Judge: 3 must stand trial for murder

A Newport Beach couple fought back in the final moments of their

lives before they were overpowered, bound with tape, chained to the

anchor of their yacht and thrown overboard, a police detective

testified Tuesday.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Orange County Superior Court

Judge John Conley ruled that two men and one woman will stand trial

for the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks, who have been missing since

November. Their bodies have not been found.

The bulk of the testimony Tuesday came from Newport Beach Police

Det. Evan Sailor, who recounted the details of the alleged murders

based on information from Alonso Machain, 21, of Pico Rivera. Machain

confessed to police he was aboard the Hawkses’ 55-foot cabin cruiser

Well Deserved and participated in the Nov. 15 murders along with

Skylar Deleon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, both of Long Beach, Sailor

testified.

Five people have been charged with the Hawkses’ murders. Kennedy,

40, Deleon, 26, and his wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, 24, were in

court Tuesday. Machain and Myron Gardner, 42, have been granted a

separate hearing, scheduled for Oct. 7. Each of the five faces two

counts of murder, with special circumstances of murder for financial

gain and multiple murder. The special circumstances make each of the

five eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Tuesday’s testimony was the first detailed public accounting of

the events surrounding the Hawks’ deaths. Outside the courtroom, the

Hawks family reacted to the disturbing testimony.

“I know that they put up a fight,” Ryan Hawks, Tom’s son from a

previous marriage, said of the account of his parents’ struggle to

live. “I’m his son.... He’s my one and only.”

According to Sailor’s testimony regarding Machain’s firsthand

account, Machain said that DeLeon told him the Hawkses were bad

people who had angered someone and that he needed to make them

disappear. DeLeon reportedly promised Machain “several million

dollars” if he participated in the murders, Sailor said.

DeLeon told Machain he had done it before, though usually not for

money, and he told Machain he was usually able to keep the people’s

property, Sailor testified.

Machain and DeLeon met each other in a Seal Beach jail where

Machain was working as a jailer, Sailor said.

DeLeon showed Machain pictures of the Hawkses’ boat and discussed

the plan to kill them and take the boat, Sailor said.

The pictures were kept on DeLeon’s laptop and taken from

advertisements publicizing the sale of the boat, Deputy Dist. Atty.

Matt Murphy said.

DeLeon and Machain met the Hawkses for the first time Nov. 6,

bringing with them stun guns and handcuffs, intent on killing them

that day, Sailor said Machain told him in an interview.

Sometime during that meeting, DeLeon decided that Tom Hawks was

too big for the two men to overpower; he canceled the plan and

plotted to return at another time with a third accomplice, Sailor

said.

Machain told Sailor that on the way home from the Nov. 6 visit,

DeLeon called his wife and told her that she need to meet the Hawks

in person “to make them feel more at ease.”

On Nov. 9, DeLeon and Machain visited the Hawkses again, discussed

the potential purchase and took specific notice of how to operate the

yacht, Sailor said.

DeLeon and Machain drove to a Long Beach liquor store Nov. 15,

where they met a man later identified by Machain as John Kennedy,

whom DeLeon solicited for help in murdering the Hawkses, Sailor

testified.

DeLeon and Kennedy did not know each other before the day of the

murder, Machain told Sailor. Machain did not know Kennedy’s name Nov.

15, but later identified Kennedy out of a police lineup provided by

Long Beach police detectives, Sailor said. DeLeon had told Machain

that the man they met at the liquor store was a former member of a

Long Beach gang, Sailor said.

In the car ride from Long Beach to Newport, the three men

discussed the plan, Sailor said. It was decided that DeLeon and

Kennedy would take care of Tom Hawks and Machain would take care of

Jackie Hawks, Sailor said.

The men parked several blocks away from the dock at 15th Street in

Newport Harbor and called Tom Hawks, who met them and took them out

to the mooring and onto the Well Deserved for what the Hawks believed

was a test drive, Sailor said.

Kennedy was introduced as DeLeon’s accountant, Sailor said.

Once the boat left Newport Harbor, Machain told Sailor, Kennedy

feigned sea-sickness and went below to the bedroom. At some point,

Tom Hawks went downstairs and was joined by DeLeon, Sailor said.

Machain told police he remained upstairs with Jackie Hawks, Sailor

said.

Jackie heard the sounds of a struggle coming from below and tried

to go downstairs when Machain restrained her -- at first

unsuccessfully attempting to use the stun gun, then handcuffing her,

Sailor said.

Machain told police that he saw only the last part of a struggle

between Tom Hawks and DeLeon and Kennedy, Sailor said.

Both Tom and Jackie Hawks’ eyes and months were covered with black

duct tape, and they were brought up to the main deck, where they were

told they would live only if they signed power of attorney documents,

Sailor said.

The Hawks were released from the handcuffs so they could sign the

documents, Machain told Sailor.

After the Hawkses signed the documents, , they were tied together

with rope and handcuffed to the boat’s 66-pound anchor, Sailor said.

Tom Hawks made a final effort to save himself and his wife.

Machain told Sailor that Hawks kicked DeLeon in the groin, knocking

him to the ground, Sailor said. DeLeon then got up and, with a smile,

threw the anchor overboard, Sailor testified. The force of the anchor

dragged the Hawkses through an open door on the ship’s deck and into

the water, Sailor said.

Machain recounted that Jackie Hawks hit the side of the door

“pretty hard” when the anchor pulled them into the water, Sailor

said.

After that, the three men searched the boat, taking money they

found aboard in a briefcase and envelope, Sailor testified Machain

told him.

Gardner, the fifth man charged in the couple’s murder, has yet to

be connected to the crime.

“He wasn’t on the boat,” Murphy, the deputy district attorney,

said outside of court Tuesday.

Murphy refused to comment on Gardner’s relationship with Kennedy

or DeLeon.