LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Convicted as a teenager in Kandiyohi County of murdering two people, Daniel Thomas Hood, 34, was indicted June 25 in the killing of another inmate in a New Mexico correctional facility.
Hood is charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon or explosive by a prisoner, according to New Mexico court records.
The New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau conducted the investigation into the murder of Frank Pauline, who was found April 27 in a very remote section of the recreation yard at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces, according to a news release from the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
Hood confessed to the murder and said it was because he thought Pauline was a snitch and walked around like he owned the place, the news release states. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that court documents say Hood admitted to using a rock to repeatedly strike Pauline in the head.
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Pauline died on his 42nd birthday, according to several media reports.
According to West Central Tribune archives, Hood was 17 years old when he was sentenced in 1998 in Kandiyohi County District Court to life plus 25 years for first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree murder for the Oct. 27, 1996, shooting deaths of Bruce Johnson, 51, and Grace Christiansen, 81, neighbors from New London.
Hood, formerly of Spicer, was 15 when he was arrested and jailed. Hood had been on the run from house arrest ordered after he stole his grandmother's car when he spotted Johnson and Christiansen, working in a field at Christiansen's home, according to a Tribune archived story about the sentencing. He asked them for a ride to Willmar. They agreed to take him to New London. At some point Johnson realized Hood was a runaway, and Hood pulled a gun that he had stolen.
Hood forced the two to drive on back roads until arriving at a cornfield south of Willmar, where Hood told them to walk into the field. Johnson turned and tackled Hood, and Hood fired several shots and killed him. Christiansen knelt on the ground, "praying and begging for mercy," and Hood shot her twice and killed her, the archived story states.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections says only that Hood is currently incarcerated and is housed at a non-DOC facility. The Albuquerque Journal quoted New Mexico Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alex Tomlin saying that Hood has been in the New Mexico prison system under an interstate compact since 2002.
Pauline also was transferred to the New Mexico prison under an interstate compact in December 2012 to serve out his 180-year sentence, Tomlin told the Albuquerque Journal.
Pauline was one of three men convicted in the 1991 Christmas Eve kidnapping, rape and murder of a woman in Hawaii, according to a story in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Pauline was serving a life sentence with a minimum of 180 years. According to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Dana Ireland, 23, was run down by a vehicle while riding her sister’s bicycle, then taken to a secluded fishing trail on the coastline, beaten, raped and left to die.
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Pauline’s death came one day after the Tribune-Herald reported that the Hawaii Innocence Project had taken up the case of Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, a co-defendant of Pauline’s in the Ireland case.
The Tribune-Herald story said that Pauline confessed in 1994 to the fatal attack on Ireland and implicated Schweitzer and Schweitzer’s younger brother, Shawn. He later recanted that confession, claiming he fabricated the story to help his half-brother, John Gonsalves, receive a lighter sentence on a drug charge.
Links:
Hawaii Tribune-Herald, April 28: Man convicted in Dana Ireland murder dies in prison
Hawaii Tribune-Herald, May 20: Inmate allegedly confesses; New Mexico authorities charge Daniel Thomas Hood with murder of Frank Pauline Jr.
Albuquerque Journal, May 20: New evidence could clear convict – too late
Las Cruces Sun-News, June 26: Doña Ana inmate indicted in killing of fellow inmate
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