Brothers’ trial
will be combined
Two Big Isle siblings
By Rod Thompson
are charged in the rape and death
of Dana Ireland
Star-BulletinHILO -- Murder suspect Shawn Schweitzer told a friend that his brother Albert Ian Schweitzer forced him to rape Dana Ireland before they left her to die, according to court documents.
Judge Riki May Amano this morning set a combined trial for the two brothers on Nov. 2, setting aside a defense objection that Shawn Schweitzer's statement should require separate trials.
Ireland, 23, vacationing on the Big Island, was struck by a vehicle while walking with her bicycle on a country road in the Puna district on Christmas Eve, 1991.
Her battered body was found a short time later several miles away, but because of the remote location and police and fire department confusion, she didn't receive medical help for two hours. She died at midnight.
Hawaii County prosecutors last year filed combined charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder against Albert, known as Ian, 26, and Shawn, 22. They filed the same charges in a separate case against a third suspect, Frank Pauline Jr., 24.
In documents filed last year seeking to separate the trial of the two brothers, attorney James Biven, representing Albert, cited grand jury transcripts of the testimony of Shayne Kobayashi, a friend of the Schweitzers.
Kobayashi said Shawn told him, "If I tell you, you promise not to say nothing?"
Shawn then said Albert made him rape Ireland.
Kobayashi said the Schweitzers and Pauline were in a Volkswagen on the day of the attack, and the vehicle was later seen to have damages consistent with striking Ireland's bicycle, the documents say.
Biven cited a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said two people could not be tried together if the confession of one threatened the fair trial of the other.
But Deputy Prosecutor Charlene Iboshi countered with a 1987 decision by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia that dismissed the earlier ruling as "expansive."
Scalia wrote that holding separate trials for suspects under these circumstances would "impair the efficiency" of court proceedings. It could also lead to one suspect being convicted and the other going free, he said.
Holding a combined trial "avoids the scandal and inequity of inconsistent verdicts," Scalia wrote.
