Judge denies Tex McIver access to SUV where he shot wife

ATLANTA — Prominent attorney Tex McIver asked a judge Tuesday morning in court for the return of an SUV in which his wife was killed.

Superior Court Judge Jaslovelin Lall rejected that request, ruling in favor of the prosecution’s argument that the white 2013 Ford Expedition was essentially a crime scene that authorities still want to look at.

McIver is charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and felony involuntary manslaughter in connection with his wife's death. He maintains that it was an accident.

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His attorneys argued that Atlanta detectives thoroughly went through the vehicle in September, collecting evidence, immediately after Diane McIver was shot and killed.

Prosecutor Clint Rucker made the request the night before receiving an order from another judge saying that authorities needed to hold on to the vehicle to further search it.

Rucker was granted that order by Fulton Judge Robert McBurney, and handed it to the defense attorneys minutes before the proceeding began Tuesday.

That order caught the defense by surprise, but it worked, and McIver walked out of the court bereft of the SUV.

Cox Media Group