Skylar Deleon found guilty of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks
Orange County jury takes only two hours to convict the Long Beach man of the 2004 murder aboard the Hawkses' yacht.
An Orange County jury took just two hours today to find a Long Beach man guilty of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004 and plotting to steal their yacht and plunder their life savings.
Skylar Deleon was also found guilty in the 2003 murder of Jon Peter Jarvi, an Anaheim man found dead in Mexico after Deleon swindled him out of $50,000. The jury also convicted him of murder for financial gain.
The same five-man, seven-women jury was ordered to return Wednesday to determine whether Deleon deserves the death penalty or should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The verdicts were virtually a foregone conclusion because Deleon's attorney, Gary Pohlson, conceded in his opening statement that his client was guilty of the three murders. But he insisted that Deleon was not the evil, manipulative genius prosecutors made him out to be. Pohlson is seeking to spare Deleon a death sentence.
Deleon's wife, Jennifer, was the first defendant to be tried. She was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole after prosecutors portrayed her as a coldhearted, money-hungry plotter in league with her husband, even using their 9-month-old baby to gain the Hawkses' trust.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, described by prosecutors as the "brawn" behind the murder plot, is awaiting trial.
A fourth accomplice, Alonso Machain, is awaiting sentencing. He admitted being on board when the Hawkses were tied to an anchor and tossed off their yacht, and he was instrumental in helping the government figure out what happened to them.
The Hawkses were last seen in November 2004, leaving Newport Harbor aboard their 55-foot yacht, Well Deserved. Their disappearance drew international headlines and sent a wave of fear through boating communities around the world.
Tom Hawks, 57, was a retired probation officer and bodybuilder; his wife, 10 years younger, was a homemaker who had helped raise his two boys from an earlier marriage. It was the second marriage for both, and friends said they shared a love of adventure after they were wed in 1989.
The couple spent nearly two years on Well Deserved, plying the Sea of Cortez and Pacific Ocean, fishing and diving, kayaking and surfing, and cruising from port to port. Eventually, they decided to return to Newport Harbor, their home port, and sell the boat so they could move closer to their first grandchild in Arizona.
