EATONTON, Ga. — Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills is expected to testify sometime this week at a hearing for a prominent Fulton County lawyer and businessman with ties to Putnam County.

Testimony resumed Tuesday in an Atlanta courtroom for 74-year-old Claud “Tex” McIver, who was arrested and charged last year with the shooting death of his wife, Diane.

McIver contends that the shooting was an accident.

“I fully believe the prosecution is trying to go after a murder indictment against me,” McIver told The Union-Recorder in a telephone interview.

McIver said he couldn’t go into a lot of discussion about anything related to the case right because his defense attorneys had advised against it.

He instead directed questions to Jeff Dickerson, who has been hired to speak about the case to the media on McIver’s behalf.

The hearing, now underway and being presided over by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, was continued last Friday and started back up Tuesday isn’t related to the shooting death, though.

McIver is accused of having in his possession a handgun, which violated conditions of his having been released on bond following his arrest on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.

The gun, described as a Glock 19-9 MM semi-automatic handgun, was discovered in a sock drawer of a chest of drawers in the Buckhead condo where McIver lives. Fulton County District Attorney Investigator Brian Salters testified last Friday that he found the gun there on Friday, April 14.

Under questioning by Fulton County Chief Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker, Salters said the gun wasn’t seized at the time because it wasn’t included in the items listed in a search warrant that had been executed at the McIver residence.

Instead of the gun being taken as evidence, a photograph of it was taken.

Another search warrant later was executed to secure the gun, Rucker told the court. But when authorities returned to the condo, the gun was no longer there.

Rucker has filed a motion with the court to revoke McIver’s bond because a gun was found in his residence.

One of McIver’s two defense attorneys, Stephen Maples, meanwhile, has tried to quash such a motion contending that the search that produced the gun there was unlawful.

Judge McBurney has not yet ruled on that motion.

Tammy Johnson, who is known as the estate manager for Diane McIver, testified last Friday and again was called back to the stand Tuesday to continue her testimony in cross-examination by defense attorneys.

Johnson, who was at the McIver condo at the time the first search warrant was served, admitted she removed the gun from the sock drawer. Johnson said she removed the gun at Maples’ request.

Johnson said McIver later asked her to take a photograph of the gun, as well as its serial number. Johnson said she was told to send the photographs to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.

Several people of late have testified before grand jurors, but as of Tuesday afternoon there still had been no indictments returned against McIver.

McIver owns a large cattle ranch off Pea Ridge Road in Putnam County and is a member of the county development authority.

During a Sunday afternoon telephone interview with The Union-Recorder, McIver’s spokesman Jeff Dickerson said Fulton County District Attorney

Paul Howard was likely to put the McIver case before them either Thursday or Friday.

“He has already gone before the grand jury and there has been some testimony before the grand jury and they subpoenaed some more documents and records,” Dickerson said.

Asked about the comment that McIver made last week to the newspaper concerning a possible murder indictment being sought, Dickerson agreed.

“That’s clearly the case,” Dickerson said. “They are seeking possible motives for murder. And that’s why they are looking at a subsequent will, and I say subsequent because I don’t know if it was a second will or a third will.”

Dickerson said authorities have searched both of McIver’s residences — the one in Buckhead as well as his ranch home in Putnam County.

“They have been looking for evidence, we think, for a murder motive,” Dickerson said.

A search warrant was executed at the Buckhead residence of McIver on April 14, while the Putnam County search warrant was subsequent to the residence in Fulton County, Dickerson added.

Former Fulton County Superior Court Judge William Hill, of Atlanta and Stephen Maples, of Decatur, well-known criminal defense attorneys, are serving as defense attorneys for McIver.