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[Music] I loved you before this ceremony and I love you more because of it. You may
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kiss your bride. They were inseparable. Tex absolutely adored Diane and Diane adored Tex.
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I feel like the prosecution has tried to make this out to be about someone who is
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successful and powerful trying to get away with something like murder. They don't know text and Diane personally
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like I do. A woman died after she was shot inside a car on this block. Previously on Breakdown. Welcome back.
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Before we plunge back into the story of Tex MacGyver, I want to tell and I'm a reporter with the Atlanta Journal
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Constitution and we've been covering the Tex MacGyver case since day one. This was a enormously high-profile case. They
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were big time power couple. We're going to have plenty of beverages over here. So, just everybody start walking,
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please. Tex owned a ranch out in Putnham County, which is a pretty nice place for a
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vacation home. [Music] They woke up that morning, Tex made sausage biscuits and coffee and took
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them upstairs to Diane and Danny Joe, her longtime friend. They spend the afternoon playing golf, and they drive
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back to Atlanta. They're on their way back to their condo in Buckhead. They stop on
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the way at Longhorn to get something to eat. They have some wine at dinner. Danny Joe was driving because she didn't
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drink. My name is Bruce Harvey and I represent Tex McCyver. Texas seated right behind his
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wife in the back passenger seat. They're going to hit traffic that just stops them
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still. So, they're thinking, "We got to get off of the interstate. We got to find a better way to get to
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Buckhead." According to texts, he had been asleep, but when they go down this ramp, he wakes up.
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and says, "I think this is a bad idea, ladies. It's a dangerous area. Will you hand me my gun,
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honey?" And she does. Text told police that the people quote rose the hair on the back of your neck," unquote.
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I'd say they drove another 5 to 10 minutes and they are coming close to Pedmont Park. He fell back asleep. I
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think he fell into what he said was sort of a between being fully asleep and being fully awake. According to text,
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the car comes to a stop. He was jolted awake. I was handling the gun. Did not realize
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it was in my lap ready and it went off. [Music] Can a 38 special just accidentally go
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off? Never known it to happen. You have to pull the trigger. Jiminy. Ooh. The gun would be right here in his lap
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according to what he said. So he was startled. He pulls the trigger and the bullet goes just to the left of the
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middle here. If you're trying to kill someone, you know that's going to be devastating to whoever is sitting there.
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Especially if you're trying to make it look like an accident. Yes, I would think so. Yes.
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I think there are people who absolutely believe that he killed his wife for whatever reason, probably for money.
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People get killed over money all the time. That's the dumbest plan on the history of the planet. And anybody that
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thinks that that is the way that Tex Mccyver deliberately killed his wife is just living in a fantasy world.
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[Music] [Music] 48 hours. The last ride [Music] [Music] home. They drove back to Atlanta on a
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Sunday night. They were headed to Tex and Diane's luxury condominium in Buckhead. On the night of September
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25th, 2016, Tex Macyver shot and killed his wife Diane. They'd been together for
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16 years, married for 11 years. I remember the first time I ever met Diane. She just had such a commanding
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presence about her. According to close friend Anne Schwall, Diane was the love of Texas life. She was beautiful and
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there was such an energy and electricity about her. The year was 2000. 47year-old
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Diane was recently divorced with no children and a thriving career as the executive vice president of a real
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estate and advertising company. In search of a fresh start, she moved into this luxurious condominium in Atlanta's
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swankying neighborhood, Buckhead. Everyone in the building was talking about her. Linda and Rance Winkler say
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their new neighbor was hard to miss. She wore St. John and Chanel on the golf course. She wore hats just about every
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day and she had a presence and a way of carrying herself. But says Linda, no one
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paid more attention to Diane than another popular divorce in the building, wealthy labor lawyer Tex McCyver. Before
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he met Diane, did he have a a love life that you knew of or a dating life? No. He was so consumed with his work. He'd
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been through a very um painful, difficult divorce. It wasn't until Diane came along that he was interested in
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having a romantic life. Tex was a decade older than Diane, but they soon became inseparable, spending
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much of their free time at Texas weekend home, fondly known as the ranch, where the couple was known for
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throwing parties for Atlanta's rich and powerful, says friend and Putnham County
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Sheriff Howard Sills. They were big entertainers. They were always having somebody there for some kind of party or
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some kind of political thing like that. We have had the best yet party. Diane was always the life of the party.
