A 20-year-old man who shot and killed two others in an exchange of gunfire in the parking lot of Haleiwa Joe’s Seafood Grill on Aug. 31, 2018, was an FBI confidential source in the investigation leading to the indictment of Honolulu businessman and alleged racketeering gang leader, Michael J. Miske Jr.

The victims, Victor “Dusky” Toledo, 37, and his nephew, Dustin Young Toledo, 26, were shot and killed just after closing time as late diners were still finishing their meals at the popular North Shore restaurant and bar.

The surviving gunman, who was also wounded in the confrontation, was later identified as Keoni Adric, a top-tier junior boxer who won several national titles before he was 18.

Adric’s cooperation with the FBI appears to have been a closely held secret until recently. It is publicly reported here for the first time.

The nature of the information Adric provided to the FBI is not publicly known, although it apparently involves at least Miske and his half-brother, John Stancil, one of five remaining co-defendants in the case.

No murder charges were filed in the case. Surveillance video captured enough of the incident for prosecutors to conclude the victims “were the likely first aggressors,” leading to a determination the shootings were justified as self-defense, court records show. The FBI apparently followed suit, determining the agency could continue to work with Adric despite his role in the two deaths.

However, the decision not to bring murder charges continues to anger friends of the victims, who don’t understand why Adric was allowed to “get away with it,” as one North Shore resident put it.

Adric, who had no prior criminal record, was later charged with carrying a handgun on the night of the shooting, a Class B felony. He is free on bail awaiting trial, currently scheduled in late February, court records show. 

In a July 12 hearing, prosecutors disclosed they had offered a plea deal that would have reduced the gun charge to a misdemeanor, but the offer was rejected after review by Adric’s defense attorney, according to minutes of the court session. Circuit Court Judge Fa’auuga To’oto’o pressed the parties to resolve the case before it goes to trial, although no further progress has been reported in court records.

A Secret Source

Adric, now 25, was publicly outed as an FBI source in a recent court filing by Stancil’s Kona-based attorney Terri Fujioka-Lilley. 

Stancil, Miske and four remaining co-defendants are charged with being part of a conspiracy to violate federal racketeering laws, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years upon conviction. Stancil and Miske each face multiple additional charges including murder-for-hire conspiracy, assault and attempted murder in aid of racketeering, assault and attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. 

Other defendants each have at least one charge in addition to racketeering conspiracy, including drug trafficking, armed robbery, firearms offenses, use of a chemical weapon, and bank fraud. 

Adric’s status as a source was referenced in an unredacted copy of a May 10 email from Fujioka-Lilley to federal prosecutors that was attached as an exhibit to her filing. Prosecutors, in a separate copy attached to their reply, blacked out Adric’s name.

Fujioka-Lilley’s email complained that records from the Haleiwa Joe’s shooting investigation were not included with other information turned over by prosecutors during the process of discovery, in which evidence relied on by prosecutors must be disclosed to the defendants and their attorneys prior to trial. 

Her email said “the factual information is highly relevant to the determination by the FBI that Keoni Adric killed both men in self-defense while a CHS,” an acronym referring to a confidential human source, someone who has provided credible information regarding criminal activities.

The email sought documents from “any federal investigative activity related to the murders and all internal communications among the federal agencies involved in the Miske investigation regarding the decision to continue to work with Keoni Adric … as reflected in the continued use report provided.”

Attempts to reach Adric for comment through his attorney, Chris Evans, were unsuccessful. Evans declined to comment, and abruptly hung up on two separate telephone calls. He did not respond to a follow-up request for comment sent to his office email address.

Fujioka-Lilley’s email referred to the requested investigative records as Giglio materials, information that must be turned over to defendants if it could be used to attack the credibility or reliability of a witness, presumably Adric in this case.

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With as many as 300 potential witnesses expected to be identified prior to the trial, it is unknown what prompted the attorney’s particular interest in Adric.

An investigator with Goodenow Associates Investigations, hired by Miske’s defense attorneys, has also been seeking information regarding the Haleiwa Joe’s incident and two other related shootings in Haleiwa, one fatal, involving Adric’s cousin and close friend, Kaden Kanae.

Kanae is charged with second-degree murder and several weapons offenses resulting from a fatal shooting on Sept. 29, 2018, although no gunshot residue was found on his hands when tested hours after the incident, and another man has confessed to being the shooter. Kanae has been held in pre-trial custody since his arrest five years ago. His trial is currently scheduled to begin on Oct. 30.

A Top Junior Boxer

For most of a decade, Adric was considered one of Hawaii’s most talented young boxers. He started boxing when he was 8, and was a nationally ranked junior boxer by the time he was 13. 

In 2010, the year he turned 13, he won three national titles, including the Junior Golden Gloves National Championship in Nevada, and the Ringside World Championship in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 2013, he won the gold medal in the 132-pound weight division at the USA Boxing Junior World Team Open Championships in Reno, Nevada, and was later selected to compete in the 2013 junior men’s world championships in Ukraine, hosted by the organization now known as the International Boxing Association. During that same year, he was recognized by the Honolulu City Council with an honorary certificate for his boxing success.

In 2015, when Adric was 17, he lost a decision on points in the finals of the USA National Golden Gloves tournament at the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to an opponent who was 28 years old. Adric turned 18 in September 2015, and aged out of the junior competitions.

Two years later, in January 2017, a very fit-looking Adric shared a photo on social media of himself in a gym, apparently ready for training. 

