A Hilo grand jury indicted a 54-year-old Mountain View woman in the shooting death of a 21-year-old Puna woman almost seven years ago.
The indictment returned Wednesday charges Patricia Hanoa Wong with a single count of second-degree murder and said Wong “intentionally or knowingly caused the death of” Kaycee Maile Smith, a former high school rodeo standout for Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama.
Smith, known as “Bug,” 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 bench warrant for Wong’s arrest was issued with the indictment, and bail was set at $250,000. Wong had not been taken into custody as of press time Friday evening.
Police Lt. Greg Esteban of the Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said Friday that Wong is the suspect police identified when they routed the case to prosecutors in October 2009.
“There was a close association between the two,” Esteban said. He declined to elaborate.
Esteban said police are “actively searching” for Wong.
“We do have the warrant in hand, and it’s being entered into our system and into a national database,” he said.
A court document filed by police in 2009 said the murder scene was manipulated to make the killing appear like a suicide.
“The physical evidence present was inconsistent with that of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” then-Detective Reed Mahuna wrote. “The most significant inconsistency was the placement of the victim’s body, specifically that her hands appeared to be tucked under a small pillow.”
Esteban declined to identify a motive for the homicide, but said one has been identified, as did Capt. Randall Medeiros when police originally turned the case over to prosecutors.
Possible motives include revenge and money. Police think Smith’s late father, Noel “Bear” Smith, fatally shot 28-year-old Jeremy Napoleon on June 19, 2007, in the yard of Napoleon’s Hawaiian Paradise Park home.
The 45-year-old Noel Smith died about three hours later, when his 2007 Dodge pickup truck ran off Akoni Pule Highway (Highway 270) in North Kohala and crashed into an embankment.
Al Cabral, then-president of the Hawaii Horse Owners Association, told the Tribune-Herald in July 2009 that Kaycee Smith and her older sister, Shelly, each inherited a considerable sum of money after their father’s death.
Someone posting as Kaycee Smith on Facebook has accused Wong of the slaying since at least 2010.
Posts on June 29 and 30, 2010, allege Wong found Kaycee Smith’s body. According to the post, Wong said she had been helping Kaycee Smith move from the rented Orchidland house into a new house. The posts also allege Kaycee Smith had bought the new property and Wong was helping build the home.
The June 29 post asked what happened to the property Kaycee Smith bought and concluded Wong killed Smith to gain control of the property.
“YOU TOOK IT ALL … HER LAND … HER MONEY… HER LIFE!!!!!!!” the post said.
A July 14, 2010, post claimed Wong drove to the Keaau police station to report finding the body when she could have called 911 to report it.
Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth said Wednesday was the first time the case against Wong was taken to a grand jury.
“There was definitely some recent police work,” Roth said. “There were several follow-ups that we asked for. The extra work did add a lot to this case.”
When Roth ran for prosecutor in 2012, he promised to look at cold cases, especially homicides, “with a fresh set of eyes.”
Since then, Alexander Malani Gambsky, an Orchidland man, was convicted of manslaughter for the 2008 slaying of his wife, Dawn, and Daniel DeJarnette, a retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, was convicted of manslaughter in the 2006 killing of his wife, Yu.
Both received 20-year prison sentences.
And Peter Kema, 45, and his 46-year-old wife, Jaylin Kema, were indicted April 28 for the 1997 disappearance and murder of their chronically abused 6-year-old son, Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. The Peter Boy case is the most notorious child abuse-turned-murder case in Hawaii history. His body has not been found.
Wong’s indictment comes less than a month after state Deputy Attorney General Mike Kagami, a former deputy to Roth and previous prosecutors Charlene Iboshi and Jay Kimura, filed papers to run against Roth in this year’s election.
“This has nothing to do with that,” Roth said. “In fact, we started this investigation early in the year when we were unopposed and we thought we were going to be unopposed.”
Asked if there might soon be additional indictments in long-languishing cold-case murders, he replied: “Soon is a relative term, but we are actively working on other cold cases right now.”
Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life with the possibility of parole, upon conviction. The indictment alleges Wong carried out the murder with a semi-automatic firearm.
“There’s a 20-year minimum (prison term before possible parole) when a semi-automatic firearm is used in the commission of a murder,” Roth said.
Police put out a bulletin late Friday afternoon seeking the public’s help to find Wong, who’s also known as Patricia Hanoa.
She’s described as part Hawaiian, 5 feet 1 inch tall, about 150 pounds, with hazel eyes, brown medium length hair and a tan complexion.
The bulletin asks anyone with information about Wong’s whereabouts to contact Esteban at 961-2252 or gregory.esteban@hawaiicounty.gov, Detective Derek Morimoto at 961-2380 or derek.morimoto@hawaiicounty.gov or call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
