THE DANA IRELAND CASE Ireland trial
lawyer wants other
suspects named
Participation of a fourth
By Rod Thompson
person is believed to be
key to the case
Star-BulletinHILO -- The lawyer for Dana Ireland murder suspect Shawn Schweitzer wants to know the names of the other people who the prosecution believes participated in the crime with Shawn and his brother, Albert Ian.
Participation of a fourth person, besides co-suspect Frank Pauline Jr., is believed to be key in explaining why DNA from sperm found on a hospital sheet where Ireland lay dying doesn't match any of the publicly revealed suspects.
Failure to identify the fourth person could cast doubt on the prosecution's belief that the Schweitzers were involved.
If the prosecution doesn't know who the others are, it may have deliberately misled the grand jury, suggests Shawn's attorney, Keith Shigetomi, in court documents.
And the prosecution may be trying so hard to solve the Ireland case that it is jeopardizing the community by making deals with known criminals, Shigetomi says.
Shawn, 23, and Albert Ian Schweitzer, 27, were reindicted last month for murder, kidnapping and rape in the Ireland case after previous charges were dropped. Their trial is set for Nov. 15.
In the indictment, the prosecution charged that the brothers committed the crimes "together with others."
Shigetomi points out that one of those others is Pauline, who is to be tried separately July 19.
Shigetomi says the prosecution must know who the remaining person or persons are, since the indictment does not say they are unknown.
If the Schweitzers and at least two others didn't commit the offense, the reference to others "was a deliberate attempt to mislead the grand jury," Shigetomi wrote.
If the state doesn't know the identities, it should have told that to the grand jury, he wrote.
Shigetomi also wants the prosecution to reveal the arrest and conviction records of all potential civilian witnesses.
Many witnesses entered agreements with the prosecutors to avoid being prosecuted in separate cases, Shigetomi wrote.
There may be so many such agreements that prosecutors are acting "at the cost of jeopardizing public safety and judicial integrity," he wrote.
Meanwhile, in Pauline's case, defense attorney Clifford Hunt is casting doubt on Pauline's earlier story that Albert Ian Schweitzer ran over Ireland with his Volkswagen Beetle.
Prosecutors use nationally known accident specialist Ken Baker to support their claim, Hunt said.
He is asking the court for $10,078 to pay for another expert, James Campbell, to refute the claim.
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