The online boxing database, BoxRec.com, currently lists Adric as “inactive,” and lists the 2015 loss as his last fight. However, while awaiting trial on the gun charge, Adric was given permission by the court to spend 10 weeks out of state in mid-2022 training at the UFC Gym in Costa Mesa, California.

Tie-In To A Reputed Hit Man

Following the Haleiwa Joe’s shooting, Adric told detectives that one of the shooting victims, Dusky Toledo, had previously attacked and shot him “multiple times,” an assault that could have drawn the interest of federal investigators pursuing leads about Toledo’s alleged ties to Miske.

The earlier incident happened while Adric and Toledo were at a chicken fight in Waianae on Sunday, March 19, 2017, court records show.

Several people with knowledge of the shooting incident said Adric was wounded in both hands, but Adric, who was just 19 at the time and fearing for his life, did not report the incident to police.

Adric told police he didn’t pursue charges because “Toledo and his family are the type of people who carry grudges,” according to a summary of his statement to detectives.

Although Evans declined to comment, he has argued in court filings that Adric was later justified in carrying a concealed handgun because of his fear of further attacks by Toledo.

Toledo’s name has turned up in Miske case files, although Oahu’s North Shore was not part of the Miske organization’s usual territory, as it was long rumored to be controlled by a violent home-grown gang. This crossover to the Miske case suggests the FBI might have been primarily interested in what Adric could tell them about Toledo.

Dusky Toledo had a criminal record going back to 1999. He was convicted of a string of 11 felonies in 2002, including several drug crimes, felony assault, possession of a prohibited weapon (a semiautomatic pistol), four counts of reckless endangering, and felony criminal property damage, along with several misdemeanors.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison for commercial promotion of marijuana, five years for a second marijuana offense, and four years on each of the remaining felony charges, court records show. All the sentences were to run concurrently, meaning they were served at the same time rather than one after another. 

Toledo had not had any additional criminal convictions since completing his sentence, according to his profile obtained from the Hawaii Criminal Justice History Center.

Racquel Achiu, a longtime Haleiwa resident, neighborhood board member, and unsuccessful candidate for the City Council last year, knew Toledo and his family.

“He was certainly not a saint,” but she said Toledo was not a “scary figure.” Achiu described him as a leader who supported the community, and had a particular interest in youth athletics. 

But court records suggest he hadn’t necessarily left his criminal past behind.

Considered For A Murder Contract

At least two defendants, who have already admitted to taking part in “murder for hire” plots at Miske’s direction, mentioned Toledo to investigators, according to reports filed by federal agents, or in written plea agreements filed in federal court.

Those who took part in murder plots, have pleaded guilty, and are cooperating with prosecutors, include Wayne Miller, Jacob “Jake” Smith, Lance Bermudez, Norman Akau and Harry Kauhi.

Miller, who Miske had befriended in the late 1990s and later became one of Miske’s most trusted associates, told investigators that between 2014 and 2018, Miske had asked him to arrange “the hiring of hitmen to murder individuals whom Miske had selected for death.” He said Miske had agreed to put up thousands of dollars to fund these murder-for-hire deals.

Miller said he introduced Miske to Toledo during this period, according to documents filed in court.

Miske has been charged with directing conspiracies to kill three people, including a Waimanalo man suspected of providing information to law enforcement, a drug dealer who was ambushed at Kualoa Ranch, and 21-year-old Jonathan Fraser, who Miske wrongfully blamed for his son’s death.

An additional plot to kill a dock workers union official, again at Miske’s direction, was not included in the indictment, although Miller, Kauhi and Akau have admitted their roles in the scheme. Their attempt to shoot the intended victim at a Sand Island restaurant was called off at the last minute, and he was not injured.

Fraser is the only person actually killed, prosecutors allege, although steps were taken to plan and carry out the other hits. In each case one or more individuals followed the victims to determine their routine movements, staked out their residences or work places, and watched for opportunities to kill them.

Even a murder conspiracy that doesn’t lead the victim’s injury or death can bring a 10-year prison sentence. Miske also faces a potential life sentence if convicted on multiple charges stemming from Fraser’s disappearance and alleged murder.

Jake Smith, who has admitted to drug dealing and providing “strong arm” services by using his martial arts training to assault others when directed by Miske, also mentioned Toledo.

Smith told investigators Miske asked him to work with John Stancil to find a hitman to kill Lindsey Kinney. Miske allegedly provided them with a vehicle to use and suggested Kinney “could be targeted at a bar he frequented” in Kaneohe.

Smith said Miske had considered offering a “contract” to Dusky Toledo to kill Kinney, indicating Miske believed Toledo was available to carry out such a “hit,” according to notes of Smith’s statements to investigators.

However, Smith said, “Miske had concerns about whether he could trust Toledo if he were caught,” court records show.

A sanitized version of the same story appeared in Smith’s written plea agreement that was filed in court in November 2020, long before Toledo’s name was publicly disclosed in documents unsealed by court order.  

At the time, the plea agreement referred to the person, now known to be Toledo, only as “an associate of Miske,” designated as “CC-3,” typically a reference used for a co-conspirator also involved in the criminal conspiracy.

Toledo’s involvement is consistent with the prosecution’s view that Miske recruited individuals who might already be affiliated with other criminal organizations.

“Miske recruited individuals from various parts of the community to carry out his criminal misdeeds,” prosecutors argued in a legal memo filed in federal court last year. “Whether some individuals were members of Nakipi, or La Familia, or any other organization is completely irrelevant so long as they were prepared to carry out Miske’s instructions.”