Changes in laws, one allowing family
members to speak at the sentencing of
people charged with 'heinous' crimes,
are not enough to comfort a community

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

Robert Martins stood in the courtroom urging Judge Greg Nakamura to apply the maximum sentence to the man convicted of killing his sister.

As a witness in the 1995 trial, Martins was excluded from the court for five weeks. Inside the court former police Sgt. Kenneth Mathison was tried and convicted in the beating death of his wife, Yvonne, Martins' sister.

But at sentencing Martins could talk directly to the judge because of a law passed at the urging of another relative of a murder victim, Dana Ireland's father, John.

"If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have had this right," Ireland remembers Martins telling him.

Lives and laws have been changed by the Ireland case.

For family members, the new law means a guarantee of being heard at sentencing, where judges previously had the choice of excluding family statements.

For prosecutors, another new law means added power to seek tough sentences for people charged with "heinous" crimes.

Sense of fear

But for some, such as women walking the tree-lined back roads of lower Puna, the case means extra caution that can't be erased by laws.

One of those women is the current girlfriend of Mark Evans, Dana Ireland's boyfriend at the time of the attack. Giving her name only as Utah Amy, Evans' friend notes her resemblance to Dana.

"I have been here four years and I won't even ride my bike out on the road because she and I look the same," Utah Amy says.

MaiApple McCullough, a spokeswoman for the group Citizens for Justice, which criticized police in the Mathison and Ireland cases, sometimes expressed fear for her own safety in the early 1990s.

Ironically, she has since moved to the vicinity where Dana was found, but also cautions that the case devastated the community.

"People used to walk down to (shoreline site) Honolulu Landing. Now they don't," she said.

"I don't walk around by myself much off my property. When I do, I listen. I'm tuned in."

Almost daily she visits the spot where Dana was found, leaving small offerings such as shells.

Another who remembers is Jack Ryan, a sculptor who erected a monument where Ireland was found.

"I always say 'Hi' to her when I drive by there," Ryan said.

Ida Smith, the woman who found Dana, says a helicopter could have landed in her front yard to bring help to the injured woman.

"Did she die from the crime or did she die from neglect?" Smith asked. "Did she have to die?"

Hawaii County received a donated medical helicopter in 1992, but it is stationed in West Hawaii, near the resort that donated it.

County emergency medical services coordinator Paul "Scotty" Paiva said a flight to the spot where Dana was found would take about 45 minutes, the same amount of time an ambulance took to reach her.

The flight from there to Hilo Hospital would be 15 minutes, three times faster than the 45 minutes the ambulance carrying Dana needed.

Call boxes installed

The biggest cause for the delay in help was the lack of phones in the area.

Much of lower Puna still lacks electric and telephone lines.

To fill the gap islandwide, GTE Hawaiian Tel and U.S. Cellular Corp. each have installed five solar-powered 911 call boxes on the island. Three of them are in lower Puna, one maintained by each of the companies, and one shared by the two.

In 1991, police did not routinely send a criminalist, an expert who conducts analysis of evidence, to a crime scene. Now they do in most cases, said Assistant Chief Lawrence Mahuna.

And John Ireland continues seeking stronger laws.

Besides the right of family members to speak at sentencing, Ireland obtained passage of a law that allows a suspect to be sentenced to life without parole if he is found guilty of committing an especially "heinous, atrocious, or cruel" murder.

Without that enhanced sentence, those guilty of second-degree murder -- the most common murder charge in Hawaii -- can be sentenced to life, but with the possibility of parole.

That law cannot be applied retroactively to any of the suspects charged with murdering Ireland's daughter.

Unfinished business

Ireland was unsuccessful this year in getting the Legislature to change another law, the statue of limitations on many of the most serious felonies in Hawaii.

Under the current law, offenders must be charged with offenses such as kidnapping and rape within six years.

Ireland tried unsuccessfully to get the period extended at least to 10 years.

Fifteen states have no statute of limitations, he said.

He promised to renew the fight for the change next year. "I'm not taking no for an answer on this," he said.

Courtesy of John and Louise Ireland
3-year-old Dana on the patio of the
Irelands' home in Springfield, Va.

Tuesday, June 8 Blurred through the years is the real Dana. She lives on, though -- beautiful, shy, kind -- in the memories of those who knew her. The innocent. The indicted. Anatomy of a murder. The what and where of the attack. Who's who in the Dana Ireland tragedy. Wednesday, June 9 Help came too late for Dana Ireland. From the moment she was hit by her attackers' car until the time an ambulance reached her, more than two hours passed. Here's how minutes -- and a life -- were lost. Thursday, June 10 Life has gone on since the Dec. 24, 1991, attack. Memories have faded. Witnesses have scattered. But each twist and turn in the seven-year bid to bring to justice those responsible means fresh injury, not only to Dana's family but to witnesses whose lives have been put on hold by this on-again, off-again case.

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