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Appearing in a white prison jumpsuit, Jacob Smith, a trained martial artist and former associate of Michael Miske, told jurors over days of testimony in Miske’s federal trial that he committed various crimes at the direction of the alleged racketeering boss.

During his examination by prosecutors, Smith, who has said he was involved in the Miske enterprise between 2015 and 2018, identified Miske as the leader of a vast criminal network and said Miske ordered him and others to commit assaults, robberies and murder.

But during cross-examination, defense attorneys attempted to separate Smith from Miske by showing that Smith had his own motivations for committing crimes and was affiliated with other criminal organizations, such as the La Familia prison gang. 

Michael Kennedy, representing Miske, also focused on the fact that Smith entered into a plea agreement in 2020 and suggested he had reason to lie in his testimony to curry favor with the government. 

“You don’t want to spend one more day there if you don’t have to, correct?” Kennedy asked, referring to prison. 

“Nobody does,” said Smith, who has been in federal custody since his arrest on drug charges in 2018. 

While witnesses like Smith are important because of their inside knowledge, their own criminal histories and incentive to lie can cause credibility problems with jurors, said Victor Bakke, a Honolulu criminal defense attorney who is not involved in the Miske case. 

All of Miske’s 12 former co-defendants took plea deals before the trial began, leaving Miske, who is charged in a 19-count indictment, to face a federal jury alone.

Although it’s unclear if all the former co-defendants will testify, jurors have already heard from three — Kaulana Freitas, Preston Kimoto and Norman Akau. They’ve also heard from Wayne Miller, a former associate and longtime friend of Miske who was charged in a separate indictment but later pleaded guilty. 

Smith was also charged separately and pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiring to violate federal racketeering laws and conspiring to distribute methamphetamine. In exchange for his cooperation, prosecutors agreed to drop his 2018 drug charge and refrain from bringing additional charges against him related to that case.

The challenge for prosecutors will be to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Miske was the one directing many of the crimes committed by his associates, Bakke said. They also have to hope that jurors will believe witnesses with their own lengthy rap sheets. 

“When a crime is committed in hell, the prosecution cannot be expected to call angels as witnesses,” Bakke said. “That’s really what sums it up.”

Smith’s Affiliations

Smith said he was “on call” as an enforcer for Miske for years, committing assaults and robberies at Miske’s request, often for payment. 

But Kennedy suggested Smith often acted of his own volition or because of his affiliation with other criminal organizations.

In Smith’s 2020 plea agreement, he said that Miske ordered him to beat up a rival nightclub owner in the offices of Miske’s pest control business, Kamaaina Termite, in 2017.

Kennedy said Smith carried out that beating on his own, “because that’s what you do.”

“Why would I be in his office?” Smith replied.

Prosecutors focused their questions on Miske’s supposed leadership of the criminal enterprise and the influence he had over those around him.

Smith said Miske communicated with many of his associates using burner phones and instructed them to use WhatsApp so they couldn’t be traced. He said many people feared him and being part of his circle meant having protection.

“Did you ever question who was the leader of the circle of people that was surrounding Mr. Miske?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar asked. 

“No,” Smith said. 

Besides carrying out assaults at Miske’s nightclub, the M, Smith said he participated in conspiracies, including introducing Miske to a “shooter,” Lance Bermudez, who Miske wanted to hire to carry out a murder plot. Smith said Miske offered Bermudez $250,000 to kill Joe Boy Tavares, a cockfight organizer he thought was informing on him to investigators. 

Bermudez never carried out the plot.

Smith also detailed a night in May 2017 when he, Miske and two other associates drove to Kualoa Ranch to ambush a man Miske had previously said he wanted dead. The man, Lindsey Kinney, had been publishing posts on social media that Miske took as an affront to his reputation, Smith said.

When they arrived at Kualoa Ranch, where Kinney was working as a rigging grip on a movie set, they confronted him and Smith fired a shot into the air, intentionally missing Kinney.

After the incident, Kinney continued posting on social media, which infuriated Miske, Smith said. 

“He said I would’ve been better off hitting him,” Smith said. 

But the defense tried to cast doubt on Smith’s assertions that Miske was a criminal ringleader. 

Smith had previously testified that he had been involved with the La Familia gang while in prison, but Kennedy pulled up a photo of him holding a weapon that was posted on a La Familia-affiliated Facebook page after Smith had been released. 

“Here, outside, you have an assault rifle in a picture on a La Familia Facebook page?” Kennedy said. 

“Yes,” Smith replied. 

Kennedy also asked Smith about his affiliation with the so-called “shooter gang,” which Smith had mentioned being a part of with Bermudez. Smith said it was just a phrase and not a real gang. 

Kennedy asked a series of questions about Smith’s criminal past and showed the jury photos of Smith brandishing firearms and holding stacks of cash he said he received from drug dealing. 

In August 2018, Smith was arrested for selling drugs to a lower-level dealer who later sold them to a buyer who was secretly cooperating with authorities. 

“At that point, you knew that one drug sale … could get you 10 years to life?” Kennedy asked. 

“I figured it out,” Smith said. 

Smith, who has been in federal custody since 2018 but was charged for his role in the Miske enterprise on Oct. 1, 2020, entered into a plea agreement as his only hope of getting a lighter sentence, Kennedy said.

“Your primary concern was to avoid a prison sentence that would take you away from your children for decades,” Kennedy said.

Flipped Witnesses

Miske wasn’t physically present for many of the crimes his former associates say they committed on his behalf. So the defense has to create enough reasonable doubt among jurors that they won’t be able to find him guilty of being the criminal mastermind behind it all, defense attorney Myles Breiner said. Breiner is not actively involved in the Miske case.

“I think everyone’s waiting to see if Mike Miske’s going to testify,” he said.

But the presence of so many witnesses who have flipped against him creates challenges for both the prosecution and the defense, said Bakke.

“They all seem to be telling the same story — they were connected to Miske, they did certain bad things, they’re all saying it’s because he told them to do it,” Bakke said. “From what I’ve seen so far, it appears that the defense has been doing a very good job of making the jury very aware that these witnesses that the government is presenting all have strong motivation to lie and they might not or should not be trusted.”