Levity greets murder trial

Even during a double-murder trial, sometimes things happen that will just make you laugh.

Case and point: Defense attorneys questioning a key witness for prosecutors Wednesday, as they asked Myron Gardner why, exactly, he bought Viagra pills from the defendant, accused killer John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The audience inside the ninth floor courtroom in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana was reduced to snickers during the first half of testimony for Kennedy’s trial Wednesday morning, as Gardner explained, somewhat embarrassed, that just because of his relatively young age for using the pills, he’s 45, it doesn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t want them.

“When was the first time you used Viagra?” asked defense attorney Winston McKesson.

“Oh, come on, man,” Gardner said in an embarrassed tone with a smile on his face. “I don’t know the first day I bought Viagra.”

“You don’t have a prescription for Viagra?” McKesson pressed.

“I do,” Gardner testified.

“Then why didn’t you use those?”

Pressured for an answer after several attempts to avoid it, Gardner reluctantly answered: “Because I ran out ... it was an emergency.”

The suppressed laughter following was one of the few highlights in Wednesday’s testimony, as defense attorneys cross-examined Gardner, the last of two men who puts Kennedy at the scene of a Newport Beach couple’s killing in 2004.

Kennedy is accused of helping Skylar Deleon and accused-accomplice Alonso Machain subdue Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks aboard their yacht, Well Deserved, in November 2004 and throwing them overboard alive tied to an anchor.

He’s accused of helping the men for a cut of the money Deleon planned to steal from the victims.

Gardner, who finished testifying Wednesday, told jurors that Kennedy asked him about Deleon, after the two finished discussing how much Viagra Gardner was going to buy.

Gardner testified Deleon said he was looking for some “muscle” for a drug deal in Mexico.

So after a couple other guys failed to show up for the job, Kennedy asked if he could step in, Gardner told jurors.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy’s case against Kennedy relies on mainly three pieces of evidence: testimony from Machain and Gardner implicating him and cell-phone records that show Kennedy’s cell phone was likely in Newport Beach around the time the couple was killed.

Defense attorneys have tried to discredit Machain and Gardner for jurors, pointing out both are also charged in the Hawkses’ deaths and are likely hoping for leniency in exchange for testifying. Gardner has done time in prison for robbery and had several stints in jail related to drug and homicide charges in his youth. He repeated for jurors that soon after police believe the Hawkses were killed at sea Nov. 15, 2004, Kennedy called him upset, saying they didn’t do a drug deal in Mexico as expected.

“We got rid of them,” Gardner said Kennedy told him.

Prosecutors are expected to rest their case today.

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