A Hawaii County deputy prosecutor told the Hawaii Supreme Court Thursday that two brothers who have been exonerated of the murder of Dana Ireland are still suspects in the 33-year-old case.
Attorneys for the men — Albert Ian and Shawn Schweitzer — want the county police to turn over records of their investigation into another man, Albert Lauro Jr., who is now believed based on DNA evidence to be the one who killed Ireland in 1991. Lauro killed himself in July, shortly after police interviewed him about the Ireland case.
A lower court judge last month ordered the county to turn over the records and county officials appealed that ruling to the state’s highest court.
Britt Bailey, deputy corporation counsel for Hawaii County, said handing over the records would interfere with the department’s active investigation.
And Hawaii County deputy prosecutor Shannon Kagawa told justices that the Schweitzers are still considered suspects. Even though their convictions were overturned last year, their cases were dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges can be refiled.
Albert Lauro Jr., 57, was recently identified as the source of semen found on Ireland’s body after she was killed in 1991. Attorneys representing the Schweitzer brothers say Lauro killed Ireland and acted alone, but Hawaii County prosecutors maintain the brothers may have been involved. (Hawaii Police Department)
Attorneys with the New York and Hawaii Innocence Projects, who are representing the Schweitzers, have asked the police department to hand over the records as part of their ongoing fight for the brothers to be declared innocent, in addition to be exonerated. The declaration is needed for the Schweitzers to move forward with a wrongful conviction and imprisonment claim against the county. A third man, Frank Pauline, who was also convicted of Ireland’s murder, was killed in a New Mexico prison in 2015.
Justice Todd Eddins asked how the prosecutor’s office could have agreed to overturn the Schweitzers’ convictions if they were still considered suspects.
Kagawa said prosecutors believe that if jurors had the current results of the DNA analysis at the time of the Schweitzers’ trial, they may have reached a different verdict, but it’s not enough to declare the brothers innocent.
“I don’t believe that not guilty and actually innocent are the same thing,” she said.
Justice Vladimir Devens asked who police are interviewing and whether they have any leads.
Bailey said investigators still need to speak with Lauro’s family members. His wife hasn’t made herself available to police yet, she said. Police are also waiting for Lauro’s autopsy report and analyzing his phone.
Albert Ian Schweitzer was released from prison in January 2023 after spending 25 years behind bars. Attorneys for him and his brother, Shawn, are seeking a declaration of actual innocence so the brothers can pursue wrongful conviction and imprisonment claims against the county. (AP/2023)
But some of the justices questioned how the new evidence surrounding Lauro wasn’t taking investigators further away from the Schweitzers as suspects.
Kagawa said prosecutors still have testimony pointing to the Schweitzers’ involvement, including statements from Michael Ortiz, a jailhouse informant who said Ian Schweitzer confessed to him while they were both incarcerated.
But parts of Ortiz’s testimony were later found to be false, including that he told investigators Ian Schweitzer confessed to him that Pauline bit Ireland. An original autopsy of Ireland showed a circular wound that looked like a bite on her body, but a later investigation found the injury was not a human bite mark, according to the Innocence Project.
Eddins sounded incredulous when he asked Kagawa about continuing to use Ortiz’s testimony.
“Are you still relying on Ortiz, the jailhouse informant in this case?” he said. “Hasn’t his credibility been undermined left and right, not just in this case but in other cases?”
Kagawa said the prosecturos’ office still takes Ortiz’s statement as fact. She also said the police department needs time to investigate now that Lauro has been identified.
Hawaii County police Chief Ben Moszkowicz said police didn’t have enough probable cause to arrest Lauro for Ireland’s murder when they brought him in for questioning in July. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
But justices questioned how much more time the department will need given that police said more than six weeks ago they would finish their investigation within three weeks.
Eddins also noted that murder has no statute of limitations.
“Are (the Schweitzers) going to be suspects for the next 30 years?” he asked.
Innocence Project attorney Jennifer Brown said the Schweitzers have been wrongfully accused long enough.
“They have been accused of being murderers,” she said. “There was even a wanted dead poster that was hung around this community when the trial was going on. The Schweitzers have a right to have the public know why they are actually innocent.”
William Harrison, an attorney for Ian Schweitzer, said he and other attorneys believe Lauro told police before he died that he didn’t know the Schweitzers, a fact that would invalidate the county’s theory that he participated with the brothers in Ireland’s murder.
Kagawa said Lauro did not tell police that he acted alone, but she didn’t elaborate on what he said.
Lauro was identified this year as the source of semen recovered from Ireland’s body after she was found nearly dead on a fishing trail in Puna.
A private DNA identification company, Indago Solutions, which was hired by the New York and Hawaii Innocence Projects, identified Lauro as a likely match in February by using characteristics of his DNA such as ancestry, genetics and age, as well as address history, public records and social media.
Hawaii County police later confirmed Lauro’s identity by collecting his DNA from a discarded fork. Detectives questioned Lauro at the Hilo police station on July 19 but didn’t have enough probable cause to arrest him for Ireland’s murder, according to police Chief Ben Moszkowicz.
The Innocence Project is seeking all records related to the investigation of Lauro, including a recording of the interview detectives conducted with him.
The justices gave no indication of when they might issue a decision on the records.
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 23:00:00
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