Decades after they were wrongly locked up for the Christmas Eve 1991 rape and murder of Dana Ireland, Ian and Shawn Schweitzer still have not seen a single dollar of compensation — and the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court is now deciding whether they even can collect while separately suing the police who put them away. At stake is whether the brothers can pursue a state wrongful-imprisonment payout and a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Hawaiʻi County at the same time, or whether the state law blocks the federal claim entirely.
A Legal Question Sent Up From Federal Court
The dispute landed before the state's justices after U.S. District Chief Judge Derrick Watson, who is presiding over the brothers' federal lawsuit in Honolulu, referred the question to the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, according to the Hawaiʻi Tribune-Herald. County and state attorneys argue that Hawaiʻi's wrongful-incarceration law is the exclusive remedy for someone wrongly convicted and imprisoned, and that it bars the Schweitzers from seeking federal monetary damages over alleged police misconduct. The brothers are seeking $50,000 for every year they spent behind bars, the amount allowed under the 2016 compensation statute, per the same report.
Attorney William Harrison, who represents the Schweitzers, told the Tribune-Herald he expected the high court to have already ruled. Harrison said the brothers believe they should be able to pursue both a civil action and a wrongful-imprisonment compensation claim, and that they simply want the legal question resolved so they can move forward with their claims against county police and others.
How DNA Unraveled a Decades-Old Conviction
Ian Schweitzer and his brother Shawn were convicted in the Christmas Eve 1991 rape and murder of Dana Ireland, a 23-year-old recent college graduate from Virginia who had relocated to the Big Island, as detailed in the Tribune-Herald's reporting. The Hawaiʻi Innocence Project took up the Schweitzers' case in 2015, and post-conviction DNA testing later connected an unknown male to the crime while excluding the brothers, according to a Hawaiʻi Supreme Court opinion. Judge Peter Kubota vacated both brothers' convictions in separate 2023 hearings, per the Tribune-Herald.
Shawn Schweitzer had taken a manslaughter plea deal with probation after his older brother was sentenced to life, the Tribune-Herald reported. Reports conflict on how long Ian Schweitzer served — one Tribune-Herald account puts it at 23 years before his release after exoneration, while another Tribune-Herald report states he spent 26 years in prison before being exonerated in 2023.
The Fisherman Whose DNA Finally Matched
In 2024, DNA evidence led investigators to Albert Lauro Jr., a 57-year-old fisherman from Hawaiian Paradise Park, as the person identified in connection with the crime. Court records show a DNA sample clandestinely collected from Lauro's discarded disposable fork matched DNA found at the crime scene, and a subsequent cheek swab also matched, according to the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court opinion. Lauro died by suicide on July 23, 2024, after police collected his DNA by buccal swab, questioned him and released him; authorities learned the following day that the DNA was his, the court record states.
The federal lawsuit the Schweitzers filed in January 2025 alleges that police arrested and charged the brothers despite knowing they did not rape or kill Ireland, per the Tribune-Herald. That lawsuit names Hawaiʻi County, former HPD chief Benjamin Moszkowicz, Deputy Chief Reed Mahuna — now HPD's chief — retired chief Paul Ferreira, who was a detective assigned to the case in the 1990s, Detective Steven Guillermo, the late Capt. Francis Rodillas, Capt. Raymond Simao, and former prosecutor's-office investigator William Perreira as defendants. The case remains on hold pending the state Supreme Court's decision.
A Third Man's Confession and Reversal
A third man, Frank Pauline, was also convicted in the case and sentenced to 180 years. He later recanted his confession, saying he had lied in exchange for leniency in a drug case involving his half-brother, John Gonsalves. Pauline died in a New Mexico prison on his 42nd birthday in 2015. DNA evidence ultimately showed that one unknown perpetrator's DNA did not match any of the three Hawaiʻi men who had been convicted.
Other Exonerees Show How Slow — and Uncertain — Payouts Can Be
Hawaiʻi's wrongful-incarceration law has been in effect for a decade, but payouts under it have been rare and hard-won. Roynes Dural, a former Navy sailor wrongly convicted of sexual assault, became the first person to receive a payout under the law when he collected $420,833 in state compensation this year, with the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project having taken up his case and Harrison representing him in the compensation suit. Harrison told the Tribune-Herald that Dural received his money only after four or five years of litigation.
Not everyone has been so fortunate. Alvin Jardine spent more than two decades in prison for a 1990 Maui sexual assault he did not commit and was slated to receive a $600,000 settlement from Hawaiʻi lawmakers, but he died on Dec. 27, 2025, without having received the money, according to the Tribune-Herald. His settlement funds were designated to be paid to his daughter, Ashley Jardine.
What Comes Next for the Brothers
The Schweitzers currently have separate claims for state compensation pending in Hilo Circuit Court, with a hearing in Ian Schweitzer's case scheduled for Nov. 10, according to the Tribune-Herald. Neither Ian nor Shawn Schweitzer has received any financial compensation for their time in prison so far, and the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court's pending answer on whether they can pursue both state compensation and federal damages will determine how — and whether — that changes.
