Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Dirty details on marriage after high-profile lawyer Tex McIver's wife shot dead, lead prosecutor reveals

Episode Date: April 26, 2018

Atlanta lawyer Tex McIver will likely finish his life in prison for fatally shooting his wealthy wife Diane McIver. Clint Rucker, the Georgia prosecutor who convinced a jury that McIver purposefully pulled the trigger and it was not an accident related to a sleep disorder, shares with Nancy Grace behind-the-scenes details of the McIver marriage and the case against the husband in this special Crime Stories episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A&E tonight, Thursday night, 11 p.m., Grace versus Abrams. Please join us. Tex MacGyver admits that he shot his wife, Diana, as they drove near Piedmont Park. He is accused of murdering his wife last September as they drove home from their Putnam County ranch. He says it was a terrible accident when he was sitting in the backseat of his SUV holding a pistol. It just absolutely was an accident. Perhaps the best proof of that is me. I am dying a little bit every day. The longtime friend and confidant of Ms. MacGyver says she's certain that Tex MacGyver had fallen asleep and was asleep while holding his weapon. He had asked Diane for it because he was concerned

about them driving down a street where homeless people were hanging out. He says it went off and shot his wife, Diane, in the back. High profile and incredibly wealthy attorney, guilty in the shooting death of his gorgeous, much younger, and extremely well-to-do wife. He claimed it was all an accident. But how can you shoot somebody in the back and that be an accident? Well, it's a long, long story. This is Crime Stories.

I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with me. And with me, the man who managed to secure that guilty verdict. Yes, it was a jury decision. But the lead prosecutor from the Atlanta District Attorney's Office is with me right now, my former trial partner, Clint Rucker. Clint, I got to tell you something, buddy. When I first heard the charges, I was very concerned. And this is what bothered me.

Guys, we're talking about Tex McIver and his wife, Diane. She was the one who worked her way up the ranks of a national business quarry limousine. She was the one with the money, although he was the high-profile lawyer. They were out that night with a family friend, the husband in the back seat. He was holding a gun in his hand. He says he dozed off and he pulled the trigger and shot her in the back. Take a listen to this. As I learned in the scouts, it's your obligation to protect people around you. And that's what

I was doing that night. That's what I've done other times. And sometimes that's a weapon. Sometimes it's martial arts. It's whatever we need. But guns are not my thing. Danny Joe came to a stop and uh anyway i'm just just time to wake up but she came to a stop and uh i was handling the gun

and i realized it was in my lap right and it. Okay, was that an accident or was it murder? This is what bothered me, Clint. Okay. What bothered me is this, that when the wife, Diane McIver, goes to the hospital, they say what happened. She said it was an accident. Clint, how did you get around accident, which is a complete defense? Well, first of all, Nancy, let me tell you, I miss you. And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come on and speak about this case, because it was a very, very important case in our community and um and a lot of what um is portrayed is not the complete story nancy oh i love that i love that wait a minute wait a minute can we get back to how you love me and miss me yeah okay wait wait that's neither here nor there clint clint i gotta tell you something i watched you you were awesome in the courtroom.

You must have had an incredible teacher. But I won't go into that. What you're saying is that we don't know the whole story. Yes, you're right. Unless you sit there and you hear the evidence every minute or you investigate it yourself. You don't know. Tell me the whole thing. Start at the beginning. Well, you know, Nancy, the thing that we found out about this case that made it particularly intriguing for us and led us to indict the defendant, Mr. MacGyver, with these charges is that the image of a perfect, loving marriage without any problems was really a fallacy. There were issues in the marriage that we found out that had to do with not only finances, but also the handling of both Diane MacGyver and Tex MacGyver's estate. And so what does that have to do handling her estate? What does that have to do with her getting murdered? The estate didn't occur until afterwards.

Yes, but they had been arguing about how to transfer the major asset for both of them upon their death, which was the ranch, which was valued at several million dollars. And Diane MacGyver had invested many, many millions into this ranch and was desperately attempting to leave it to her godson, Austin Schwal. And the conflict developed because Tex MacGyver disagreed with that decision. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say Schwall, S-C-H-W-A-L-L? Yeah, someone, a family that we are very familiar with here in Fulton County.

