Hearing underway in effort to free Hawaii man for ’91 killing

By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher | Related Press

HONOLULU — Attorneys for a Native Hawaiian man who has been imprisoned for greater than 20 years for the 1991 sexual assault, kidnapping and homicide of a white girl visiting Hawaii started presenting new proof in court docket Tuesday — together with DNA testing — they are saying proves he’s harmless.

A petition filed late Monday outlines further proof in considered one of Hawaii’s largest murders, which unfolded on Christmas Eve in 1991 on Hawaii Island, generally often known as the Massive Island.

Dana Eire, 23, was discovered barely alive within the bushes alongside a fishing path in Puna, a distant part of the Massive Island. She had been sexually assaulted and crushed and later died at Hilo Medical Heart. The mangled bicycle she had been using was discovered a number of miles away and appeared to have been run into by a car.

The homicide of the blond-haired, blue-eyed customer from Virginia gained nationwide consideration and remained unsolved for years, placing intense strain on police to search out the killer.

“At any time when you’ve a white, feminine sufferer … it will get much more consideration than folks of coloration and Native Hawaiians,” mentioned Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Mission. “The dad and mom, understandably, have been changing into an increasing number of infuriated. … There was insurmountable strain to unravel this case. And when that occurs, errors are made. Some intentional and a few unintentional.”

With assist from the Innocence Mission in New York, the co-counsel within the case, Lawson’s group is representing Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, the final of three Native Hawaiian males convicted in Eire’s loss of life to stay imprisoned.

DNA proof beforehand submitted within the case belonged to an unknown man and all three of the convicted males have been excluded as sources.

New DNA proof, based on the petition, exhibits a “Jimmy Z” model T-shirt discovered close to Eire and soaked together with her blood belonged to the identical unknown man, and to not one of many three males, as prosecutors claimed.

Moreover, a brand new tire tread evaluation concluded Schweitzer’s Volkswagen Beetle automotive didn’t go away the tire marks at both location the place Eire and her bicycle have been discovered. A forensic odontologist additionally concluded an harm on her left breast wasn’t a bitemark, as beforehand believed, the petition mentioned.

“At a brand new trial at this time, a jury wouldn’t convict Mr. Schweitzer of Ms. Eire’s sexual assault and homicide,” the petition mentioned. “In actual fact, a prosecutor would probably not even arrest Mr. Schweitzer for this crime.”

The probability that each one three males participated in a sexual assault and left no hint of organic proof — together with an absence of proof uncovered with superior forensic testing — is “terribly inconceivable,” the petition mentioned.

On the evidentiary listening to that started in a Hilo courtroom Tuesday, a choose will contemplate the protection’s request to vacate Schweitzer’s sentence and launch him.

Schweitzer, who was serving his 130-year sentence in an Arizona jail due to an absence of house for inmates in Hawaii, was flown whereas in custody to the Massive Island for the listening to. He watched the listening to whereas seated subsequent to Innocence Mission attorneys.

Eire’s kin couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon the petition.

In 2019, Schweitzer’s attorneys and Hawaii County prosecutors entered right into a “conviction integrity settlement” to reinvestigate the case. It was the primary time in Hawaii there was this sort of settlement, Lawson mentioned, which is more and more getting used to reexamine questionable convictions and guard in opposition to future errors.

“During the last three years, we now have shared data and re-examined forensic proof. Irrespective of the result in these post-conviction proceedings, we stay dedicated to figuring out unknown male #1 and searching for justice for Dana Eire and her `ohana,” Hawaii County Prosecuting Legal professional Kelden Waltjen mentioned in an announcement, utilizing the Hawaiian phrase for “household.”

A lot of the background on the Eire case is detailed in a doc filed with the petition itemizing details that protection attorneys and prosecutors have stipulated.

In 1994, police made what they believed to be a significant breakthrough. A person dealing with fees for his function in a cocaine conspiracy contacted police and claimed his half-brother, Frank Pauline Jr., witnessed Eire’s assault, based on the stipulated details doc.

Police interviewed Pauline, who was in his third month of a 10-year sentence for an unrelated intercourse assault and theft. He claimed brothers Ian and Shawn Schweitzer attacked and killed Eire. However he was interviewed not less than seven occasions and gave inconsistent accounts every time, finally incriminating himself, the stipulation doc mentioned.

Regardless of the shortage of proof linking them to the killing, the 2 Schweitzers and Pauline have been indicted in 1997.

At one level the costs have been dismissed as a result of all three males have been excluded because the supply of semen present in Eire and on a hospital gurney sheet. They have been indicted once more after one other informant claimed Ian Schweitzer confessed to him in jail that Pauline raped and killed Eire.

Pauline later mentioned he supplied particulars to police in regards to the Eire homicide with a purpose to get drug fees dropped in opposition to his half-brother.

In a jail interview with the A&E present “American Justice,” Pauline in contrast his story to the story of the boy who cried wolf. “Wasn’t me,” he mentioned in a robust Hawaii Pidgin accent. However when he began telling the reality, he mentioned nobody believed him.

Shawn Schweitzer took a deal to plead responsible to manslaughter and kidnapping — and obtain credit score for a few 12 months served and 5 years of probation — after seeing juries convict Pauline and his brother in 2000.

In October, Shawn Schweitzer met with prosecutors and recanted. In line with the stipulation doc, he pleaded responsible as a result of his “dad and mom didn’t need to danger dropping one other son and inspired Shawn Schweitzer to do what he wanted to do to return house and never endure the identical destiny as his brother.”

Shawn Schweitzer “continues to really feel immense guilt about agreeing to the confession and getting into a responsible plea for a criminal offense he didn’t commit and falsely implicating his brother,” the doc mentioned.

A polygraph take a look at in November confirmed he was telling the reality when he denied any involvement within the homicide, the doc mentioned.

Pauline was killed in a New Mexico jail by a fellow inmate in 2015.

“Mr. Schweitzer has spent over 20 years wrongfully incarcerated based mostly on unreliable informant proof and accident reconstruction testimony,” the petition mentioned. “It might be unconscionable for him to proceed to stay incarcerated, given this overwhelming new proof of innocence.”