ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Tex McIver pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Jan. 26, 2024, and received an eight-year prison sentence under a plea agreement. The deal resolved a case that had moved through Georgia's courts for years after McIver was originally convicted in the fatal shooting of his wife, Diane McIver.

A jury had previously found McIver guilty of felony murder, a conviction that carries a mandatory life sentence. He was ordered to serve life in prison for his wife's death.

The fatal shooting occurred while a friend, Dani Jo Carter, was driving McIver and Diane McIver home. During the drive, a gun that McIver was holding fired, striking his wife. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office characterized the shooting of Diane McIver as murder and pursued the case as a homicide.

The legal trajectory of the case shifted in 2022, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that jurors in the original trial should have been able to consider a charge of misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter. The absence of that option for the jury, according to the ruling, represented an error that warranted a new trial. McIver won his appeal and was granted the opportunity to be retried.

Rather than proceed to a second trial, McIver entered the plea agreement on Jan. 26, 2024, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The eight-year sentence imposed under the deal was shorter than the mandatory life sentence that had followed his felony murder conviction. The plea reduced the charge from felony murder to involuntary manslaughter.

The Fulton County DA's Office had maintained that the shooting constituted murder, a position that contrasted with the lesser charge to which McIver ultimately admitted guilt. The plea agreement brought the case to a conclusion after legal proceedings that included the original trial, the appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, and the 2022 ruling that overturned the initial conviction.

With credit for the time he had already served in prison during the extended legal process, McIver was released from custody in January 2025, approximately one year after the plea was entered. His release followed a case that spanned from the original felony murder conviction through the 2022 Georgia Supreme Court ruling and the 2024 plea agreement.