Wait, is he connected to Judge Schwall? Absolutely. That's his biological son. Oh, Lord. Lordy, lordy. Okay, go ahead. And so the fight. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, lordy. Okay, go ahead. Hold on. Take a listen to the prosecution. The defendant did have a pension. And our expert will testify that based upon his spending habits, it would be depleted in two years after he retired.

And in addition to that, without the money from Diane that he was receiving every month, on the time of her death, the defendant wouldn't even have one dollar. As a matter of fact, without Diane's money, on the day that she died, his account would have been negative over $5,000. You're to hear that when she drafted the will in 2016, the ranch would go to the defendant. If she foreclosed on the ranch, it was her intent for the ranch to go to Austin. And you're going to hear in the days after Diane was shot and the defendant goes to talk to two homicide detectives at APD

and without any prompting he tells them I like to be in control and on September 25th 2016 Diane was making all of the money Diane owned the two condos in Buckhead. Diane could take the ranch. This ranch, according to the witnesses, that was his pride and joy. This ranch that he would go to every weekend, that he would host parties at, that he would go shooting at, Diane could take from him. Why do they have a ranch anyway? I don't understand. They've got this beautiful, high-rise, luxury place in the city of Atlanta. Who wanted the ranch? Well, when Diane McIver met Tex McIver, he had owned the ranch for approximately 10 years. It was his pride and joy. He is originally from Texas, and he had longed to live a lifestyle of a Georgia rancher where he would have horses and cattle and large pastures, and that really

was a fulfillment for him. His problem... Okay, wait a minute. You know ranches cost money, Clint. I mean... They they do very expensive i i grew up out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farms but the kind of farmers we knew were the ones that would get on the tractor and get out there and bring in the crop that's not what we're talking about themselves nancy that's not what we're talking about okay what are we are we talking about a quote gentleman farmer i.e. has somebody a quote gentleman farmer that's right that's right i tell you what clint it'd be a cold day in he double l before i propped up some husband's farm i'm like hey if you don't help me at least don't hurt me translation i am not paying for your farm

for you to go play ride a horse on weekends no right right and tex mcgyver's problem nancy was that he had um been demoted in his partnership at fisher and phillips his income had dropped by more than 50 why was he demoted however the ranch expenses the ranch expenses remained constant they were 25 000 a month to run that ranch what okay i'm trying to i'm trying to soak all this in why did he get demoted um nancy he just wasn't able to produce the way he had been in previous years i talked to the managing partner at fish and phillips they said listen, this guy is not producing the way that he had been doing in years past. And it was time. So he wasn't making any rain. I get it. He wasn't bringing enough clients. All right. So who was paying the twenty five grand a month

on the to keep up the farm over the last three years before Diane's death, she did. She gave him $198,000 in cash in order to help him keep up the expenses at the ranch. Okay, Clint, Clint. She did, in cash. Please do not go begging for money to your wife. I won't. Please don't do that, okay? I'm not going to do it. I don't know if I got to that life lesson

with you when we were working together in the D's. Please don't do that. So why didn't he just sell the ranch? Well, you know, Nancy, that's what most folks probably would have done. They would have just adjusted their lifestyle. But he was so rooted and his political power his position and all of his influence that he could not shake his way free of divorcing himself from this ranch and when he got in serious financial trouble Diane Diane McIver actually loaned him $350,000. Take a listen to this. On Diane's death, he went from negative $5,000 to over $1.1 million cash instantly. And he was the executor and one of the beneficiaries of Diane's $7 million estate.

The easiest way for him to gain control was to kill Diane. And on Sunday, September 25, 2016, the evidence will show that that is just what he did. Diane McIver actually loaned him $350,000. Clint. Is it true she took out a note? That's absolutely true, Nancy. She took out a note. You know what that says to me?

