Frank Pauline Jr., one of three men convicted of the 1991 Christmas Eve murder and rape of Dana Ireland on Hawaii island, died Monday in a New Mexico prison yard.
Pauline was serving 180 years at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility when he died at about 2:30 p.m. Monday after cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts failed, the New Mexico Corrections Department said.
Monday was Pauline’s 42nd birthday, said his half brother, John Gonsalves, who spoke by telephone from Puna, Hawaii island. Gonsalves said he received a call from an official at the New Mexico prison shortly after Pauline’s death, saying Pauline was hit with a rock on the back of the head in the recreation yard.
"She (the New Mexico official) told me they were all in the yard, had over 100 inmates in there," he said. "A fight broke out or something. By the time they got to him, they found him dead."
Gonsalves indicated his half brother was not killed by an inmate who had it in for him.
"I know for a fact he never had enemies in there," said Gonsalves, who said he spoke at least twice a week to his half brother.
In Honolulu, attorney Brook Hart said, "It may well be it’s related to the Dana Ireland case, or it may just be a coincidence."
Hart, the lawyer for Albert Ian Schweitzer, who is serving life with a minimum of 130 years in the same case, said Pauline’s death came a day after the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported that Judges for Justice, a Seattle-based initiative, was calling for an official review of the convictions in the Ireland murder case because DNA evidence pointed to someone other than the three defendants. The Hawaii island paper also reported that the Hawaii Innocence Project was seeking to vindicate Schweitzer.
Gonsalves said he was aware of the Judges for Justice’s involvement and the Innocence Project.
"I knew it for months," he said, but never told anyone "for reasons like right here."
Gonsalves said he and Pauline never even mentioned it to other family members.
Gonsalves said Pauline and Schweitzer "knew they were going to get set free, and somebody else knew it, too."
"I just don’t get it," he said. "It just doesn’t seem fair for him."
He tried calling Michael Heavey, a retired King County, Wash., Superior Court judge with Judges for Justice, upon learning of his half brother’s death but got no answer.
Judges for Justice was also calling for an official review of the case, on behalf of Schweitzer’s then-16-year-old brother, Shawn, who turned state’s witness and got five years’ probation and a year in jail.
Heavey and Hart told the Tribune-Herald that they believe the DNA taken from Ireland’s T-shirt and the semen do not match Pauline’s or the Schweitzers’ DNA.
Heavey did not return a call to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
A news release by the New Mexico Corrections Department said the agency and New Mexico State Police are investigating Pauline’s death, but did not indicate it was a homicide or suspicious.
No suspects have been named, the Monday afternoon news release said.
A police spokesman said no further details were available Monday.
Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.
Roth told the Tribune-Herald he doesn’t know whether any DNA questions can be answered because there is the possibility of contamination of the evidence.
Gonsalves said that he hopes the investigation into his half brother’s death will be fair.
"He did a lot of good things," he said. "It ain’t an excuse to set him free, but if he’s innocent then he should be let free.
"It’s sad. Nobody will ever know. Everybody could have seen, and everybody could have stopped making accusations. … It’s been nothing but a haunted nightmare."
Gonsalves said he had been looking forward to his half brother’s exoneration and release.
"At least we can bring him home," he said.
