A Puna resident testifies that
a shirt found with Dana Ireland
was the same he saw on Frank
Pauline a month beforeBrothers ask for separate trials
By Rod Thompson
Trial witnesses summary
Breaking News for late updates
Star-BulletinHILO -- The mental picture of Dana Ireland murder suspect Frank Pauline Jr. wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of a 1940s "Woody" station wagon was "burned on my mind" during a November 1991 incident, Puna resident Steven Dearing testi- fied yesterday.
Pauline threatened him while wearing the shirt, he said.
A month later, the shirt, smeared with blood, was found with the badly injured Ireland.
Pauline is being tried on charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder for the Christmas Eve 1991 attack on the 23-year-old woman.
The November incident began when someone in a group of men which included Pauline stole a go-cart that belonged to Dearing's sons, age 3 and 8, he said.
Dearing went to the garage of the nearby home of Andre Chung, where Pauline, then 18, and 11 others were present.
Pauline approached him, turned his back on him at a distance of three or four feet, and stood there with the image of the station wagon facing Dearing, he said."I thought Frank Pauline was going to sucker punch me," he said.
"The image (of the shirt) was burned on my mind," he said. "My kids' lives were in jeopardy and my life was in jeopardy at that point. I was under fire and it was a life and death situation."
'That was the shirt'
Defense attorney Clifford Hunt tried to poke a hole in Dearing's account, saying Dearing wasn't clear in his description to police at first.Dearing said the first time he saw Pauline wearing the shirt, it was clean. "When I saw the shirt (in police custody), it about made me puke because it was covered in blood."
It took Dearing a couple of months to sort out the November 1991 incident from another in December, he said. Finally he told police he was certain.
"I was absolutely positive that was the shirt Frank Pauline had on."
In other testimony, Patrick Cul-len, chief investigator for the state attorney general, said he was present when police interviewed Pauline in 1994 after Pauline was brought from Halawa prison.
Cullen said he heard Pauline say he was sitting in a Volkswagen during the attack on Ireland, and had an erection at the time, but didn't have sex with Ireland.
Then Pauline said he hit Ireland with a tire iron, Cullen said.
Hilo Hospital pathologist Charles Reinhold testified that he did an autopsy on Ireland's body.
Among numerous injuries over most of her body from the waist up, he noted a "curvilinear" laceration or cut, about six inches long, on the right side of her head.
The word "curvilinear" seemed to clarify a description given a day earlier by paramedic Johnson Kahili, who said the cut was U-shaped, but he couldn't remember details.
Reinhold explained, "This laceration in this case . . . to me appeared to be mostly likely due to a tangential blow, a glancing blow, a sideswiping blow to the head."
The combination of her many injuries indicated that they were not caused by a single episode of injury, he said. "It was mostly likely due to multiple blunt injuries, possibly blows," he said.
Hunt objected to Reinhold's interpretation of how the injuries were caused, saying the prosecution and defense had an agreement to exclude such testimony.
Judge Riki May Amano agreed, ordered that part of his testimony stricken, and told jurors to ignore it.
Hunt later called for a mistrial, but Amano refused, saying her orders for jurors to ignore the testimony was enough.
Ireland given 24 units of fluid
Reinhold said Ireland died of massive blood loss. In an attempt to replace her body fluids, she was given 24 units of blood and other fluids, he said, much more than the four units described by two witnesses the day before.The fluids caused major swelling of her body. Ireland normally weighed 104 pounds, her sister had testified. At the autopsy, she weighed 152, Reinhold said.
She kept bleeding because her body had used up all the substan-ces the blood uses to produce clotting, he said. "She kept on bleeding and bleeding and bleeding," he said.
Reinhold also said he took swabs of fluids from Ireland's mouth, vagina, and anus on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27. Many of the swabs were given directly to police, he said.
Reinhold retained two slides he made with the swabs, then gave one slide to police in 1993, he said. He still has the other.
Over the years, the victim's father, John Ireland, and others have said they received information that the swabs, useful for DNA analysis, were mishandled.
Reinhold described an orderly process that did not suggest mishandling by the hospital.
In other testimony, auto body and painting business owner Lynn Matthews described how he had obtained a reddish purple Volks-wagen sedan with a small "baby window" in the back in 1991 and put it in top shape for resale.
A "Filipino kid," whose name Matthews didn't know, bought the restored car for another Ireland suspect, Ian Schweitzer, and the two partially dismantled the car in Matthews' driveway as soon as they bought it, he said.
The two switched the seats of the purple car and other parts with another car, and Schweitzer ended up with the purple car, he said.
After Christmas 1991, he saw the car again, but it had been repainted yellow, he said.
In a 1994 statement to police, Pauline said that car was used to run down Ireland, and it was repainted afterward.
Brothers’
lawyers ask to
separate trial
A court hearing could
By Rod Thompson
also see the Schweitzers
lose a fourth attorney
Star-BulletinHILO -- Attorneys for two brothers accused of participating in the murder of Dana Ireland are asking for separate trials for them.
One of the lawyers, Keith Shigetomi, also says the other lawyer, James Biven, has an "unresolvable conflict."
That could get him dismissed from the case, just as three prior attorneys have been dismissed.
While Frank Pauline Jr. is currently on trial for the murder, Shigetomi, representing Albert Ian Schweitzer, 27, and Biven, representing Shawn, 23, are preparing for the brothers' trial on Nov. 15.
Shigetomi noted in documents that both brothers allegedly made statements to convicted felons. Previous documents indicated that the statements amounted to confessions.
"Defendant Shawn Schweitzer strenuously denies making any statements to convicted felons," Shigetomi wrote.
Shigetomi contended that the felons made deals with the prosecution in order to avoid charges, get reduced charges, or obtain lenient sentencing.
One such felon, not identified by Shigetomi, was previously represented by Biven in an unrelated case.
If the unnamed felon testified for the prosecution, Biven would be unable to cross-examine him, Shigetomi suggested.
Biven also asked for a separate trial on similar grounds.
Any statements Shawn made to others could not be used in the same trial with Ian because they would be hearsay in regards to Ian, he wrote.
Biven identified two of the people who allegedly heard the statements.
Shane Kobayashi will testify that Shawn told him Ian forced Shawn to rape Ireland, Biven wrote.
Police reports also indicate Brien Sullivan will testify that while at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center, Shawn told him things which would implicate Ian.
Both motions are to be heard next Friday at 2 p.m. by Judge Riki May Amano.
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