Main witness testifies in court

On the outskirts of Ensenada, Mexico, up an empty road surrounded by dusty hills and mountains, Michael Lewis followed his cousin’s sport utility vehicle and pulled off the side of the road and parked.

Lewis said he watched there as his cousin, Skylar Deleon, 29, escorted John Jarvi from the car. Jarvi, blinded by cloth wrapped around his head, was led down a hill toward some trees and bushes, out of plain view, Lewis testified in Deleon’s murder trial Wednesday.

“Something’s not cool. I don’t need to be here. It’s the same ol’ crap. I’m getting pulled into something,” Lewis recalled during his testimony.

With that, Lewis started up the engine, and headed back to the States.

That Dec. 27, 2003, afternoon was the last time anyone would see Jarvi alive. Missionaries found his body near the side of the road a few hours later with his throat slashed.

Authorities said Jarvi managed to crawl hundreds of feet to the road before dying.

Lewis was the prosecution’s main witness Wednesday pinning Jarvi’s murder on Deleon, who’s on trial for that killing along with the 2004 double-murder of a Newport couple. Deleon faces the death penalty if convicted.

Deleon’s defense attorney, Gary Pohlson, told jurors during opening statements Tuesday that Deleon is guilty of all three killings, his main goal is simply to convince them not to sentence him to death.

Pohlson accused Lewis of knowing full well that Jarvi would die in the Mexican desert, pointing out he was initially charged as an accessory after the fact and faced life in prison before cooperating with police.

For months, Lewis admittedly lied to police about that day in Mexico.

“There were several lies I told them,” he testified. “The reason I lied was because [Deleon] had threatened me.”

Prosecutors say Deleon persuaded Jarvi to take out a $50,000 cash loan and then robbed him of the money after the slaying. Lewis testified Deleon lied to him about Jarvi so he would join them in Mexico, and lied to Jarvi about showing him a home there so he was sure to go.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy played up what Lewis characterized as Deleon’s habit of exaggerating and lying — a habit he said he used to kill Jarvi in 2003 and Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004.

“Everything he had had to be bigger and better than the next guy. If it wasn’t, he’d lie about it,” Lewis testified.

Deleon lied to Adam Rohrig and public notary Kathleen Harris in 2004 when he needed to forge legal documents related to the Hawkses’ boat and finances, Murphy said.

Deleon is accused of forcing the Hawkses to sign over the title to their boat, the “Well Deserved,” and the power of attorney, before handcuffing them to boat’s anchor and throwing them overboard.

“It just didn’t feel right,” Harris testified about the day she backdated notarized documents for Deleon and his wife, Jennifer, in November 2004.

The couple paid her more than $1,000 to notarize bill-of-sale and power-of-attorney documents with the Hawkses’ signatures on them.

Prosecutors said Deleon used them to try to empty the Hawkses’ bank accounts from Mexico and prove he bought the boat from them when police came asking questions.

Like Lewis, Harris initially lied to police because Deleon threatened to kill her and her family, she testified.

“I was scared for my life. I was told that he had killed over 20 people,” she testified. “I was always watching my back and [afraid] someone was after me and going to kill me.”

Lewis said the same.

“He killed in Mexico, he killed at sea, what’s to stop him from coming to my little town and killing me and my family?”

Deleon’s trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.