August 2, 2022 • 37 mins
Today’s guests are producer Stephanie Lydecker and forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan. Joseph recently worked on the KT studio's documentary Murdered and Missing in Montana, now streaming on Peacock and he appears in The Piketon Massacre podcast. He also hosts his own podcast, Body Bags, which is available to download now.
Forensics, motive, money and love collide in this unbelievable story of one well-liked and respected couple whose lives were turned upside down on the side of a Texas road.
To connect with Joseph, check him out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephscottmorgan/
Check us out online! www.instagram.com/KT_Studios
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
You see stars, you feel giddy, But sometimes that makes
you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
because the story starts out with once upon a Time
doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
and Love, a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio.
(00:24):
Today's guests are true crime producer Stephanie Ledecker and forensic
expert Joseph Scott Morgan. Over his career, Joseph's handled thousands
of death investigations, including over seven thousand autopsies. Joseph also
recently worked on the Katie Studios documentary Murdered and Missing
in Montana, which is now streaming on Peacock. Joseph also
(00:47):
hosts his own podcast, Bodybags Available Everywhere. Episode thirty eight,
the Case of the Power Couple, The Loan and the
Fatal Drive Home. If Atlanta's upper crust had a royal couple,
it would be Diane and Text mug Iver. With successful careers,
(01:11):
beautiful homes, full of designer clothes, and a loving marriage.
The pair seemed to just shine brighter than others. Diana
Text met in two thousand when Diane moved to a
luxury high rise building in downtown Atlanta. Before she could
fully unpack, everyone in the building was talking about the
chanelle wearing advertising vice president. Despite being recently divorced. Diane
(01:33):
was known for her kind spirit and high energy. She
was physically beautiful, but also had a commanding confidence that
was tantalizing. While she could have had her pick of
the single men in town, one eligible bachelor caught her eye,
Text mug Iver, ten years her senior. Text was a
wealthy labor lawyer who spent his time between downtown Atlanta
(01:55):
and a sprawling farmhouse that he dubbed the Ranch. After
a painful and expensive divorce, Text was consumed with work
and love was the last thing on his mind, but
he couldn't resist Diane. Quickly, the pair became inseparable and
they rarely fought. Friends who knew them described Diane as
(02:16):
the love of Texas life. For the first time in
her life, Diane truly felt like someone cared about her,
not her money or her connections. The couple was known
to throw over the top legendary parties at the Ranch,
where Atlanta's privilege would let their hair down. From political
fundraisers to birthday bashes. Diane loved playing hostess, with Texts
(02:40):
hanging back as the consummate gentleman. Diane took the lead.
After five years of dating, Texts proposed to Diane with
a sixty thousand dollar diamond ring. After much planning, they
had a lavish wedding. Diane wrote a horse drawn carriage
to the ceremony and change gowns multiple times. She was
(03:01):
truly a Southern bell. Here's Stephanie. So what Diane really
loved about Texts specifically was that he didn't want anything
from her. They were both financially equal, and they were
both really smart business people, so they were wise enough
to maybe keep their finances separate. They pretty much agreed
(03:23):
on everything, seemingly, but according to friends and family, the
one thing they didn't agree about was this massive party
house that was built at their ranch. So this party
house was for friends and families to come to. Diane
really really wanted it and Texts did not, although he
did let her build it, but she had to pay
for it, and that ended up being this building that
(03:46):
they referred to as the Saloon, and that becomes a
big piece of the story. Ultimately, on September and sixteen.
Diane and Texts had spent another glorious weekend at the
ranch with a friend, Danny Joe Carter. Text made sausage
and served Diane breakfast in bed before the couple and
Danny Joe played golf and headed back towards Atlanta. After
(04:10):
stopping for a steak dinner and a few glasses of
red wine, Texas asked Danny Joe to drive the rest
of the way. Soon the trio, Text and his wife Diane,
and their friend Danny Joe found themselves in gridlocked Atlanta traffic.
According to Danny Joe, Diane suggested they get off the
highway and take surface streets, so she pulled the white
(04:30):
Ford Explorer SUV towards the off ramp. As they made
their way off the highway, Texts, who had been asleep
in the backseat, woke up. He told his wife, Diane,
and their friend Danny Joe that they were headed towards
a bad neighborhood. It was full of homeless people and
Black Lives Matters protesters. Nervous, he asked his wife to
(04:50):
grab his gun, which they kept in the center console
of the car. Diana obliged. A few minutes later, Danny
Joe remembered hearing what she thought was an explosion. She
slammed on the brakes and looked at her friend Diane
in the passenger seat. Diane was bleeding. Text had shot
her from the back seat, quickly losing blood. The trio
(05:13):
race to a hospital where Diane underwent emergency surgery. Her
final words before being put under to the doctor without
her husband, text, didn't mean to shoot her. Two hours later,
Diane was dead. Take a listen to some of Texas
interrogation as he described the shooting. We went through an
area I could describe my familiar area that we went through,
(05:35):
an area. Thought it was particular dangers. He was on
the best time. You know, it's very dark scene. To me,
it was that's one that has a particularly high population,
at least have a daytime, but night a lot people there.
(05:55):
And I quickly said, this is a big mistake. If
you don't mind, there's so much to unpack here. Joseph,
my first question to you is, how would somebody accidentally
get shot like that? Anytime I hear somebody has been
accidentally shot, my spody Since it's go off automatically, my
default position is You're gonna have to prove to me
(06:19):
that this is in fact an accidental shooting, because if not,
my assumption is your line. When you say accidental, that
means that it's it's just kind of a randomized event.
There has to be a series of events that occur
prior to the discharge the weapon. And what what's key
here is this particular weapon, because this weapon is unique.
(06:42):
If people will reflect back to any kind of old
Western movie you've seen, and you know, you think about
the pistols that were carried back down and they have
a trigger with a trigger guard, but they also have
what's referred to as an external hammer, and that's the
stem that's on the back of the weapon that you
cock it with, and that's called a hammer. You know,
when you think about that weapon being cocked, that initiates
(07:07):
a sequence. Okay, then the trigger actually has to be actuated.
That means pulled. It slams the hammer forward, hits the
firing pin, strikes the primer, captain's inside of the bullet
that discharges the primer, hits the propellant, and it drives
the bullet out of the weapon. Now that's in what's
(07:27):
called single action. Single action means that you can only
actuate the gun by pulling the hammer back. The weapon
that text had in this vehicle is a Smith and
Wesson thirty eight Special Airweight and they're very, very light,
easy to manage. It's you know, some people will say
it's a purse pistol or pocket pistol. It's easily concealable.
(07:51):
Many times it will only have five shots. Now, this
is a revolver we're talking to. It's now a semi
automatic weapon. It's a revolver, and it's easily concealable. But
the inter stame thing about it is with this particular weapon,
it's got what's called a shroud on the back of it.
So when you're looking down on it the stem, you
don't see the stem the hammer if you will. Where
(08:11):
you pull it back, it's kind of guarded. It's kind
of shroud over it, and so you literally have to
press your thumb down on this hammer to pull it back.
And it's kind of got a textured, waffled appearance on
top of it so that you can grip it if
your hands get sweaty. Now, the one that you say, well,
why in the world would somebody want a pistol like this. Well,
(08:33):
I'll tell you why somebody would want a pistol like this,
because if you keep it in your pocket or in
your waistband, when you pull the weapon out, the hammer
doesn't hang on the fabric of your clothing. It's a
smooth transition out of your pocket. So that you have
this thing and it doesn't catch on anything, and it's easy.
