5th Arrest in Case of Missing Couple

The wife of a man charged with killing a couple who were selling their 55-foot yacht was arrested Friday by Newport Beach police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

Jennifer Deleon, 23, is the fifth person arrested in the presumed murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks. The hairdresser was arrested when she arrived to visit her husband at Orange County Jail, police Lt. Steve Shulman said.

Her attorney, Michael Molfetta, said she was innocent.

“She wants to get her day in court and prove to everybody, most importantly to her children ... she didn’t have anything to do with this,” he said.

Her husband, Skylar Deleon, 25, of Long Beach, was charged last month with murdering the Hawkses. Also charged with murder are Alonso Machain, 21, of Pico Rivera, and Myron Gardner, 41, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 39, both of Long Beach. All are being held without bail.

Because of the continuing investigation, authorities have declined to say what roles the suspects might have played.

Tom Hawks was a retired probation officer in Yavapai County, Ariz. He and his wife had recently spent two years traveling along the Mexican coast in their boat.

Authorities believe the Hawkses were killed at sea last year as part of a plot to steal their boat and loot their bank accounts.

Police say the couple were last seen Nov. 15 at Newport Harbor, where they met Skylar Deleon to discuss the sale of their yacht.Their bodies have not been found.

Police have said Skylar Deleon twice tried to gain access to the Hawkses’ bank account using a document giving him power of attorney, in their hometown of Prescott, Ariz., and once in Ensenada, Mexico. Two days later, Deleon left the couple’s Honda CR-V at a home in Ensenada, police said.