Attorney Tex McIver has surrendered his passport and he wears an ankle monitoring device ordered by a judge.
His lawyer has said he's heartbroken after killing his wife Sept. 25 in what McIver says was an accidental shooting. He was arrested and charged last month with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
But nothing seems to slow Claud “Tex” McIver from a swift and efficient liquidation of his wife’s estate. The next phase of that process starts this week with the auction of more than 150 of Diane McIver’s most opulent and expensive personal items.
They include diamond-studded gold earrings valued at between $20,000 to $40,000 (opening bid $10,000), according to Ahlers and Ogeltree Auction Gallery, which McIver has enlisted to manage the live auction scheduled for this weekend.
Other items on the auction block include an 18k gold Rolex watch set with 100 diamonds valued at between $8,000 and $12,000, and a gold and diamond tennis bracelet valued at $3,000 to $5,000.
The auction follows last month's estate sale where an affiliated company of the auction house sold some 2,000 items from Diane McIver's collection of designer clothes, shoes, hats and costume jewelry. She was a well-known business executive in Atlanta and her husband has been a longtime corporate attorney. The exact total sales from that multi-day estate sale is unknown, but it's easily in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Tex McIver's attorney said last month that his client is executor of his wife's estate and selling her wardrobe was part of the process to settle her affairs. The money would be used to help cover $350,000 she left to others in her will, including her longtime housekeeper.
A spokesman for McIver issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying that none of the proceeds from the estate sale or auction would go to pay for his legal defense.
Robert Ahlers, who owns the companies handling the estate sale and auction, said he is accustomed to helping families deal with difficult situations after losing a loved one, but this has been a unique case.
“We’re focused on doing the best job we can for the estate,” he said. “Considering the circumstances, it is a tragic situation.”
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