And this is not an offensive weapon. This is a
weapon that is a defensive weapon that you would carry
(08:56):
for your own personal protection. You're not gonna be shooting
at great ranges anything like this. You know, most lethal shootings,
most of those occur certainly within ten yards, if not closer,
many times five yards of the target. What I'm saying
is handguns are made for personal defense, and no greater
example exists than this lightweight smith. It's a thirty eight
(09:20):
Special caliber, so it's a kind of a medium round.
It's robust enough to do quite a bit of damage.
This was the caliber that all FBI agents carried. This
is the caliber that police officers used to carry before
they went to semi automatic weapons. So it's been in
use for years and years. You can find tons of
thirty eight specials out there, and you know, when they
(09:43):
were traveling down the road. According to the testimony, they
had gotten off of the interstate at this point in time.
I seventy five and I five actually merged in downtown Atlanta,
and it's called Connector. It's always crowded, very congested. But
they had gotten off of this route in order to
(10:03):
go east essentially, and you start taking surface streets. Well,
according to what the perception was, and let's keep in mind,
there were protests that we're going on around the country
at this particular time, and this, according to text, was
in the forefront of his mind. BLM protests, that's where
(10:24):
thing and there in this area they're homeless people and
so not being from this particular area, he became hyper aware,
if you will, and he asked or requested that the
weapon that's being carried in the vehicle, that was in
center console be retrieved and handed to him in the
back seat. Well, there's all these different narratives that have
(10:48):
kind of gone around relative to what he did in
the back seat. You know, some people have him dozing off,
you know why they're going down the road. Other people
he's hyper aware, he's got the weapon at the ready,
I've heard it stated that he had the weapon in
his right hand, took it and it was resting on
his right thigh as he's going down the road, and
(11:08):
for some reason he reached up and actually pulled his
hammer back so that all you would have to do
is just tap the trigger like that and the thing fires.
And remember one of the things that kept coming up
at trial, and I found this kind of fascinating that
the road is kind of bumping and so you're getting
slammed about. And I think that this was one of
the things that he had the weapon resting in his lap,
cocked and hit a bump, and when he did, his
(11:31):
finger hit the trigger and it went off and discharged.
And it's at that point in time where she struck.
This round actually traversed kind of diagonally across her mid
section and wound up going through her body. Let's talk
about the policement, just so we have it clear, because
there's three people driving right, well, three people riding. Yet
so three people are riding together. Can you tell me
(11:53):
the policeman of everybody in the car at the time
of this shooting now is actually in the front passenger seat.
Tech is to the rear of Diane. Okay, so he's
immediately seated behind her. And I've often imagined this dynamic
in this vehicle where he's kind of putting out this
fear vibe, if you will, you know, he's he's putting
(12:16):
this out there that he's uncomfortable in this environment. And
again this is me kind of superimposing my thoughts, but he,
you know, he kind of leans forward, says, get the
weapon out out of the you know, this is dangerous area.
Make sure the doors are locked. And so you've got
this dynamic going on between them. The lady that's driving
the vehicle, you can imagine, you know, why why do
(12:36):
you think that it's dangerous? You know? And she you know,
she's tensed up. Diane's tensed up. And in text, they
retrieved the weapon and give it to him, and he's
seated in the back seat, and so you're talking about
relative position. This is an suv. And then suddenly the
weapon discharges and that round slams forward through that seat
and it passes through all those layers and then into
(12:59):
her body. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back in just a moment. This is a story that
(13:19):
has the making of a very tragic accident. Now Diane
has been shot. To your original point, the way that
Diane was shot would suggest that maybe she could have survived.
You know, we find out that she doesn't, of course, unfortunately,
but you know, if this was an overly planned event,
maybe there was a way to have more of a
short shot for lack of a better term, Yeah, that's
(13:41):
the way I look at and can I just briefly
tell you why she actually didn't survive. If this shot
had actually been maybe two inches lower, there's a high
probability that it would have been survivable. One thing, Joseph
that always stuck with me about this case, and also
stuck with detectives, was that it was sort of what
hospital they chose to go to. So imagine the scene
(14:02):
you just painted, screaming and panic and trauma setting in.
At the time of the accident or at the time
of the shooting, they were about five miles from four
different hospitals, and text made the decision forcibly to go
to a very specific hospital, Emory Hospital, as opposed to
maybe a hospital that was better known for its trauma
(14:24):
unit that would have been closer. I see all sides
of this on the one hand, I could imagine go
to the closest place that does make sense, And on
the other you know, if I'm a person who maybe
knows a particular hospital or knows the doctors are accustomed
to being there, I would maybe go there. What is
your take on that he chose to go to Emory,
which is obviously a fine hospital, It's a teaching hospital.
(14:48):
One of the most highly regarded medical schools in the
country is located at Emory. However, they were within a
stone's throw of Grady Hospital, And you will hear this
a lot from police officers and firefighters. They will say,
if I am ever shot, if I am ever burned,
(15:08):
take me to X because they know they know that
in an acute situation that requires every bit of skill,
they want to go to that level one trauma center
that can handle any kind of problem. The fact that
text and I think that this was one of the
(15:28):
things the prosecution kind of played into, was that he
directed Danny Joe to drive to Emory, which is miles
beyond Grady. Now would have made a difference if they
had gotten her two Grady as opposed to going all
the way two Emory. I don't know particularly you know,
(15:51):
you take into account again, you know I had mentioned
this injury to die for him. I don't know how
they would have been able to do that. Maybe they
could the bleeding and have gotten her onto event until
they can you know, correct this this issue with the diaphragm.
But you know, in a situation like this, with this
kind of trauma, it's tracking through multiple organs, vessels and
(16:14):
the diaphragm, which even adds another layer of complication. That
window begins to narrow precipitously in this particular case. And
that's what happened in this instance that it was troubling
the prosecution. They exploited that in this trial. But you know,
because they talked about you know that he directed them
to go to Emory, And you know the answer to
(16:34):
that is he knows physicians there, he knows that it's
a fantastic hospital. Wouldn't you want the best for your wife?
You know that sort of thing. Of course, playing devil's advocate,
you've got somebody saying no, no, no, he knew if
you have to drive that distance she's going to pass on. Well,
how can you do the calculus on that? You know,
first off, if he's this monster that's trying to take
her life. He's kind of rolling the dice here in
(16:54):
the first place, when he takes that shot, there's no
guarantee that this is going to happen. Now you're adding
another layer to this where you're saying, oh, okay, well,
not only is he taking this random shot hoping that
it's going to clip essential organs and structures and that
sort of thing, which it did, but now just to
ensure things, he's going to compel the driver to drive
(17:16):
a further distance. So you can see how this kind
of takes on a life of its own. And everybody's
that's watching this thing, You've got people shaking their heads saying, wow, yeah,
this guy is like a criminal mastermind. And other people
are saying, wait, is this just a series of unfortunate events. Well,
that's the tricky part at this point too. I always
come down on both sides. On the one hand, with
(17:38):
a masterful plan, he's driving through an area, he's giving
a backstory in his mind, sort of setting it up
that it was an accident, at least to Danny Joe.
