public relations consultant,

offered to help his old friend, Tex.

Social media was reporting a lot of wild rumors.

Yes, they were, particularly on Facebook,

that Mr. McIver's having an affair with the driver.

Now, you weren't. There's nothing to that.

No.

You think there's any chance he was having an affair with somebody else?

I never thought so.

And joking to a stop.

Tex had given his statement to police,

but the online rumors continued.

There were also more substantive questions,

like, why would the gun just go off?

According to Bill Crane,

Tex said it happened after the car jolted.

That was part of Tex's initial account to me,

that he was jarred awake, he felt by a bump in the road.

And why in the first place would Tex suddenly feel threatened by a homeless encampment?

He'd driven past many times before.

Then I asked him that.

Bill says Tex claimed he was thinking of several 2016 Black Lives Matter protests in Atlanta,

and how protests in other places had gotten violent.

So, Tex said to me,

I didn't know looking at those people,

were they homeless people,

were they going to car jackups,

or were they Black Lives Matter protesters,

but I was concerned.

Tex apparently thought that would help explain to the public why he asked for the gun.

So, he told Bill to give that story to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

It didn't exactly work as planned.

Tex's comment, he didn't know whether the people around the car were

homeless people, or some kind of street criminal,

or a Black Lives Matter protest.

It's grown up into bonfire of the Vanity's writ large in life,

and he's making this up to get out of the fact that he shot his wife.

And that comment somehow morphs into,

I saw a Black Lives Matter protest, and I was afraid.

Which he never said, and I never said, that he said.

The story with its racial overtones went viral.

While Tex was fighting to repair his public image,

Diane's colleagues were questioning his behavior after her death.

There were no tears, there was no, I never saw him cry.

Can record is the company's general counsel.

I never heard him say it was a tragic accident.

I'm so sorry.

Tex looked crushed, crying, sad.

I didn't detect any of that.

He was just kind of matter of fact.

Diane's colleagues also thought texting way too interested in how

his financial situation would change now that Diane was dead.

And he asked a very strange question about,

did I know anything about so security, could he get any of Diane's benefits?

I was shocked.

Tex's sister Dixie says she was flabbergasted that anyone thought Tex wasn't behaving appropriately.

She says he was clearly devastated by Diane's death.

He cried all the time.

I don't know why no one else has seen this.

Tears running down his face.

He's never been the same since.

Imagine losing your loved one at your own hand.

And that's what he had to face.

In perhaps another effort to counteract all the rumors in Inuendo,

Tex decided on his own to take a lie detector test, administered by an examiner his attorneys hired.

I think it's important to note that he passed with flying colors.

But a month after her death, Tex walked into the lion's den at the company memorial service for Diane.

Dixie attended with Tex and it was an evening she came to regret.

We walked in through a little gang plank looking thing and to the left is her jaguar with a light

on it and a red rose on the hood. And I'm thinking, okay.

They passed Diane's car and entered a large room.

And there's a mannequin with Diane's clothes on it.

With God's son Austin at his side, did Tex even notice the undercurrent in the room?

Dixie sure did.

And as I'm walking around, I notice that my brother is not in any of the photographs, not on the video.

He has been basically erased from her life.

No way that could be accidental.

Oh gosh, no.

They removed him.

Yes, that was the turning point for me.

I realized that they had turned on him.

It was a not so subtle shift in attitude away from a man who was once considered Diane McIver's

loving partner and protector.

Maybe he noticed, maybe not.

But his next move would get people talking even more.

Coming up, luxury for sale.

There were over 100 jewelry items.

Arching off Diane's estate.

Another mistake?

It was a paste.

This doesn't.

That doesn't look good.

I mean, if you don't have to do this, right now, don't do it.

And that frantic drive.

With it, he's telling you to slow down?

Yes.

When date line continues.

With police investigating, rumours flying and even old friends becoming suspicious,

Tex McIver seemed to be doubling down.

About two and a half months after Diane was killed,

Tex put her furs, clothes, and jewelry up for sale.

Even though his friend Sheriff Sills told him, bad idea.

And it's a text.

It just doesn't.

It doesn't look good.

I mean, if you don't have to do this, right now, don't do it.

But he did.

Never met a mannequin she didn't like.

That's right.

Auctionhouse owner Robert Ailer ran the sale.

And even he was impressed.

How many pieces total?

There were over 100 jewelry items.

