Suspects all plead not guilty

Marisa O’Neil

Tom and Jackie Hawks wanted their ashes scattered at sea when they

died.

Instead, police believe, the retired Newport Beach couple were

handcuffed, weighted down and thrown over the side of their yacht

while still alive. Their bodies have not been found.

Five people, including a young married couple, pleaded not guilty

Friday morning to charges that they killed Tom Hawks, 57, and Jackie

Hawks, 47. All are charged with special circumstances that make them

eligible for the death penalty.

“I feel my parents are still weighted at the bottom of the sea,

and I want that weight to be let loose,” Ryan Hawks, Tom Hawks’ son

and Jackie Hawks’ stepson, said after Friday’s arraignment. “They

need to rest in peace. As soon as justice prevails, that weight will

let loose.”

Long Beach resident Skylar DeLeon, 25, and his 23-year-old wife,

Jennifer Henderson-DeLeon, who gave birth to the couple’s second

child eight weeks ago, briefly appeared in court to enter their

pleas. They told police in November that they had bought the Hawkses’

55-foot cabin cruiser, the Well Deserved, for $400,000 cash, but

authorities say the transaction never took place.

Police have not released any information about what roles they

think the couple and the three other defendants played in the

presumed deaths of Tom and Jackie Hawks. A preliminary hearing

scheduled for April 27 will reveal many of those details, Senior

Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy said Friday.

Henderson-DeLeon’s attorney, Michael Molfetta, said he would ask

for a separate trial for his client.

“There were some things Jennifer did that arguably make her part

of some sort of plan,” Molfetta said. “Now, to the extent that she

knew what was going to go on, she knew what happened, she knew why

she was doing what she was doing -- those are all things the

prosecutor is going to have to prove.”

Henderson-DeLeon was arrested April 8 when she visited her husband

at the Orange County Jail. DeLeon was arrested in December and was

charged last month with the Hawkses’ murder. He was involved in

another, unrelated murder, Murphy said.

DeLeon has not been charged in the other case.

Co-defendants Alonso Machain, a 21-year-old Pico Rivera resident,

and Long Beach residents Myron Sandora Gardner, 41, and John

Fitzgerald Kennedy, 39, also entered not-guilty pleas Friday.

An attorney for Kennedy said that his client, who has had gang

ties, has changed his ways and was scheduled to be ordained as a

minister the week after he was arrested. Kennedy now has close ties

with his church and community, attorney Winston McKesson said.

“These charges take me by complete and utter surprise,” he said.

Supporters for the defendants and family and friends of the

Hawkses’ filled the courtroom in Orange County Superior Court on

Friday. Ryan Hawks, his mother Dixie Hawks and about 20 others came

from San Diego and Arizona to attend the hearing.

Tom Hawks, a retired probation officer, and his wife, Jackie

Hawks, had a home in Arizona but had been living on their yacht in

Newport Harbor. They were trying to sell the boat to purchase a

smaller one and a home in Mexico.

Prosecutors believe the couple was killed for financial gain.

Thinking about the way police say his parents died is “gut

wrenching,” Ryan Hawks said Friday. The search for them is

continuing, but because they may have been dumped in 3,600-foot seas

between Newport Beach and Catalina, he said, he doesn’t hold out much

hope.

“I’m livid,” he said of seeing the people accused of killing his

parents. “It’s amazing what level people would reach for financial

gain -- to take a retired couple down.”