Video suggests Dana Ireland’s killer still at large

Nearly 30 years after the murder of Dana Ireland, a former Seattle judge has offered $10,000 to whoever can provide evidence that identifies her true killer.

Mike Heavey, a retired judge and leader of the Seattle-based Judges for Justice, produced an hourlong video proposing that the three men convicted in the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of the 23-year-old Ireland are innocent, while the real killer is still at large.

“Justice may be delayed, but it shouldn’t go without,” Heavey said. “A man is still wrongfully in prison.”

The video, titled “Who Killed Dana Ireland? Part 1 of Justice for Dana,” explains the facts of the case: On Christmas Eve 1991, Ireland was struck by a vehicle while riding a bicycle on Kapoho Kai Drive in Kapoho. After the crash, Ireland apparently was transported to a remote location about 5 miles away, in Waawaa, where she was raped and abandoned. Although passers-by brought Ireland to the Hilo Medical Center, she died of her injuries on Christmas Day.

Three men eventually were charged in connection with the case: Frank Pauline Jr. and brothers Albert Ian Schweitzer and Shawn Schweitzer. Pauline and Albert Schweitzer were sentenced to life in prison; Shawn Schweitzer, the younger brother, was sentenced to five years probation and one year in jail for manslaughter.

Heavey thinks all three men are innocent of their charges.

The video lists a number of inconsistencies between the version of events presented by the prosecution and the evidence. Most significantly, DNA found in semen inside Ireland’s body did not match that of any of the defendants, nor did a bite mark on her body match any of the defendants’ dental impressions.

The video features an interview with a jury member at Pauline’s trial — taken from a 2004 episode of “American Justice” — who explains that other evidence was sufficiently compelling to overpower the contradictory DNA evidence.

Some of that evidence, however, also might be faulty, the video alleges. A bloody T-shirt that was found at the scene and presented during the trial as belonging to Pauline was subjected to post-conviction DNA testing in 2007, including “touch” DNA testing, which was not yet developed during the trials of Pauline and the Schweitzers. Again, the DNA did not match that of the defendants, but it did match that in the semen, the video claims.

The video also notes the nature of Pauline’s confession. Although Pauline confessed to the crime in 1994 — implicating the Schweitzer brothers at the same time — he later recanted the confession, which he said he had only made in order to help his half-brother obtain a lighter sentence in an unrelated case.

Pauline is now dead, having been murdered in a New Mexico prison in 2015. His killer, Daniel Thomas Hood, was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for Pauline’s murder, on top of the life sentence he already was serving for a pair of murders in Minnesota.

Pauline’s death occurred one day after it was reported that the Hawaii Innocence Project had taken up a case to exonerate the elder Schweitzer brother.

The video notes further curiosities, namely three witnesses claimed to have seen a large man with dark skin at the scene of the crash loading a human figure — described by one witness as having white legs — into the back of a Datsun pickup truck before departing the scene along with a young boy. Neither the truck nor the driver nor the child were ever identified, nor did the three witnesses testify at either trial.

In the video, Heavey cites FBI profiles of other sexual homicide cases, which suggest the perpetrators to be familiar with their victims either through personal acquaintance or through voyeuristic monitoring, and posits that the killer, upon recognizing Ireland on her bike, decided on the spot to attack her.

“All the evidence, all the profiling, says one man would have done this,” Heavey said.

The video concludes with an offer of $10,000 to anyone who can provide evidence that leads to the identification of the source of the DNA from the semen sample, as well as a plea for the child seen at the scene — who is now estimated to be in his late 30s — to come forward.

Former deputy prosecutor Lincoln Ashida, one of two deputy prosecutors during the elder Schweitzer’s trial, dismissed Heavey’s claims.

“There is absolutely no doubt in my heart and mind that this was a just result,” Ashida said of the convictions of the three suspects.

Ashida pointed out the limits of DNA evidence, saying “while it may constitute evidence of ‘who was there,’ it can never say with any degree of conclusiveness who was ‘not there.’”

Furthermore, Ashida took exception to Heavey’s claim that Shawn Schweitzer had failed to pass a polygraph test upon confessing to his participation — Heavey said the test had revealed signs of deception.

“I have no idea where he’s getting his information,” Ashida said.

“What I wish is that he’d be honest to the public,” Ashida said of Heavey’s claims. “I wish they would let Dana rest in peace.”

For his part, Heavey said Ashida had characterized the DNA results from the semen sample as being a false reading, and had said during the trial that it likely was Pauline’s DNA.

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville said he has seen no evidence yet that would change his mind.

“To say that it was somebody else and that these three men are innocent is just irresponsible,” Damerville said, although he added that he might change his mind if additional evidence is unearthed.

Still, Heavey said, hundreds of wrongful convictions are overturned every year. According to the Innocence Project, 354 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence since the first such exoneration in 1989, 20 of which were on death row.

“Could you imagine being charged with a murder you didn’t commit, being convicted by a jury of your peers and sentenced to life in prison, by the very people who were supposed to protect you?” Heavey said.

The video can be viewed at judgesforjustice.org.

Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.