5 Plead Not Guilty to Murdering Couple

A Long Beach couple and three others pleaded not guilty Friday to murdering a seafaring Newport Beach husband and wife -- allegedly by throwing them alive off their 55-foot yacht -- so they could steal the boat.

The bodies of Thomas Hawks, 57, and his wife, Jackie, 47, have not been found. Prosecutors believe they were handcuffed to their boat’s anchor and dropped into the ocean between Newport Harbor and Santa Catalina Island in November.

Skylar James Deleon, 25, and his wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, 23, of Long Beach, Myron Gardner Sr., 41, of Long Beach, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 39, of Long Beach and Alonso Machain, 21, of Pico Rivera were charged with murder in connection with the Hawkses’ disappearance. All five are being held without bail.

According to police, Skylar Deleon saw a yachting magazine ad of the couple’s yacht for sale for $400,000, and contacted the Hawkses. Deleon and the Hawkses arranged to go out on the yacht Nov. 15. The Hawkses have not been seen since; the boat was found at its Newport Harbor berth.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy would not elaborate on the alleged roles of the other defendants or details of the alleged crime, but said that information would be revealed at the preliminary hearing April 27.

The arraignment in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana lasted about 15 minutes. On one side of the courtroom’s aisle were more than a dozen relatives of the defendants; on the other, 20 family members and friends of the Hawkses, who had sold their Arizona home in 2001 to live full time aboard their yacht, Well Deserved, which they had purchased a year earlier.

The arraignment was the first time that Deleon and his wife had seen each other since she was arrested April 8. After being separately ushered into a glass-enclosed inmate box, they exchanged long looks before she was directed to sit behind him. She gave birth two months ago to their second child, a boy. Their daughter is almost 2.

Her lawyer, Michael Molfetta, said he wanted her to be tried separate from the other defendants.

“There were some things that Jennifer did, which arguably make her part of some sort of plan,” Molfetta said after the hearing. “To the extent she knew what she was doing and what was going on, that remains to be seen.”

He said he would try to implicate the other defendants -- including her husband -- if it would help his client. “I will go after the people on my side of the counsel table if I have to,” he said, “although the fact that she’s married to one of them makes it a little dicey.”

Murphy said Newport Beach police are continuing their investigation and that there may be other arrests.

Ryan Hawks, Thomas Hawks’ son from a prior marriage, said the prosecution’s theory of how his parents were killed was “gut-wrenching.”

Seeing the defendants in court made his emotions even more intense, he said. “I’m livid,” Hawks said.

He is relieved, he said, that the case is moving relatively quickly. The family wants to hold a memorial service, but may wait until the trial is over, he said.

“I feel my parents are still weighed down at the bottom of the sea,” Hawks said. “As soon as justice prevails, that weight will be lifted.”