Lance Bermudez, known simply as “Hammah,” will be the last of Mike Miske’s co-defendants and criminal associates to be sentenced when he appears in the courtroom of Judge Derrick Watson on Monday morning, July 14.

Bermudez had already earned a reputation as a “shooter” by late 2015 or early 2016 when Miske requested a meeting and offered him a contract to kill a Waimanalo man who Miske believed was providing information to investigators working on an FBI probe that had been underway for two years.

Bermudez became a close associate of Jacob “Jake” Smith, who was paid to be on call to assault victims at Miske’s request, and John Stancil, Miske’s younger half-brother, and appeared to be mentoring Dae Han Moon, the youngest of Miske’s co-defendants.

Bermudez, 34, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute drugs, and armed robbery. The drug charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and the maximum sentence on each of the other two charges is 20 years. The plea agreement required Bermudez to cooperate with prosecutors and provide information about Miske and other defendants. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop several other charges, and to recommend at least a three-level reduction from federal sentencing guidelines for taking responsibility and for allowing the government to avoid a trial in his case.

He entered his guilty plea via video from an undisclosed location on the mainland due to concerns at the time that bringing Bermudez back to appear in court would pose an unnecessary risk to his physical safety. However, following Miske’s death in December, and the sentencing of all his co-defendants and other associates, the federal Bureau of Prisons online inmate locator reports Bermudez is currently back in Honolulu?s Federal Detention Center pending sentencing.

Bermudez’s cooperation and testimony were expected to be critical in tying Miske and Jason Yokoyama, another close associate and manager at Miske’s M Nightclub, to various criminal activities, including the Waimanalo murder-for-hire plot and the disappearance of Jonathan Fraser.

However, Bermudez was surprisingly not called to testify during Miske’s trial. Despite this, Miske was ultimately found guilty of 13 of 16 counts, including racketeering conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering in connection to Fraser’s killing.

See:<blockquote

“Miske Case Weaves Together Disparate Strands Of Past Crimes,” January 20, 2021

“Another Key Player In The Miske Conspiracy Case Has Made A Deal With Prosecutors,” Civil Beat, September 8, 2022

“The Miske Trial: Key Cooperating Witness Says Working For Miske Made Him Feel Protected,” Civil Beat, May 21, 2024</blockquote>