This poor driver, there's traffic, so makes sense that he
gets onto a side road, perhaps it's bumpy. The gun deploys,
and here we are. He goes to the hospital that
he knows the best, because to your point, he might
(18:00):
know the physician on the other side. Maybe he wanted
to kill his wife, and he does, and he has
the perfect alibi. And maybe he wasn't a short shot,
but he was a fairly decent shot, and when in
the line of fire, he went to the hospital that
was furthest away so that his beloved wife would die
on the way, or perhaps he had some inroads of
someone who would maybe cover for him on the other side. Again,
(18:23):
a lot of things would have to go into place
for all of those variables to make sense. One thing
that prosecution brought up at the trial that was fascinating.
They wheeled in every single firearm that he owned. It
was on display for the entire world. There were photographs,
you had real weapons and all the stuff, and there
(18:43):
were tons of weapons. And not only that, he's got
the money to build his own profit, you know, firing
range at this property. And so with your own personal
firing range and with a wide variety of weapons, all
you got this practice. You have the means and the
opportunity to do this so that's another part to this,
is that possibly part of the cover up making it
(19:05):
look a little messy. Is that part of it as
we would see in the movies. I think that goes
back to the narrative. Is he a mastermind? This poor
woman wound up dying and he should have known better
the fact that this weapon discharged. Again, I don't believe
in accidental discharges. It's not my thing. I've seen too
many cases where people will try to sell me this
(19:26):
bill of goods. You know, most time I'm not buying it.
But with this case, I think that comes back to
the airweight smith. Did he actually pull that hammer back
so that all it would take is a very very
light touch on that trigger, and that he's scared and
he tenses up. Maybe he hits a bump, Maybe that's
what initiates this trigger. But if he is so proficient
(19:47):
with weapons, would you know better than to do that,
particularly with your wife seated immediately in front of you
right there? Lie is the question was there any type
of a motive, because so far to your exact point,
none of it really, at least in my purview, adds up.
And I know that was a very complicated thing. For
police as well as became a matter of perception. Some
(20:08):
people could tell one narrative and everyone else could take
another narrative, and it was really hard to prove either way.
I would assume just two months after shooting his wife,
Text shocked the community when he threw and everything must
go fire sale. It consisted of Diane's clothes, jewelry, and purses.
While the district attorney tried to stop the sale on
(20:29):
the grounds of potentially disposing of evidence, Text was allowed
to move forward. The auction was advertised as the Fabulous
Diane mcgivers items to learn even more people. Hundreds of
potential shoppers made the whole scene look like a department
store on Black Friday. While the sale looked quite peculiar,
(20:49):
Text publicly said that Diane left a good fortune of
our state to friends and employees and that he needed
money immediately. Was he trying to build a nest egg
for a potential costly legal defense. Here's Stephanie. Text sold
everything from jewelry to clothing, and it seemed to really
(21:09):
bother people. And I think that in and of itself
also kind of gave it a bad look. And on
the flip of that He also probably needed to come
up with some money to pay for what is now
an impending legal defense. I don't know that all was
right in the state of Denmark because they put forward
this narrative that he is this vastly wealthy person. It's
(21:31):
actually Diane's the really wealthy person here, it's not him,
And obviously discuss he's a high end attorney, you know,
but I don't necessarily think he could match her financial status. Look, man,
lawyers cost money, as we all know. And yeah, he's
setting up an offense, and I'm sure that she had
many items that would be very valuable. Despite some seemingly
(21:53):
strange moves Text was making. The Atlanta police officially ruled
the shooting an accident a few months later. While Text
probably thought this meant he was in the clear, the
closing allowed the district attorney to open their own investigation,
and they proved to be less forgiving. It was discovered
that at the time of Diane's death, Tex owed his
wife three d and fifty thousand dollars. It was alone that,
(22:18):
according to Diane, needed to be paid back by December.
She was shot to death in September. The district attorney
decided that, unlike the Atlanta police, this was no accident,
and they charged Texts with murder. While out on bail,
the d A searched his condo and found a gun
in Texas sock drawer. This finding violated his bond. While
(22:41):
the seventy year old claimed the gun was planted, the
judge was not buying it, and tex was sent to jail.
One thing that was also fairly significant, both in the
press and at trial, is that after this garage sale
of all of Diane's things, Text took a very, a
very big hit his former friend and the major star
(23:04):
witnessed Danny Joe. You remember she was the driver. She
totally turned on him and she told police at the
night of the shooting, Text told her to lie altogether
and say she wasn't there. And we have a voicemail
that he left for Danny's husband and it's all pretty bizarre.
Let's listen to it, because again I get kind of
(23:24):
stuck in my head on this one. It's so confusing.
Let me just be playing Danny is about to send
me to prison. These are racists, this voiced me a message,
But call me right away. You all have no idea
the problem this is causing. It's innocent, but it's absolutely
nuclear for me. On the one hand, is it possible
that he was saying stay out of this. This is messy.
(23:46):
It's imploding and snowballing in a direction I could have
never expected. And suddenly I'm being looked at as a
prime suspect in my wife's murder, when this we all
know is a tragic accident. So maybe just lie and
say you weren't here. Is that one perspective on the
flip of that. Police must have been very suspicious when
they know text was telling a star of witness to
(24:10):
frankly lie. The optics are bad. It doesn't bode well.
And that dropped like a thunderbolt when that got out,
because again it goes to this idea of deception. This
is the thing that really gets me. I spend a
lot of time around attorneys and you know, covering cases
and whatnot, and the one thing that attorneys, no particularly
(24:31):
criminal defense attorneys, will tell you is to keep your
mouth shut. This guy is a member of the bar.
He understands just at a rudimentary level. Maybe he's not
a criminal practitioner, but he understands this. That's why attorneys
make the big bucks. Any questions should be directed to
my attorney, and the attorney should be in his face saying,
(24:52):
don't you contact anybody. You keep your mouth shuts. A
matter of fact, give me your phone, I'll contact you.
Don't talk to anybody. Assume everybody's list. Now you have
this event that's kind of snowballing, if you will. He's
trying to get his hands around it. One of the
problems with this if this had just happened to some
average citizen, it would not have had the glaring lights
(25:13):
of the media on it like it did. I mean,
this thing was big news because it's got everything that
media wants, you know, relative to you know, this it couple,
if you will. They've got a home and Buckhead, you know,
which is the affluent area of Atlanta, and then they've
got this large country of state that's the envy of anybody.
And he's an attorney, and she's got her own interest.
(25:36):
And so with the media, they're not gonna leave this alone.
Once that blood is in the water, for the media,
they're going to go after it. And of course the
court prosecutors going to cast their gaze that as well,
because this is the kind of case that will make
or break the career of a d a. It's so
true what people do for power and passion or for money, right,
(25:57):
because that became a big piece of this case as well.
The prosecution really made it clear that they believed money
and greed were at the core of this and that
Diane was worth three to four million dollars. That's a
lot of money, and as you mentioned earlier, he was
not nearly as affluent, although successful in his own right,
(26:18):
and during the trial it was revealed that Texas salary
had recently been completely cut in half, so he started
to hit some financial hard times. And you know, they
had a very lavish lifestyle, with luxury homes that sound
extraordinary cars and big, over the top lavish parties. Perhaps
text was living beyond his means, so they had this
(26:40):
big ranch it's obviously worth a lot of money. Before
they got married, Texts borrowed three d and fifty thousand
dollars from Diane and as payment he needed her half
of the ranch. They also agreed that if he didn't
pay her back, she could foreclosed on the ranch at
any time, and that potentially would not have been his
best interest and maybe that was a motive for murder.
