American tourist’s murder trial postponed again

David Swain

An extension request by head defense counsel Mishka Jacobs received approval from Justice Odel Adams. 

“This case involves quite a bit of expert testimony from the Crown, and it is imperative for the defense to put forward expert testimony as well in order to secure a proper defense. We are having quite a bit of difficulty in securing the necessary experts. The difficulty is financial on the part of the defense,” Jacobs stated in her request to the judge.

According to The Virgin Islands Daily News, “Justice Adams granted the extension but said that it is important for Swain's trial to take place as soon as possible.”

Swain was previously found not guilty on murder charges stemming from the March 12, 1999 diving death of his wife, Shelly Arden Tyre, on the last day of the couple’s British Virgin Islands vacation. Both Swain and Tyre were reported to be expert divers and often split up when they would go diving.

Swain claimed that he had left his wife during the dive and when he returned she had died because of malfunctioning equipment, though he had no knowledge of how it actually happened.   ~~Adz:Right~~

Despite a BVI criminal investigation that said Tyre’s death could have been accidental, Swain was found guilty in a 2006 Rhode Island Superior Court $6 million dollar wrongful death civil suit pursued by Tyre’s family. The case had been delayed numerous times because Swain’s lawyer fell ill with cancer.

The Tyre family’s lawyer in that case, J. Renn Olenn, was subsequently successful in advising prosecutors in the BVI to take a second look at Swain’s case in light of the “expert” testimony secured for the United States trial.

After being arrested by federal agents and remanded to Tortola’s prison, prosecutors for the Crown began gathering new evidence for a new preliminary inquiry into the case.

Swain and his closest friends have repeatedly claimed his innocence in Tyre’s death and have set up a donation fund for his legal defense.

Among those persons vouching for Swain’s innocence is his ex-wife, Sandy Wheeler, who told reporters, “I learned to scuba dive [from Swain] because I thought it would be something we could do together. He would always stay with me, and when we divorced, I never dove again because there was no one on this earth that I trusted more than him to be in the water with.”