ATLANTA — The retrial for a former attorney accused of shooting and killing his wife will not move forward after prosecutors and the defense reached a plea deal Friday.

McIver agreed to a felony murder charge being reduced to involuntary manslaughter and an aggravated assault charge being reduced to reckless conduct. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

“She died as a result of my actions, plain and simple,” McIver said before Judge Robert McBurney Friday.

The original Tex McIver trial drew national attention as nearly 80 witnesses testified over the course of 19 days. Tex McIver admitted to shooting his wife, but the question was whether or not it was intentional.

On Sept. 25, 2016, the McIvers and their friend Dani Jo Carter were heading home from a party. Carter drove the SUV, Diane McIver sat in the front passenger seat and Tex McIver sat in the back seat behind his wife. McIver asked his wife to get his gun from the center console of the car and that is when McIver shot his wife in the back.

Carter drove the McIvers to the hospital, where Diane McIver died. A 2018 jury found McIver guilty of felony murder.

In 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his felony murder conviction, ruling the jurors didn’t receive proper instructions.

The state set a retrial date back in December, but jury selection lasted only for one day before McIver’s attorneys filed a motion barring the prosecution from introducing evidence that McIver had an intent to kill his wife.

Stay with 95.5 WSB for more details on this developing story

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