(27:03):
The prosecution argued that by killing his wife, then ultimately
Texts could take over the ranch, and Texts stood to
gain a lot financially speaking, and that ultimately he would
take over all of the ranch in any of the
finances from there. Is that possible, because that became a
really big part of the trial. I'll put you this way.
From an investigative standpoint, it's certainly the thread on the
(27:25):
proverbial sweater as an investigator that you want to pull.
Because all things have to be considered. It requires a
certain level of sophistication when you're thinking about accounts and
money and who stands to gain in a particular circumstances.
What could go to motive in this particular instance, what
is seen and unseen? You know, because people that are
(27:47):
really wealthy have a way of hiding things that you know,
the common street tough doesn't have that ability. You strong arm,
rob somebody on side of the road. There's only a
few places you can put the cash or the wallet,
or the per that you've stolen, or whatever the case
might be. But when you you start to get into
this level, do you have multiple accounts, do you have
offshore accounts. All of those types of things have to
(28:10):
be considered. And so that's one of the things that
the d A in particular would have been tasked with
looking into and their investigative team, because there's two separate
investigative teams here. You've got the police that actually investigate
the crime as it occurs, and you know, the homicide
and all this sort of thing. A lot of people
(28:31):
don't understand that there are separate set of investigators that
actually work for the d A and they're looking at
this too, and they're gonna bring in every possible resource.
All das, no matter where they are, are political animals.
There's all the more motive on the part of the
d A to make sure that every eyes did and
every tea is crossed. Let's stop here for another break.
(29:08):
There was a lot of circumstantial evidence in this case, though,
and that's the part that's always so troubling and hats
off to judges ultimately, because it's a lot to take
into consideration. Even in this case, you know, the jury
was was given a lot to think about and a
lot to unpack. One of the things that they heard
was that text chose not to pick up his wife's
(29:29):
ashes for forty two days. And when he did pick
up the ashes, he actually stored them in the back
of a closet. And the doctor that treated Diane right
before her death said that she didn't want to see
him right before surgery. She had no desire to have
any face time with him. And again, this all seems
to be rather circumstantial. But when I think about his death,
(29:51):
it seems as though a lot of small factors would
have to have really fallen into place nicely for him
to pull this off. And on the lip, maybe that's
the greatest murder story of all time. What do you
think about all of this circumstantial evidence is all relative
And you know, the prosecutor they can take that in
(30:13):
craft that narrative because again they're building this tuitanic case.
It's it's massive to try to present to the jury
to get a guilty verdict. That's the sole goal of
the prosecutor. And for the defense, all they have to
do is bore a whole in one tiny area of
that and it implants the seed of reasonable doubt and
(30:34):
it will take root many times. The trick is, can
the prosecution with these little queues a long way. Are
they able to dodge reasonable doubt? Are they able to
present a case that is actually sellable to the jury.
The biggest piece of it to me though, was Danny
Joe turning on text. That was huge. That's where I
get even more confused. I'm so torn. But then I
(30:57):
think back, Danny Joe, it would be to her benefit
to stick to the story that was honest and true,
to hopefully get her beloved friend off for a crime
he didn't commit in her opinion, But she didn't do that.
Was she truly his beloved friend though? Or was she
more of a friend to dying? I mean, I don't know.
Maybe after a period of tom this is making her
sick to her back teeth. Remember the smell, the moan,
(31:22):
the scream. You know, suddenly that's with her. It's ringing
in her ears. She will never and I mean never
be able to escape that. She's never going to drop
through downtown Atlanta again and not think about it. So
I don't know if it's a turning as much as
it is kind of a revelatory moment for her. Joseph
back to other things being brought into the trial to
(31:44):
really poke holes in the prosecution's argument. One of the
main things that they brought into it was this notion
of parasomnia. I had never heard this term before, but
apparently when text was in the back seat, it was
reported that maybe he dozed off and that he was
diagnosed with something called paris omnia. It's sort of a
(32:04):
term that covers a broad spectrum of sleep disorders, sleep paralysis,
confusion upon waking, maybe involuntary movements, and our ecilepsy. So
the idea set forth by the defense was that he
had this condition and had been diagnosed with it prior,
and that he might have dozed off with a gun
in his lap, and when he woke up because of
(32:27):
maybe a bump on the road or something, he had
an involuntary movement and therefore the gun discharged. What do
you make of that? Sure, I suppose it's possible. I
don't know. I mean, I've suddenly jerked myself awake many times,
and you know, you're kind of frightened like this. But again,
the one thing I can't get past and I will
(32:48):
never get past in this case. If you are so
hyper aware of the environment which you're in, and you're
scared to the point where you're gonna say, hand me
my gun. How is it that suddenly you drift off?
I guess it's a clinical rationale for it that you know,
a defense attorney can put forward, And that's fine, you
(33:08):
can put that forward. But thinking about this, I cannot
begin to to imagine that suddenly you're in this hyper
vigilant state which you're in. You've got the thirty eight
lightweight in your lap, not in your pocket, but in
your lap. And this is a person that's trained with weapons. Hell,
they even own their own gun range. Suddenly you're gonna
(33:32):
drift off. That's really hard for me to digest. After
a twenty day trial, the jury began to deliberate, but
after four days they were deadlocked. The judge urged them
to reconsider, and then just two hours later they had
a verdict. Text was found not guilty of malice murder,
(33:52):
but guilty of felony murder. Here's Joseph, this case is
so compelling and we'll be compelling for years and years
to come. There are no definitive answers in here. Yeah,
I mean, with a trial they came back with a
guilty verdict. But you know, this is the type of
case that there will always be questions about because there
(34:12):
are no solid answers. Should he have gone to Grady,
should he have gone to Emery? Should they've taken a
side road? Why are you so scared? And why are
you sleeping at the same time? How do those two
things mesh? How can you be so careless with a
weapon if you own all these guns and you own
a gun range, how is this possible? So you know,
forever and ever, Amen, there will always be questions. Ultimately,
(34:33):
in the end, text was found not guilty of malice murder,
but guilty of felony murder. So that's a very key
difference in an in an unusual difference at that meaning
he was found not guilty of malice, meaning he didn't
intend to kill Diane, but he was found guilty of
felony murder, and that means he meant to shoot her,
(34:55):
but not to kill her. Am I getting that correct? Yeah,
you've said it very essintly. In this particular case. You
got one or two choices malice which says I am
intending to go out and take the life of another.
And it's it's a very fine line. When you dropped
down from that level to felonious homicide or felonious murder
(35:18):
where they're saying, yeah, you're brought about the death of
this individual. Now we can't prove intent, but you did,
in fact, as a result of your actions, inflicted grievous
bodily injury. And that's that's lawyer terminology. Most of the
time it resulted in her death. And it's hard for
people to understand when you have degrees of separation in
(35:38):
the laws. It applies to homicide, it's more succinct, but
in Georgia it's a bit more difficult. And this is
the interesting thing about it is that Georgia is a
capital murder state. They have the death penalty there. So
that's been you know, one of the things over the
years that people have talked about when you talk about
general Georgia criminal law, you know, how how do you
(35:59):
you know hit that level, you know, when you're talking
about malice homside, because malice homside begins to include things
like capital punishment. If you have intent, and they don't
really talk about premeditation, it's that's a different a different animal.
But you have specific intent to take the life of somebody,
that will qualify you for capital punishment. Perhaps at his
(36:21):
sentencing text read a statement largely about his wife, Diane.
