Ireland case jury
By Rod Thompson
selection set for April
Star-BulletinHILO -- Judge Riki May Amano said today she plans to call 500 people to select a jury for the trial of Frank Pauline Jr., accused of kidnapping, rape and murder in the 1991 death of Dana Ireland.
Amano set April 12 as the date to begin jury selection, but the process is expected to be so lengthy that presentation of the case to jurors won't begin until two months later on June 14.
The case is then expected to last seven weeks.
Pauline, 25, already in prison for an unrelated crime, began making a series of statements to police in 1994 saying he participated with two brothers in the attack on Ireland. He later changed his statements to say he knew about the attack, but was not present.
Ireland, 23, had been on the island about two months when she was struck by a vehicle on Christmas Eve, taken to a remote location where she was beaten and raped, then left to die.
Jury selection for the trial was set to begin today, but defense attorney Clifford Hunt, on the case for a year, told the judge he still has read only 1,000 pages out of 5,300 pages of information given to him by the prosecution.
With a new schedule set, Amano asked Hunt, "So nothing else is going to pop up that would cause you to say, 'Well there's one more issue I have to explore?'"
Hunt answered yes.