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She was always the boss of the party, too. Tex was uh usually very reserved, consumate gentleman. If a lady walked in
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a room, he was up like a jack in the box. After 5 years together, Diane agreed to become Mrs. Tex Macyver. He
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cared about her, which was probably the very first time she had that experience in a lot of years. He didn't need that.
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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,
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in terms of liquid assets, he was further along than she. So, having both suffered through painful and expensive
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divorces, the couple decided to keep their finances separate. I don't know anyone actually who's combined their
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assets having married at the age that that they married. And you have to remember that Tex had this terrible,
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painful, expensive divorce and he was never going to put himself in a situation like that. Was there an issue
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of money between them? Not in the conventional sense, but when they started building this place, you can see
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this place. You see what it's like. Show place. Yes. Linda is talking about this
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guest house on Texas property. Before the wedding, they say Diane insisted on building the massive party house that
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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
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wanted it, she would pay for it and she said fine. But money and who paid for what in that relationship would come
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back to haunt texts becoming a possible motive for murder. Is there any scenario
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where you can think that Tex would have shot Diane intentionally? Never. Never once. Anne Schwall says she
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admired Diane and Tex so much that she asked them to be godparents to her youngest son, Austin. They just adored
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him and they just poured so much love into him. Tex was all the family Diane had. And after his divorce, he was
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estranged from two of his children. Too old for children of their own, Anne says
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they focused all their attention on Austin. I just wanted so much to show him all the great things that he could
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do and how he could grow up and be such a responsible young man. Teaching them how to ride horses and how to fish and
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how to be a good steward of the land and of animals. And how did um Austin feel about them? Oh, he adored them. The
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ranch was their special place. And every year it's where Tex and Diane insisted on hosting extravagant birthday parties
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for Austin. Happy birthday, Austin. Happy birthday. I hope you have a great birthday. The birthday parties were
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legendary. A sign of how much they loved him. tell me when you heard about what happened. So he called me. It was in the
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middle of the night and as soon as I heard his voice and he said we lost Diane and my immediate reaction
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was how am I going to tell Austin? Anne says Austin never once blamed texts for Diane's death. He actually was just
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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
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my wife. He is profoundly regretful. He talked to me a couple of weeks ago and he said I I it's like I smell her and I
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break down. I cry. It was all a tragic accident according to Texas defenders. But here's the biggest problem. No one,
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including texts, can explain how his gun went off and killed his wife. We just asked him that day before yesterday. He
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still cannot give an answer to exactly what happened. Who do you remember after the gun?
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Peter got shot. 2 days after Diane's death, text and his then lawyer met with Atlanta Police
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Department homicide detectives. I immediately called out. I said, "Is everybody all right?" And Danny Joe
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said, "Yes." And Diane head was kind of slanted and she said, "Uh, I've been shot." As detectives set out to
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investigate the shooting of Diane McCyver, they focused on their best witness. You ever taken any like safety
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glasses or anything like that? No. Nothing. I don't worry about it very long. and they focused on their best
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piece of [Music] evidence. Here we are in a almost new SUV with two women in the front seat.
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And I said, "Yeah, I'd like if you don't mind, please hand me my gun." There is no doubt that Tex McCyver
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pulled the trigger on the gun that killed his wife Diane. The question is why? Was he asleep as he said he was and
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he was jolted awake and pulled the trigger or did he want to kill his wife? Previously on Breakdown, reporter Bill
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Rankin's Breakdown podcast takes a deep dive into the Shakespearean drama surrounding Tex McCyver. He's a 48 hours
00:13:00
consultant on the case. Holding a loaded handgun, pointing it at your wife, falling asleep seems pretty reckless.
