Former Honolulu business owner Michael Miske wasn’t present at the scene of the November 27, 2017 assault on the owner of the Aloha Tattoo shop in Kailua.

But by requesting one of his associates to “smash” the tattoo’s shop’s owner, Timothy Goodrich, Miske set the attack in motion, and in the hours and days after the assault and attempted robbery went sideways, Miske continued to play an active role in protecting those who took part in the crime.

Jacob “Jake” Smith, who has admitted being paid to assault victims at Miske’s direction, testified last month that Miske had ordered the attack during a one-on-one meeting in the parking lot outside of Roy’s Restaurant in Hawaii Kai.

But the assault turned deadly when Goodrich, a former Marine, fought back, ending in the death of one of the attackers (“Testimony ties Miske to deadly incident at Kailua tattoo shop“).

The getaway

After the botched assault and robbery, the two attackers fled to a waiting car. John Stancil, Mike Miske’s younger half-brother, jumped into the drivers seat, while 24-year old Dayson Kaae, mortally wounded, fell onto the back seat.

In first hours after the attack, Miske directed the participants to stay calm and keep out of sight until the immediate excitement was over.

The getaway car, which had two flat tires on the passenger side after they were slashed by the pursuing shop owner, only took them a short distance before it had to be abandoned. Four young men scattered. Kaae, the fifth occupant, was found in the car by responding police officers. He died later that night.

Stancil and Jake Smith, the two who had set up the assault at Miske’s request, were picked up by their girlfriends, enabling them to avoid being seen by responding HPD officers, Smith testified. Two of Stancil’s friends who had been with them in the car, Isaiah Kaeo-Cash and Jayword Reylubong, went with Smith.

Almost immediately, Stancil and Smith began bickering.

“Dayson was my friend,” Smith said in court, disclosing he had been upset and angry with Stancil for letting things get out of control. The two argued on Snapchat, where Smith said he had threatened Stancil.

Miske quickly intervened, and asked Smith to meet him at Kahala Mall.

There, Miske told Smith he had to stop threatening Stancil.

“He’s family, and that’s all we have,” Smith recalled Miske saying.

Miske then told Smith he wanted to talk with Isaiah and Jayword. Miske met them by the dumpsters behind the Safeway store in Enchanted Lakes, a neighborhood in Kailua.

It was dark. Miske wore a mask, and talked individually with Cash and Jayword. Both men also appeared as witnesses, and confirmed the meeting with Miske.

Smith then took their phones, and drove them into Waikiki, where they were checked into a room at the Doubletree Alana Waikiki Beach Hotel. Smith provided drugs the first night, and Stancil brought hashish the second night, according to trial testimony. The room was booked for two nights at a special Kamaaina rate, and paid with a Discover card in the name of another person.

“We were scared,” Reylubong testified in court.

The following day, they were to meet Miske again, this time in a parking lot behind the Hilton Hawaiian Village. But Miske thought a car entering the lot might be federal agents, and took off. Although Miske said he would catch up with them later, Smith said this second meeting never happened.

They spent about five or six nights in a series of hotels, and then were given new phones and dropped at Cash’s house. Their own phones, taken after the botched robbery, were never returned.

Aftermath

The tattoo shop owner, Tim Goodrich, was initially arrested for murder, but was quickly released from custody after prosecutors determined he had acted in self defense.

No criminal charges were ever filed against Smith or Stancil for their roles in the assault, although the getaway car was quickly traced back to Stancil, and it appears HPD officers had a good idea of who was involved.

But while the Aloha Tattoo incident is not among the crimes spelled out in Miske’s federal indictment, it is one of the crimes that allows prosecutors to prove that his organization was engaged in a pattern of racketeering activities, something necessary to obtain a conviction on Count #1 in the indictment, Racketeering Conspiracy.

Meanwhile, there’s another eye-popping story of how the Aloha Tattoo incident grew out of a decade long feud between the owner of Aloha Tattoo, and a former friend turned bitter rival. I’ll hopefully be able to tell it in a post here before too long.