Murder Trial Ordered for 3 in Couple’s Death

Tom and Jackie Hawks were told that if they cooperated with the men on their yacht, they would live.

So with hands cuffed behind their backs and duct tape over their mouths and eyes, the couple agreed to sign power of attorney documents, even as their 55-foot vessel, Well Deserved, motored from Newport Beach to where they would be tied to an anchor and thrown alive into the sea.

The account, given to police by one of the accused killers, came Tuesday in the preliminary hearing for three of the suspects in the Hawkses’ slayings. At the end of the two-day hearing, Orange County Superior Court Judge John D. Conley ordered the defendants to stand trial on charges of murder and murder for financial gain.

Alonso Machain, who worked at the Seal Beach city jail when he met 26-year-old Skylar DeLeon of Long Beach, admitted to detectives in March that he agreed to participate in the killings after DeLeon promised him several million dollars.

As Det. Evan Sailor recounted Machain’s version, relatives of Tom, 57, and Jackie, 47, sniffled as they held back tears. DeLeon and his wife, Jennifer, 23, who is also charged, smiled several times throughout the detective’s testimony, at times appearing to hold back laughter.

Skylar DeLeon had originally told Machain he needed help killing “some bad people” who had angered some unnamed person, Sailor said. “He was supposed to make them disappear.”

DeLeon showed Machain photos of the Well Deserved, pointing to the lower level bedroom and engine room as possible places to overpower the couple, “so that people couldn’t hear them screaming,” Sailor said.

They went out with the couple Nov. 6 on the pretense of wanting to buy the boat. Instead, they intended to kill the couple and steal the yacht, but DeLeon and Machain aborted the plan. DeLeon later told Machain that Tom Hawks -- a former bodybuilder and retired probation officer -- was bigger than he expected. They needed a third person.

On Nov. 15, Machain and DeLeon picked up a third man at a Long Beach liquor store. Machain remembered the man only as C.T. or J.T., and he was introduced to the Hawkses as DeLeon’s accountant.

Later, Machain identified the man through a police photo lineup as co-defendant John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 40, whose moniker in the Long Beach Crips gang was C.J. for “Crazy John.”

Machain, 21, has also been charged with murdering the Hawkses, but his case is being tried separately.

Sailor testified that the men armed themselves with stun guns and reviewed the plan: Machain would take care of Jackie, and DeLeon and the other man would overpower Tom.

Once the couple were subdued and had signed power of attorney papers, they were handcuffed in the yacht’s bedroom as they cruised out to sea for nearly two hours, Machain told police.

With Catalina Island visible, Machain told police, the yacht’s 66-pound anchor was brought aboard. Rope was tied around the couple’s waists, then attached to the anchor. The duct tape was tightened.

While the rope was being tied, Tom Hawks kicked backward, striking DeLeon in the groin and knocking him to the ground. DeLeon stood up and smiled, Machain told police, before throwing the anchor into the ocean.

When the anchor hit the water, the couple were dragged out the port-side door and into the ocean near Catalina. “They were both struggling very hard,” Machain told Sailor.

Then the men searched for valuables on the boat, finding about $3,000, which DeLeon divided among them.

Lawyers for the three defendants were skeptical during cross-examination of Machain’s statements, as he had lied to police several times. At first, he denied being involved in the Hawkses’ disappearance, Sailor acknowledged.

Conley acknowledged the potential problems in Machain’s testimony but said a jury should determine his credibility.