What do we know about Mike Miske’s death in Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center on Sunday?

Not much.

Miske, 50, was awaiting sentencing next month after he was convicted on 13 criminal counts by a federal jury in July following a complex 5-month trial.

He was found “unresponsive,” it has been reported. Initial news reports say there were no indications of physical violence.

An autopsy conducted the next day produced “inconclusive” results, with no finding of foul play or suicide.

Additional forensic tests are being conducted, according to prior reporting, and results are not expected quickly.

Miske’s attorneys have previously reported he had several health issues.

According to court filings, Miske suffered from high blood pressure, had previous back surgery, and suffers from “a foot-drop,” a weakness that makes it difficult to raise the front part of your foot. Because of this condition, Miske was “permitted to wear shoes in locations where otherwise they would be prohibited,” according to prior court filings. It was not reported whether this affected one or both of Miske’s feet.

Hawaii News Now has reported that Miske was not being held in isolation.

“HNN Investigates has learned he had a cell mate, but investigators do not believe at this time that he was the victim of a crime,” according to HNN.

At one time, he had shared a cell with his half-brother, John Stancil, but I have not seen any indication whether or not that was still the case.

Is it odd that he wasn’t being held in solitary?

In 2021, Miske’s defense attorneys filed a motion objecting to his being confined in the “Special Housing Unit” where prisoners are held in solitary confinement.

Miske’s lawyers argued that his right to an effective defense was being violated by restrictions on attorney visits and access to case files due to restrictions in the SHU. They also argued that being held in isolation deprived him of several privileges routinely available to those in the detention center’s general population.

Immediately after his arrest in 2020, Miske had been held in the general population. I noted at the time, “he was in a housing unit with detainees who had work assignments requiring them to be out of their cells at various times, often for long periods. He met with his attorneys without being shackled, and he was able to use a telephone in a counselor’s office for calls with his attorneys and a court-assigned death penalty mitigation investigator, where he was able to spread out the documents being discussed.”

Although two defense attorneys told Hawaii News Now that Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center is known as a secure and safe facility, contrary evidence was presented a few months ago in the case of Jacob “Jake” Smith, who was a key witness against Miske.

Smith, who pleaded guilty to being a central player in Miske’s criminal organization, was transferred into protective custody in an undisclosed location after his lawyer disclosed he had been beaten several times in retaliation for “flipping” on Miske, despite the Federal Detention Center’s reputation for relative safety and security.

According to Ching’s court filings, Smith had been housed in Module 5a at the FDC, while Miske has been housed in Module 4b along with Bronson Gouveia, a career criminal with convictions going back to 1997. Gouveia’s reported street name, “Murder Inc.,” is now the name attached to a gang he allegedly controls. Gouveia is in the detention center awaiting trial on federal drug trafficking and firearms charges.

According to the motion, Miske and Gouveia communicated frequently in the past year, while Miske also built up a following among members of the WestSide gang. He was able to have discovery materials passed between the modules showing Smith was cooperating as a “rat” with the government.

Smith’s attorney, Louis Michael Ching, stated in a court filing that Gouveia is “related and/or associated with” Edward Caspino, the leader of the West Side Gang, whose members took part on one of the assaults on Smith as he was quietly talking with Caspino.

“In the meantime, Mr. Caspino, the Leader of the WestSide Gang Members, casually stood up and walked away,” Ching wrote.

Miske’s father, Michael John Miske Jr., died after drinking a cyanide concoction. He was apparently depressed and despondent by the breakup of his marriage, and the prospect of losing his wife and son.
The senior Miske died in 1980. Mike Jr. was just 6.

If you go past the multiple suicide and crisis hotline ads to search for means of suicide that can escape detection during an autopsy, there do appear to be a few. However, whether any of those would be feasible in a correctional setting like the Federal Detention Center is unknown.

Naturally, this uncertainty is fertile ground for conspiracy theories, which I’m sure will not be in short supply.