Alleged middle man in slaying case speaks

Skylar Deleon wasn’t picky when he waited outside a Long Beach liquor store in 2004.

Prosecutors claim that Deleon would basically take somebody, anybody, who would be his “muscle” as he forced a Newport Beach couple to sign over their finances and property before killing them out at sea.

According to testimony Tuesday, Deleon was waiting for John Fitzgerald Kennedy, an accused Long Beach gang member. Kennedy is now on trial, accused of helping Deleon and another man kill Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks for money. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

In less than an hour of testimony expected to continue this morning, Myron Gardner, a longtime friend of Kennedy, testified how he helped put his friend in touch with Deleon, and ultimately help in the slayings.

Gardner testified that it all started with Deleon.

Deleon and Gardner worked together, along with the third accused killer, Alonso Machain.

One day in November 2004, Gardner testified, Deleon approached him with a proposition — help him make a drug deal in Mexico, and get handsomely rewarded. But Gardner turned Skylar Deleon down, he told the jury, and soon tapped acquaintances to see if any of them were interested. After a day or two, Orlando Clement stepped forward, Gardner testified.

Prosecutors maintain all dealings with Deleon, the mastermind, and the third man, the “muscle,” went through Gardner.

The morning of the killings, Nov. 15, 2004, Clement never showed up at the liquor store off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway as scheduled. Desperate for an accomplice, Deleon called Gardner, he testified.

“What happened to the guy? Why didn’t he go,” Gardner remembered Deleon asking.

“I don’t know, man, there’s nothing I can do about it,” he told jurors he replied.

That should have been the end of it. But later, as part of their joint off-the-market selling of erectile dysfunction aids like Viagra and Cialis, Gardner received a call from Kennedy, he testified.

The call shifted from business to this supposed drug deal Gardner was working with Deleon on, Gardner testified. He told jurors Kennedy wanted to know why he wasn’t asked to help and if Deleon was still looking for a partner.

With Clement a no-show, Kennedy took his place, Gardner testified.

Phone records show that both men called Gardner about the same time that afternoon, asking him for his opinion on the other man. Neither Deleon nor Kennedy called each other.

“He wasn’t too familiar with Skylar, and Skylar wasn’t too familiar with him,” Gardner told the jury.

Familiar or not, prosecutors say, the two men and Machain ended up aboard the Well Deserved, the 55-foot yacht the Hawks couple were looking to sell so they could retire and be closer to family.

With the help of Kennedy, authorities say, the men subdued the couple then tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard alive, never to be seen again. It wasn’t a drug deal in Mexico as Kennedy expected, Gardner testified.

That night, clearly upset, Gardner told jurors Kennedy called him, and phone records back that up, and told Gardner he wanted him to tell Deleon he wanted his money for the job.

Gardner testified he asked Kennedy what happened, why was he so upset? He said he didn’t want to talk about it on the phone, and instead waited until the next afternoon to tell him in person, Gardner testified. Deleon told Gardner only there “was a change of plans,” Gardner told jurors. At his home the next day, Gardner testified, Kennedy explained.

“‘Well, oh man, umm, there was five of us on that boat ... we didn’t go to Mexico. There was some people on that boat,’” Gardner told jurors Kennedy said.

“What people,” Gardner remembered asking.

“‘There was a man and a woman on that boat,’” Kennedy allegedly replied.

“What happened?”

“We got rid of them.”

Defense attorneys are expected to cross examine Gardner today.

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