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Using a similar car, Ranken showed us how the bullet that killed Diane McCyver traveled through the passenger seat of
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Texas SUV. It hits there and it goes from right to left through the seat and exits out here, right? and goes down
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slightly downward path through his wife's body. The bullet went through Diane's left rib
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cage and diaphragm, severed a vein and artery in her spleen, and then hit several organs, including her left
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kidney and stomach. And she started breathing funny and and she, you know, kind of passed out. That night,
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detectives were anxious to hear Danny Joe Carter, the car's driver, explain what Tex did after he shot his wife. All
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I could think of was PE hospital, and I thought, I don't know how to I don't know how to get there. And he says, no,
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Emry is closer. Tex decided to go to Emery University Hospital. There were four hospitals, all
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approximately less than 5 miles from where the shooting is believed to have taken place. Emory was the farthest at
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about 4.3 miles, but one of the best trauma centers in all of Georgia. Grady was only about 3.2 mi away. Anybody who
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lives in Atlanta knows about Grady Hospital and it's a level one trauma center. There were people who have said
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that he went to Emery Hospital because it was going to take her longer and maybe let her bleed out.
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Family friend Sheriff Howard Sills, who is not involved in the case, says, "No way." And explains that Grady just was
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not on Texas radar. If you're rich and you're affluent, then you don't want to go to Grady Hospital because Grady
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Hospital is where indigent people go. The people in that car that night, they would have thought Emmery.
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This dramatic surveillance footage shows the SUV arriving at Emory's emergency room and texts helping Diane into a
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wheelchair. Then before surgery, Diane made a critical statement to her doctors. Her husband did not mean to
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shoot her. She said it was an accident. But 2 hours later, Diane Macyver died on
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the operating table at 12:49 a.m. You want to have the worst feeling in your life is to be sitting in one of
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the waiting rooms, two surgeons and scrubs in a chaplain come around the corner and start walking toward him.
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Now, it was up to detectives to determine, was it truly an accident or was it coldblooded murder?
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This Smith and Wesson 38 caliber revolver that killed Diane was in the car's center console inside a plastic
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bag when it was handed to text by Diane. We've had some breakins in our office. In response to that, I had wrapped my
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gun in the Publix grocery. The gun was still in the bag when it went off. The gun was still in the bag. Yeah. I mean,
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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
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until you're ready to pull and you have your target in sight. Law enforcement analyst and former police officer
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Vincent Hill says a guy like Tex should have known better. So to wake up out of this sleep, you're
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startled. Your finger's automatically on the trigger. You pull this trigger and you do one shot, a kill shot. In my
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mind, it's not likely. Lean into it. the weapon. And Hill is not alone in his opinion. That's why I asked former
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Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Bert Davis to take me out to a gun range not far from Texas
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Ranch. I wanted to understand the gun. See how well you're doing? You know, the revolver can be fired two ways. The
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handgun, which only shoots one bullet at a time, can be fired in two very different ways. Single action or double
00:17:30
action. Either way, it does not look good for texts. Because experts say this gun only goes off if the trigger is
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pulled. In single action, the shooter pulls back the hammer like this. With the gun already cocked in
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this position, it hardly takes any effort at all to pull the trigger. It only takes about two pounds
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of pressure to actually pull the trigger, which is why experienced gun owners say you only this gun if you
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know you are about to use it. No one that I know of would just sit with your gun with a gun in single action. A
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double action is a different story. This gun is not loaded, but I want to show you what happens in double action. You
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pull the trigger, and the gun automatically pulls the hammer back, rotates the cylinder, and fires. But
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it's not easy because it takes about 12 lbs of pressure to actually pull the trigger, making it much harder to fire
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it accidentally. It would be difficult, but not impossible. But not impossible. But somehow that gun was fired. And to
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this day, text cannot answer this question. Was the gun in single action or double action? Good question. Do you
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have an answer? Do I have an answer? Why do I have to answer these? Why does Tex
00:18:54
McCyver have to answer anything? Texas lawyer Bruce Harvey is one of Atlanta's most successful and sought-after defense
00:19:03
attorneys. What is your challenge with this gun? Clearly, a trigger was pulled, right? The question is, was that a
00:19:12
voluntary knowing and intentional action or an involuntary action based upon an accident?
