The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action news will bring you LIVE gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Tex McIver murder trial. Check back each day for a live blog from the courtroom and daily video recaps. Visit myajc.com/crime/ for previous coverage of the case and a link to our Breakdown podcast.
WATCH LIVE HERE:
This is our live recounting of testimony occurring in the courtroom today:
4:55 p.m. The jury has been dismissed for the day.
4:35 p.m. Shahinda Cyclewala, an emergency room nurse who was working at Emory the night Diane McIver was treated, says Tex McIver appeared very flustered in the hospital that night. She says when she passed by McIver in the hallway, she overheard him say, "I was cleaning my gun in the bathroom and I shot her." Defense attorney Don Samuel is pressing her about who he said these words to, but she says she doesn't remember. Judge Robert McBurney has had to intervene in the exchange, telling Samuel, "There's a difference between not clear and not getting an answer you like."
4:25 p.m. Windom tells the jury McIver was only treated in the emergency room for about 30 minutes before being discharged.
3:40 p.m. Mary Windom, an emergency room nurse who treated Diane McIver at Emory, is now on the stand. She is describing how when Diane McIver first arrived she barely had vital signs or blood pressure. At one point, Diane McIver regained consciousness and began to moan, saying she was in great pain. When she was asked what had happened she said her husband shot her "but it was an accident." The last thing Windom says she heard Diane McIver say was "I'm dying."
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
3:16 p.m. Defense attorney Don Samuel begins questioning Brown, asking her what Diane McIver said while she was being treated for the gunshot wound. Brown says she heard Diane McIver say "it was an accident," referring to the shooting by her husband.
Samuel is also asking Brown about the alcohol she says she smelled on Tex McIver’s breath. “It didn’t take my head off,” Brown says. “I didn’t believe it to be an extraordinary amount of alcohol.”
2:50 p.m. After helping get Diane McIver into the hospital, Brown testifies she had a conversation with Tex McIver in which he told her he had shot his wife by accident. "The gun was in my hand," she recalls Tex McIver saying that night. "It just went off."
Brown said she was face-to-face with Tex McIver and smelled alcohol on his breath.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
2:41 p.m.
Blair Brown, a former emergency room nurse at Emory Hospital, is testifying. She was one of two nurses who helped move Diane McIver from the SUV into the hospital.
2:20 p.m.
Judge Robert McBurney is accepting questions from the jury for Emory nurse Allison Neely. “Is it common for treatment to begin in the valet area as shown on the video?” She said if patients are unable to walk in, that nurses will go out to assist.
2:15 p.m.
Attorney for the defense Don Samuel is asking Neely about Tex McIver also becoming a patient at Emory on the night of the shooting. After Diane McIver died at the hospital, Tex McIver was treated in the triage area around 1 a.m.
Diane McIver’s good friend, Dani Jo Carter, was also at the hospital during this time. She was at the wheel of the McIver’s SUV when the shooting happened.
Previous AJC coverage: Witness in McIver shooting speaks for the first time. Our reporter Craig Schneider obtained the first statements from Dani Jo Carter in November 2016.
1:59 p.m.
Neely is recounting what occurs inside the emergency room where Diane McIver is being treated in the minutes after her arrival on the night of Sept. 25, 2016. Neely and another nurse and Tex McIver held Diane McIver, who was limp, to keep her in the wheelchair as she was taken inside. Tex McIver was briefly in the room as the staff began working on her. Neely testifies that gunshot wounds are unusual at the Emory Hospital emergency room, and so many nurses and doctors were rushing to assist.
Diane McIver had to receive fluids in order for her blood pressure to register on the machines. Diane was able to speak after a time. A doctor was communicating with her, but Neely heard her say that her stomach was hurting, and heard her ask if she were dying. “I’m dying, aren’t I?” Neely recounted earlier today.
1:42 p.m.
Emory nurse Allison Neely is recounting conversations she saw happen in the Emory hospital’s waiting areas after Diane McIver was brought in to the emergency area. Asked to describe Tex McIver’s demeanor that night, Neely said, “He was emotionless. He did not appear to be upset or distraught...” Her testimony draws objections from the defense team.
Seen in the courtroom today:
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
1:33 p.m. Court is resuming.
