Defendant cites church activities

As a Long Beach man testifying in his own defense Tuesday appeared at different times honest or defensive, sincere or dodgy, one thing became clear: He says he has absolutely no idea where he was or what he was doing Nov. 15, 2004, when prosecutors say he helped kill two people.

As John Fitzgerald Kennedy told jurors Tuesday, he’s struggled for years now to determine what he was doing that day, when Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks were tied to an anchor and tossed off their yacht, Well Deserved.

Unfortunately, Kennedy testified, it was just another Monday for him and there was no reason to remember it by the time he was arrested nearly four months later.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if he’s convicted.

One witness also accused of participating in the killings, Alonso Machain, testified that he and the plot’s mastermind, Skylar Deleon, picked up Kennedy in Long Beach and took him along as “muscle” in the plot to kill and rob the couple. Myron Gardner, also charged in the case, testified that he put Kennedy in contact with Deleon and talked with Kennedy after the killings, when, he testified, Kennedy sounded “very upset.”

But by the end of Tuesday’s testimony, jurors were left with little new evidence to consider and instead were given a second dose of each side’s case: Kennedy as a still-active Long Beach Insane Crips gang member, or Kennedy the church-going, youth-oriented reformed criminal bettering his and others’ lives.

Defense attorney Chuck Lindner focused mostly on Kennedy’s reputation as a reformed gang member, having his client testify that he acted as the community handyman and recruited at-risk youth to the church.

“People that was already in gangs, sometimes it was difficult getting them out. Those who never involved themselves, it was pretty easy to convince them this isn’t the road,” Kennedy said.

In the years leading up to his arrest in March 2005, Kennedy’s sister and nephew were killed and his mom died, he testified. In 1997, after his sister’s death, he fought in court for custody of his sister’s kids and eventually won.

No matter that he changed, Kennedy testified, the Long Beach Police Department’s gang unit didn’t like him and would find any excuse to arrest him or harass him. He was served with a gang injunction by police in 2005, only two months before he was arrested for the Hawkses’ slayings.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy argued that the injunction is proof he was still active with the Insane Crips at the time of the Hawkses’ killings. Kennedy said the police were wrong.

“How did I prove that? By [the life I led], and all the contributions I’ve done in that city,” Kennedy told jurors.

Murphy pointed to Kennedy’s long criminal record, which includes several drug charges, a robbery charge that led to prison time, and a guilty plea for attempted murder. Kennedy told the jury that he actually wasn’t involved in the attempted murder, but took the fall because the real suspect, a member of his gang, faced more than 30 years if he was convicted of it.

When it came to Nov. 15, 2004, however, Kennedy had few answers.

“No disrespect to no one, but it was no significant date to me,” he said.

He told jurors the first time he met Deleon and Machain was in court in Santa Ana, and he doesn’t know why Gardner, his lifelong friend, would finger him to police.

He never reviewed his phone records, financial records, or asked many in his community if they could help him remember his whereabouts that day, he testified.

“Any opportunity to show you weren’t on the boat, you’d certainly take that, wouldn’t you?” Murphy asked him.

Kennedy replied the best he could do for police was guess what he was doing around that day, which he said was filled with preparation for a cruise to the Bahamas later in the month. He said he was in a “daze” during his original interview with Newport Beach detectives and didn’t appear to remember much of what he told them.

Murphy aimed to punch a hole in the defense’s assertion that Kennedy would never work with a white person, let alone a stranger like Deleon who he’d have to take orders from in the crime.

What about in his job, or as a handyman, would Kennedy object to working with them then, Murphy asked.

“Not at all. Money’s green,” Kennedy responded.

Kennedy is charged with helping kill the couple for financial gain.

The defense rested its case Tuesday. Murphy is expected to call rebuttal witnesses today and possibly begin his closing statement.

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