Murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

 

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were a couple from Prescott, Arizona, United States, who were murdered in 2004.

Skylar Preciosa Deleon, Jennifer Henderson, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy were convicted by juries for these murders. Deleon and Kennedy were sentenced to death, while Henderson was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. Two other people, Alonso Machain and Myron Sandora Gardner Sr., accepted plea bargains after testifying for the prosecution in the trials of Deleon, Henderson, and Kennedy.

Perpetrators

Skylar Preciosa Deleon (born John Julius Jacobson Jr. a.k.a. Skylar Julius Deleon), a child actor who appeared in the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as an uncredited extra. Convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death.

Jennifer Lynn Henderson (formerly Jennifer Deleon) was, wife of Deleon at the time of the murders. Convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a former Insane Crips gang member in Long Beach and former youth pastor, ex-convict for attempted murder, was recruited the same day of the murder. Convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death.

Alonso Machain, who met Deleon at work after Deleon's release from prison. Pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

Myron Sandora Gardner Sr., a former Insane Crips gang member and ex-convict for involuntary manslaughter, who also met Deleon at work, declined to participate in the crime but introduced Deleon to Kennedy.

Disappearance

Thomas Hawks was a retired probation officer and bodybuilder. He and his second wife, Jackie, owned a 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved, which they treated as their permanent home and on which they sailed for two years around the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. In 2004, they decided to sell their yacht and set up a home in Newport Harbor to be closer to their grandchild. Jackie (née O'Neill) Hawks had helped raise Tom's sons from his first marriage since adolescence. When the wife of Hawks' older son was expecting their first child, Jackie treated the news as if it would be her natural grandchild.

Their advertisement for the yacht sale was answered in November by Deleon. The couple was initially skeptical of Deleon, but they became more receptive when Deleon's pregnant wife, Henderson, as well as the couple's child, were also at the meeting. The Hawks were last seen alive on the morning of November 15, 2004, heading out of the harbor. The yacht returned, but they did not. Neither body has ever been recovered.

Investigation

Police inquired into the couple's disappearance. On November 26, 2004, it was discovered that an attempt was made to access the Hawks' bank account from Mexico. The family was notified and filed a missing-persons report with the Carlsbad, California, police department.

On November 29, the police interviewed Deleon. Deleon claimed to have bought the boat from the Hawks couple and provided proof-of-purchase documents. Deleon told police that the sellers left in their car with the purchase money and named Alonso Machain as a witness to the purchase. Deleon claimed to have purchased the boat with the intent of laundering money related to an armed burglary in 2002.

In March 2005, after initially fleeing to Mexico and returning, Machain confessed to the crime. He was arrested in connection with the couple's disappearance along with Deleon and Henderson. Deleon initially maintained innocence, claiming they were not present at the time and speculated that the Hawkses were killed over a bad drug deal.

Trials

Authorities alleged that during a sea trial of the boat in Newport Harbor, a few days after meeting the Hawkses, Deleon and accomplices Machain and Kennedy bound and gagged the couple and threw them overboard, tied to the yacht's anchor. Deleon allegedly masterminded the plan to kill the couple for financial gain.

Henderson was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder on November 17, 2006, after four hours of jury deliberation. In October 2007, Henderson was sentenced to two life terms without parole. She is currently housed at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.

While awaiting trial in jail, Deleon was charged with soliciting another inmate to murder his cousin and father. Deleon was also accused of killing John Jarvi, a resident of Anaheim, California, who was found dead in Mexico in 2003. Deleon's father and cousin (who was charged as an accessory to the Jarvi murder) were considered "important witnesses" in both murder cases. Defense lawyers claimed that Deleon's need for money to finance sex reassignment surgery was the motivation for the Hawks' murders.

On September 22, 2008, jury selection began in the case against Deleon. In a consolidated case, Deleon was jointly tried for the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks and John Jarvi. Despite Deleon's earlier protestations of innocence, Deleon's attorney conceded at trial that Deleon had indeed committed all three murders. The attorney said that he had taken the case to trial only to argue to a jury that Deleon should not be sentenced to death. On October 20, Deleon was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims, and on November 6, 2008, the jury rendered a death verdict. On April 10, 2009, Deleon was sentenced to death by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel.

On February 19, 2009, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder after less than three hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to death on May 1, 2009.

Machain, after testifying against Deleon, Henderson, and Kennedy, pleaded guilty to two counts each of voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery. On June 15, 2009, he was sentenced to 20 years and 4 months. He served his sentence at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California, and was paroled in 2021.

In March 2009, after spending four years incarcerated, Myron Gardner pleaded guilty to "accessory after the fact," and the murder charges against him were dropped.

In the media

This case was investigated on TV by Aphrodite Jones in her Investigation Discovery documentary TV series True Crime with Aphrodite Jones (Season 1, Episode 9) and was explored on the same network on two other programs: Wicked Attraction (episode "Calm Before the Storm") and Deadly Sins (episode "I'd Kill For A Sex Change").

This case is referred to in a segment of the "Caffeine-Induced Aneurysm" episode of Robot Chicken.

This case was investigated on TV on Oxygen on the TV show Snapped: Killer Couples, a spin-off of Snapped.

The 48 Hours episode "Dark Voyage" covers this crime.

The Demons in the City of Angels episode Child Actor Killer covers the case.

This case is also covered in the podcast Killafornia Dreaming: True Crime Tales from the Golden State; Episode 14, "The Tale of Lost at Sea" - Google Play Podcasts.

This case is briefly mentioned in the Podcast Raised by TV, hosted by comedians Lauren Lapkus and Jon Gabrus in the episode "Mt. Crushmore."

This case is covered on the TV show Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen, Season 2, Episode 165, "The Final Voyage."

This case is mentioned in the podcast My Favorite Murder in Episode 169, "This Old Sandwich."

This case was investigated on the ABC 20/20 episode "Overboard."

The case was the subject of an episode of HLN's How It Really Happened, "The Yacht Murder Mystery: Unspeakable Cruelty" (season 7, episode 5).

The case was focused on in The Real Murders of Orange County episode "Love Lost At Sea", which aired on Oxygen on November 15, 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Thomas_and_Jackie_Hawks