CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 21, 2008 | Christine Hanley
With his conviction a foregone conclusion, Skylar Deleon did not flinch Monday when he was found guilty of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks in a plot to steal their yacht and plunder their bank accounts. "He knew that was going to happen," his attorney, Gary Pohlson, told reporters moments after an Orange County jury, which had deliberated just two hours, found Deleon guilty of killing the Hawkses and Jon Peter Jarvi, an Anaheim man found dead in Mexico after Deleon swindled him out of $50,000.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 16, 2008 | Christine Hanley, Times Staff Writer
With his hands bound behind his back and eyes covered in tape, Tom Hawks seemed to realize that certain death awaited him and his wife, Jackie, if he didn't act quickly. So he mustered all the force he could and delivered a blow with his foot that sent one of his three attackers reeling into a deck chair. It would be the last act of heroism for a man who made a living in law enforcement. Within moments, an anchor was dragging the Arizona couple into the ocean.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 8, 2008 | Christine Hanley, Times Staff Writer
With the big smiles of Tom and Jackie Hawks looming above him in an Orange County courtroom Tuesday, the man accused of orchestrating their murders at sea prepared to acknowledge for the first time that he had a hand in the crimes.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 12, 2008 | David Reyes, Times Staff Writer
Skylar Deleon, charged with murdering an Arizona couple at sea, tried to cut off his penis with a razor blade while in Orange County Men's Central Jail awaiting trial, sheriff's officials said Friday. Deleon, 29, was hospitalized after the March 13 incident. His penis was reattached and he was returned to jail the next day, said Damon Micalizzi, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 6, 2007 | Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writer
The wife of the alleged mastermind in the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks at sea was sentenced Friday to two consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole for participating in the plot to kill the retired couple, steal their yacht and plunder their life savings. Before her trial, Jennifer L. Deleon, 26, a mother of two, turned down prosecutors' offer of immunity in exchange for testifying against her husband, Skylar Deleon.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 28, 2007 | Christine Hanley, Times Staff Writer
As the westbound Amtrak streaked across the sun-splashed plains of Kansas, John Jacobson finally talked about his sons -- the good one, and the other one. He was headed to Kingman, Ariz., to pass along the family business to his younger son, an 18-year-old who had just beaten a drug problem and had found new hope in religion.