Development in Hawks case

Marisa O’Neil

Prosecutors on Friday said a man who told police he bought a boat

from a retired couple just before they disappeared is now the prime

suspect in their murder and in another, unrelated homicide.

Long Beach resident Skylar DeLeon, 25, appeared in court Friday at

a pretrial hearing on an unrelated grand theft charge. But before the

hearing took place, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy told the

judge that DeLeon is also “the main suspect in a double homicide in

Newport Beach.”

DeLeon told Newport Beach police in November that he paid $400,000

cash for a 55-foot cabin cruiser that retired couple Tom and Jackie

Hawks lived on in Newport Harbor. Family members reported them

missing in November and despite national media coverage, they have

not turned up.

“We don’t believe the Hawkses are alive,” Newport Beach Police

Sgt. Steve Shulman said outside the Newport Beach courthouse. “He is

a suspect in their disappearance and likely homicide.”

Murder charges have not yet been filed against DeLeon. He is in

the Orange County Jail on the grand theft charge and is ineligible

for his $200,000 bail because of parole violations.

The grand theft charge stems from $7,000 in unpaid repairs done at

a Costa Mesa shop on another boat DeLeon owned in 2003. DeLeon paid

$18,000 cash up front for a portion of the repairs -- money

prosecutors say connect him to another crime.

“The money in the initial transaction may be the result of an

additional homicide that DeLeon may have committed,” Murphy told

Orange County Superior Court Judge Susanne Shaw.

DeLeon’s 23-year-old wife, Jennifer DeLeon, shook her head when

Murphy made the statement. She sat in the courtroom, cradling the

couple’s newborn baby in a royal blue blanket.

A Newport Beach police investigation into the grand theft -- which

they say is unrelated to the Hawkses -- connected the money to a

homicide in which the victim’s throat was cut, Murphy said. The body

was found Dec. 26, 2003, Murphy said, the day before he paid $18,000

for boat repairs on his 26-foot boat named Doctor Crunch.

The location and identity of the body were not revealed. It is an

unsolved homicide that did not take place in Newport Beach but has a

“nexus” to Orange County, Shulman said.

Skylar DeLeon’s attorney, Ed Welbourn, said that a brief meeting

with Murphy and the judge before the hearing was the first he’d heard

of the alleged homicide connections. He came to court Friday morning

with the possibility of a settlement on the theft charge in mind.

“I was very surprised,” Welbourn said outside the courtroom.

He delayed the pretrial hearing until March 11 to review the new

information but did not reschedule the March 21 trial date.

Newport Beach police first arrested Skylar DeLeon in December on

money laundering charges, the day after police found the Hawkses’ car

in Ensenada, Mexico. Those charges were later dropped and the grand

theft charge filed.

Skylar DeLeon has a previous burglary conviction in Los Angeles

County, Murphy said. At the time of his arrest, he had plastic

handcuffs and a gun with him, Murphy said.

Tom Hawks, a 57-year-old retired probation officer and

firefighter, and 47-year-old Jackie Hawks, an Ohio native who lost

her first husband to a drunken driver, were living on the 55-foot

yacht Well Deserved at the time of their disappearance. They were

also spending time in Prescott, Ariz., and San Carlos, Mexico, family

members said.

They had been married 17 years and were new grandparents at the

time of their disappearance. Family members of the couple, who always

stayed in close touch, said they weren’t surprised by the latest

allegations.

“I just want justice done,” said San Diego resident Dixie Hawks,

Tom Hawks’ first wife and mother to his two sons. “I just can’t

imagine how this happened. Tom was so capable. We’re still in the

dark.”

Jackie Hawks’ family in Ohio said that they were devastated by the

disappearance and presumed murder. They said they’re “yearning” to

learn what happened to the couple.