dive shop owner murdered wife while scuba diving in British Virgin Islands

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VERDICT: PADI dive shop owner murdered wife while scuba diving in British Virgin Islands

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by TOM MOONEY

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (24 Feb 2006) -- A jury hearing a civil case found today that a Jamestown scuba shop owner killed his wife during a 1999 diving trip in the Caribbean, and it awarded her parents more than $3.5 million in damages.

 

The Superior Court jury found that enough evidence was presented to prove that David Swain, 50, a former Jamestown Town Council member, acted with "malice aforethought" in killing Shelley Tyre, 46, off the island of Tortola.

 

The five women and one man on the jury returned with their verdict at about 11:45 a.m. after deliberating for a little more than three hours over two days. They had heard eight days of testimony.

 

Tyre's parents, Richard and Lisa Tyre of Jamestown, brought the wrongful-death suit against Swain, alleging that Swain killed their daughter for money at a time when he was pursuing a relationship with another woman.

 

Tortola authorities had ruled the death an accident "unless proven otherwise," and Swain has never been charged with a crime.

 

In a civil trial, the burden of proof is less than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard used in criminal cases. A civil jury only has to prove that the defendant is liable by a "preponderance of the evidence" or, in other words, is more likely than not to have done what is alleged.

 

During the trial, several expert witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that they had concluded -- based largely on the condition of some of Tyre's recovered scuba equipment -- that Swain attacked his wife from behind, shut off her air tank and held her down long enough to drown her in 80 feet of water.

 

Swain took the verdict stoically.

 

"We're obviously saddened by the verdict," he said, adding that he's "not sure if this is going to bring any closure to anybody."

 

Swain said it was too early to decide whether he would appeal. But he said he would welcome a criminal trial because "in a criminal trial, all of the evidence gets evaluated, not just some of the evidence."

 

"Maybe Shelley was in court today," her father, Richard Tyre said, after the verdict. Today would have been his daughter's 53rd birthday.

 

The jury began deliberating late yesterday afternoon and discussed the case for about 45 minutes before quitting for the day.

 

It started this morning's deliberations at about 9:30 a.m. They signalled they had reached a verdict shortly before noon when they asked the judge a question about damages, and said there was no need to send out for sandwiches for their lunch.

 

The jury awarded the Tyres $2 million in punitive damages and $1,534,943 in compensatory damages.

 

The parents had asked for at least $854,364 -- a figure representing the projected loss of their 46-year-old daughter's future earnings -- and whatever other monetary damages the jury may be inclined to order.

 

Tyre had earned about $70,000 annually as a principal at Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., before taking a lower-paying teaching job at Rocky Hill School in Warwick, because she believed her marriage was in trouble, and she thought working closer to home could help salvage it, according to testimony and statements from her lawyer.

 

The couple had a prenuptial agreement preventing Swain from receiving anything from Tyre if they divorced, but Swain collected $570,000 after his wife's death, including $390,000 from two insurance policies, $134,000 in Tyre's bank and investment accounts and a $46,000 profit from the sale of her home, according to trial testimony.

 

Still, Swain filed for bankruptcy last fall.

 

Swain chose not to attend the proceedings or offer a defense for the first seven days of the trial, but in an unusual twist, he showed up in court Wednesday and told the judge he wanted to act as his own attorney. He had been subpoenaed to testify, but he was never called to take the stand.

 

Instead, he delivered an opening statement yesterday, called one witness, his 30-year-old daughter, then gave a closing statement.

 

In his closing argument, J. Renn Olenn, the lawyer representing Tyre's parents, claimed that Swain had gotten away with murder on Tortola, and he urged the jurors not to let him get away from them.

 

He claimed that evidence he presented at trial, including testimony from Dr. Bruce A. Hyma, chief medical examiner Florida's Miami-Dade County, proved that Swain went into the water with his wife and attacked her from behind, then surfaced quickly because he had run out of air from the struggle.

 

Olenn alleged Swain shut off his wife's air supply, ripped off her mask and prevented her from surfacing long enough for her to drown.

 

Swain reminded the jurors that he had never been charged with a crime and asked why the chief medical examiner in Miami hadn't contacted authorities in Tortola if the medical examiner was so convinced that he had killed his wife.

 

He called his wife's death an "unfortunate, painful accident" and not as the plaintiffs' "highly paid" expert witnesses speculated.

 

SOURCE - The Providence Journal Link

 

Bit of a strange one, this.