You know what that says to me? What does that say? Okay. Think back. Do you remember I was prosecuting that murder? Well, which murder murder you may ask well the one when i wrecked my car on the way back from the women's jail in gwinnett county i don't know if it's coming back to you yet okay that one okay i didn't have a car my now husband was set was getting rid of his car he gave gave me his old beat up,

well, not that beat up, his old car. He got a new car. About once a month, you know, we didn't make anything as a DA, an assistant DA. And you know, I was working the two night jobs. Every, say, couple of weeks,

I'd throw a handful of quarters on the table and go, hey, hey, here's your payment on the car. See ya. Believe me, we did not have a note a note is serious between people that are allegedly in love or married when you make your husband sign a note for the note okay and nancy she actually filed it with the court oh my star

lord have mercy and and not only that but nancy the note had a clause in it that allowed her to foreclose and take over his interest in that ranch for any or no reason whatsoever. She added that clause to the note specifically to cover this circumstance. Okay, you're leaving me a little bit speechless, which you know, Clint, is hard to do. Hold on, let me just soak that in for a moment. And I don't want to make Diane out as some shrew. All her co-workers liked her. Her family loved her.

Her neighbors loved her. Her neighbors loved her. But I've got a feeling she felt like she was getting used by him as an ATM. Well, over time, she was a person who had expressed to people that she was getting tired of carrying text. She was not a woman who was accustomed to having to take care of a man. And he was a man who was accustomed to having women take care of him. Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait. I did bombshell. What? Bombshell. Bombshell right now. Wait, who in their right mind would take care of Tex MacGyver? I mean, he's not that much to look at. I mean, what could he offer a woman that she'd want to take care of him? Well, at the time that they met, you know, back in 2001, you know, he was a partner at Fisher and Phillips, which is a prominent law firm. Blah, blah, blah.

And he was pretty active in the politics here in the state of Georgia. Still not interested. And, you know, many people feel like this was a marriage of just convenience. It was a business relationship that allowed Diane to... Do you think that? I do. This is what the defense had to say. There's really one thing that you need to know about Tess McIver and Diane McIver to know that he did not intentionally choose life,

and that is that he loved her, truly loved her, deeply loved her, and she loved him back. You are going to hear from multiple witnesses that they had a relationship that people were envious of that they seemed like lovebirds even after 10 years of marriage that text the door that she loved him and that they were clearly proud proud to be married to each other and that's why he didn't intentionally shoot her it was a business relationship i i came to feel that way when you talk to friends and family members that kind of interacted with them. They will tell you things about the way that they communicated with each other that lead me to believe that they were just business associates. Wait, I want to know. Like what?

Like what? Tell me. Give me one example, Clint Rucker. Like they would never want to be alone. Not for dinner, not for breakfast, not for lunch, not for vacation, not for family trips to the ranch. There was always a request by Diane that someone accompany them. It was as though she did not want to be alone with the defendant, with her own husband. Okay. You just spoke to me.

You just spoke to me, Clint, because you know David, you know my twins, and you know me very, very well. And you know, I get up, Clint, about 5.30 every morning. And you know very very well and uh you know i get up clint about 5 30 every morning and you know what i have just enough time to have one cup of hot tea with with david he has coffee i have tea before he heads out before i start researching and and getting the twins ready and all that. One cup. One cup of tea. And do you know that means a lot to me? Yes. Well, they were a couple that was very different. They would.

They did not have a cup of tea in the morning. They didn't have a cup of tea in the morning. They would invite the neighbors to come over and perhaps sit down and have coffee. First thing in the morning. You know, that they were having dinner. Are you serious? I am deadly serious. If they were having dinner, they would invite four or five people over for dinner every night. If they were going to the ranch, they would invite hundreds of people sometimes to come down

to the ranch. If they were going on vacation. Just like this time, they had the friend, Danny Lynn Carter. That's right. Is it Danny Lynn or Danny Joe Danny Joe? Danny Joe Carter. Gotcha. Danny Joe Carter. And this was the first time, Nancy, this is a key point in the trial. This was the first time in over 12 years that Danny Joe Carter had ever gone to the ranch in the same vehicle with Diane and Tex MacGyver. The first time ever. Oh, I know what that means. That means you think it was planned. It was. Because why, out of 12 years, all this time, it's time to put the rubber to the road now.

