It has been seven years since 20-year old Stevie Feliciano was fatally shot on the 5th floor of a deserted parking structure at Ala Moana Center around 7:30 p.m. on Christmas, December 25, 2016.

The case remains relevant because of links between the Christmas murder and the racketeering organization prosecutors allege was controlled and directed by former Honolulu business owner Michael J. Miske Jr.

Two of the key players in the Christmas shooting, Dae Han Moon and Lance Bermudez, were among Miske’s original co-defendants named in the 22-count racketeering indictment made public in July 2020. Both have pleaded guilty in the Miske case, and federal prosecutors have alleged in court filings that both men were active in the Miske organization well before the Ala Moana shooting. Bermudez is considered an important witness who will be testifying in the trial of Miske and three remaining defendants, set to begin in two weeks.

Christmas 2016

Feliciano and his brother had spent most of the day with family, then drove to pick up a couple of friends before heading into town, where one of the friends was going to buy a pound of marijuana from a source he had dealt with before. When they arrived at the empty mall, they parked alongside a blue Honda Acura that was waiting for them.

But before the deal was done, they heard the loud throaty rumble of a classic muscle car, and a white Dodge Challenger pulled up and reversed into a stall. Three men got out. Within minutes, a fight started, a single shot was fired, and Feliciano fell to the ground mortally wounded. He died three days later.

The shooter, Dae Han Moon, a high school dropout who arrived in Hawaii as a child, was charged with murder, and later convicted following a jury trial.

Crime scene photos filed in court show the drug buy and shooting took place in what is designated as the “Moon” section of the mall’s parking structure. The court record doesn’t reflect whether this was a simple but startling coincidence, or a location chosen for the confrontation by Moon.

The court case left many questions, some of which can now be answered.

Here is an extended excerpt from a 2021 Civil Beat story.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Christmas evening in 2016, two cars entered the deserted fifth floor of the Ewa parking garage at Ala Moana Center, which was closed for the holiday, arriving within a few minutes of each other and parking side by side, separated by a single empty stall.

They were there for a drug deal, a simple cash-for-marijuana exchange. The driver and single passenger in the first car brought a pound of marijuana. The four young men in the second car were buyers, carrying about $1,000 in cash to make the purchase. It wasn’t a large transaction, either in the amount of money or drugs involved.

But before the deal was completed, a third car carrying three men made an unexpected entrance, and things quickly spun out of control.

A fight started, and within a few minutes Stevie Feliciano, the 20-year old driver of the buyers’ car, was lying on the parking garage floor, mortally wounded by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, while Dae Han Moon, also 20, the driver of the unexpected late arrival and the suspected shooter, was on the run.

Within days, Moon was arrested and charged with second degree murder for shooting Feliciano. The defense argued the gun fired by accident, but the jury didn’t believe it. Moon was convicted of murder and related firearms charges in September 2018, and sentenced to a life term with the possibility of parole.

Two other men were also convicted in the case. Lance Bermudez, who was 25 at the time of the shooting, had not been at the scene but pleaded guilty to threatening a witness with a Russian AK-47 assault rifle in the hours immediately after the Christmas shooting. He also entered guilty pleas to auto theft and weapons offenses, and was sentenced to concurrent five-year prison terms. William Kan, 21, who brought the marijuana for sale, pleaded no contest to several drug charges, including selling marijuana to a minor, and one count of threatening a witness. Kan was sentenced to 10 years probation on the most serious charge, with lesser periods on the others.

There was lots of interest in the shocking murder, which occurred on a holy day in one of the most public and popular locations in Honolulu. However, Moon’s lengthy and well-publicized murder trial provided precious little information about the circumstances. Was it gang-related? Was there more than just a bag of marijuana at stake? Did the young men know each other? Had they gone there to fight? Why did this happen?

There were lots of questions but few answers, largely because pre-trial rulings by Judge Karen Nakasone narrowed the focus of the prosecution to the brief period when the shooting took place, and to evidence directly relevant to the shooting. She ruled prior contacts between those involved, their prior criminal records, if any, and previous drug use and drug deals, along with other less immediately relevant facts, were not directly relevant to the charges against Moon. They were therefore deemed off-limits in order to avoid biasing the jury. While it protected the rights of the accused, it made it difficult for the public to understand what was happening before that Christmas evening turned bloody.

Bermudez pleaded guilty in September 2022 to being part of alleged Miske’s racketeering organization, and other charges.

Again, from Civil Beat:

By the time Lance Lee Bermudez was 25, he had a reputation as a shooter to go with his nickname, “Hammah.”

He had landed a spot as part of a criminal organization that federal prosecutors allege was controlled and directed by local businessman Michael John Miske Jr., who owned and operated Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control, M Nightclub, a longline fishing boat and several other businesses.

And he displayed a large collection of body art on his 5-foot, 9-inch frame, including “Bermudez” spelled out in ornate letters across his chest and, on the left side of his neck, a biblical quotation: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

But on Wednesday morning, that willingness to sacrifice for his friends proved to have limits. Bermudez, now 31, appeared before federal Judge Derrick Watson by video conference to plead guilty to three felony charges as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Bermudez, in his plea agreement, admitted to being part of Miske’s organization, as well participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and to taking part in armed robberies of other drug dealers. He is currently held in an undisclosed location for his own safety.

