PROVIDENCE — Federal marshals drove a shackled David Swain into downtown yesterday, where the morning sun had turned the Providence River to diamonds and breath vapors slipped from the mouths of cold, scurrying pedestrians.

A winter scene, and possibly Swain’s last close look at the city.

Sometime in the next few weeks, there will come a knock on the door of his federal jail cell in Central Falls, and the former Jamestown Town Council member and scuba-shop owner will be whisked off to Tortola, in the Caribbean, to face a charge that he murdered his wife there nine years ago this March.

If found guilty, Swain faces a sentence of life in prison with no chance for early release for 30 years.

Swain is 51.

In a 10-minute federal court hearing, Swain, dressed in prison khaki and looking thinner than the November day when marshals arrested him, waived his right to fight extradition.

“I agree to go to the British Virgin Islands,” Swain told U.S. Magistrate Lincoln D. Almond.

While Swain’s decision speeds the process of his transfer to Tortola, it will probably be late summer or fall before his trial gets under way, said one of his lawyers, Jeffrey A. Denner, after the hearing.

Swain, who has said repeatedly that he did not kill his wife, Shelley Tyre, is anxious to clear his name, said Denner.

“His waiving of extradition is an indication of his desire to get to court,” he said. “He is confident the result will be his acquittal.”

Shelley Tyre, who was 46 and an expert diver, drowned in March 1999 while scuba diving with her husband over a pair of sunken tugboats. The Swains had gone on vacation with another couple and their young son. Swain and Tyre were the only divers of the group in the water at the time.

Tortola officials initially called her death an accident. Swain said he had separated from Tyre during the dive and was not with her when she died and therefore could offer no explanation of what happened to her.

But two years ago, in February 2006, Shelley Tyre’s parents won a wrongful death suit against Swain. During a trial, their lawyer, J. Renn Olenn, presented evidence and expert witnesses who convinced a jury in the civil case that it was more probable than not that Swain had killed Shelley Tyre.

The motive, suggested Olenn, was that Swain was seeing another woman and that a prenuptial agreement prevented Swain from receiving any of Shelley Tyre’s money if they divorced.

The civil conviction swayed law-enforcement officials on the island to take another look at the case. They eventually issued a murder warrant for his arrest and last Nov. 14, U.S. marshals took him into custody at what was then his scuba shop, Ocean State Scuba.

Swain has two grown children from a previous marriage. His son and his daughter-in-law attended yesterday’s hearing along with a man identified as a friend.

Swain chose not to have legal representation during the civil trial, a decision he deeply regrets now, said Denner.

“There is great clarity in hindsight,” said Denner. “I’m sure if he thought this was heading to a criminal investigation he would have gone down a reasonable path” by hiring a lawyer. “He didn’t perceive himself a target of a criminal case.”

“Certainly he will be zealously defended by us,” said Denner, referring to his Boston law firm, Denner and Pellegrino. One of Denner’s associates, Timothy Bradl, said he contacted Swain after reading about the case.

Denner would not say whether Swain will take the stand in his defense, only that Swain would be “a big part” of the defense.

Despite the fact that Swain is bankrupt, Denner said his firm worked out a “very satisfactory fee agreement” with Swain’s family and friends.

But it wasn’t for money that he took the case, said Denner.

“I felt it was a very just case for a very decent man and a case we wanted to be involved in.”

tmooney@projo.com