My life complete now I know she's here. Are friends
that you thank you because it is truly. The judge
(36:54):
was unmoved by his words and sentenced texts to life
in prison. Shameless plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love,
leave us a review and listen to season three of
our hit series The Piked and Massacre. New episodes there
every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget
(37:16):
to follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy
in Love is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris
Grieves and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound design by
Jeff Ta. Crazy in Love is a production of I
Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I
(37:36):
Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,
Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
You see stars, you feel giddy, But sometimes that makes
you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
because the story starts out with once upon a Time
doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
and Love, a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio.
(00:24):
Today's guests are true crime producer Stephanie Ledecker and forensic
expert Joseph Scott Morgan. Over his career, Joseph's handled thousands
of death investigations, including over seven thousand autopsies. Joseph also
recently worked on the Katie Studios documentary Murdered and Missing
in Montana, which is now streaming on Peacock. Joseph also
(00:47):
hosts his own podcast, Bodybags Available Everywhere. Episode thirty eight,
the Case of the Power Couple, The Loan and the
Fatal Drive Home. If Atlanta's upper crust had a royal couple,
it would be Diane and Text mug Iver. With successful careers,
(01:11):
beautiful homes, full of designer clothes, and a loving marriage.
The pair seemed to just shine brighter than others. Diana
Text met in two thousand when Diane moved to a
luxury high rise building in downtown Atlanta. Before she could
fully unpack, everyone in the building was talking about the
chanelle wearing advertising vice president. Despite being recently divorced. Diane
(01:33):
was known for her kind spirit and high energy. She
was physically beautiful, but also had a commanding confidence that
was tantalizing. While she could have had her pick of
the single men in town, one eligible bachelor caught her eye,
Text mug Iver, ten years her senior. Text was a
wealthy labor lawyer who spent his time between downtown Atlanta
(01:55):
and a sprawling farmhouse that he dubbed the Ranch. After
a painful and expensive divorce, Text was consumed with work
and love was the last thing on his mind, but
he couldn't resist Diane. Quickly, the pair became inseparable and
they rarely fought. Friends who knew them described Diane as
(02:16):
the love of Texas life. For the first time in
her life, Diane truly felt like someone cared about her,
not her money or her connections. The couple was known
to throw over the top legendary parties at the Ranch,
where Atlanta's privilege would let their hair down. From political
fundraisers to birthday bashes. Diane loved playing hostess, with Texts
(02:40):
hanging back as the consummate gentleman. Diane took the lead.
After five years of dating, Texts proposed to Diane with
a sixty thousand dollar diamond ring. After much planning, they
had a lavish wedding. Diane wrote a horse drawn carriage
to the ceremony and change gowns multiple times. She was
(03:01):
truly a Southern bell. Here's Stephanie. So what Diane really
loved about Texts specifically was that he didn't want anything
from her. They were both financially equal, and they were
both really smart business people, so they were wise enough
to maybe keep their finances separate. They pretty much agreed
(03:23):
on everything, seemingly, but according to friends and family, the
one thing they didn't agree about was this massive party
house that was built at their ranch. So this party
house was for friends and families to come to. Diane
really really wanted it and Texts did not, although he
did let her build it, but she had to pay
for it, and that ended up being this building that
(03:46):
they referred to as the Saloon, and that becomes a
big piece of the story. Ultimately, on September and sixteen.
Diane and Texts had spent another glorious weekend at the
ranch with a friend, Danny Joe Carter. Text made sausage
and served Diane breakfast in bed before the couple and
Danny Joe played golf and headed back towards Atlanta. After
(04:10):
stopping for a steak dinner and a few glasses of
red wine, Texas asked Danny Joe to drive the rest
of the way. Soon the trio, Text and his wife Diane,
and their friend Danny Joe found themselves in gridlocked Atlanta traffic.
According to Danny Joe, Diane suggested they get off the
highway and take surface streets, so she pulled the white
(04:30):
Ford Explorer SUV towards the off ramp. As they made
their way off the highway, Texts, who had been asleep
in the backseat, woke up. He told his wife, Diane,
and their friend Danny Joe that they were headed towards
a bad neighborhood. It was full of homeless people and
Black Lives Matters protesters. Nervous, he asked his wife to
(04:50):
grab his gun, which they kept in the center console
of the car. Diana obliged. A few minutes later, Danny
Joe remembered hearing what she thought was an explosion. She
slammed on the brakes and looked at her friend Diane
in the passenger seat. Diane was bleeding. Text had shot
her from the back seat, quickly losing blood. The trio
(05:13):
race to a hospital where Diane underwent emergency surgery. Her
final words before being put under to the doctor without
her husband, text, didn't mean to shoot her. Two hours later,
Diane was dead. Take a listen to some of Texas
interrogation as he described the shooting. We went through an
area I could describe my familiar area that we went through,
(05:35):
an area. Thought it was particular dangers. He was on
the best time. You know, it's very dark scene. To me,
it was that's one that has a particularly high population,
at least have a daytime, but night a lot people there.
(05:55):
And I quickly said, this is a big mistake. If
you don't mind, there's so much to unpack here. Joseph,
my first question to you is, how would somebody accidentally
get shot like that? Anytime I hear somebody has been
accidentally shot, my spody Since it's go off automatically, my
default position is You're gonna have to prove to me
(06:19):
that this is in fact an accidental shooting, because if not,
my assumption is your line. When you say accidental, that
means that it's it's just kind of a randomized event.
There has to be a series of events that occur
prior to the discharge the weapon. And what what's key
here is this particular weapon, because this weapon is unique.
(06:42):
If people will reflect back to any kind of old
Western movie you've seen, and you know, you think about
the pistols that were carried back down and they have
a trigger with a trigger guard, but they also have
what's referred to as an external hammer, and that's the
stem that's on the back of the weapon that you
cock it with, and that's called a hammer. You know,
when you think about that weapon being cocked, that initiates
(07:07):
a sequence. Okay, then the trigger actually has to be actuated.
That means pulled. It slams the hammer forward, hits the
firing pin, strikes the primer, captain's inside of the bullet
that discharges the primer, hits the propellant, and it drives
the bullet out of the weapon. Now that's in what's
(07:27):
called single action. Single action means that you can only
actuate the gun by pulling the hammer back. The weapon
that text had in this vehicle is a Smith and
Wesson thirty eight Special Airweight and they're very, very light,
easy to manage. It's you know, some people will say
it's a purse pistol or pocket pistol. It's easily concealable.
(07:51):
Many times it will only have five shots. Now, this
is a revolver we're talking to. It's now a semi
automatic weapon. It's a revolver, and it's easily concealable. But
the inter stame thing about it is with this particular weapon,
it's got what's called a shroud on the back of it.
So when you're looking down on it the stem, you
don't see the stem the hammer if you will. Where
(08:11):
you pull it back, it's kind of guarded. It's kind
of shroud over it, and so you literally have to
press your thumb down on this hammer to pull it back.
And it's kind of got a textured, waffled appearance on
top of it so that you can grip it if
your hands get sweaty. Now, the one that you say, well,
why in the world would somebody want a pistol like this. Well,
(08:33):
I'll tell you why somebody would want a pistol like this,
because if you keep it in your pocket or in
your waistband, when you pull the weapon out, the hammer
doesn't hang on the fabric of your clothing. It's a
smooth transition out of your pocket. So that you have
this thing and it doesn't catch on anything, and it's easy.
