Ex-Miske Associate Sentenced To More Than 10 Years In Prison

Editor’s note: A version of this article was first published on Ian Lind’s blog, iLind.net. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

One of the first former Michael Miske associates to begin cooperating with federal authorities in their racketeering and murder case against the convicted Honolulu businessman has been sentenced to just over a decade in prison.

Jake Smith, who appeared for the hearing Wednesday via video link from an undisclosed location, has been in federal custody since his arrest on drug charges in August 2018. He immediately began helping authorities and was the first of the key witnesses who testified against Miske to be sentenced.

Federal Judge Derrick Watson sentenced Smith to 121 months in federal prison, plus an additional five years of supervised release. It wasn’t clear if this included, or was in addition to, the six years he has spent in detention.

After a six-month trial, Miske was found guilty in July of 13 of 16 counts, including racketeering conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering in connection to the 2016 killing of Johnathan Fraser. Miske is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26.

Smith was just 21 when he became associated with the criminal organization prosecutors refer to as the Miske Enterprise.

He was charged separately from Miske but struck a plea deal to testify against his former boss. As part of the deal, he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and they agreed not to bring further charges for additional crimes that were disclosed.

During several days on the witness stand during the Miske trial, Smith admitted he took part in a range of crimes, including arson, armed robberies, drug trafficking, chemical attacks and murder-for-hire schemes.

Smith’s testimony came after he pleaded guilty in 2020 to being part of Miske’s racketeering conspiracy and to distributing or possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

His 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 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 in Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center in apparent retaliation for his testimony against Miske. He 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 were 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.