After reporting on the sentencing of Jacob “Jake” Smith, I received a question about when the other Miske defendants will be back in court for sentencing.

That sent me back to court records in an attempt to make a list of upcoming court appearances.

Here’s my first attempt. One caveat is that several of these court dates have been rescheduled several times, and could still be changed again. And there are a few other defendants who were charged separately and have already been sentenced who aren’t yet included.

Most of these sentencing hearings will be at 9 a.m. in Judge Derrick Watson’s courtroom. Double check the court’s 7-day calendar ahead of each date to make sure the hearing is still being held.

But that said, here’s my current list.

Mike Buntenbah – Nov 20, 2024
[He is also scheduled to be sentenced Dec 11, 2024, after his separate conviction in state court for an assault on an M Nightclub customer]

Jason Yokoyama – Dec 11, 2024

John Stancil – Jan 9, 2025

Preston Kimoto – Jan 8, 2025

Delia Fabro-Miske- Jan 15, 2025

Kaulana Freitas – Jan 16, 2025

Hunter Wilson – Jan 22, 2025

Harry Kauhi – Jan 25, 2024

Mike Kiske – Jan 30, 2025

Norman Akau – Feb 5, 2025

Castro (cpa) – Feb 12, 2025

Miller – Feb 18, 2025

Bermudez – Feb 20, 2025

Previously sentenced:

Jarrin Young
1:23-cr-00081
42 month (time already served)
3 years supervised release

Jonah Ortiz
188 months
[arrested with Wayne Miller, charged with drug offenses and kidnapping in an incident tied to Miske]
sentenced on drug charges in Jan 2020

Dae Han Moon
sentenced feb 2024
94 months
5 years supervised release

Jake Smith
Sentenced Oct 2024
121 months

On Wednesday morning, Federal Judge Derrick K. Watson sentenced Jacob “Jake” Smith to 121 months in federal prison, just over 10 years, plus an additional 5 years of supervised release.

It is not clear whether this includes, or is in addition to, the six years he has spent in detention since his arrest in 2018.

Smith, who appeared via a video link from an undisclosed location, was one of the first of Miske’s associates to begin cooperating with federal investigators immediately after his arrest on drug charges in August 2018, and the first of the key witnesses against Miske to be sentenced. He has been in federal custody since his arrest.

Smith, now 31, pleaded guilty in 2020 to being part of Miske’s racketeering conspiracy, and to distributing or possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The sentence was actually 121 months on each of the two counts, but Watson specified that the two terms would run “concurrently,” meaning they would be served together at the same time.

The drug charge alone carried a 10-year minimum sentence, so the sentenced handed down by Judge Watson was only a token amount over that minimum.

Smith’s attorney, Louis Michael Ching, asked that he be considered for a witness protection program. Smith was assaulted several times while being held in Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center in apparent retaliation for his testimony against Miske, and was moved to an undisclosed facility for his protection.

However, Ching said Smith was afraid to return to the general population of the facility where he is being held, and has insisted on staying in solitary confinement in the special housing unit.

Watson also recommended that the Bureau of Prisons place Smith “at a facility near Nevada or Arizona to be near family, or at a dropout yard facility.”

So-called dropout yards are a type of facility established by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2010 to house gang dropouts, former law enforcement officers, and other inmates found to require additional protections beyond that offered in traditional prisons.

One of these dropout yards is located in Tucson, Arizona.

Watson also recommended Smith be placed in a 500-hour drug and substance abuse program, receive a mental health assessment and any necessary treatment, as well as vocational and educational training.

Jacob “Jake” Smith, who earlier admitted providing “muscle” to the criminal organization controlled by his former boss, Michael J. Miske Jr., is scheduled to appear before Federal Judge Derrick K. Watson via Zoom on Wednesday morning for sentencing.

Smith, 31, was one of the key witnesses against Miske during his nearly 6-month long trial which ended in Miske’s conviction on 13 federal charges, including several that call for mandatory life sentences. Smith spent four days on the witness stand describing what he saw during several years as a close Miske associate.

He is the first of the main witnesses to be sentenced.

Smith was moved from Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center to an undisclosed location on August 9 after he was beaten several times in apparent retaliation for his testimony against Miske.

He pleaded guilty in November 2020 to racketeering conspiracy and drug trafficking, which carries a minimum 10-year sentence.