He's running out of money. She can foreclose on his beloved ranch. That's his whole image. And this time, the night she gets murdered you're saying he sets it up for danny joe to be there and to end up one of them end up driving right and one of the pieces that we discovered when we investigated is that tex mcgyver attempted to have one of the ranch hands take Danny Joe back to Atlanta on Sunday. Tex McIver claimed that he wanted to spend a romantic evening with his wife there at the ranch on Sunday night. But we know that's a lie because Diane McIver had an appointment at 730 Monday morning to get a massage.

So that means he was going to try to have her to himself to do the murder at the ranch away from everybody. That's correct. But it didn't work out that way. It didn't work out that way. So he had to improvise. Can I just ask you this, Clint? I mean, did they ever have sex?

Well, when I talked to a very close friend of Tex MacGyver, he told me that Tex MacGyver was talking to him about his inability to perform intimately with his wife. He was very concerned about it. Why do you talk like that? Why do you talk like that? That is not the Clint Rucker that I raised up in the courtroom. It is not. In other words.

It is not. In other words, he was not able to get it on with his wife in the bedroom. I think what you're trying to say is McIver was apparently having erectile dysfunction. That's correct. Now, I might put it in layman's terms if I were in the courtroom. Right. Okay, so what, is he blaming her for that? Well, and I don't know what he blamed it on, but I do know there was a period of time when

they slept in separate bedrooms. Well, was that at the time of the murder? Were they sleeping together? Well, according to friends and relatives, they were not. They were sleeping in separate bedrooms. Now, listen, Clint, you know where I'm going with this. i don't give a fig about anybody else's sex life i'm not interested in fact i'd rather you not tell me about it right but it's very it's very relevant when it comes to a murder case but a domestic homicide because if people are all in love and

they're working on their relationship they'll at least sleep in the same bed, whether they're too tired at night to do anything or not. I mean, you at least, you want to be together. You want to put your foot on the other person's foot. That's right. That's right, Nancy. So, I mean, you just want to be with them because, you know, even if the lust is gone, the love is there. What? Diane was a woman who was very concerned about, you know, their image.

And so she would not discuss many of these private matters with her friends or even her coworkers. And so she would go to all lengths to maintain this image, this appearance that everything was okay. Okay, give me an example. I need to know the details. Right. So, for instance, you know, even in my own relationship sometimes, you can have a disagreement. Oh, Lord, are we really going there? Are we really going there?

Okay, go ahead. Nancy, you know, you can have a disagreement and be on your way to an event. And by the time you pull up to the event and get out of the car, everything is warm and fuzzy. That's true. And people don't know that, hey, all the way to the event, we have been disagreeing about whatever the issue is. You just don't let people know. As much as I'd like to talk about you and your life, could you please tell me about how she covered up to make it look like a happy relationship?

One example. Well, one example would be that she told one of her coworkers that she was tired of carrying him, that he was not meeting his obligations with respect to the $350,000 loan. But no, I asked you, what did she do to make it look like a happy marriage? How did she fake it? They would hold hands and they would be hugging in public when what we know is that there were arguments and disagreements over money that she was very, very, very serious about. Take a listen to this. You led a very successful life, partner and a major law firm. And now at age 74, you're in a jam with Colton Cannon. Well, I hope to be out soon, but the reality is

I just missed my wife so much. It was the perfect marriage. It really was. And I just, every day, I reach for her in the morning when I wake up. I just, anyway, I've got to rely upon my faith. A 38 don't go off by itself. It took me maybe a day or two for it to kind of sink in. We were all Diane's family. We're Diane's family.

And then we realized it was not an accident. We didn't think it was an accident. And the jury confirmed that today. It was not an accident. His hand was on the trigger. Guns just don't go off. Defendant guilty of felony murder. A gun just don't go off. So we didn't think that it was accidental. But what we do know is that she's no longer here with us and that we have to give justice and justice to assert. There are some facts that we don't dispute in this case. Actually, maybe quite a few.

