A jury found Swain accountable for Shelley Tyre's death while the pair were diving off Tortolla in 1999, and ordered him to pay $4.8 million as the result of a civil suit filed by his late wife's parents.
Based on examination of the victim's scuba gear, the jury accepted testimony from experts that Swain had attacked his wife from behind at a depth of 24m, turned off her air and forced her to drown. However, Swain has never been charged with any crime.
Swain appealed for a second trial after one of his lawyers became sick, but the judge said that the issues were dealt with in the first trial and other reasons were 'less than compelling' as Swain had initially raised no objections to them.
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