Defense asks for
By Rod Thompson
‘others’ in Ireland murder
to be revealed
Big Island correspondent
HILO -- The public will have to wait to learn who, if anyone, was the alleged fourth attacker of murder victim Dana Ireland.
Shawn Schweitzer, 23, his brother Albert Ian, 27, and Frank Pauline Jr., 26, are the only people charged with the Christmas Eve 1991 kidnapping, rape, and murder of Ireland, 23.
The indictment of the Schweitzers in May indicated they acted "with others," suggesting at least a fourth attacker.
Shawn Schweitzer's attorney, Keith Shigetomi, wanted a judge to require prosecutors to reveal the names of the "others."
Instead, in court yesterday, Shigetomi told Judge Riki May Amano that prosecutors gave him a transcript of the grand jury session indicting the Schweitzers.
Talks between Shigetomi and prosecutors will continue, and if disagreements remain by July 16, the judge will set a new hearing.
The brothers are to be tried in November. Pauline is to be tried next month.
By giving Shigetomi the transcript, the prosecution avoided a legal argument in open court that might have explained unanswered questions.
Pauline, in each of his several confessions to participating in the attack since 1994, never mentioned a fourth person.
Nearly five years after Pauline's confessions began, Deputy Prosecutor Lincoln Ashida mentioned a possible fourth person in a court document in February of this year.
He offered the theory to explain the fact that DNA from sperm found on a sheet where Ireland lay didn't match the three named suspects.
In a document, Shigetomi noted that prosecutors didn't say the fourth person is unknown.
But he hinted at a suspicion that prosecutors don't know the person. He said prosecutors should have told the grand jury they don't know the name, if that's true.
Meanwhile, Shawn Schweitzer got a modest break in an unrelated case yesterday.
In May, Schweitzer pleaded no contest to fondling a 15-year-old girl when he was 16.
He had already spent so much time in jail awaiting trial on earlier Ireland charges that his 180-day jail term was quickly over. He was also sentenced to a year probation and required to undergo sex offender treatment.
Yesterday, Deputy Prosecutor Charlene Iboshi told Judge Greg Nakamura that Schweitzer can't get the offender treatment.
He is being held in the Hawaii Community Correctional Center without bail because of the Ireland charges, and no treatment is given there.
Nakamura agreed to drop the offender treatment and change the year of probation to six more months in jail, where Schweitzer is stuck anyway until the November Ireland trial.
Dana Ireland Archive
