Jury close to getting Calif. yacht killings case

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) _ A man accused of killing a couple by tying them to an anchor and throwing them from their yacht was evil and manipulative, a prosecutor said during closing arguments Thursday.

Skylar Deleon killed Thomas and Jackie Hawks to seize ownership of the couple's 55-foot yacht and try to steal their savings, prosecutor Matt Murphy told Orange County jurors.

"He is not a genius; (he is) very clever in a diabolical sort of way," Murphy said. "Evil? Absolutely, yes. And manipulative."

Deleon, 29, is charged with murder and murder for financial gain in the couple's disappearance from Newport Harbor nearly four years ago.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Deleon, who is also accused of killing a man he met on a work furlough program in 2003 by slashing his throat and dumping his body in Mexico.

Deleon has pleaded not guilty. His attorney Gary Pohlson admitted his client committed the three murders but said Deleon should be sentenced to life in prison like his former wife, who was convicted in 2006 of murdering the Hawkses.

"I assume you're going to find him guilty and the special circumstances to be true because that's what the evidence shows," Pohlson told jurors.

Pohlson's concession is not the same as a guilty plea, and Deleon's plea requires jurors to return a verdict.

Deleon is accused of drafting a plan to kill the Hawkses after learning they were planning to sell their boat — named the "Well Deserved" — to spend more time with their baby grandson in Arizona.

Prosecutors said Deleon feigned interest in buying the nearly half-million-dollar yacht and persuaded the Hawkses to take him on a test cruise. Then Deleon enlisted the help of two men to overpower the couple and forced them to sign over ownership of the yacht before binding them to an anchor and throwing them overboard, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said Deleon and his wife at the time, Jennifer Henderson, spent the next day scrubbing the yacht clean with bleach wipes, erasing any trace of DNA. A police search of the converted garage where the couple lived yielded the Hawkses' voter registration and auto insurance cards and video recorder, Murphy said during opening statements.

Henderson was convicted in 2006 of murder and murder for financial gain and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole.

Three other men also charged with the Hawkses' murders have yet to stand trial. They have pleaded not guilty.

Deleon, who had a small role on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" television series, is also charged in the 2003 death of a man in Mexico. Prosecutors said he was paid $50,000 for the killing.

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