EATONTON, Ga. —

A Fulton County grand jury on Thursday afternoon returned a multiple count indictment, including a charge of murder, against a prominent Atlanta lawyer and businessman with area ties.

The indictment was returned against 74-year-old Claud “Tex” McIver in connection with the September 2016 shooting death of his wife, Diane, according to Jeff Dickerson, a legal defense spokesman.

Dickerson telephoned The Union-Recorder with the latest news surrounding the high-profile case.

McIver was indicted on murder and felony murder, as well as six other charges, according to a press release issued by Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr.

In addition to the murder charges, McIver also was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and three counts of influencing witnesses, according to a copy of the grand jury indictment.

Grand jurors charge that McIver “with malice aforethought, caused the death of Landa Diane McIver, by shooting her with a handgun” on Sept. 25, 2016, records show.

“As a result of the indictment, the grand jury issued a no bond warrant for McIver’s arrest,” according to a press release from D.A. Howard. “McIver will be assigned to a Fulton County Superior Court judge within the next several days and appear at a court arraignment a short time later.”

McIver has maintained that the shooting death of his wife was an accident.

McIver was ordered back to jail Wednesday afternoon following a three-day bond revocation hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. The judge ruled that McIver violated one of the conditions of his bond after an investigator with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office discovered a Glock 19 9mm semi-automatic handgun in a sock drawer belonging to McIver in his Buckhead condo on April 14.

As a condition of bond on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct back in December when McIver was first arrested, a judge ordered McIver not to be in the possession of a firearm.

Following the ruling by McBurney that McIver violated a condition of his original bond, McIver was immediately taken into custody by deputies with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and taken to jail where he was processed, and photographed for the second time since December 22 when he surrendered to authorities on the original charges.

“The judge outlined the conditions under which he would receptive to issuing new bond and one of those would be in-house arrest,” Dickerson said, noting that would include an electronic ankle bracelet that would alert the prosecution if he were to leave from his Buckhead condo without proper permission of the court.

During the bond revocation hearing, evidence was revealed that the gun found in the sock drawer was owned by McIver’s brother, John, who lives in Florida, Dickerson said in a Thursday night telephone interview.

“His brother was the purchaser of the gun,” Dickerson said. “But Tex was in the possession of the gun.”

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills testified Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court that he participated in an effort to remove weapons from the cattle ranch owned by McIver off Pea Ridge Road in Putnam County, Dickerson said.

“He also spoke to Tex’s truthfulness and that sort of thing,” Dickerson said. “I think it was an attempt in his (Sills’) part to show how far Tex had gone to comply with the court order.”

Guns were removed from both residences where McIver lived, Dickerson said, meaning the defendant’s condo in Buckhead and his 90-acre ranch in Putnam County.

“He (McIver) solicited the help of Sheriff Sills to help him do that at the ranch,” Dickerson said. “So, he (Sills) spoke to that and I think he was a good witness in terms of characterizing Tex as a man of truthfulness, and integrity.”

At the end of the day, though, it was the fact that the gun was found in the condo, which violated one of the conditions of McIver’s bond, and “unfortunately” sent McIver back to jail, Dickerson said.