One fact you are not going to have to decide is, did Tex shoot Diane? Yes, he did. We are not telling you that the gun was sitting on the seat next to him and it accidentally went off. We are not telling you that the gun malfunctioned. No one is going to ask you to decide who was holding the gun when it went off. It was text. That's not a dispute, so don't worry about that. The question you have to decide, was it intentional? Let the evidence show it was not. Nothing the state will present to you will prove that this was not an accident. There were arguments and disagreements over money that she was very, very, very serious about.

She would have even her best friend, Danny Joe Carter, who had been her friend for 42 years, she would make Danny Joe Carter sign a note for a small loan and would insist that she pay it on time. And Nancy, she even charged her interest. Okay. Her own best friend. Okay. You know what?

That gives me an insight into her personality. But you know what? Clint, she worked like a dog to get where she was, and we don't know how many people had taken advantage of her in the past. We don't know that. That's right. So the fact that she made people sign a note, I'm not going to hold that against the woman.

That's right. Because I respect her. That's right. She was a great businesswoman. That's right. So let me ask you this, Clint. And her specialty was real estate. Ooh. Let me ask you this, Clint. And her specialty was real estate. Ooh. Let me ask you this, Clint. Clint Rucker. Clint, he was indicted with murder one, which is intentional murder, and then felony murder, which, as we all know, is during a felony,

which is an aggravated assault in this case, and a death occurs, whether intentional or not. But a felony is happening, and a death occurs, whether intentional or not. But a felony is happening and a death occurs. Tell me your reasoning why you think this was malice or intentional murder. And remember, malice can be formed in the twinkling of an eye. That's right. It's not some long, drawn-out plan like I poisoned my husband for three months and he kills over. You can form intent, bam, just in the time it takes you to raise a gun

and pull the trigger right so why clint rucker you're the lead lawyer and the prosecution of tex mckay or do you believe this was malice murder because i know you would not have gone forward with it if you didn't believe it that's right that's right nancy uh we went forward on the charge of malice murder because for two reasons, primarily. One, we believe that there was a motive to commit this murder, although in Georgia, motive is not required, as you know, Nancy, to prove malice murder. But there was a motive present in this case, and it was financial. And two, it was the manner in which the murder was committed, that being the shooting of Diane MacGyver with a.38 revolver that takes 12 and a quarter pounds

of pressure to pull the trigger. And she was shot in the back at a trajectory that was inconsistent with what his stated version of the events were. Oh, tell me that about the trajectory. That's very important. Trajectory path is the angle, the path that the bullet takes through the body. That's right. So did it start at the lower back and go upward or from the side, down, upward, frontward, forward? What was the path?

What was the true path of the bullet? So the pathway, the pathway as determined by the experts, Nancy, and you know that there are experts that can determine this kind of thing, was that the bullet traveled from the right side of the defendant to the left. From the victim. From the victim. Okay. The pathway was upward and it was from back to front.

And so when you put the trajectory rod through the seat, which will indicate to you in a very visible way the way that the bullet travels, you can see where the handgun had to have been at the time when it was fired. But more importantly, you can see where it could not have been at the time when it was fired but more importantly you can see where it could not have been at the time so you're saying let me understand he's sitting behind her in the suv and the trajectory path is obviously back to front because he's sitting in the seat behind her but on her right side going down up coming out did it come out her front or did it stay lodged in her body? It came out her front and it was slightly upward, which means that the muzzle of the gun had to be pointed upward through her body.

