Fourteen years after the shooting death of 21-year-old rodeo standout Kaycee Smith, a 61-year-old Naalehu woman who called herself Smith’s “hanai auntie” was finally tried and convicted of the June 30, 2009, murder in Puna.

A Hilo Circuit Court jury Thursday found Patricia Wong, also known as Patricia Hanoa, guilty of second-­degree murder, second-­degree attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of criminal solicitation.

The jury found she not only killed Smith, but solicited the help of Peter Fuerte and Smith’s former boyfriend, although the boyfriend did not go along with Wong’s plot to kill her.

Wong had been out of custody on $250,000 bail, but after the verdict the judge increased it to $5 million and she was taken into custody.

Wong, who was first indicted on a single murder charge in 2016, seven years after the crime, will be sentenced Feb. 27.

She was re-indicted in 2022 with co-defendant, Peter Fuerte, who was originally charged with accomplice to second-degree murder and accomplice to second-degree attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges. Fuerte accepted a plea deal in exchange for his testimony at Wong’s trial. On Aug. 23 he pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of hindering prosecution (which will be withdrawn and the state will drop after Wong’s time for appeal expires) and a firearm charge, for which he agreed to a term of five years’ imprisonment. His sentencing is set for Jan. 9.

Prosecutors argued that the motive for Wong killing Smith was that Smith “inherited a substantial amount of money due to her father’s death,” as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. Hawaii County Deputy Prosecutor Annaliese Wolf prosecuted the case along with Matthew Woodward and Duane Kokesch.

In January 2009 a joint bank account was opened with a deposit of $3,500 of Wong’s money and $91,000 of Smith’s money, Wolf said.

In June 2009, Smith’s body was discovered at her Orchidland Estates subdivision home in Puna. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

“Patricia, who was the last person to see her alive and the first to find her deceased, called it a suicide when she reported it,” Wolf said.

Police immediately called it a homicide, ruling out suicide, given the position of the body and position of the wound.

No fingerprints were found on the firearm that killed Smith, but the DNA evidence revealed two female profiles but nothing further as to their identities, Wolf said.

Fuerte testified that he assisted in getting a gun for Wong and that he saw her take the firearm in Waimea and enter Smith’s car in June 2009. That was the basis for the attempted murder and conspiracy charges. However, Smith was not killed in Waimea, and Fuerte took back the gun, which was not the firearm that killed Smith.

Smith’s ex-boyfriend Frank Costa had also been approached by Wong to kill her, but “at no point did he engage in any criminal acti­vity,” Wolf said.

After the Waimea trip, Fuerte ended his association with Wong, and “her activities became harder to piece together,” Wolf said. Other witnesses, however, testified that she was looking for another firearm with which she intended to kill Smith.

Then, just days before Smith’s death, Wong canceled the debit card to access the account and had new ones sent to her post office box in Naalehu, Wolf said.

“It seemed like they were buying a piece of property together,” Wolf said, but “I believe that sale never went through.”

There was $35,000 left in the account, which Wong inherited by right of survivorship, she said.

Although Wong professed she would return the money to Smith’s family, “no one ever received a dime,” Wolf said.

The state never charged Wong with theft since she legally was entitled to the money.

Police had turned over the case to the prosecutor’s office in 2009, but Wong was not charged with any crimes for seven years.

Wong was finally indicted in 2016. U.S. marshals arrested Wong, while she was on a trip to Las Vegas, and she was extradited to Hawaii on July 11, 2016.

Wolf, who began working at the prosecutor’s office in 2018 and became supervisor of the cold-case unit, said she can’t speak to why the case wasn’t prosecuted between 2009 and 2016, but it later “dragged on through the court system.”

“It was very well investigated in 2009 by Capt. Rio Amon-Wilkins,” then a detective on the case. “His investigative work stood up 14 years later,” Wolf said.

“When I took over the case, we added other charges,” which allowed the state to present a wider picture of Wong’s alleged criminal activity, including the conspiracy aspect, she said.

“It was a sprawling, complex case,” Wolf said. Years later cellphone data that had been gathered was analyzed in a way that significantly corroborated witness testimony. “It was amazing in how it was utilized,” she said, adding that data properly preserved included cellphone tower site details regarding geolocation.

Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth was elected Hawaii County prosecutor in 2012, and had taken on the case in 2013 or 2014.

He said “there were a bunch of red herrings,” and police and prosecutors had to follow up on leads, sift through voluminous amounts of financial and phone records, and interview three to four times as many witnesses as were put on the stand at trial.

He recalled how Wong made statements she was close to Smith, yet she did not attend a funeral of Smith’s close relative.

Witnesses said that at the time of the funeral, Wong was buying a car for her daughter.

Roth eventually turned over the case to Wolf. He praised her and Woodward’s ability to simplify the evidence.

“For me it’s very gratifying seeing justice done for Kaycee’s family, who over the years I’ve gotten a chance to know — amazingly wonderful people. The mom is now a minister. It’s really satisfying to me to have a little bit of closure. That’s what these cases are about: justice, but also helping families move on and know what happened,” he said.

Wolf also noted “the family’s grace in the face of heart-wrenching tragedy, attending court every day. They were gracious and composed in the face of tough facts and details in court. I hope they found peace and closure.”

Wong’s attorney did not return the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser’s requests for comment on the verdict and whether she will appeal.

Hawaii County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen said in a written statement: “We hope that this verdict brings some sense of closure for Kaycee Smith’s family and friends.

“This verdict was the result of the hard work and dedication of our police, victim advocates, and prosecutors, especially Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Annaliese Wolf, Matthew Woodward, and Duane Kokesch.”