kcbakerpeoplemag

PeopleDecember 22, 2016

Manslaughter Charges for Atlanta Lawyer Who Says He Shot Wife Accidentally Because He Was Afraid of Carjacking. The Atlanta attorney who says he accidentally fatally shot his wife in September after pulling out his gun because he was afraid of a carjacking received a $200,000 bond Thursday, according to reports.

Claud “Tex” McIver made his first appearance at a hearing in Fulton County Magistrate Court in Atlanta after surrendering the day before, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk ordered McIver to turn over his passport and to wear an ankle monitor while the state continues to investigate the death of his wife, Diane Smith McIver, according to WALB. Prosecutors had contended he was a flight risk.

McIver, who turned 74 on Thursday, was also ordered not to carry any weapons.

McIver is charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, for shooting Diane, 63, in the back as the two rode in their SUV with a friend near Piedmont Park late on the night of Sept. 25.

McIver was in the back seat when he says the Ford Explorer hit a bump in the road and his .38 snub-nose revolver went off, shooting Diane, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. She died in surgery several hours later at Emory University Hospital.

McIver says he pulled the gun out of the center console because he thought they were about to be carjacked. Bill Crane, a McIver family friend, told the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that McIver was afraid of the unrest surrounding recent Black Lives Matter protests.

McIver had fallen asleep with the gun in his lap and has no recollection of pulling the trigger, Crane told the newspaper.

Diane was president of the Atlanta-based marketing company Corey Airport Services, where she had worked for 43 years. Employees described her as a “passionate leader and prominent businesswoman” on the company’s Facebook page.

McIveris a partner at law firm Fisher Phillips, and is on the advisory committee of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Gun Violence.

He was indicted in 1990 on gun and assault charges, according to court records.

The case was later dropped following a settlement, according to court records. The terms were never publicly disclosed.

The district attorney and McIver’s lawyers did not immediately return PEOPLE’s calls for comment.