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But Tex was clearly no stranger to guns. Out at the ranch, he had what many would
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consider an arsenal of weapons. After Diane's death, Tex asked his buddy, Sheriff Sills, to go out to his ranch
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and collect his guns for safekeeping. So, you cleared out how many guns? As I recall, it was about 35 guns, including
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rifles, handguns, and AR-15s. Would you describe him as a as a gun guy? Yes and no. Here in the
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South. Everybody's got a lot of guns. We're getting ready to put on a rodeo demonstration with real cows. But the
00:20:03
idea that Tex MacGyver should have known better was about to become a central and
00:20:08
recurring theme for the 75year-old lawyer. It gets really crazy. I think we've called it a textbook example of
00:20:17
what not to do after you kill your wife. [Music] Bruce Harvey is one of the most
00:20:30
distinctive members of the Atlanta Defense Bar. He has worn a braided ponytail down his back for decades.
00:20:36
Bruce Harvey was not Tex McCyver's first attorney. How did you first hear about it? It was all over the media. It all
00:20:44
started September 25th. Startling new information in the shooting death of Diane Macgyver. Harvey, who knew text
00:20:50
through mutual friends, says he watched the news coverage for almost a year, while Nick Iver made a mess of the case
00:20:57
and his reputation. A complete ongoing disaster, mismanaged from day one, I think, resulting in the reason that
00:21:07
we're sitting here to start with. It started right after the shooting. Atlanta's media immediately began
00:21:16
clamoring for an answer to why on earth Tex had been sitting right behind his wife in his SUV with his finger on the
00:21:25
trigger of a loaded gun. 4 days after the shooting, Tex had an explanation in a statement made
00:21:33
through a spokesman. He said that text told him that he asked for the gun because there were either homeless
00:21:39
people, carjackers, or black lives matter protesters. What do we want? That gave Tex an air of being rich,
00:21:48
white, and oblivious, igniting a real life bonfire of the vanities. Why would you equate Black Lives Matter protesters
00:21:57
with carjackers? Why would you inject race into this? That put the story into a whole another realm. and it went
00:22:04
national because of that. You have this very rich, very powerful white guy in a city that's predominantly
00:22:16
black. I think that's why this case is so appealing to the public. Texas attorney at the time publicly
00:22:24
denied that his client ever said he was afraid of black protesters, but the damage was done and things were about to
00:22:32
get even worse. CBS 46 has an exclusive look tonight at the diamonds, the furs, and the designer bags about to go on
00:22:39
auction. This was pretty stunning. Just two months after shooting his wife, Tex started selling off Dian's extensive
00:22:49
collection of valuable belongings, her most expensive jewelry, fur coats, and handbags would go to the highest biders
00:22:57
at an auction. I understand it was advertised as her stuff, right, to bring in more
00:23:05
buyers. And it wasn't just one auction. It looked like a Nordstrom department store, if not better.
00:23:11
The district attorney's office filed motions to block the sales, but a judge denied their requests. And as the
00:23:19
executive of Dian's estate, Tex said he had no choice. Why? According to text, he said that in her will, Diane had left
00:23:28
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
00:23:36
money went into the estate and not to him. But timing in this case was everything. Tax has come
00:23:43
under fire for holding the two sales while still at the center of the homicide. Should it have gone forward at
00:23:48
that time? Could it have waited? The answer clearly is yes. And it's something we just have to deal with. At
00:23:56
least Tech still had Danny Joe Carter. And that's it. Danny Joe was his best witness, the only other person in the
00:24:05
car when the gun went off. The night of the shooting, Danny Joe told detectives in no uncertain terms she believed
00:24:13
Diane's death was an accident. There is not a doubt in my mind that it was completely a horrible accident. But on
00:24:25
February 2nd, 2017, a little over 4 months after the shooting, Danny Joe changed her story.
00:24:33
He's not been nice to me and tried to manipulate me. In a third interview with investigators conducted inside of Texas
00:24:42
SUV, Danny Joe alleged that on the night of the shooting, Tex told her to lie. He tried to get me to lie supposedly to
00:24:54
protect me from getting all wrapped up in this. Danny Joe said to walked up to her and said, "Why don't you just tell
00:25:01
police you weren't in the car? There's no question she was in the car. There's no question she was driving.