Emory nurse Allison Neely is back on the stand and she is identifying a photo of Dani Jo Carter, the driver of the SUV on the night Diane McIver was shot.
12:30 p.m. Lunch break is called.
12:20 p.m.
Credit: Channel 2 Action 2
Credit: Channel 2 Action 2
12:15 p.m.
12:01 p.m.
Today’s testimony in the Tex McIver murder trial is featuring a series of employees and doctors who worked at the Emory University Hospital on the night of Sept. 25, 2016 when Diane McIver was brought into their emergency room with a gunshot wound to her back.
Video has been shown taken from cameras outside the emergency room entrance. The video shows the McIver’s Ford Expedition arriving and Tex McIver jumping out to call for help.
Video also showed Diane McIver being taken out of the SUV’s passenger seat and awkwardly placed into a wheelchair by her husband and nurses. Tex wiped away tears and looked away from the screen. Defense attorneys seem to be working to counter early testimony today that Tex McIver was casual about getting her into the hospital.
11:42 a.m.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Emory valet at the emergency room, Paulos Weldegiorgis, recalls the white Ford Expedition pulling up to the door, and Tex McIver shouting “Gunshot. I need help.” Weldegiorgis said he grabbed a wheelchair, but that he is not allowed to help patients. McIver began trying to get his injured wife out of the vehicle, and asked Weldegiorgis for help, but the valet is not allowed to touch patients. Nurses quickly arrived to give assistance. Defense attorney Don Samuel is asking questions to counter earlier statements that Tex McIver did not move urgently while getting Diane McIver into the emergency room.
11:30 a.m.
Defense attorney Don Samuel forcefully questions Morgan on why he began his scan of the route at 10th Street. Morgan said he doesn’t know, but that he was not called to do “a full reconstruction.” He said the District Attorney’s office directed him where to begin the video recreation. Samuel is pressing to know if it is because there was a fire station on 10th Street. A station that drivers going north on Piedmont could not see.
The witness is excused.
READ PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Second powerhouse lawyer joins defense in Tex McIver murder case
10:56 a.m.
Crime scene investigator Gary Morgan, a detective with Sandy Springs Police Department, is talking about how he works to process crime scenes using 3D laser scanning, a new technology.
He is showing a computer recreation of the route driven by the SUV carrying Diane McIver after she was shot in the back. She sat in the front passenger seat with Tex McIver behind her in the back seat. Diane’s good friend Dani Jo Carter was driving to Emory University Hospital around 10 p.m. on the night of the shooting, Sept. 25, 2016.
The route begins at Tenth Street, eastbound toward Piedmont.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
10:40 a.m. Jury is given a 10-minute break and will return at 10:50.
This photo, an image taken from the video shown to jurors this morning from outside the Emory University Hospital emergency room, shows Diane McIver as she is placed into a wheelchair with Tex McIver (red shirt) assisting.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
10:35 a.m.
Defense attorney Don Samuel is narrating the video with witness Scott-Harris’ assistance. In the video from outside the emergency room on the night of Sept. 25, 2016, Diane McIver is removed from the SUV’s front passenger seat with some difficulty. She appears to be unable to sit upright in the wheelchair. Questions are asked about why a stretcher was not used to move her. Scott-Harris explains that the wheelchair may have been close at hand.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
10:28 a.m.
Witness Linda Scott-Harris is explaining the scene outside the Emory University Hospital’s emergency room on the night that Diane McIver was brought in with a gunshot wound. Scott-Harris is director of public safety at Emory.
Tex McIver can been seen assisting with putting Diane McIver into a wheelchair and moving her away from their SUV. The scene took place at 10:04 p.m. the night of the shooting.
In the courtroom, McIver can be seen wiping his eyes and looking down at the table while sitting next to his attorneys.
10:05 a.m. Prosecutors are showing video from the hospital that shows the McIvers' white Ford Expedition arriving at the hospital after the shooting. They seem to be suggesting that Tex McIver was not behaving in the way someone would if they had a gunshot victim who required urgent medical attention.
9:45 a.m. Testimony has begun in Day 3 of the Tex McIver murder trial. We are hearing now from Arthur Waggoner, operations manager at Emory University Hospital. He is talking about what happened when Tex McIver arrived with his wounded wife at the hospital the night of the shooting.
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