Suspect beat Ireland,
By Rod Thompson
but ‘gross’ injuries
turned him off
Star-BulletinHILO -- Dana Ireland murder suspect Frank Pauline Jr. told officials with the state attorney general's office that he wanted to have sex with Ireland when she was raped by other suspects on Christmas Eve 1991.
But he didn't because he considered her injuries "gross," according to Circuit Court testimony at a hearing yesterday.
He also told officials that he beat Ireland with a tire iron.
Ireland, 23, a visitor to the island who was attacked in the rural Puna district, died at the beginning of Christmas Day.
Police revealed yesterday that Pauline said he cooperated with them because he was "haunted" by the attack, and that he attempted suicide while in their custody.
In June 1994, Pauline, 25, began cooperating with police while jailed at Halawa prison for an unrelated offense. He made conflicting confessions and said brothers Shawn Schweitzer, 23, and Albert Ian Schweitzer, 27, also attacked Ireland.
All three were charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault, but charges against the Schweitzers were dropped last year, with prosecutors saying there were new developments.
Patrick Cullen, an official with the attorney general's office, said he picked up Pauline at Honolulu Airport in 1994 to return him to prison after Pauline had been taken to the Big Island for the investigation.
Without mentioning Pauline's rights to him, Cullen asked, "How did everything go?" Pauline told Cullen he had an erection during the attack on Ireland but was put off by her injuries "because it was gross."
Judge Riki May Amano ruled at yesterday's hearing that the statements couldn't be used because Cullen hadn't read Pauline his rights.
But Pauline gave much more extensive statements to Hawaii County Police Detective Steven Guillermo, and Amano ruled that those statements can be used in Pauline's upcoming March 1 trial.
Defense attorney Clifford Hunt tried to show that police influenced Pauline by giving him favors, such as arranging his transfer from Halawa to the Maui Community Correctional Center.
When Pauline didn't get the supposed favors, he tried to hang himself at the Hilo police station, Guillermo said. Amano ruled that the police actions didn't amount to coercion.
Amano refused a request by Deputy Prosecutor Charlene Iboshi to reinstate a murder-by-omission charge against Pauline because he failed to call for medical help for Ireland.
She gave Hunt two more weeks to support requests to throw out all charges against Pauline because of a lack of evidence, or to move his trial to another location.
She said she'd rule on the requests Feb. 18.
