Sentencing delayed for Collingwood man who murdered his wife

Editor's note: The following contains graphic details some readers may find disturbing.

The sentencing of a Collingwood man who admitted to killing his wife and then trying to make it look she died in a fiery crash has been delayed two months. 

James Schwalm, who pleaded guilty on June 20 to murdering his wife, Ashley Schwalm, and then setting her vehicle on fire with her body in it, was due to receive his sentence from Justice Michelle Fuerst today (Sept. 26). 

However, Fuerst received and granted a joint request from Crown attorney Lynn Saunders and James Schwalm's defence lawyer, Joelle Klein, asking for the sentencing to be adjourned to Nov. 25, 2024 in Barrie. 

The court heard details of the grisly murder in June through an agreed statement of facts that made up James Schwalm's guilty plea to second-degree murder. 

Ashley Schwalm was strangled to death by her husband James Schwalm sometime in the night between Jan. 26 and 26, 2023. She was 40 years old. 

James dressed Ashley in hiking clothes, put her body in the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander she regularly drove to work, and drove it off Arrowhead Road. He poured gasoline throughout the interior of the vehicle and over his wife's body, then he lit the car on fire. 

James fabricated an alibi by sending himself text messages from his dead wife's phone and doctoring home security videos, and he borrowed his mother's vehicle to use as a getaway car following his attempt to burn his wife's body and vehicle, the court heard. 

The couple's two children, age nine and six, were at home when James killed Ashley, and home alone when he drove her car and body out to burn them. 

Ontario Provincial Police from the Collingwood/The Blue Mountains detachment discovered the body and vehicle the same morning, and began a homicide investigation, arresting James Schwalm on Feb. 3. He was 38 at the time.

Police charged him with second-degree murder and indignity to a dead body, and later upgraded the charges to first-degree murder. Schwalm pleaded guilty to and was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his wife. 

The Crown asked for a separate sentencing hearing from the hearing in June when Schwalm pleaded guilty, in order to accommodate "a number" of family and friends who would like to read out statements.