Editor’s note: This column is being reprinted with updates from Ian Lind’s blog, iLind.net, with the author’s permission.

Delia Fabro-Miske, the daughter-in-law of the late business owner and racketeering boss Michael J. Miske, Jr., was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison by Judge Derrick K. Watson during a hearing in Honolulu’s Federal District Court.

In addition, she will have to serve three years on supervised release after completion of her prison sentence, and pay $49,998 in restitution to the Social Security Administration.

Watson denied a request by Fabro-Miske’s attorney for a “non-custodial” sentence that would allow Fabro-Miske to continue raising her daughter. Fabro-Miske pleaded guilty on Jan. 12, 2024, to a single count of racketeering conspiracy.

The judge also rejected arguments that Fabro-Miske was unaware of her role in the 2016 disappearance and presumed murder of Johnathan Fraser.

Minutes of the sentencing hearing on Wednesday show the court adopted the factual findings of a revised Presentence Investigation Report. Although confidential, this section was disclosed in a legal memo by Fabro-Miske’s attorney opposing consideration of the “relevant acts” attributed to her by other trial witnesses:

“[A]s noted in her Sentencing Statement, the defendant contests her involvement in a significant number of the RAs asserted by cooperating defendants, including more than half of the RAs attributable for her for guideline computation purposes in this case. As a result, the defendant has minimized her conduct and has not fully accepted responsibility for her involvement in the instant offense. … Of further concern, the defendant has articulated no remorse for her participation in the kidnapping or murder of Fraser. Instead, she has put the blame entirely on Miske. The aggravating factors in this case increase the defendant’s likelihood of recidivism and risk of danger to the community.”

Marcia A. Morrissey, a California-based attorney representing Fabro-Miske, argued “the kidnapping and murder of Johnathan Fraser should not be considered relevant conduct, based on facts adduced at trial,” as well as federal sentencing guidelines and case law interpreting the guidelines.

Objections Overruled

After arguments were made in court, Watson overruled Morrissey’s objections and permitted Fabro-Miske’s actions related to Fraser’s kidnapping and murder to be considered in his sentencing decision, according to the minutes of the hearing.

Any appeal of the sentence must be filed within 14 days of entry of judgment. It is not known whether Morrissey intends to appeal the sentence.

Fabro-Miske, now 30, was not among Mike Miske’s 10 co-defendants named in the original racketeering indictment unsealed in July 2020. She was added to the case, along with Miske’s employee and business partner, Jason Yokoyama, in a superseding grand jury indictment in July 2021.

Miske, 50, was convicted in July and died of a fentanyl overdose while in federal detention on Dec. 1.

Fabro-Miske expressed remorse for her actions during a tearful statement to the court on Wednesday, according to the Courthouse News Service.

“As much as I wish I could reverse the decisions I made, I can’t change who I was back then” she said. “I should never let fear from someone else dictate my decision making and make me feel isolated from my family.”

Unlike most of Mike Miske’s other co-defendants, Fabro-Miske spent only a short time in federal detention before being placed on supervised release, so she has little prior credit for time served. Watson recommended she be confined in the federal correctional institution at Victorville, California, (first choice) or Phoenix (second choice), both medium-security facilities. She is scheduled to turn herself in and begin her seven year sentence by 2 p.m. on May 28.

Fabro-Miske was married to Miske’s late son, Caleb Jordan Keanu Miske, in October 2015. She was pregnant at the time. A month later, Caleb was critically injured in an automobile accident in Kaneohe. He died of complications of his injuries in March 2016 without having left the hospital.

Within a matter of months, she had been married, then left a widow and a single mother at 21.

Just a few months later, she assisted in the kidnapping and murder of Johnathan Fraser, Caleb’s best friend, who had also been critically injured in the crash that took Caleb’s life, but survived. Mike Miske wrongly blamed Fraser for being in the driver’s seat at the time of the accident, contrary to all available evidence and witness testimony, and the jury concluded he set in motion a murder-for-hire plot that ended with Fraser’s disappearance and death.

After Caleb’s death, Fabro-Miske invited Fraser and his girlfriend to share her Hawaii Kai apartment that was being paid for by Mike Miske. On July 30, Fabro-Miske took Fraser’s girlfriend Ashley Wong to the Ko ‘Olina Resort on the other end of the island for a “spa day.” While the two women were there, Fraser disappeared and is presumed to have been kidnapped and murdered.

Fabro-Miske quickly became a central part of Miske’s scheme to hide his ownership of Kamaʻāina Termite and his other related businesses. State business registration records of Miske’s companies were updated to remove his name and instead claim Fabro-Miske as the sole officer and director. The companies she supposedly controlled included Kamaʻāina Termite and Pest Control, Oʻahu Termite and Pest Management, Kamaʻāina Holdings, Hawaii Partners, Kamaʻāina Energy, and Makana-Pacific Construction.

However, testimony during the trial described Fabro-Miske as more of a general clerical worker in the Kamaʻāina Termite office, doing routine tasks and handling paperwork. Tax returns cited during the trial confirmed Miske remained the sole owner of each of the companies even after removing his name from state records.

Fabro-Miske pleaded guilty days after jury selection began in the case, leaving Mike Miske and his half-brother, John Stancil, as the only remaining defendants. Stancil then entered a guilty plea on the first day of trial, leaving Miske to face the jury alone.

In her plea agreement, Fabro-Miske admitted she had been part of Miske’s racketeering organization and took part in racketeering activities that involved bank fraud, obstruction of justice and wire fraud. For example, she helped to prepare fraudulent corporate documents to allow several people to qualify for bank loans to purchase trucks, and she hid her actual income in order to obtain the maximum Social Security survivor benefits after Caleb Miske’s death.

More importantly, her plea agreement included a provision requiring her to “cooperate fully” with government investigators and prosecutors, including “to be available to speak with law enforcement officials and representatives of the United States Attorney’s Office at any time and to give truthful and complete answers at such meetings.”

She also agreed to testify in any grand jury or trial proceedings involving her co-defendants, if requested.

Fabro-Miske ultimately was not called as witness during Miske’s trial, and the extent of her cooperation with prosecutors remains publicly unknown.