A man who has known Patricia Hanoa Wong since childhood testified Monday in Hilo Circuit Court that she offered him money “to take Buggy out.”
“Buggy” is what the witness, Peter Fuerte, said Wong called Kaycee Smith. He told the jury he took the term “to take Buggy out” to mean killing Smith, a 21-year-old rodeo champion who had graduated from Kamehameha Schools Kapalama in Honolulu.
Smith’s slain body was found on a couch in the living room of her rented Orchidland Drive home on June 30, 2009. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head. A 9mm semiautomatic handgun was found on the floor near Smith’s body, as was a spent 9mm bullet casing.
The 61-year-old Wong is charged with second-degree murder, two counts of solicitation of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Wong killed Smith for inheritance money, at least $250,000 Smith received after the death of her 45-year-old father, Noel “Bear” Smith, in 2007. According to prosecutors, Smith and Wong had opened a joint credit union account, largely funded by Smith.
The 56-year-old Fuerte, a co-defendant of Wong’s, is incarcerated at Hawaii Community Correctional Center. He appeared in court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit with a body chain and ankle shackles. A sheriff’s deputy removed Fuerte’s handcuffs prior to his testimony.
Fuerte pleaded guilty in August to being a felon in possession of a firearm, a Class B felony punishable by 10 years imprisonment, and first-degree hindering prosecution, a Class C felony punishable by five years behind bars.
In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of accomplice to second-degree murder and accomplice to attempted second-degree murder, charges carrying a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Fuerte agreed to testify against Wong as part of his plea deal. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9.
Fuerte said that at the time of Smith’s killing, he was a daily user of methamphetamine — “anywhere from a gram to whatever I could get.” He admitted this sometimes affected his perception of events, especially if he was up for three days on a meth bender.
Fuerte testified that Wong approached him at a county water spigot in Ocean View and offered him $15,000 to kill Smith — whom Wong had reportedly referred to as her “hanai daughter.” Fuerte told the jury he had earlier told police Wong had offered him $10,000 for the proposed slaying.
“Why did you tell them $10,000 when you’re telling us today $15,000?” asked Deputy Prosecutor Annaliese Wolf.
“Because I didn’t have to swear an oath (for) what I was telling them at that time,” Fuerte answered.
“Why was it important to you to not tell the police the full amount of the money?” Wolf queried.
“Because I don’t like the police,” Fuerte replied.
At the time of Wong’s alleged proposition, Fuerte said he asked Wong if she understood that he’d gotten out of prison only a year earlier, and she was offering him $15,000 to commit a crime “that would put me in prison for the rest of my life.”
Fuerte said prison commissary prices would eat up $15,000 in three years, and that he considered Wong’s offer “kind of absurd.”
“It’s an insult, basically,” he said.
Fuerte testified he bought a gun for Wong at her request. He said Wong gave him $300 with which he purchased for her a .25 caliber handgun and some meth for himself.
Wolf showed Fuerte the Browning Hi-Power 9mm semiautomatic pistol in evidence as the murder weapon. Fuerte said it wasn’t the gun he purchased.
Asked what he was doing at the approximate time of Smith’s murder, Fuerte testified he was at the Lako Street Chevron gas station in Kailua-Kona, beating up a man who “stole some drugs from me in Ocean View.”
The trial continues at 9:30 a.m. today in the courtroom of Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
