Man to serve 25 years in wife's 1999 scuba slaying

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands — A British Virgin Islands judge ruled Tuesday that a former Rhode Island dive shop owner must serve at least 25 years of a mandatory life sentence for killing his wife on a Caribbean scuba outing in 1999, rejecting his lawyers' bid for leniency.

Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles said the premeditated nature of the crime bound her to deny a defense request that David Swain become eligible for parole after 18 years in prison.

"It is my view that this murder was carefully planned and premeditated and calls for stiff punishment," the judge said.

The judge granted Swain about two years credit for time served. The 53-year-old is to serve his sentence at Her Majesty's Prison at Balsam Ghut on Tortola, a mountainous island about 90 miles (140 kilometers) east of Puerto Rico.

A jury unanimously convicted Swain on Oct. 27 of murdering Shelley Tyre in what authorities portrayed as a near-perfect crime.

Tyre's drowning near an isolated shipwreck at a depth of 80 feet (24 meters) was initially ruled an accident, but authorities in the British Virgin Islands charged Swain with murder after a 2006 civil trial in Rhode Island found him responsible for her death.

The civil jury awarded Tyre's family $3.5 million; Swain filed for bankruptcy and has not paid the sum.

In the criminal trial, prosecutors argued that Swain killed Tyre to pursue a romance with another woman and get his hands on his wife's money.

Swain's lawyers plan to appeal the verdict. His daughter, Jen Swain Bloom, said evidence that would have helped her father was improperly barred from the trial.