62 year-old Patricia Wong of Na‘alehu Wong was sentenced to life in prison and a consecutive twenty-year prison term for the June 2009 murder of Kaycee Smith.

On November 27, 2023, a Hilo jury found Wong guilty as charged of Murder in the Second
Degree, Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the Second Degree,and two counts of Criminal Solicitation.

Yesterday, Wong appeared in Hilo Circuit Court where she was sentenced to the maximum penalty
of life in prison with the possibility of parole for both Murder in the Second Degree and Attempted
Murder in the Second Degree. She was also sentenced to a concurrent twenty-year prison term for two
counts of Criminal Solicitation and a single count of Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the Second
Degree. The Court ordered that the twenty-year prison term be served consecutively to the life in prison term.

The investigation was handled by Captain Rio Amon-Wilkins and Detective Derek Morimoto,
of the Hawaiʻi County Police Department’s Area I Criminal Investigation Section while the case was prosecuted by Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Annaliese Wolf and Matt Woodward.

Photo credit: Hawaiʻi County Prosecuting Attorney