00:25:07
There's videotape at Emory Hospital. Bruce Harvey concedes that it is possible text was just trying to protect
00:25:15
his friend. Danny Joe at that particular time was beingounded by the media. And I
00:25:22
think a lot of this effort was to try to allow her to avoid the media crunch. not
00:25:32
designed for her not to talk to the police or not to give a particular statement, but there was no media yet at
00:25:39
the hospital. There there was going to be. Are you saying that text may have told her to tell the cops she wasn't in
00:25:45
the car so that people would stopounding her? Yes. So Tex may have told her that
00:25:50
if he did, but there is no denying this. Days after the shooting, Tex orchestrated a meeting with his lawyers
00:25:59
and two reporters where Danny Joe was to make a legal and public statement that the shooting was an accident. When she
00:26:07
was a no-show and stopped taking his calls, text left this frantic voicemail for her husband. Let me just be plain.
00:26:15
Danny is about to send me to prison. Please erase this this voicemail message, but call me right away. Y'all
00:26:21
have no idea the problem this is causing. It's innocent, but it's absolutely nuclear for me. It doesn't
00:26:28
sound good when he says, "Please erase this voicemail message, but call me right away." So, what does he mean? When
00:26:34
we examine what Well, we don't have to explain what he he means. They have to explain why it is a crime for him to do
00:26:42
that or how it relates. Bruce Harvey was still watching from the sidelines when on December 20th, 2016, Tex got some
00:26:51
good news. The Atlanta Police Department concluded the shooting was not an intentional act. Based on their
00:26:59
findings, the Fulton County District Attorney charged Tex with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. After
00:27:07
spending his birthday behind bars, Tex McGyver bonds out of jail just before Christmas weekend.
00:27:15
But with the case now in the hands of the district attorney's office, they decided to launch their own
00:27:21
investigation into the shooting. There was a bond hearing where the lead prosecutor, Clint Rucker, strongly
00:27:29
hinted that they didn't believe it was accidental. That made everyone think, "Wo, okay, this is getting even more
00:27:36
serious now." [Music] A little over a week after Tex Macyver was charged with involuntary
00:27:47
manslaughter, there was more breaking news in this case. Startling new information in the shooting death of
00:27:53
Diane Macgyver. Our Atlanta affiliate CBS46 uncovered evidence that at the time of Dian's death, tax owed his wife
00:28:03
$350,000. He was supposed to pay her back with interest by December of 2014. That never
00:28:12
happened. Tech said that the money was Dian's contribution to the construction of that saloon on his ranch and that for
00:28:21
tax purposes, Diane wanted it to look like a loan. There was $350,000, but it wasn't ever actually
00:28:28
going to be paid back by him. The $350,000 was a function of nothing more than taxes.
00:28:35
But on paper, it does look like a loan and one that Tex was expected to pay back. That could be argued that he
00:28:44
didn't want to have to pay that off. Meanwhile, the Fulton County DA's office was looking for a possible motive for
00:28:51
murder. When they heard that Diane may have had a second will, subpoenas were obtained to search the couple's
00:28:58
financial records. And that's when this happened. During a search of their condo, Tex was found to be violating the
00:29:07
terms of his bond with, of all things, possession of a gun. They found a gun in his sock drawer that he probably went to
00:29:16
all the time when he was getting dressed, and they found ammunition in the drawer right above it. Tex insisted
00:29:21
that the condo had already been searched for and cleared of any weapons. So, the
00:29:26
Glock pistol, which he claimed had once belonged to Diane, must have been planted. The judge didn't buy it. Mr.
