On Monday, Patricia Wong pleaded not guilty for a second time to charges relating to the 2009 shooting death of Kaycee Smith.
Wong, a 60-year-old Naalehu woman also known as Patricia Hanoa, has been charged since 2016 with second-degree murder for the slaying of Smith, a 21-year-old Puna woman and former high school rodeo standout for Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama.
A seven-count indictment returned by a Hilo grand jury on Dec. 28 added charges of attempted second-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and two counts of criminal solicitation.
Wong has been free on $250,000 bail since shortly after the original indictment.
Wong remained silent during Monday’s arraignment. Aaron Wills, Wong’s court-appointed attorney, entered the not guilty pleas to the new charges. Wills also requested that Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto maintain Wong’s bail at $250,000 without raising the bail amount for the additional charges in the new indictment.
“She has showed up for court every single time I’ve asked her to and she’s not going to run. She’s going to show up for her day in court, Your Honor,” Wills said.
Nakamoto confirmed Wong’s bail at $250,000 and ordered her to appear for trial at 8:30 a.m. March 6.
Wong had a Jan. 30 trial date for the murder charge on the previous indictment. Nakamoto said he would remove that date from the court calendar.
The indictment also charges a previously unindicted alleged co-conspirator as a defendant in the case. Peter Fuerte, a 55-year-old Ocean View man, is charged with accomplice to second-degree murder and accomplice to attempted second-degree murder.
Fuerte had not been arrested on a bench warrant accompanying the indictment as of Monday’s hearing. The warrant sets his bail at $50,000.
Smith was found dead June 30, 2009, in the living room of a rented Orchidland Drive home where she lived alone. A handgun was found at the scene, and an autopsy determined Smith died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
A court document filed by police at the time said the crime scene had been manipulated in an attempt to make Smith’s death appear to be a suicide.
There have been numerous delays in getting Wong to trial for Smith’s murder, including suspension of trials during the lockdown phase of the pandemic and the death last February of her lawyer, Brian De Lima.
A stipulated agreement that Wong was mentally fit to proceed with trial was put on record on Sept. 30, 2020, court records indicate.
There have been procedural delays, as well, including motions to suppress certain evidence by the defense and motions to determine whether statements alleged to have been made by Wong were done so voluntarily.
Court documents establish that Wong reported the death of Smith on July 30, 2009, and allegedly told then-Puna patrol officer Courtney Bello the death was possibly a suicide. According to documents, she referred to Smith as her hanai daughter. Statements Wong made that day to Bello and since-retired detective John Rodrigues were ruled voluntary and non-custodial by Nakamoto.
In addition, a July 1, 2009, interview with Wong conducted by then-lead detective Rio Amon-Wilkins described in documents as “at times tense and accusatory” was also ruled as voluntary and admissible.
During the interview, documents state, Wong “proclaimed her innocence and refused to concede” to assertions by Amon-Wilkins, who’s now the captain in charge of the East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Division.
Documents also reveal Wong agreed to a polygraph test on July 2, 2009, when the matter was still classified as a coroner’s inquest and not yet a homicide by the medical examiner.
The results of that polygraph aren’t admissible as evidence and aren’t revealed in the documents available publicly. However, a document stated that in a videotaped interview after the polygraph, Wong told Amon-Wilkins words to the effect that that if he was going to arrest her, she had to get a lawyer.
Amon-Wilkins left the room and, documents state, Wong made comments aloud to herself including “I don’t believe this.”
Also ruled voluntary and admissible were statements made by Wong on a July 3 phone call monitored by police with a man whom police said Wong had previously contacted seeking a firearm. According to documents, Wong instructed the man “not to say anything to police.”
Statements allegedly made by Wong in a Sept. 2, 2009, interview with Amon-Wilkins, in which she asked if she needed a lawyer, were deemed involuntary and inadmissible by the judge.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
