Death sought in Hawks case

The district attorney will seek the death penalty for two Long Beach men charged with killing a retired Newport Beach couple, officials announced Wednesday.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said Skylar Deleon, 27, was the “brain” and John F. Kennedy, 41, the “brawn” behind the November 2004 disappearance of Tom and Jackie Hawks. The couple was tied together and thrown overboard their yacht, Well Deserved, investigators have said.

“This couple literally watched their dreams float away as they were drowning to death,” Rackauckas said. “This was a clear case.”

Standing with large photographs of the five defendants to his right and pictures of the Hawkses to his left at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Rackauckas said the “cold-blooded” way in which the Hawkses were allegedly killed warrants the state’s harshest penalty.

“I think people should be treated the way they treated other people,” said Ryan Hawks, the son of Tom and Jackie Hawks. “They’ll never get the true punishment they really deserve.”

In addition to Kennedy and Deleon, three others are charged in the case. Long Beach resident Myron Gardner, Pico Rivera resident Alonzo Machain and Deleon’s wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, are also charged.

In a preliminary hearing more than a year ago, Machain testified that he was aboard Well Deserved when Kennedy and Skylar Deleon killed the Hawkses. The two were tied together, handcuffed to the boat’s anchor and thrown overboard alive, Machain said.

For undisclosed reasons, the district attorney said he will not seek the death penalty for Henderson-Deleon. Prosecutors have not decided what they will go for with Machain and would not comment about Gardner, whose role in the case has never been revealed.

Winston McKesson, who represents Kennedy, said his client was not aware on Wednesday of the district attorney’s decision to seek the death penalty.

McKesson said the prosecution’s evidence against his client is “weak” and the chief testimony comes from a “known liar.” There is no evidence to place Kennedy — an allegedly reformed gang member who was active in a local church — on the Hawkses’ boat at the time of the alleged crime, he said.

“He’s turned his life around,” McKesson said. “He’s become a productive citizen.”

Attempts to reach Deleon’s lawyer were unsuccessful Wednesday.