And this is not an offensive weapon. This is a
weapon that is a defensive weapon that you would carry
(08:56):
for your own personal protection. You're not gonna be shooting
at great ranges anything like this. You know, most lethal shootings,
most of those occur certainly within ten yards, if not closer,
many times five yards of the target. What I'm saying
is handguns are made for personal defense, and no greater
example exists than this lightweight smith. It's a thirty eight
(09:20):
Special caliber, so it's a kind of a medium round.
It's robust enough to do quite a bit of damage.
This was the caliber that all FBI agents carried. This
is the caliber that police officers used to carry before
they went to semi automatic weapons. So it's been in
use for years and years. You can find tons of
thirty eight specials out there, and you know, when they
(09:43):
were traveling down the road. According to the testimony, they
had gotten off of the interstate at this point in time.
I seventy five and I five actually merged in downtown Atlanta,
and it's called Connector. It's always crowded, very congested. But
they had gotten off of this route in order to
(10:03):
go east essentially, and you start taking surface streets. Well,
according to what the perception was, and let's keep in mind,
there were protests that we're going on around the country
at this particular time, and this, according to text, was
in the forefront of his mind. BLM protests, that's where
(10:24):
thing and there in this area they're homeless people and
so not being from this particular area, he became hyper aware,
if you will, and he asked or requested that the
weapon that's being carried in the vehicle, that was in
center console be retrieved and handed to him in the
back seat. Well, there's all these different narratives that have
(10:48):
kind of gone around relative to what he did in
the back seat. You know, some people have him dozing off,
you know why they're going down the road. Other people
he's hyper aware, he's got the weapon at the ready,
I've heard it stated that he had the weapon in
his right hand, took it and it was resting on
his right thigh as he's going down the road, and
(11:08):
for some reason he reached up and actually pulled his
hammer back so that all you would have to do
is just tap the trigger like that and the thing fires.
And remember one of the things that kept coming up
at trial, and I found this kind of fascinating that
the road is kind of bumping and so you're getting
slammed about. And I think that this was one of
the things that he had the weapon resting in his lap,
cocked and hit a bump, and when he did, his
(11:31):
finger hit the trigger and it went off and discharged.
And it's at that point in time where she struck.
This round actually traversed kind of diagonally across her mid
section and wound up going through her body. Let's talk
about the policement, just so we have it clear, because
there's three people driving right, well, three people riding. Yet
so three people are riding together. Can you tell me
(11:53):
the policeman of everybody in the car at the time
of this shooting now is actually in the front passenger seat.
Tech is to the rear of Diane. Okay, so he's
immediately seated behind her. And I've often imagined this dynamic
in this vehicle where he's kind of putting out this
fear vibe, if you will, you know, he's he's putting
(12:16):
this out there that he's uncomfortable in this environment. And
again this is me kind of superimposing my thoughts, but he,
you know, he kind of leans forward, says, get the
weapon out out of the you know, this is dangerous area.
Make sure the doors are locked. And so you've got
this dynamic going on between them. The lady that's driving
the vehicle, you can imagine, you know, why why do
(12:36):
you think that it's dangerous? You know? And she you know,
she's tensed up. Diane's tensed up. And in text, they
retrieved the weapon and give it to him, and he's
seated in the back seat, and so you're talking about
relative position. This is an suv. And then suddenly the
weapon discharges and that round slams forward through that seat
and it passes through all those layers and then into
(12:59):
her body. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back in just a moment. This is a story that
(13:19):
has the making of a very tragic accident. Now Diane
has been shot. To your original point, the way that
Diane was shot would suggest that maybe she could have survived.
You know, we find out that she doesn't, of course, unfortunately,
but you know, if this was an overly planned event,
maybe there was a way to have more of a
short shot for lack of a better term, Yeah, that's
(13:41):
the way I look at and can I just briefly
tell you why she actually didn't survive. If this shot
had actually been maybe two inches lower, there's a high
probability that it would have been survivable. One thing, Joseph
that always stuck with me about this case, and also
stuck with detectives, was that it was sort of what
hospital they chose to go to. So imagine the scene
(14:02):
you just painted, screaming and panic and trauma setting in.
At the time of the accident or at the time
of the shooting, they were about five miles from four
different hospitals, and text made the decision forcibly to go
to a very specific hospital, Emory Hospital, as opposed to
maybe a hospital that was better known for its trauma
(14:24):
unit that would have been closer. I see all sides
of this on the one hand, I could imagine go
to the closest place that does make sense, And on
the other you know, if I'm a person who maybe
knows a particular hospital or knows the doctors are accustomed
to being there, I would maybe go there. What is
your take on that he chose to go to Emory,
which is obviously a fine hospital, It's a teaching hospital.
(14:48):
One of the most highly regarded medical schools in the
country is located at Emory. However, they were within a
stone's throw of Grady Hospital, And you will hear this
a lot from police officers and firefighters. They will say,
if I am ever shot, if I am ever burned,
(15:08):
take me to X because they know they know that
in an acute situation that requires every bit of skill,
they want to go to that level one trauma center
that can handle any kind of problem. The fact that
text and I think that this was one of the
(15:28):
things the prosecution kind of played into, was that he
directed Danny Joe to drive to Emory, which is miles
beyond Grady. Now would have made a difference if they
had gotten her two Grady as opposed to going all
the way two Emory. I don't know particularly you know,
(15:51):
you take into account again, you know I had mentioned
this injury to die for him. I don't know how
they would have been able to do that. Maybe they
could the bleeding and have gotten her onto event until
they can you know, correct this this issue with the diaphragm.
But you know, in a situation like this, with this
kind of trauma, it's tracking through multiple organs, vessels and
(16:14):
the diaphragm, which even adds another layer of complication. That
window begins to narrow precipitously in this particular case. And
that's what happened in this instance that it was troubling
the prosecution. They exploited that in this trial. But you know,
because they talked about you know that he directed them
to go to Emory, And you know the answer to
(16:34):
that is he knows physicians there, he knows that it's
a fantastic hospital. Wouldn't you want the best for your wife?
You know that sort of thing. Of course, playing devil's advocate,
you've got somebody saying no, no, no, he knew if
you have to drive that distance she's going to pass on. Well,
how can you do the calculus on that? You know,
first off, if he's this monster that's trying to take
her life. He's kind of rolling the dice here in
(16:54):
the first place, when he takes that shot, there's no
guarantee that this is going to happen. Now you're adding
another layer to this where you're saying, oh, okay, well,
not only is he taking this random shot hoping that
it's going to clip essential organs and structures and that
sort of thing, which it did, but now just to
ensure things, he's going to compel the driver to drive
(17:16):
a further distance. So you can see how this kind
of takes on a life of its own. And everybody's
that's watching this thing, You've got people shaking their heads saying, wow, yeah,
this guy is like a criminal mastermind. And other people
are saying, wait, is this just a series of unfortunate events. Well,
that's the tricky part at this point too. I always
come down on both sides. On the one hand, with
(17:38):
a masterful plan, he's driving through an area, he's giving
a backstory in his mind, sort of setting it up
that it was an accident, at least to Danny Joe.
This poor driver, there's traffic, so makes sense that he
gets onto a side road, perhaps it's bumpy. The gun deploys,
and here we are. He goes to the hospital that
he knows the best, because to your point, he might
(18:00):
know the physician on the other side. Maybe he wanted
to kill his wife, and he does, and he has
the perfect alibi. And maybe he wasn't a short shot,
but he was a fairly decent shot, and when in
the line of fire, he went to the hospital that
was furthest away so that his beloved wife would die
on the way, or perhaps he had some inroads of
someone who would maybe cover for him on the other side. Again,
(18:23):
a lot of things would have to go into place
for all of those variables to make sense. One thing
that prosecution brought up at the trial that was fascinating.