And when you go along the trajectory of the pathway of the bullet, the muzzle of the gun had to have been near his right side. This is bad, Clint. This is bad. There's a brand new website causing a lot of trouble for people with something to hide. Have you ever had a bad feeling about somebody? Maybe suspected your partner's cheating? Maybe worried about your online reputation? If you answer yes to any of those questions, you may need Truthfinder. Public records are only recently easily available online. Before websites like Truthfinder, you'd

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It's never been so easy to find the truth. Go to truthfinder.com slash Nancy and enter any name to get started. Guys, if you're just joining me, this is Clint Rucker, the lead attorney in the prosecution of high-profile lawyer Tex McIver, just convicted in the murder of his wife. What you're telling me, Clint, I mean, this is it right here. His story was he fell asleep in the back seat. Well, he told several stories. And then he blamed the black man, okay? That's right.

Black Lives Matter, according to him, was having a protest, and he got afraid and got the gun, and boop, it went off. All right, then later he said he was asleep. They went over a pothole, andop it went off there's always but that you know those two uh he could have woven together but no way can he reconcile the the trajectory path of the bullet let me understand you're saying the gun the barrel had to be pointing toward her lower right back and going slightly upwards and forward he would have to have been be almost down in the floor of the car to do that. That's correct. And because Tex MacGyver was an expert marksman and literally a gun expert,

the bullet missed Diane MacGyver's heart by mere centimeters. You know something that really spoke to me, Clint Rucker? What's that? My friend, my friend, my longtime friend. Clint, when you know that I almost died in childbirth, right? That morning, it was a Sunday morning, November 4, and I was getting ready to go to church. You know I'm going to be in church. That's right. I need. And I was getting ready to go to church. You know I'm going to be in church.

That's right. Because I need all the help I can get. And David said, where are you going? I said, we're going to church, David. And I started throwing up. He turned the light on in the bathroom. He went, you are yellow. We're going to the hospital.

Right. And I insisted I was going to church. I got in the car. We drove right by the church. He ran every red light to get to the hospital. And Clint, I was in such bad shape, he dropped me at the door of the hospital. I got in the front door and I laid down

in the entrance area of the hospital. I could not take another step. Now let me tell you something. The fact that Tex McIver, after he shoots his wife, tells Danny Joe he reprimands her for, I guess, driving too fast to get to the hospital? That's right. Literally, slow down. You're going too fast. Tell me what happened. Tell me the whole thing. So, you know, you have to understand that Tex MacGyver is a person who has lived in Atlanta for more than 40 years. He actually works downtown. Nancy, you're very familiar with downtown Atlanta. He works at the intersection of Pete Street and 12th Street.

Mere blocks from Emory Crawford Long, just a few blocks from Piedmont Hospital. And Diane MacGyver worked at Corey Enterprises, which was right across the expressway from Grady Memorial Hospital. He needed to be at Grady. Trauma Center in the southeast. That's right. And so, of course, when he says, according to him, he accidentally shoots his wife, his first thought is, let me drive to another county. And so, of course, when he says, according to him, he accidentally shoots his wife,

his first thought is, let me drive to another county to take her for medical treatment. Let me drive across town to the furthest hospital possible. But what about, did he reprimand Danny Jo about her driving? Yes, he did. Tell me. She was trying, she said she was in a panic after the shot was fired, and she didn't realize that Diane had actually been hit with a bullet. She thought that the bullet had gone in the floorboard because when she turned around and looked in the back seat, she saw Tex MacGyver with the gun in his hand and he was wiping his hands making a motion like he was wiping his

hands as though trying to rid uh himself of the gunshot residue that might have been on his hand and um and she said in her mind she thought about going to piedmont but you know she was on piedmont avenue nancy near uh piedmont park and she didn't know how to navigate through the Prado to get to Piedmont Hospital. Right. And she asked Tex MacGyver, where is the closest emergency room? And he said, let's just go to Emory, and I'll tell you how to get there. So as he's directing her to drive, and she's driving, and she's trying to run run red lights and she's trying to get there as quick as she can. He says to her, slow down.

In essence, because I don't want you to hit a woman who might be out walking her baby. That's a quote. Was there a woman out walking her baby at that time of night? Absolutely not. This was at 1015 on a Sunday evening. Slow down. Okay, you know what, Clint? You've convinced me. You have convinced me. And I don't need to hear the rest. Slow down. I don't need to. I just.

