David Swain, 53, from Jamestown on Rhode Island, was found guilty in a British-law Virgin Islands court of murdering his wife, Shelley Tyre, as the pair dived off Tortola in 1999.
The jury accepted expert opinion that Swain had held his wife from behind at a depth of about 25m and, as the pair struggled, turned off her air supply until she succumbed.
Tyre, then 46 and described as an experienced diver, was found floating at the surface with air still in her cylinder, damage to her mask, a snorkel missing its mouthpiece, and just one fin. The other was left stuck in the seabed.
Swain faces life imprisonment on Tortola. The trial judge is expected to announce sentence on 4 November.
Swain's conviction follows a move by the USA's Alabama State Attorney General against another American diver, David Watson, for alleged underwater murder.
Watson's wife Tina died on a dive off Queensland as the pair honeymooned in late 2003. This June, Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Queensland court and is imprisoned in Australia until December next year.
Upon his return to Alabama he will, if the state's Attorney General gets his way, follow David Swain in being charged with the underwater murder of his wife.
Related link
Diver could face murder charge
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