3 Face Murder Charges in Disappearance of Boat Owners

Three men were charged with murder Friday in the disappearance of a couple last seen showing their yacht to a prospective buyer in Newport Beach, in what authorities say was a scheme to steal their boat and plunder their bank accounts.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were last seen Nov. 15 at Newport Harbor where they met Skylar Deleon to discuss the sale of their 55-foot luxury boat, Well Deserved. Officials said they believed the couple were killed at sea.

Prosecutors filed murder charges Friday against Deleon, 25, of Long Beach, Alonso Machain, 21, of Pico Rivera and Myron Gardner, 41, of Long Beach. Police said additional arrests were expected.

Nine days after the test cruise, police said, Deleon traveled to the Hawkses’ hometown of Prescott, Ariz., and attempted to access their bank account by using a document that gave him power of attorney. Police would not say how Deleon obtained the document.

On Nov. 26, Deleon drove the Hawkses’ Honda CR-V to a home in Ensenada, Mexico, and left it there, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman. While in Mexico, Deleon attempted to use the same power of attorney to access the Hawkses’ Arizona bank account, Shulman said.

Police took Deleon into custody on unrelated theft charges on Dec. 16, the same day police found the couple’s car in Ensenada.

During a brief appearance Friday in Orange County Superior Court at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, Deleon, Machain and Gardner were ordered held without bail. Their arraignment is scheduled for April 15.

The Hawkses’ relatives sat on one side of the courtroom, quietly watching the proceedings.

Deleon’s wife, Jennifer, sat in the fourth row of the courtroom, cradling the couple’s 3-week-old son, Kaleb, covered in a lavender blanket.

She described her husband as a former child actor who appeared as an extra in the “Power Rangers” TV series. “I’m just beside myself, as any wife would be,” said Jennifer Deleon.

Neither police nor Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy would disclose Machain’s or Gardner’s roles in the crime.

Gardner has a criminal record that includes a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. He spent 7 1/2 years in prison for second-degree robbery and drug possession and was released in May 2003.

Deleon pleaded guilty in May 2003 to burglarizing an Anaheim home with two accomplices. He was carrying a gun when arrested. He was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation, and ordered to pay $200 restitution.

He was released to home confinement in July 2003. Deleon was jailed in December and charged with grand theft for allegedly failing to pay $7,000 for boat repairs.

Prosecutors have also said Deleon was a suspect in an unrelated murder in 2003. They disclosed no details.

At a news conference Friday, Ryan Hawks said that he was confident that police would arrest everyone involved in his parents’ deaths. “They were deceived. It’s just a mean thing,” Ryan said, tears welling in his eyes. “I want justice.”

Deleon’s lawyer, Edward Welbourn, declined to discuss the murder charges.

Police said the Hawkses met Deleon when he answered an advertisement the couple had placed in a boating magazine listing the Well Deserved for sale.

The Hawkses had spent the last couple of years traveling through the Pacific, around the tip near Cabo San Lucas and into the Sea of Cortez. Thomas Hawks, 57, had recently received his captain’s license.

Several years ago, Thomas Hawks retired as a probation officer. The couple sold their house in Prescott, Ariz., and bought the 55-foot yacht, which was featured in a boating magazine. Recently, they decided to sell the yacht, hoping to buy a smaller one and perhaps a house in San Carlos, their favorite town in Baja.

With the birth of their first grandchild in August, they seemed interested in spending more time in Prescott and being grandparents, said Matt Hawks.

He said he last saw his parents in September when they bought their grandchild a couple of dressers and several pairs of swimming trunks.

Boating had long been Thomas Hawks’ passion. As a boy growing up on a ranch in Ontario, his family would take trips to Santa Catalina Island on their trawler. Unbeknown to their parents, he and his brother sneaked the boat out themselves a couple of times.

When Thomas Hawks’ sons were young, Matt Hawks said, his parents and the boys would head out every other weekend with their boat to Lake Havasu, Lake Powell or nearby lakes.

Deleon’s wife said that he too had a passion for boating and once owned a 26-foot cabin cruiser. He was a part-time electrician who lived with his in-laws in Long Beach.

According to police, Skylar Deleon took several test rides in the Hawkses’ yacht in November, including what police say was the couple’s final journey. The last anyone heard from Jackie Hawks, 47, was Nov. 15, when she placed a cell phone call to a friend and left the message, “We’re out at sea.”

On Nov. 17, one of Deleon’s relatives purchased bleach and garbage bags, materials commonly used to clean up after crimes, police said.

A receipt was found in the Hawkses’ boat.

When police questioned him Nov. 29, Deleon said he paid the Hawkses $400,000 cash for the boat on Nov. 15. He said he watched them drive away from the harbor in their CR-V, Shulman said.

Shulman said the break in the case came when police recovered the couple’s CR-V and learned that Deleon had driven it to Ensenada.

Ryan Hawks said he admired the way his parents had lived.

“They did more as a couple in one year than most couples did in 10,” he said. “They just wished for fair winds and a happy ending.”

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Times staff writer Daniel Yi contributed to this report.