One of three men convicted in perhaps the most notorious murder case in Big Island history has died in a New Mexico prison.
According to a statement from the New Mexico Corrections Department, Frank Pauline Jr., was “found in the recreation yard, and was given CPR but died at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility about 2:30 Monday afternoon.”
It was Pauline’s 42nd birthday. He and brothers Albert “Ian” Schweitzer and Shawn Schweitzer were convicted of the Christmas Eve 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of Dana Ireland in Puna.
The cause of death was not released, but according to the statement, “No suspects have been named at this time.”
Pauline was serving a life sentence with a minimum of 180 years for Ireland’s slaying. Ian Schweitzer was serving a life sentence with a minimum of 130 years. Shawn Schweitzer, who was 16 when the crime occurred, made a plea deal and was sentenced to five years’ probation and a year in jail, already served for manslaughter.
The brutal fatal attack on the 23-year-old Ireland, who had recently graduated from George Mason University in Virginia and moved to the Big Island to live with her sister, Sandy, sent shockwaves throughout the state. She was run down by a vehicle while riding her sister’s bicycle on the entry road to Kapoho Vacationland subdivision, then taken to a secluded fishing trail in Waawaa on the Puna coastline, beaten, raped and left to die.
Pauline confessed to the killings in 1994, and implicated the Schweitzer brothers, as well. He later recanted the confession, saying he lied to help his half-brother, John Gonsalves, obtain a lighter sentence in a drug case.
It took almost a decade for authorities to obtain convictions, and Ireland’s parents, John, now deceased, and Louise, kept pressure on police and prosecutors for resolution and on the media to keep their daughters’ slaying in the public consciousness.
Pauline’s death occurred a day after it became public that the Hawaii Innocence Project had taken up the case of Ian Schweitzer and had post-conviction DNA testing done on evidence done in the case.
In addition, another group, the Seattle-based Judges for Justice, also called for an official review of the case, saying all the evidence presented at trial pointed away from the three men convicted and toward a single attacker.
Mike Heavey, a retired Seattle judge who heads the group, said Pauline wasn’t guilty of the attack on Ireland.
“He was innocent of that crime, as are Ian and Shawn Schweitzer,” Heavey said in a statement. “… In the 1990s Frank was selfish, dishonest and drug addict. He brought much of his troubles on himself. He lied about his involvement and the Schweitzer brothers involvement in the Dana Ireland murder.
“Frank Pauline changed in prison; he gave his life to God, became a person of integrity and honesty, he quit using drugs. Because he knew he was innocent he felt strongly that some day he would be free and he would dedicate his life to telling young people to not follow his example.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