Not costume, but the fine jewelry.

And one of the big lots was a pair of diamond studs

that were several carrots each.

I heard people were lined up like three and four deep to try on the jewelry.

Yeah, well, before the sale started, there were probably 150 to 200 people in line

to get into the building.

So the notoriety helped?

The notoriety definitely affected the sale.

Yeah.

Did you tell him that unloading all of Diane's stuff so soon after she died

was going to be seen by some people as sort of callous?

No, and I don't think it was callous.

And more than that, Texas sister Dixie says it was necessary.

Diane was wealthy by any standard, but her estate was cash poor.

Selling her belongings raised money for Diane's bequests.

She left money to people that she didn't have.

So the estate attorney said the quickest way to raise the cash is sell her things.

So the idea to sell everything that came from the attorney?

Not for cash.

Oh, absolutely.

Between the estate sale, the memorial service, and those non-stop rumors,

it would have been easy to forget that the police were still quietly investigating Diane's death.

On December 21, 2016, they made their move.

Tex McIver was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.

Those were to be sure serious charges.

But they also made clear police believed Tex didn't mean to kill Diane.

Tex had dodged a murder charge.

But his sister says Tex didn't seem to get that.

He just kept saying that it was an accident,

and I said that someone died, and I don't know what he thought.

Who knows what was going through his mind at that point.

Tex McIver was released on bond, and while he seemed

clueless about why he was charged with anything,

Diane's friends and colleagues wondered if he'd been charged with enough.

I was angry. It's like I didn't care.

I didn't care what I was angry.

I didn't care what happened to him.

In the month since Diane's death, Danny Joe had become suspicious

about Tex's behavior during that final fatal drive.

So we asked her to take us along the route they drove that night.

This is the underpass where Tex says he first began to worry about the homeless people in the area.

Danny Joe says there was no danger.

Nothing that would have kept you from driving away, going on your way.

No.

Just a few minutes later, we came to where they made that

fateful stop in Midtown Atlanta.

And it was, says Danny Joe, just a stop.

We were sitting at a red light.

No bump.

No bump.

You know the rest.

Diane was shot, and Danny Joe took off for the hospital.

She says she was frantic, but Tex, she says, was calm.

As a matter of fact, at some point, a little bit farther up, he

told me to slow down and be careful that there might be people out here

with walking with baby carriages.

Well, his wife's wounded in the front seat here by his hand,

and he's telling you to slow down?

Yes.

At the hospital, Diane was already in surgery when police showed up.

And that, according to Danny Joe,

is when Tex said the weirdest thing.

He looked past me and he said, I don't trust these guys.

I hate to see you get wrapped up in this Danny Joe.

I've seen how these things can go down.

And he said, you just need to tell them that you're down here as a friend of the family.

Women, as you're here as a friend of the family,

and not as the person who was driving the car when the shooting happened?

Right.

And so I leaned down again.

Well, I said, Tex, I just drove you into the emergency room.

And he looks at me and he goes, well, they don't know that.

And I thought, they, what do you mean they don't know that?

Danny Joe shared her misgivings with Diane's co-workers.

They were now convinced Atlanta police hadn't dug deeply enough.

Jay Grover was skeptical of Texas claim that the gun had just gone off.

This does not make sense.

Logically, it just doesn't make sense what he's saying.

Something wasn't right.

It turns out Fulton County prosecutor Clint Rucker was thinking the very same thing.

There was no malfunctioning with the gun at the time that it was discharged.

It was a perfect operating condition.

It had 12 pounds of pressure required to pull the trigger.

Meaning, it's not easy to do.

It's not easy to do.

And it came very clear to me that this had to be an intentional act.

Diane's colleagues gave the DA her computer and files, hoping Rucker might find more evidence.

And that is when the evolution of the motive didn't develop.

Rucker's investigators found documents suggesting Tex was in financial trouble.

What's more, Diane's colleagues revealed she'd been working on a new will.

Rucker wanted to find that will, so he got a search warrant for the ranch and condo.

No will turned up, but something else did.

A glock in Texas condo.

That was a violation of his bond, so Tex went back to jail.

The next day, Rucker filed new charges.

And the Tex McIver case escalated from careless accident to malice murder.

It was, according to Texas sister Dixie, preposterous.

If you were going to kill your wife, is that the way you choose to do it?

Oh, it makes no sense.