As part of his plea agreement, Bermudez acknowledged being associated with Miske from sometime in 2015 until 2018.

In a recent court filing, prosecutors allege Bermudez was an active member of Miske’s group by August 3, 2016, months before the Christmas shooting.

“By that time, Bermudez had, inter alia, accepted Miske’s murder-for-hire contract to kill Victim-1 (Count 7),” prosecutors allege. The intended victim was a Waimanalo man who was familiar with Miske’s early drug dealing in the 1990s, and who Miske suspected of providing information to law enforcement.

Bermudez recruited Moon to assist in the planned murder, prosecutors say. Moon, in his own plea agreement, admitted he and Bermudez armed themselves and made several trips to Waimanalo where they attempted, without success, to ambush Victim-1. Prosecutors say the contract was ultimately withdrawn and no further attempts were made.

In this and other incidents, it appears Moon was serving a sort of apprenticeship in crime with Bermudez, who was five years older, working directly with him or under his direction, while Bermudez was associated with Miske and his alleged racketeering organization.

Cleaning up after Fraser’s disappearance

During a hearing to review and approve Bermudez’ guilty plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Inciong said that on the day of Jonathan Fraser’s kidnapping and disappearance, Bermudez received a telephone call from Jason Yokoyama, Miske’s business partner in the M Nightclub. Yokoyama claimed a majority interest in the nightclub because liquor commission rules prohibited Miske, as a convicted felon, from owning 25% or more of any business with a liquor license, although prosecutors allege Miske actually owned and controlled the club.

After getting the call, Bermudez then drove to the nightclub and met with Yokoyama, who said he needed to get rid of a white or cream colored Toyota Sienna van which was located out in Hawaii Kai, according to Inciong’s account during the hearing. Bermudez allegedly broke the ignition and then drove the van to Ewa Beach, where it was burned. Moon reportedly followed in another vehicle, and the two then drove back to the nightclub, where Bermudez was paid $3,500 for burning the van.

Inciong said cell tower data confirmed that a phone used by Bermudez was present on the east side of Oahu on July 30, 2016, the day Fraser disappeared. That night, the same phone was tracked to the west side of Oahu, the same area where police found the Sienna van “engulfed in flames.”

Six months later, on the night Stevie Feliciano was shot, police and prosecutors say Moon drove the Dodge Challenger to a spot along Kunia Road in central Oahu, where it was set on fire. A witness driving past reported seeing the car in flames, and a man getting into a white SUV and leaving the scene. The SUV was believed to be the white Toyota 4Runner Bermudez was driving when he threatened a witness to Feliciano’s shooting.

Moon had been driving an identical 4Runner at about 1:30 a.m. a few weeks earlier, on December 5, 2016, when police responded to a report of a group of men in the parking lot of an Amana Street condominium “congregated near a brand new white Toyota 4Runner with no license plates,” apparently related to a drug crime.  As officers arrived, Moon started the Toyota and attempted to flee, but crashed into HPD vehicle and then ran into a low rock wall. He was captured after fleeing on foot across the street into the Don Quijote store parking lot. Police recovered a loaded black 40 caliber Smith and Wesson double-action, semi-automatic pistol on the driver’s seat of the 4Runner, and $6,200 in cash in Moon’s left front pants pocket, according to a police report filed in the case.

The two 4Runners–the one Moon drove in the December 5 incident, and the other driven by Bermudez at the time of the Christas shooting–had both been stolen from a Young Brothers’ pier in Honolulu while awaiting shipment to a Toyota dealer in Hilo.

Robberies

In a recent document, prosecutors said they have evidence to show John Stancil, Miske’s half-brother and co-defendant, had “taken over Michael Miske’s role of overseeing robberies.”

On February 24, 2016, Moon was with several people who confronted a Kailua man outside his home at about 11 p.m. and demanded he surrender his jewelry, including a heavy gold chain, and other valuables. While the driver stayed in the car, a man with a gun came out of the front passenger’s seat, and another armed with a baseball bat exited the rear passenger seat, according to a recent exchange of legal memos in which prosecutor and defense attorneys argued over whether evidence from the incident may be used in the Miske trial.

One shot was allegedly fired, and the victim was hit twice with the bat, before the Moon and other assailants fled with jewelry, cash, and other items valued at more than $72,955.00, according to documents cited by defense attorneys.

Stancil allegedly drove to the robbery scene in a separate car, and the group went to Stancil’s home in Waimanalo following the robbery, near where Moon’s car, which was used in the robbery, was later recovered by police.

In a recent court filing, the government underscored Miske’s ties to Bermudez.

The evidence will further show that Miske and Stancil exerted influence over Bermudez’s violent criminal activities, and that Miske imposed consequences when members, including Bermudez, committed unsanctioned crimes with which they disagreed. Miske also offered protection, including criminal defense attorneys. Bermudez even got a tattoo referencing a “get out of jail free” card with one of those attorney’s phone numbers.

The government also said it believes Bermudez sold several guns to Jason Yokoyama, one of the three remaining co-defendants, because Yokoyama was stockpiling guns for Miske. The government alleges Yokoyama was aware Bermudez had used the weapons in other incidents where he shot, or attempted to shoot, several victims.