And I'll tell you this other thing too, Nancy. Do you know that in the back seat next to him was his own cell phone and he never called 9-1-1 he never called 9-1-1 can i ask you one other thing clint when he got when they got to emory and i haven't heard this discussed one way or the other did he ever show his wife any love? Well, that was the interesting thing. We've talked to so many doctors and nurses and medical professionals who tell us that although people grieve in many different ways, there's a universal sign that most people show when they are grieving. And he did not display any of those signs. He didn't cry. Well, did he love her?

Did he kiss her? Anything. He didn't kiss her. He didn't ask about her condition. He didn't stand outside the room when they were working on her. What he did was he called his criminal defense attorney to come to the hospital. That was the very first phone call that he made when he arrived at Emory. You know what, Clint?

You have just brought tears to my eyes because you know what? If I could, you know my story. I know. If I could have one kiss from my fiance that was murdered or one kiss from my father now who's gone to heaven oh what i would give that's right nothing like that nothing like that he never asked to see her he never wanted to be in the room with her although emory has a policy that allows family members to be in the room, he never wanted to do that. Take a listen to this. We would like to say to Diane, we hope that you are watching,

and we hope that you felt that we stood for you, and we stood for the things that you represented. Secondly, we would very much like to thank the jury. I think most of the people who watched this case could see that the jurors worked extremely hard. They took notes. They were very attentive, and they did something today that might not happen in the normal case. At one point, they said they couldn't reach a verdict. The judge charged them with the Allen charge, and the jury had enough ambition and reasonableness about itself to go back, and they returned the verdict. And we believe that the verdict is one that spoke the truth. Clint, I want you to explain something else. You know, you and I lived through this together when I was trying cases in inner city Atlanta.

People think there's a big victory when you get a guilty verdict. Right. I never felt that way, you know. Right. I just felt relief that the right thing had been done. That's right. Because you still have a dead victim. That's right.

That's right. What went through your mind when you heard the jury come back with a guilty verdict? Well, it was satisfaction that, you know, Nancy, the work we do sometimes is really, really thankless. But we do it because we believe in the system. We believe in being a voice for the voiceless. And in this case, Diane MacGyver didn't have any biological family members.

She only had us that would stand up for her and seek truth and justice for what happened to her. And so it was relief and satisfaction that the jury understood the evidence. They understood the facts. They deliberated, I think, very diligently. You know, Nancy, we had a very, very smart jury. The majority of our jury had advanced degrees. They worked in professions that required them to make tough decisions all the time. And I think they looked at the facts of this case. And from what I understand from talking to the jurors, many of them believed that this was a deliberately intended act. And they were split with other jurors who felt like perhaps it was not intentional, but he had the intent to shoot her versus the intent to kill her.

All I know is this, Clint Rucker. I thank God that Diane McIver had you standing up for her in court. Everyone, my friend and colleague, the lead attorney on the Tex McIver prosecution, Clint Rucker. Thank you, friend. Thank you, Nancy. I love you. I love you too, Clint.

I love you too, man. Take a listen to the prosecution's Clint Rucker. I started out my presentation by asking you a question. Who will stand for Diane McIver? Who will stand for Diane McGowan? Who will stand for Diane McGowan? Her. Diane tried to stand up for herself in her last

waking moments. Dr. Suzanne Hardy asked her a question. Dr. Suzanne Hardy asked her a question. Do you want to see your husband? If I put this tube down your mouth, you're not going to be able to speak. Diane knew she was gone. She said to her over and over again, am I dying? Am I dying? We've talked to folks.

They'll tell you, you know, especially old people, they know you know. And so she asked her a question. Listen, you told me that it was an accident. Do you want to see your husband? And she said, no. No. No. And I just wanted you to see the aftermath of the defendant's actions. She's been reduced now to a simple number except in the minds of the people

who loves her car who will stand for diane mcgowan a great woman she tried to be ladies and gentlemen will you stand? Will you stand? For Diane McIver. As she cries out, who will stand for me? Come. Take up your hand.

Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.