A state jury has found a Hawaii Kai woman guilty of persuading an elderly widow to sell her home and taking most of the $600,000 in proceeds.

Susan Chin, 44, was found guilty Monday of one count of first-degree theft and two counts of money laundering.

Chin faces maximum 10-year prison terms for the theft and one money-laundering count, and a maximum five-year prison term for the other money-laundering count, at sentencing in July.

Chin’s trial started last month in Circuit Court. Katherine Ganeko, 86, testified that after her husband, James, died in 2010, she lived in the couple’s Halawa Heights home until caseworkers from the state Adult Protective Services branch told her she shouldn’t live alone.

Ganeko said she thought she did not have enough time to find someone to live with her, so she agreed to move in with Chin, whom she had befriended after meeting her through a neighbor. After moving in with Chin in April 2011, she said Chin persuaded her to sell her home, to cash in one of her annuity accounts and to sign over to her power of attorney.

"She said that I’m going to be with her forever. And if I’m going to live with her, then I don’t need the home and she needs the money for me to live on," Ganeko said.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said Ganeko’s niece on the mainland had power of attorney before Chin because Ganeko suffered from dementia.

Ganeko’s home sold in June 2011 for $639,000. Minus costs and fees, that left Ganeko with just more than $600,000.

Chin put $200,000 of that money into an account she held jointly with her 7-year-old son, according to Van Marter’s opening statement.

Another $200,000 went into an account she held jointly with her 10-year-old son, and $100,000 went into an account she held jointly with her mother. The last $100,000 went into a joint account with Ganeko, Van Marter said.

Chin’s lawyer, William Harrison, asked Ganeko whether she remembers agreeing to put $400,000 into the boys’ accounts for their college education.

Ganeko said, "No. I told them that I will decide when the time comes, not when the house was sold."

Chin did not testify in the trial.

When Ganeko was vacationing with Chin’s family in New York in July and August 2011, Ganeko’s niece Sharon Ibarra said she started receiving text messages from Chin asking Ibarra to take back Ganeko because her aunt was driving her crazy.

A grandniece in Hawaii picked up Ganeko at the airport and later discovered that not all of the money from the sale of the house was in her aunt’s account.

Van Marter said officials from Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union later froze all of Chin’s accounts after suspecting that Ganeko had been financially exploited.