They wheeled in every single firearm that he owned. It
was on display for the entire world. There were photographs,
you had real weapons and all the stuff, and there
(18:43):
were tons of weapons. And not only that, he's got
the money to build his own profit, you know, firing
range at this property. And so with your own personal
firing range and with a wide variety of weapons, all
you got this practice. You have the means and the
opportunity to do this so that's another part to this,
is that possibly part of the cover up making it
(19:05):
look a little messy. Is that part of it as
we would see in the movies. I think that goes
back to the narrative. Is he a mastermind? This poor
woman wound up dying and he should have known better
the fact that this weapon discharged. Again, I don't believe
in accidental discharges. It's not my thing. I've seen too
many cases where people will try to sell me this
(19:26):
bill of goods. You know, most time I'm not buying it.
But with this case, I think that comes back to
the airweight smith. Did he actually pull that hammer back
so that all it would take is a very very
light touch on that trigger, and that he's scared and
he tenses up. Maybe he hits a bump, Maybe that's
what initiates this trigger. But if he is so proficient
(19:47):
with weapons, would you know better than to do that,
particularly with your wife seated immediately in front of you
right there? Lie is the question was there any type
of a motive, because so far to your exact point,
none of it really, at least in my purview, adds up.
And I know that was a very complicated thing. For
police as well as became a matter of perception. Some
(20:08):
people could tell one narrative and everyone else could take
another narrative, and it was really hard to prove either way.
I would assume just two months after shooting his wife,
Text shocked the community when he threw and everything must
go fire sale. It consisted of Diane's clothes, jewelry, and purses.
While the district attorney tried to stop the sale on
(20:29):
the grounds of potentially disposing of evidence, Text was allowed
to move forward. The auction was advertised as the Fabulous
Diane mcgivers items to learn even more people. Hundreds of
potential shoppers made the whole scene look like a department
store on Black Friday. While the sale looked quite peculiar,
(20:49):
Text publicly said that Diane left a good fortune of
our state to friends and employees and that he needed
money immediately. Was he trying to build a nest egg
for a potential costly legal defense. Here's Stephanie. Text sold
everything from jewelry to clothing, and it seemed to really
(21:09):
bother people. And I think that in and of itself
also kind of gave it a bad look. And on
the flip of that He also probably needed to come
up with some money to pay for what is now
an impending legal defense. I don't know that all was
right in the state of Denmark because they put forward
this narrative that he is this vastly wealthy person. It's
(21:31):
actually Diane's the really wealthy person here, it's not him,
And obviously discuss he's a high end attorney, you know,
but I don't necessarily think he could match her financial status. Look, man,
lawyers cost money, as we all know. And yeah, he's
setting up an offense, and I'm sure that she had
many items that would be very valuable. Despite some seemingly
(21:53):
strange moves Text was making. The Atlanta police officially ruled
the shooting an accident a few months later. While Text
probably thought this meant he was in the clear, the
closing allowed the district attorney to open their own investigation,
and they proved to be less forgiving. It was discovered
that at the time of Diane's death, Tex owed his
wife three d and fifty thousand dollars. It was alone that,
(22:18):
according to Diane, needed to be paid back by December.
She was shot to death in September. The district attorney
decided that, unlike the Atlanta police, this was no accident,
and they charged Texts with murder. While out on bail,
the d A searched his condo and found a gun
in Texas sock drawer. This finding violated his bond. While
(22:41):
the seventy year old claimed the gun was planted, the
judge was not buying it, and tex was sent to jail.
One thing that was also fairly significant, both in the
press and at trial, is that after this garage sale
of all of Diane's things, Text took a very, a
very big hit his former friend and the major star
(23:04):
witnessed Danny Joe. You remember she was the driver. She
totally turned on him and she told police at the
night of the shooting, Text told her to lie altogether
and say she wasn't there. And we have a voicemail
that he left for Danny's husband and it's all pretty bizarre.
Let's listen to it, because again I get kind of
(23:24):
stuck in my head on this one. It's so confusing.
Let me just be playing Danny is about to send
me to prison. These are racists, this voiced me a message,
But call me right away. You all have no idea
the problem this is causing. It's innocent, but it's absolutely
nuclear for me. On the one hand, is it possible
that he was saying stay out of this. This is messy.
(23:46):
It's imploding and snowballing in a direction I could have
never expected. And suddenly I'm being looked at as a
prime suspect in my wife's murder, when this we all
know is a tragic accident. So maybe just lie and
say you weren't here. Is that one perspective on the
flip of that. Police must have been very suspicious when
they know text was telling a star of witness to
(24:10):
frankly lie. The optics are bad. It doesn't bode well.
And that dropped like a thunderbolt when that got out,
because again it goes to this idea of deception. This
is the thing that really gets me. I spend a
lot of time around attorneys and you know, covering cases
and whatnot, and the one thing that attorneys, no particularly
(24:31):
criminal defense attorneys, will tell you is to keep your
mouth shut. This guy is a member of the bar.
He understands just at a rudimentary level. Maybe he's not
a criminal practitioner, but he understands this. That's why attorneys
make the big bucks. Any questions should be directed to
my attorney, and the attorney should be in his face saying,
(24:52):
don't you contact anybody. You keep your mouth shuts. A
matter of fact, give me your phone, I'll contact you.
Don't talk to anybody. Assume everybody's list. Now you have
this event that's kind of snowballing, if you will. He's
trying to get his hands around it. One of the
problems with this if this had just happened to some
average citizen, it would not have had the glaring lights
(25:13):
of the media on it like it did. I mean,
this thing was big news because it's got everything that
media wants, you know, relative to you know, this it couple,
if you will. They've got a home and Buckhead, you know,
which is the affluent area of Atlanta, and then they've
got this large country of state that's the envy of anybody.
And he's an attorney, and she's got her own interest.
(25:36):
And so with the media, they're not gonna leave this alone.
Once that blood is in the water, for the media,
they're going to go after it. And of course the
court prosecutors going to cast their gaze that as well,
because this is the kind of case that will make
or break the career of a d a. It's so
true what people do for power and passion or for money, right,
(25:57):
because that became a big piece of this case as well.
The prosecution really made it clear that they believed money
and greed were at the core of this and that
Diane was worth three to four million dollars. That's a
lot of money, and as you mentioned earlier, he was
not nearly as affluent, although successful in his own right,
(26:18):
and during the trial it was revealed that Texas salary
had recently been completely cut in half, so he started
to hit some financial hard times. And you know, they
had a very lavish lifestyle, with luxury homes that sound
extraordinary cars and big, over the top lavish parties. Perhaps
text was living beyond his means, so they had this
(26:40):
big ranch it's obviously worth a lot of money. Before
they got married, Texts borrowed three d and fifty thousand
dollars from Diane and as payment he needed her half
of the ranch. They also agreed that if he didn't
pay her back, she could foreclosed on the ranch at
any time, and that potentially would not have been his
best interest and maybe that was a motive for murder.
(27:03):
The prosecution argued that by killing his wife, then ultimately
Texts could take over the ranch, and Texts stood to
gain a lot financially speaking, and that ultimately he would
take over all of the ranch in any of the
finances from there. Is that possible, because that became a
really big part of the trial. I'll put you this way.
From an investigative standpoint, it's certainly the thread on the
(27:25):
proverbial sweater as an investigator that you want to pull.