Who commits a murder with a witness that you can't control sitting right there?

Exactly, absolutely an accident.

Coming up, Tex McIver on trial, they were very close, very affectionate, devoted husband,

or desperate spouse. Diane could take control of the ranch by foreclosing on it

if the defendant did not pay.

When Dateline continues.

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The Tex McIver case had it all.

Race, privilege, tragedy, and rich people doing dumb things.

And once the trial started in March of 2018,

Atlanta couldn't get enough.

Now, this is a case about maintaining an image of wealth and power

that the defendant created for himself.

And the links that he went through to keep it.

In her opening statement, then assistant DA Solita Griffin said the motive was money.

The state's theory, Diane McIver was carrying her husband financially.

Right before their wedding, Tex gifted Diane half the ranch.

Later, she loaned him $350,000, for which he put up the other half of the ranch as collateral.

That Diane could take control of the ranch by foreclosing on it if the defendant did not pay.

With Tex near retirement, prosecutor Clinton Rucker said he was no longer earning the big salary

he needed to pay all the ranch expenses.

Her star was continuing to rise while his was continuing to fall.

And she would tell them in no uncertain terms, you're going to have to get your money

situation together. The state's financial expert testified Diane's death made Tex a richer man.

So the day before death, $1.7 million, Mr. McIver's net worth, the day after death,

$5.9 million or $6 million to $6.9 million.

What's more claimed the prosecutor, Diane had quietly made a new will.

Receptionist Rachel Styles remembers making copies of a certain document around late 2014.

I went back and handed him to her and she says thank you so much. This is my new will.

According to the prosecution in the supposed new will, Diane wanted to leave the ranch to Austin.

Tex did not and that created a rift between them. A more concrete piece of evidence

was the 38th that killed Diane. Prosecutors showed the jury the police interview with Tex.

A gun expert from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the jury how the gun worked.

If I sit down with it and hold it down here in my lap, will it just go off?

No. If I handle it like this in any way, will it just go off?

No. They're God-childly hectic.

It took the prosecution 66 witnesses and 16 days to make its case. The defense team had a shorter

simpler case, but they also had their hands full with a client who hadn't always acted in his

own best interest. Mr. McGarry just was hell bent on defending himself at certain times.

Was one of your initial pieces of advice to him? Please stop talking.

100% absolutely. Like I won't represent you if you keep opening your mouth.

Like much worse than that. Okay. There'd be some physical consequences.

Amanda Clark Palmer, Don Samuel, Bruce Harvey. Three of the best lawyers in Georgia were

adept at using prosecution witnesses to bolster their defense. For example, they got the

state's forensics expert to agree that in some circumstances, the shooting could have indeed

been unintentional. And again, this weapon, as well as any other weapons, can be an unintentionally

discharged, correct? It can be, yes. Texas attorneys pointed out how prosecution witnesses testified,

Tex and Diane were happy together, and planning to stay that way. As far as I can tell you,

it was a very good marriage. They were very close, very affectionate. It was quite obvious,

they were very much in love. In fact, it was a prosecution witness who knocked down the argument

that Diane was going to call in that big loan and foreclose on the ranch. Her colleague,

Ken Rickard, testified that while Diane could have done that, she probably wouldn't have.

I'm not sure that that would have ever happened. Diane would have avoided that. I believe it all

costs to try to keep the marriage together. As for the allegation of a second will, that was easy.

It doesn't exist. That's why it was never produced. The receptionist testified she never actually

saw the will. Prosecutor Clint Rutger admitted he never did find it, and he tried. He never

produced the second will. Never produced the second will. An ER doctor, called by the prosecution,

gave the defense one of the most intriguing bits of testimony. She said Diane told her the shooting

was an accident. In the end, it was clear that she said he had the gun. In her coherent state,

she said it was an accident. Yes. But the bottom line for the defense was that the murder scenario

itself was absurd. We're going to drive back to Atlanta to our condo and bucket. And on the way,

I'm going to shoot my wife through the back of the seat with her best friend sitting there.

What are you kidding me? Come on. Finally, the defense offered a medical reason why

texts might have fired the gun when he didn't mean to. For years, texts have been treated for a

sleep disorder, which caused him to jerk in his sleep. It's called Confusional Arousal.

The defense called the sleep specialist who'd been treating texts for a decade.

