A former Brampton fire captain who murdered his wife, leaving her body inside a burning SUV, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.
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James Schwalm, 40, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Jan. 26, 2023 slaying of Ashley Schwalm, 40. The Collingwood woman’s body was burned beyond recognition.
An autopsy revealed she was already dead from strangulation at the time the SUV was set afire.
“His actions on the morning of Jan. 26, 2023, … were completely at odds of his responsibility as a firefighter to save lives, not take them,” Supreme Court Justice Michelle Fuerst said in a Barrie courtroom Monday.
“Ashley Schwalm’s murder was an act of egregious selfishness; it was cold, callous and in many respects, calculated.”
At the time of the murder, the couple had been married more than a decade and shared two children. But the court heard the Schwalms were growing apart, partly due to an affair she was having with her boss.
The duo then tried counselling, which failed.
But in a bizarre twist, the former firefighter turned his romantic designs to the ex-wife of Ashley’s paramour. Ten days before the slaying, James Schwalm and the woman agreed they had romantic feelings for one another.
Ominously, five days before Ashley’s murder, James Schwalm told the woman he was going to do what made him happy.
He was the sole beneficiary of Ashley’s $1-million insurance policy and searched the internet for the financial implications of getting a divorce.
Two days after Ashley’s body was discovered, the firefighter told cops he believed his beloved wife had been in a tragic crash. He was cooperative, cops said.
But in court, he confessed to transporting his wife’s remains to a local ski club, dousing the body in gas, driving the SUV over an embankment and setting the car on fire.