Accused Hawaii Kingpin on Trial in Torture, Murder of Late Son’s Friend Who Vanished; Witness Saw Cohort Stirring Pot With Large Bone Days Later: Report

Nearly 800 people have been identified as possible witnesses in the impending federal murder trial of a Hawaiian businessman accused of having his late son's friend kidnapped, tortured and killed.

Thousands of potential jurors currently are being screened for the trial of businessman and alleged crime boss Michael Miske, reports HawaiiNewsNow.

Miske, his half-brother John Stancil, and Delia Fabro-Miske, his business associate and son's widow, each face nearly two dozen counts — including conspiracy to use a chemical weapon and conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise — for allegedly plotting to kill Jonathan Fraser, 21.

They were arrested by federal authorities in 2020 as part of a multi-agency operation.

Fraser, prosecutors allege, was involved in a 2016 car crash that killed Miske's son, Caleb. While Caleb was behind the wheel, officials argue that Miske blamed Fraser for causing the accident.

Together, the prosecution and the defense have named 755 possible witnesses — a fraction of whom will be called over the course of the trial, which is expected to take months.

A dozen defendants originally were identified and arrested as part of the operation. Most have since accepted plea deals, and will be testifying during the trial on the government's behalf.

One of the chief witnesses cited in the 2020 arrest warrants is now dead. James Borling-Salas was 23 when he was viciously beaten inside an Oahu jail back in December 2019. He died after two weeks on life support.

Borling-Salas went to investigators, according to HawaiiNewsNow, after he allegedly saw Fraser — who had been reported missing in late 2016 — in a Kalihi home with "a bloodied face," and "tied to a green plastic garden chair with zip-tie restraints and duct tape."

He said he later saw Fraser being tortured with a blow torch, and that when he returned to the home days later, he saw a "very large pot cooking on the stove" and "observed a very large bone sticking out of the pot."

The informant told cops the "flesh began to fall away from the bone, and he believed the bone to be human."

Later, the bone was used to stir the pot, which held water that "had a shade of orange-red that [Borling-Salas] had never seen while cooking."

Miske is charged with Fraser's kidnapping, murder, and several other crimes — to which he's pleaded not guilty. His trial is expected to begin within weeks of the end of jury selection.