The exclusive Buckhead condo of Claud “Tex” and Diane McIver is on the market, but it is unclear whether the attorney accused of killing his wife will see a penny from the sale.
Under Georgia law, a person convicted of murdering another person cannot profit from their will. That law, called the slayer statute, could prevent the 74-year-old from profiting from the condo sale. McIver is charged with malice and felony murder, and his trial is set for Oct. 30.
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“If you murder somebody, you cannot inherit from that person,” said Atlanta family law attorney Randy Kessler, who is not involved in the case.
Last September, the couple was riding in their SUV near Piedmont Park with Diane sitting in the front passenger seat and Tex McIver behind her when the gun he was holding went off, striking his wife in the back. McIver maintains the shooting was an accident.
For now, the McIvers’ three-bedroom condo in the Villa at Buckhead is selling for $674,900, according to the Georgia Multiple Listing Service. The condo had been the living space for years of the McIvers, who were married in 2005. Diane McIver is listed as the owner of the 3,360-square-foot property.
Tex McIver talked about the condo in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shortly after his wife’s death in September. He said that after Diane’s messy divorce from her first husband in 2000, she moved into the Villa at Buckhead.
“Word reached me that this gorgeous woman had moved into the building,” he recalled.
After several attempts to introduce himself didn’t work out, he had a friend talk to her secretary. Then Diane called him, and they met in the condo workout room. Dinner followed a few nights later.
“From there it was just magical,” Tex McIver recalled.
He bought a unit right next to hers, and they converted it into a single place. It became their main residence, though the couple often spent weekends at their ranch in Putnam County.
The photos of the condo’s interior, accompanying the MLS listing, reveal a sprawling domicile with lush furnishings. It features double master suites with spa baths and walk-in closets. Diane McIver was known for her extensive, if not extravagant, wardrobe and jewelry, some of which was made public during her husband’s auction of her possessions after her death. Those included a full-length fur coat dyed in orange, which she wore to Auburn football games, and a pair of earrings valued at over $20,000.
The condo’s spacious den features a wet bar, wine chiller and walls of wine shelves.
The condo figured in the aftermath of Diane McIver’s death. Investigators discovered a gun in a sock drawer while Tex McIver was out on bond in April. That bond violation sent him back to jail, where he has resided since.
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Tex McIver’s attorneys say McIver is fine with the sale of the condo, which is being handled by the estate of Diane McIver. A Fulton County judge had removed McIver as the executor of his wife’s estate. Mary Margaret Oliver, a state representative from Decatur, is serving as the administrator of the estate.
She declined to comment on the case.
Diane McIver made her husband a primary beneficiary in her will.
William Hill, an attorney for McIver, said he does not foresee the slayer statute coming into play.
“This is an absolute accident,” he said. “There was no intent to kill.”
Intent to kill is the key to invoking the statute, said Esther Panitch, a criminal defense attorney who is closely watching the McIver case. If McIver is convicted of involuntary manslaughter, he can still inherit from his wife’s estate, she said.
There is also the possibility that Diane McIver’s estate could file a wrongful death claim against her husband. That is a civil action, and if a jury determines that “clear and convincing evidence” exists that he intended to kill her, he could lose the right to inherit.
The condo, which also has two terraces with skyline views, is advertised as, “Old world European meets modern updates in this thoughtfully renovated Buckhead home.”
The annual taxes, according to the ad, are $9,841.
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