He did have a previous study that was done at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in 2004, which did

specifically comment about his moving his arms and legs in a sort of large amplitude movement

while he was dreaming in the sleep lab. Confusional described a lot of things in this case,

but if jurors were hoping closing arguments would offer some clarity, they were about to find

muddy water. Coming up. When he killed that on the gob, you know, it's like hitting the

ladder. We are going to build a five-text magon. We are going to muddy him up. That's their mission.

Accident or murder. A defendant under the gun and a jury all over it. We got to hold the gun,

the e-gun and feel the force. What would the verdict be? When deadline continues.

So I'm going to tell you what we're going to do. Prosecutor Clint Rucker faced the jury for the final

time with a Mason jar of mud. I'm going to make your promise. By the time I get through with my

argument and take my seat, this jar is going to be clear. And it's going to be clear just like

each and every one of your minds will be clear about the guilt of this defendant.

He drove home the prosecution's main argument one last time.

And that accidental shooting? You intended to do it. Man like you, gun expert, having financial

problems, arguing about this ranch. Listen, Black Lives Matter is not about race. It's about the

justification for having the gun in a bad seat. At the end of his closing, despite his promise,

the DA's jar of mud was far from clear. Not a good sign. That muddy water, said defense attorney

Don Samuel, symbolized the state's murky theory. We are going to build a fly, Tex Maguire. We are

going to muddy him up. That's their mission. Co-Council Bruce Harvey said the state's own evidence

proved there was no financial motive to kill Diane. Tex was not broke. Nor was he in dire

financial straits. The state's calculation put Tex's net worth at 1.7 million before Diane died.

After 21 days of trial, the jury took over the fate of Tex Maguire. And after three days of deliberation,

it became clear that not many jurors were convinced by the prosecution's case, especially when it

came to motive. Jury Foreman Avi Robbins told us, it all boiled down to one thing, the gun.

We got to hold the gun, the gun, and feel the force. Coct and knock-oct.

I did the same thing with a similar gun and the help of firearms expert, Jay Jarvis.

Okay, so hardest thing is maybe cocking the gun. It requires a lot of effort.

Yes. Once it's cocked, firing it somewhat easy. Very easy.

Firing an uncocked requires more effort. Yeah, about six times the effort.

So the obvious question was Texas gun cocked or not? We felt it. If it was cocked, then yeah,

it could have fairly easily been done in accident. The jury again asked to see the video from Texas

police interview. Steve labels Texas attorney answered their question.

So the only evidence they could find that the gun was not cocked came from Texas own attorney.

But even that didn't do it. After five days of deliberation,

Jury sent a message to the judge. We don't see a path to overcome our differences

on the defendant's intent. The judge refused to accept a deadlock and sent them back to deliberate.

Four hours later, the jury signaled a verdict had been reached.

Texas sister Dixie and his friends sat anxiously on one side.

Diane's colleagues, including Jay Grover, filled the prosecution side of the room.

The case that had riveted Atlanta was coming to an end.

Not guilty of deliberately murdering Diane, but wait on the felony charge of shooting the gun at Diane.

Killing someone while committing a felony.

Possession of a firearm in the course of a felony.

Trying to influence the witness Danny Joe Carter.

In late terms, the verdict meant text didn't mean to kill Diane, but he did mean to shoot her.

So when you hear the first guilty count, it was like we got him. We got him.

Texas Ours were mystified. I think it's a mistaken verdict and it is the result of a compromise

and I think it is just plain wrong.

Texas sister Dixie is still stunned.

To think that one moment in time, you lose your wife, you lose your friends, you lose your

money, you lose your house, you lose your career, you lose your dignity, and you lose your freedom

in your future. Only once did Tex McIver speak in court in a rambling statement before sentencing.

Tex declared how much he'd miss his godson Austin, the food at Chick-fil-A,

and then finally his wife Diane.

On this earth, we've ever known. Thank you and till we are together again.

Tex McIver is now serving a life sentence. His attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial,

but at his age, freedom for text is a long shot.

And Danny Joe says she's okay with that. She misses her friend Diane every day.

And I dream about her a lot. I miss her.

For months after the verdict, the beloved McIver ranch stood vacant. Extravagant parties and

celebrations, just memories. Diane's wedding dress hung there in the closet, alongside a shrine

of sorts Tex made in her honor. Remnants of a marriage many thought was as good as it gets,

but his text settled into prison and auctioneer sold it all to the highest bidder.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

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