Because all things have to be considered. It requires a
certain level of sophistication when you're thinking about accounts and
money and who stands to gain in a particular circumstances.
What could go to motive in this particular instance, what
is seen and unseen? You know, because people that are
(27:47):
really wealthy have a way of hiding things that you know,
the common street tough doesn't have that ability. You strong arm,
rob somebody on side of the road. There's only a
few places you can put the cash or the wallet,
or the per that you've stolen, or whatever the case
might be. But when you you start to get into
this level, do you have multiple accounts, do you have
offshore accounts. All of those types of things have to
(28:10):
be considered. And so that's one of the things that
the d A in particular would have been tasked with
looking into and their investigative team, because there's two separate
investigative teams here. You've got the police that actually investigate
the crime as it occurs, and you know, the homicide
and all this sort of thing. A lot of people
(28:31):
don't understand that there are separate set of investigators that
actually work for the d A and they're looking at
this too, and they're gonna bring in every possible resource.
All das, no matter where they are, are political animals.
There's all the more motive on the part of the
d A to make sure that every eyes did and
every tea is crossed. Let's stop here for another break.
(29:08):
There was a lot of circumstantial evidence in this case, though,
and that's the part that's always so troubling and hats
off to judges ultimately, because it's a lot to take
into consideration. Even in this case, you know, the jury
was was given a lot to think about and a
lot to unpack. One of the things that they heard
was that text chose not to pick up his wife's
(29:29):
ashes for forty two days. And when he did pick
up the ashes, he actually stored them in the back
of a closet. And the doctor that treated Diane right
before her death said that she didn't want to see
him right before surgery. She had no desire to have
any face time with him. And again, this all seems
to be rather circumstantial. But when I think about his death,
(29:51):
it seems as though a lot of small factors would
have to have really fallen into place nicely for him
to pull this off. And on the lip, maybe that's
the greatest murder story of all time. What do you
think about all of this circumstantial evidence is all relative
And you know, the prosecutor they can take that in
(30:13):
craft that narrative because again they're building this tuitanic case.
It's it's massive to try to present to the jury
to get a guilty verdict. That's the sole goal of
the prosecutor. And for the defense, all they have to
do is bore a whole in one tiny area of
that and it implants the seed of reasonable doubt and
(30:34):
it will take root many times. The trick is, can
the prosecution with these little queues a long way. Are
they able to dodge reasonable doubt? Are they able to
present a case that is actually sellable to the jury.
The biggest piece of it to me though, was Danny
Joe turning on text. That was huge. That's where I
get even more confused. I'm so torn. But then I
(30:57):
think back, Danny Joe, it would be to her benefit
to stick to the story that was honest and true,
to hopefully get her beloved friend off for a crime
he didn't commit in her opinion, But she didn't do that.
Was she truly his beloved friend though? Or was she
more of a friend to dying? I mean, I don't know.
Maybe after a period of tom this is making her
sick to her back teeth. Remember the smell, the moan,
(31:22):
the scream. You know, suddenly that's with her. It's ringing
in her ears. She will never and I mean never
be able to escape that. She's never going to drop
through downtown Atlanta again and not think about it. So
I don't know if it's a turning as much as
it is kind of a revelatory moment for her. Joseph
back to other things being brought into the trial to
(31:44):
really poke holes in the prosecution's argument. One of the
main things that they brought into it was this notion
of parasomnia. I had never heard this term before, but
apparently when text was in the back seat, it was
reported that maybe he dozed off and that he was
diagnosed with something called paris omnia. It's sort of a
(32:04):
term that covers a broad spectrum of sleep disorders, sleep paralysis,
confusion upon waking, maybe involuntary movements, and our ecilepsy. So
the idea set forth by the defense was that he
had this condition and had been diagnosed with it prior,
and that he might have dozed off with a gun
in his lap, and when he woke up because of
(32:27):
maybe a bump on the road or something, he had
an involuntary movement and therefore the gun discharged. What do
you make of that? Sure, I suppose it's possible. I
don't know. I mean, I've suddenly jerked myself awake many times,
and you know, you're kind of frightened like this. But again,
the one thing I can't get past and I will
(32:48):
never get past in this case. If you are so
hyper aware of the environment which you're in, and you're
scared to the point where you're gonna say, hand me
my gun. How is it that suddenly you drift off?
I guess it's a clinical rationale for it that you know,
a defense attorney can put forward, And that's fine, you
(33:08):
can put that forward. But thinking about this, I cannot
begin to to imagine that suddenly you're in this hyper
vigilant state which you're in. You've got the thirty eight
lightweight in your lap, not in your pocket, but in
your lap. And this is a person that's trained with weapons. Hell,
they even own their own gun range. Suddenly you're gonna
(33:32):
drift off. That's really hard for me to digest. After
a twenty day trial, the jury began to deliberate, but
after four days they were deadlocked. The judge urged them
to reconsider, and then just two hours later they had
a verdict. Text was found not guilty of malice murder,
(33:52):
but guilty of felony murder. Here's Joseph, this case is
so compelling and we'll be compelling for years and years
to come. There are no definitive answers in here. Yeah,
I mean, with a trial they came back with a
guilty verdict. But you know, this is the type of
case that there will always be questions about because there
(34:12):
are no solid answers. Should he have gone to Grady,
should he have gone to Emery? Should they've taken a
side road? Why are you so scared? And why are
you sleeping at the same time? How do those two
things mesh? How can you be so careless with a
weapon if you own all these guns and you own
a gun range, how is this possible? So you know,
forever and ever, Amen, there will always be questions. Ultimately,
(34:33):
in the end, text was found not guilty of malice murder,
but guilty of felony murder. So that's a very key
difference in an in an unusual difference at that meaning
he was found not guilty of malice, meaning he didn't
intend to kill Diane, but he was found guilty of
felony murder, and that means he meant to shoot her,
(34:55):
but not to kill her. Am I getting that correct? Yeah,
you've said it very essintly. In this particular case. You
got one or two choices malice which says I am
intending to go out and take the life of another.
And it's it's a very fine line. When you dropped
down from that level to felonious homicide or felonious murder
(35:18):
where they're saying, yeah, you're brought about the death of
this individual. Now we can't prove intent, but you did,
in fact, as a result of your actions, inflicted grievous
bodily injury. And that's that's lawyer terminology. Most of the
time it resulted in her death. And it's hard for
people to understand when you have degrees of separation in
(35:38):
the laws. It applies to homicide, it's more succinct, but
in Georgia it's a bit more difficult. And this is
the interesting thing about it is that Georgia is a
capital murder state. They have the death penalty there. So
that's been you know, one of the things over the
years that people have talked about when you talk about
general Georgia criminal law, you know, how how do you
(35:59):
you know hit that level, you know, when you're talking
about malice homside, because malice homside begins to include things
like capital punishment. If you have intent, and they don't
really talk about premeditation, it's that's a different a different animal.
But you have specific intent to take the life of somebody,
that will qualify you for capital punishment. Perhaps at his
(36:21):
sentencing text read a statement largely about his wife, Diane.
My life complete now I know she's here. Are friends
that you thank you because it is truly. The judge
(36:54):
was unmoved by his words and sentenced texts to life
in prison. Shameless plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love,
leave us a review and listen to season three of
our hit series The Piked and Massacre. New episodes there
every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget
(37:16):
to follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy
in Love is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris
Grieves and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound design by
Jeff Ta. Crazy in Love is a production of I
Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I
(37:36):
Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,
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