Witness testifies against defendant

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was unmoved by cries for help and pleas for mercy from a Newport Beach couple whom he helped send to the bottom of the ocean alive in 2004, a key witness testified Thursday during Kennedy’s double-murder trial.

In testimony that left jurors and audience members teary-eyed and silent, accused accomplice to the killings Alonso Machain retold how Tom and Jackie Hawks were conned and ultimately killed in November 2004 by Machain, Kennedy and Skylar Deleon.

Kennedy is accused of helping the two men subdue the retired couple who wanted to move closer to family in Arizona, and tying them to an anchor and throwing them overboard into the Pacific alive. On the return journey to Newport Harbor, Kennedy popped open a beer and started fishing from the rear of the boat, Machain testified.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

“I saw Mr. Kennedy with a chokehold on Mr. Hawks and Skylar in front of him trying to hold him down,” Machain testified. Machain and Deleon brought Kennedy into the plot specifically to pacify Tom Hawks, a retired probation officer who was in very good shape into his later years, Machain testified.

The prosecution’s case against Kennedy hinges on Machain’s testimony along with the testimony of a second man, Myron Gardner, who is accused of calling in Kennedy for the job when Deleon was looking for “muscle.”

Only the two men and cell-phone records showing Kennedy was likely in the Newport Beach area at the time the parties went out to sea links him to the crime, attorneys said.

Defense attorneys did not get a chance to cross-examine Machain Thursday and will have to wait until Monday to have their turn with him.

They did, however, get a chance to try to minimize cell-phone records that supposedly put Kennedy in Newport Beach on Nov. 15, 2004, the day the Hawkses died.

In technical, deliberate testimony, prosecutors had Verizon Wireless analyst Jody Citizen explain to jurors how cell-phone calls are tracked. Calls are only triangulated in very specific circumstances, Citizen testified, so when a call is sent from a cell-phone tower, it means the caller is somewhere in its range.

Defense attorneys argue that even though cell phone records show Kennedy’s phone pinging off two cell-phone towers in the city, that doesn’t necessarily mean he was even close to them.

Citizen testified a phone could use a Newport Beach tower from as far away as 15 miles, though it would be highly unlikely.

Verizon’s cell-phone towers have nearly doubled in Newport Beach since 2004, jurors heard, but even back then, the city’s 13 Verizon Wireless towers were enough to offer blanket coverage. Calls off any tower in the city were probably within a four-mile range, he said.

Prosecutors showed Kennedy’s phone pinging off a cell-phone tower at 1501 Westcliff Drive in Newport Beach about 1:30 p.m. Nov. 15, 2004, about the time Machain testified they met the Hawkses at Newport Harbor.

Records also showed that the phone was used again about 12:30 a.m. the next morning, this time pinging off a tower atop Jack’s Surfboards on Newport Boulevard, even closer to the harbor.

Prosecutors claim the men did not return from killing the Hawkses until the middle of the night.

Defense attorneys will cross-examine Machain on Monday. Myron Gardner is expected to testify early next week.

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