00:29:34
MacGyver possessed the gun. I am going to revoke Mr. MacGyver's bond. After 4 months out on bond, tax was back
00:29:46
behind bars when the very next day there was yet another stunning announcement by
00:29:52
the DA's office. A grand jury that had been hearing testimony for weeks concluded there was
00:30:00
enough evidence to charge Tex Macyver with the murder of his wife. It was surprising that it leapt so far
00:30:09
from an accident to cold, cruel, intentional killing. Tex would spend the next 8 months in
00:30:18
jail, seeing loved ones only through video screen visitations. Here he is. Hello, Austin. Mommy, how are y'all? And
00:30:28
desperately trying to get out on bond again. Well, I love y'all and I hope to see everybody on Wednesday if things
00:30:34
work out. I love you, Austin. Then Bruce Harvey took over the case. I don't believe I don't believe in my
00:30:43
heart of hearts. I don't believe as we're sitting here that Tex Mccyver had any deliberate intent to do any harm to
00:30:52
his wife. We're going home. Harvey got text released and put on house arrest. Then he set about preparing for trial on
00:31:00
a case where there had been one public blunder after another. Are you concerned about being able to seat an impartial
00:31:07
jury? Yes, I am. I think Texas has been unfairly vilified in the court of public opinion.
00:31:17
Jury selection in the trial of Tex MacGyver began on March 5th and took a whole week. Well, today jury selection
00:31:24
got underway in a Fulton County courtroom and a pool of more than 140 potential jurors. Good morning,
00:31:31
everyone. Good morning. When the trial began, Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Celita Griffin delivered the
00:31:39
state's opening argument. The day that the defendant shot his wife in the back, his life was spinning out of control.
00:31:46
And what became fairly clear is that the prosecution believes Tex McCyver's motive for murder was money. The easiest
00:31:55
way for him to gain control was to kill Diane. Is money a motive here? No. Very simple answer. He is much worse off
00:32:08
without her. I think that is a huge red herring. You know why? because they've got nothing else. Now, this is a case
00:32:16
about maintaining an image of wealth and power that the defendant created for himself and the links that he went
00:32:23
through to keep it. What if Tex didn't mean to do it? Or what if Tex did mean to do it, but the
00:32:36
prosecution fails to prove it? All rise for the jury. Testimony in the murder trial of Tex Macyver began on March 13th
00:32:44
and lasted 20 [Music] days. By closing arguments, the jury had heard two very different theories of why
00:32:55
Tex McCyver shot his wife. I'm going to talk to you about the facts. Prosecutor Clint Rucker and his team
00:33:02
painted an ugly picture of a man who they say was broke and so desperate for money that he murdered his wife. He was
00:33:10
taking her money and he was regaining control. Evidence showed that Macyver's salary at his law firm had been cut by
00:33:18
more than half while the state says he was living way beyond his means. And remember, the Macyver kept their
00:33:25
finances separate. Remember this email? This a couple of months before the murder. This is what the defendant says
00:33:33
to his wife. I am seriously trying to reduce my monthly expenses. Why? Cuz his monthly expenses
00:33:41
at the ranch alone were 20 to $25,000 a month. What does he say? I plan on hitting the
00:33:47
lotto sometime this week. Diane joked that Tex might want to think about becoming their new ranch hand. Read his
00:33:56
job description. because that is your next life chapter. This what he said in response. Oh well, back to
00:34:08
Jigalo. The state believes that Tex was using Diane for her money. But what drove him to murder is this. Before they
00:34:16
were married, Tex borrowed $750,000 from Diane. As payment, the state says he deeded her half of his
00:34:25
ranch. What that meant was that now the property was no longer owned solely by the defendant. In 2011, Diane loaned Tex
00:34:35
another $350,000, but this time she made Tex sign a promisary note that gave her the
00:34:42
right to foreclose on the ranch if Tex didn't pay up. So, when the loan didn't get paid, she said, I'm going to put
00:34:49
another clause in here that says, you know what, it's not that I don't have to uh
00:34:56
wait until you don't pay me. I can foreclose at any time. And as we sit here today, the loan is in default. By
00:35:03
killing Diane, the defendant will regain sole ownership of the ranch. The jury heard Danny Joe's claim that Tex asked
00:35:10
her to lie. They also heard about the Black Lives Matter statement and the auction. But there was more. They heard
00:35:17
what happened to Diane's ashes after she was cremated. Took him 42 days pick up his wife's
00:35:25
remains. That's what I found. Tucked back in a closet in a cardboard box. It's just not
00:35:33
right. But the defense team told a very different story. A love story. They were
00:35:39
him. Nobody ever saw them arguing. Nobody ever heard her say, "I'm going to foreclose if you don't pay me my money."
