A federal jury Thursday convicted Honolulu businessman Michael J. Miske Jr. of 13 criminal charges related to running an organized crime ring, including murder and being part of a racketeering conspiracy.
After a trial that spanned 98 days of testimony, massive amounts of evidence and 241 government witnesses, the unanimous jury’s verdict was read in Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson’s court in Honolulu. The jury had deliberated for about four days.
Federal prosecutors maintained — and 49-year-old Miske denied — that he orchestrated the 2016 killing of Johnathan Fraser, best friend to Miske’s only son, Caleb. Miske blamed Fraser for the traffic accident that killed his son, prosecutors said.
The jury Thursday convicted Miske of killing Fraser, whose body has never been found.
Outside the court after the verdict was read, Ashley Wong, Fraser’s girlfriend in 2016, said, “It won’t bring him back.”
Fraser’s mother Shelly Miguel and other family and friends, many wearing “Justice for Johnny” T-shirts, also attended and cried and embraced outside the federal court building after the verdict.
Miguel and Wong both said the verdict provided that justice for Fraser.
In all, the jury convicted Miske of 13 of 16 charges related to running a criminal enterprise.
”We, the jury, having found the defendant guilty of Count One, further unanimously find that, as part of the offense charged in Count One, the defendant committed, on or about July 30, 2016, murder in the second degree of Johnathan Fraser,” the unanimous jury declared, according to court records.
He also was convicted of conspiracy to use chemical weapons, kidnapping for hire, murder for hire, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering, and other charges. He was found not guilty of bank fraud and drug charges.
The federal government alleged that starting in the late 1990s until 2020, Miske and his associates ran the “Miske Enterprise” through a pattern of racketeering activity.
The racketeering activity included murder, kidnapping, arson, chemical warfare and robbery, according to federal prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark A. Inciong, Michael David Nammar, William KeAupuni Akina and Aislinn Affinito prosecuted the case. Prosecutors declined comment following the verdict.
On July 11, in closing arguments, Inciong reminded jurors that there are 14 standards that can be used to convict him of a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy charge, but they need only two.
”One robbery, one kidnapping … only two … so I just want to be clear there were multiple incidents,” said Inciong, speaking in court while walking the jurors through an overhead projection of the RICO conspiracy requirements.
The investigation that led to Thursday’s verdict was run by the Honolulu Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, Homeland Security Investigations, EPA-CID and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives.
Task force officers with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Coast Guard Investigative Service, U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, Hawaii National Guard, 93rd Civil Support Team and the Office of Investigations — Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, assisted in the years-long investigation.
Miske was defended by Lynn E. Panagakos and Michael Jerome Kennedy. They declined comment following the verdict.
Miske’s defense team told the story of a man who came up hard but mixed the tactics of the hustlers who provided his street smarts with savvy businessmen and laborers who taught him the value of honest hard work.
Miske was not a monster, his attorneys argued, but an entrepreneur with a passionate approach to his work. He did the hard jobs for local people.
His attorneys described Miske as a legitimate businessman who made sure to give back to the community he credits with raising him.
Miske built family business Kama‘aina Termite and Pest Control into an industry leader and started solar and plumbing businesses. He fumigated numerous “cultural treasures” in Hawaii, and highlighted his pro bono work to tent the Neal S. Blaisdell Center when the city could not afford it, his attorneys said.
But the government alleged that Miske controlled illegal markets popular in Hawaii and owned nightclubs where brawls over bar tabs were common and associates were accused of using chemical weapons against rival club owners.
The Miske enterprise made millions of dollars selling illegal commercial-grade aerial fireworks on the black market, they told the jury.
Allegations including using fishing boats to move drugs and money were among the charges Miske faced.
Federal prosecutors also said Miske wanted other people killed, but they think many acts were never carried out.
Miske was facing 16 separate criminal charges and stood trial alone after his alleged co-conspirators John Stancil, Dae Han Moon, Preston M. Kimoto, Miske’s daughter-in-law Delia-Anne Fabro-Miske, Jarrin Young and Jason K. Yokoyama accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors.
When the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted Miske on June 18, 2020, on charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery, murder-for-hire conspiracy, marketing illegal drugs, firearms, chemical weapons, drugs and bank fraud, they also indicted 10 of his associates.
The Miske criminal enterprise modeled itself after big-city organized crime groups, federal prosecutors told the jury.
Authorities accused the organization of using businesses to further its criminal objectives, including Kama‘aina Termite & Pest Control, Kama‘aina Holdings, Hawaii Partners, Kama‘aina Plumbing and Home Renovations, Kama‘aina Home Renovations, Makana Pacific Development and the Encore Nightclub, which was formerly known as M Nightclub.
According to federal prosecutors, Miske and the criminal enterprise waged violence against “rivals, competitors and innocent members of the community over a period spanning years, if not decades. In so doing, Miske participated in, directed and facilitated numerous assaults, kidnapping, extortion, the use of firearms, attempted murder and murder for hire.”
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Star-Advertiser photographer Jamm Aquino contributed to this report.
