Testimony:Woman knew of plot to kill local couple

FOR THE RECORD

The story “Testimony: Woman knew of plot to kill local couple” in Friday’s Daily Pilot misidentified one of the people accused of slaying Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 41, is scheduled to be tried on murder charges next year.

A woman accused of participating in the slaying of a Newport Beach couple two years ago couldn’t have been ignorant of the crime because she was present when the other alleged killers worked to profit from it, prosecutors sought to prove through testimony in the woman’s murder trial on Thursday.

Kathleen Harris, who was working as a notary public two years ago, testified Thursday that Skylar Deleon, one of the accused killers, threatened to kill her and her family. The testimony came in the trial of Deleon’s wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, as prosecutors sought to rebut her defense that she was ignorant of the plot to kill Tom and Jackie Hawks. Skylar Deleon, John Fitzpatrick Kennedy and Alonso Machain are also charged in connection with the murder, but their trials will be held separately sometime next year.

Harris testified that Deleon paid her $2,000 to notarize a power-of-attorney form after Harris’ friend, Adam Rohrig, asked her to do so. Tom and Jackie Hawks were forced to sign the document before they were thrown overboard, tied to an anchor, Machain testified on Wednesday.

Harris testified she met Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Henderson-Deleon in a hotel room where Henderson-Deleon told her they were staying because faulty electrical wiring sparked a fire in a fish tank at their home.

When she was leaving, Henderson-Deleon told her, “When this all goes through, we will compensate you more,” Harris testified.

Henderson-Deleon’s defense attorney maintained that she had no knowledge of her husband’s plan and could have been talking about insurance papers and the boat sale.

When Harris prodded Rohrig about why the Deleons needed the papers backdated and stamped, she testified that he told her, “You don’t want to mess with these people.”

The warning further frightened Harris when police told her days after about the Hawkses’ disappearance. But when Rohrig asked her to notarize another document for the Deleons, she did so because she feared for her life, she said. The second document was a bill of sale for the boat, which lacked any signatures, something she knew would catch the attention of any bank.

“She could’ve done the right thing earlier, and she could’ve got the investigation going,” Ryan Hawks, the son of Tom Hawks, said after Thursday’s hearing.

Harris decided to “come clean” after she and her family hired a lawyer, she said.

Luann Kenney, a bank manager in Prescott, Ariz., testified that Skylar Deleon phoned her to access the Hawkses’ bank account. But she said she was suspicious because right before Deleon called her, the Hawkses’ family had contacted her saying they were worried because they had not heard from the couple in a while.

She asked Deleon if she could call the Hawkses back but he said the payphone they were using in Mexico wouldn’t take incoming calls, Kenney testified. Kenney said she was familiar with the area, so she directed them to another phone that would take incoming calls. Deleon said he would try to do that, but Kenney said she never heard from him again.

Newport Beach Police Det. Dave White also testified Thursday. He said he analyzed the Deleons’ cellphone records before, during and after the day of the Hawkses’ disappearance and found that the Deleons had been in almost constant contact on the days leading up to Nov. 15, making more than 10 short calls to each other.

The trial will resume Monday after taking a break Friday, Veterans Day.