00:35:48
This is the big one. Bruce Harvey and the defense team tried to show that Tex did not need Dian's money. Texas was not
00:35:56
broke, nor was he in dire financial straits. The state's calculation put Texas net worth at 1.7 million before
00:36:06
Diane died. But what the defense tried hardest to hammer home was that the shooting was
00:36:13
nothing but an accident. And remember, that's what Diane said before she died. The three people that were in the
00:36:22
vehicle all said it was an accident. And as for the gun, you remember the expert with the
00:36:32
firearm? Harvey used the state's own gun expert to show that anyone can fire the
00:36:38
gun accidentally. It was remember him demonstrating um the weapon in pulling the trigger
00:36:47
when he testified right here. You notice the trigger? [Music] Oops. He's demonstrating it for you on the
00:37:02
witness stand. He accidentally pulls the trigger. He says, "Oops." The shooting could not have been
00:37:16
premeditated, says the defense, because it was Diane who told Danny Joe to take that exit when they hit traffic. And
00:37:24
after Tex was handed his gun, he fell back asleep. The defense also presented an expert who
00:37:31
said Tex suffered from a long documented sleep disorder, which might explain why
00:37:37
he unintentionally pulled the trigger and can't remember how. Often times when people arouse from these, they don't
00:37:45
arouse quickly. They frequently have amnesia for this. As the case was about to go to the jury,
00:37:54
the defense suggested that the state had not proven its case. beyond a reasonable
00:37:59
doubt. We do not convict people in fogs of speculation, but on the bedrock of fact. Dan tried to
00:38:13
stand up for herself. And on behalf of the state, Clint Rucker pleaded with the jury to punish Diane Macyver's killer.
00:38:21
Who will stand for Diane Maggava? a great woman she tried to be. Will you stand for Diana MacGyver as she
00:38:32
cries out, "Who will stand for [Music] me?" The jury deliberated for about 29 hours. At one point, each sat in the
00:38:49
back passenger seat of Macyver's SUV holding the gun that killed Diane. Some of the jurors were actually clicking the
00:38:57
trigger. So, I think it could have made a huge difference in the outcome of this
00:39:00
trial. On their fourth full day of deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge saying they were deadlocked.
00:39:07
We don't see a gap to overcome our differences, but the judge told them to try again. Then just two hours later,
00:39:16
they reached a verdict. Was it malice murder? Meaning Tex intended to kill Diane. Felony murder. Tex shot Diane
00:39:26
with the intention of causing her bodily harm, but had not intended to kill her.
00:39:31
Felony involuntary manslaughter. He acted recklessly or not guilty. On count one, murder, we find the defendant not
00:39:41
guilty. Well, when the jury came back and the foreman read not guilty on malice murder, I was like, "Oh my
00:39:48
goodness." But then they said this. We find the defendant guilty of felony murder.
00:39:54
Guilty of felony murder. Tex was clearly stunned. The jury felt that he shot Diane without malice of forethought, but
00:40:04
intending to do bodily harm. It might have been a compromise for the jury. It's no compromise for a Tex MacGyver
00:40:11
because uh malice murder and felony murder both carry a life sentence. A mandatory life sentence. It's a a
00:40:19
complete tragedy. I mean, that closes the circle. Everybody loses. Tax handed over his belt and was
00:40:29
handcuffed. Fulton County DA Paul Howard brought it back to the victim, Diane. We
00:40:35
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
00:40:44
for the things that you represented. Given these shackles, if you don't mind, I would like to serve. At his sentencing
00:40:53
hearing, Tech spoke directly to Diane. I know she's here. I feel her presence. I speak to you.
00:41:02
Donald Jagger brought me more joy and fulfillment that few men on this earth have ever known. But it's what he didn't
00:41:10
say that stood out. I didn't ever hear you say you're sorry for what you did to me. That silence speaks volumes.
00:41:24
Prosecutors say this is justice for Diane. Text Macyver supporters disagree. She didn't need justice when it's a
00:41:33
terrible accident. She's in heaven right now. I'm just heartbroken. [Music]