‘When I saw
the bike, I was
frightened’
Dana Ireland's sister testifies
By Rod Thompson
as part of a detailed buildup of
the crime's circumstances
Big Island correspondentHILO -- Small but not petite, blond, blue-eyed, wearing no makeup and delicately pretty in her mid-40s, Sandra Louise Ireland sat in the witness stand of a Hilo courtroom.
Standing next to her, a prosecutor held a large photo of her murdered sister, Dana Marie Ireland.
Although 13 years separated their ages, and another 7 years have passed since Dana died at the age of 23, the two could be twins.
As the current trial of Frank Pauline Jr. continues over the next six to seven weeks, through Sandy Ireland jurors will now have a living image of the young woman whose life Pauline is accused of taking.Besides murder, Pauline is also accused of rape and kidnapping in the Christmas Eve, 1991, attack on Dana Ireland. Two brothers are also charged but will be tried separately.
The circumstances of the attack are complicated, and defense attorney Clifford Hunt disputes a major part of the prosecution's story. He says Pauline is innocent, and he has told jurors the name of another man whom he suggests is guilty.
'She's a really gentle and loving person,
very, very, very, very shy.
She was sort of my mother's
little girl.'Sandy Ireland,
DANA IRELAND'S SISTERProsecutor Charlene Iboshi yesterday called Sandy Ireland to testify as part of a slow, detailed buildup of the circumstances of the crime.
Sandy said she moved to the Kapoho area of the Big Island in 1977.
Her little sister remained at home in Virginia until she graduated from college in 1991 with a degree in physical education with a sports medicine emphasis.
"She's a really gentle and loving person, very, very, very, very shy," Sandy said.
"She was sort of my mother's little girl, and it was really hard for her to leave home. I was sort of a way for her to come and have some change from living with Mom and Dad and sort of open up -- some freedom for her."
In October 1991, Dana arrived in Hawaii. On Dec. 24, 1991, family members went shopping and prepared for a Christmas Eve dinner.
In the midafternoon, Dana borrowed her sister's bicycle so she could invite a young man she had been dating to their dinner."She sort of just slipped out. She slipped away," Sandy said. She never saw her sister again, alive or dead, she said.
The man, Mark Evans, testified he'd dated Dana for about a month.
On Dec. 24, 1991, she arrived at his house at about 3:30 p.m., then left at about 4 p.m. to bicycle seven miles back home.
He watched her pedal away. "I was thinking to myself that she was such a beautiful person. The road was so messed up, and she was wearing shorts, and it could be very easy to wipe out going down the road."
"I thought to myself, 'Don't fall and scar up your legs.'"
Another witness, Anna Sherrell, was living in the area where Dana and Sandy lived. At 5:25 p.m. that day, she called police saying she had found a crumpled bicycle, a shoe, a watch and big hunks of hair on the red cinder road near her house.
She testified yesterday that she saw what she called "acceleration marks" in the cinders, like a driver had deliberately sped up to hit the bicycle.
Pauline has told police he was riding with brothers Ian and Shawn Schweitzer when Ian sped up to hit Ireland.On cross-examination, Hunt pointed out that Sherrell had not described the "acceleration marks" earlier to police. How did she know they showed acceleration?
"I am close to 50 years old," she answered. "I've driven a car for a lot of my life. ... The cinder had been spun out," she said.
Sandy Ireland testified she also saw the wreckage.
"When I saw the bike and the condition it was in, I was really frightened," she said in a quavering voice.
She went to her parents' rented home, then returned to find a police officer at the scene.
"I thought I overheard the radio saying that there was a woman that was injured in -- over his radio -- in Hawaiian Beaches. I asked him if that was my sister."
The officer said he didn't know but that it would be OK to go to the hospital. Sandy; her boyfriend, Jim Ingham; her mother, Louise; and a neighbor drove to the hospital. Her father, John, stayed home in case additional information turned up there.
The meaning of some testimony yesterday was baffling.
Arsenio Julian Jr. testified about a two-car accident he was in near Kapoho on Dec. 24, 1991. Neither prosecution nor defense linked the accident to Ireland.
Ricardo Hopkins testified about finding Ireland's crumpled bicycle. But Iboshi also asked him about his dark skin -- he said he is Native American -- and showed jurors a picture of a shirtless Hopkins.
Hunt asked several witnesses about pickup trucks and vans in the area. He has told jurors that a pickup or van hit Ireland, not a Volkswagen as the prosecution says.
The case is in recess today and resumes Monday.
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