HILO, Hawai'i — A Hilo judge yesterday removed a Big Island woman from a jury considering charges in the alleged sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl, after the woman told other jurors last week she knew the rape suspect had previously been convicted of murder.

Judge Glenn Hara replaced the woman with an alternate juror in the sexual assault trial of convicted murderer Peter Bailey, and told jury members to disregard what the woman told them about Bailey's criminal record.

Bailey is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in a church in Pepe'ekeo last year while Bailey was on parole for the murder charge. However, all mention of the murder conviction was excluded from the evidence presented to the jury at Bailey's trial.

Deputy Public Defender Melody Parker asked Hara to declare a mistrial in the case, saying "there can be no other cure" after the woman told the other jurors what she knew.

The jury began deliberations last week, and was reviewing a video recording of Bailey's interview with police when the woman told other jurors she doubted Bailey's claim that he could not remember what happened the day of the alleged sexual assault. The woman told the other jurors that Bailey "has been through this process before."

"I did say I was sure it was for a murder charge," the juror said when Hara questioned her about her comments. Other jurors told Hara the woman also told them Bailey was on parole or probation.

Parker said those comments by the woman mean Bailey is being denied a fair and impartial jury. "This was a clear stab at Mr. Bailey's credibility," she said.

Parker said all of the jurors are "definitely tainted," and said judicial rules do not allow Hara to replace one juror with an alternate after deliberations have begun.

Hara denied the request for a mistrial, saying the jurors indicated they could be impartial, and "the amount of prejudice, if any, was limited."

Bailey, 50, is charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault in the case. Family members testified they found the girl naked on the floor of the church copy room with Bailey on July 22, 2007, but Parker said the prosecution failed to prove a sexual assault occurred.

Bailey was convicted of robbing and murdering 17-year-old Carol Olandy of Makakilo in 1979, and paroled in 2003. Bailey and Francis Talo were convicted of kidnapping Olandy from a parking lot at the Pearl City Shopping Center because the pair wanted the Camaro sedan Olandy was driving, according to testimony in the 1979 trial.

The men took Olandy to a Kunia pineapple field and shot her. They then drove to Fort Ruger Market and robbed the store. They were arrested a few minutes after the robbery still driving Olandy's car.