Smith graduated from the Kailua Christian Academy in 2011. In February 2012, he took part in an attempted burglary, and later that year was charged with a Class B felony for his part in the crime. He agreed to plead “no contest” to the charge and was granted a deferred acceptance of the plea, allowing him to clear his record if he stayed out of trouble. He was jailed briefly in 2015 after violating the terms of his release.

When he got out of OCCC, he started hanging around with John Stancil, Miske’s younger half-brother. Stancil then introduced him to Wayne Miller, a longtime associate of Miske’s who had finished a long sentence for armed robbery the prior year.

“He would give me money, pay for my hotels, pay for my food and stuff, after I went to jail the first time,” Smith testified during Miske’s trial.

Eventually, Stancil and Miller introduced Smith to Mike Miske, and over the next two years Smith was involved in a number of armed robberies, assaults that involved extortion, murder for hire conspiracies, and drug deals, as part of Miske’s racketeering enterprise.

He was arrested on drug trafficking charges in mid-2018, and began cooperating with federal authorities on the same day.

More from the trial testimony of Kaulana Freitas, a cousin of former Honoluu business owner Michael J. Miske Jr. and one of Miske’s 12 co-defendants. Freitas and each of the other co-defendants pleaded guilty before the start of testimony in Miske’s trial.

Freitas describes the benefits of being in Miske’s good graces, which included regular food and drinks at Miske’s M Nightclub, later renamed Encore. But receiving those benefits required doing some things Freitas testified he had not wanted to do.

Q Mr. Freitas, so my question is: Why were you doing these
things if you didn’t want to?
A Because he was my cousin, I was doing what I was told.
Q Was it simply that he was your cousin and that you were
doing what you were told or was there more to it than that?
A It was a little more to that.
Q Was it important for you to keep Mr. Miske happy?
A Yes.
Q Why was that?
A Because there was benefits to making him happy.
•••
Q Was there any sort of financial benefit to you?
A Yes.
Q Describe how you received any financial benefit.
A Would be more jobs, more — more opportunities to make
more money.
Q What about any sort of I guess what you referred to as
perks or things you would get for free that you might not
otherwise get?
•••
THE WITNESS: Yes. There would be — there would be
more benefits of going to a nightclub not having to pay for
anything like that.
BY MR. INCIONG:
Q Which nightclub are you referring to?
A M Nightclub.
Q Did you frequent the M Nightclub regularly?
A Yes.
Q How often would you go?
A Every weekend.
Q Who would you go to the M Nightclub with?
A My cousin John Stancil.
Q Over what period of time would you go every weekend?
A Since 2015, ’14.
Q More than a year?
A More than a year.
Q Two years?
A Yes.
Q Every weekend for two years? Is that a yes?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever have to pay for anything when you were at the
club?
A No, I didn’t.
Q No cover charge?
A No cover charge.
Q No — no drinks that were charged to you?
A No.
Q Did you ever eat there?
A Yes.
Q Ever charged for food?
A No.
Q Why do you think you were allowed to eat and drink for
free at the M Nightclub?
A Because I was family.
Q Was that part of the reason you were doing these things
like dropping the tear gas and — and committing the assaults
because you wanted to keep those benefits?
A Yes.
Q You worked with Mr. Miske closely for an extended period
of time, correct?
A Yes.
Q Did you become aware from your dealings with him and the
dealings with the various businesses you had whether he had any
reputation in the community?
A Yes.
Q What was his reputation?
A He was known as a business man and — and he was feared.
Q Did you benefit in any way from either of those
reputations?
A Yes.
Q Starting with his reputation as a business man, how did
you benefit from that?
A Getting more job opportunities.
Q His reputation for being feared, how did you benefit from
that?
A His protection.
Q Did you take advantage of that?
A Yes.
Q How so?
A By doing other acts.
Q Such as?
A Robberies.
Q Anything else?
A And drug dealings.

•••

Q How did you benefit from his protection, as you said, when
you were dealing drugs?
A Everybody knew that I was Mike Miske’s little cousin.
Q Did you feel like that meant you — they — people would
not cause retribution on you that they might otherwise have?
A Yes.
Q Was it — was it important for you to maintain all of
those various benefits and protections you described?
A Yes.
Q Is that why in — at least in part you were committing
these acts that you’ve told us about so far today — or
yesterday?
A Yes.

See more of Kaulana Freitas’ testimony in yesterday’s post, “Bits of the Miske backstory.”