well deserved yacht murders

Thomas and Jackie Hawks Murders: How Did They Die? Who Killed Them?

When a pair of the adventure-loving couple went missing for several days, it raised the alarm with friends and family members who were expecting to see them soon. Thomas and Jackie’s closest acquaintances were worried that something bad had happened to them. They turned to the police for help. What the police found subsequently will go down as one of the most brutal and spine-chilling crimes in American criminal history. The crime has been covered by several true-crime features and podcasts, including ABC’s ‘20/20’ under the episode titled ‘Overboard.’ The harrowing details of the crime have left us shocked and wanting to know more. We indulged in a little investigation of our own to find out more about this crime.

How Did Thomas and Jackie Hawks Die?

57-year-old Thomas Hawks and his 47-year-old wife, Jackie Hawks, were living the dream retired life. Thomas and Jackie were described as a very happy, healthy, and athletic couple who had worked hard all their life to fulfill their early retirement aspirations, living on adventures and whims of traveling. Tom worked as a Yavapai County deputy probation officer in Arizona, and his wife, Jackie, was stepmother to his two sons from a previous marriage. Shortly before commencing his retirement from his job, in August 2001, the Hawks couple sold their house and shifted to a yacht, referred to as their dreamboat. The yacht moored in Long Beach, named “Well Deserved,” had luxurious interiors with two decks, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a gallery.

Tom indulged himself in renovating the yacht, adding the latest technology and features to the yacht to make it suitable for long voyages. Tom and Jackie were known to be dedicated fitness buffs, with strict gym regimes that the two of them followed religiously. According to his sons, Ryan and Matt, Tom had also made a name for himself in the Arizona arm-wrestling circle. Tom and Jackie met during a chili cookoff and married in 1989. Tom was known for having a passion for boating. Hence, soon after the couple bought “Well Deserved,” they pulled out of Long Beach in 2002 and set sail on an almost two-year-long cruise down the coast of Baja California, around Cabo San Lucas, and into the Sea of Cortez, stopping in Baja and the Mexican mainland.

The Hawks decided to call their cruise to a rather wonderful end when they were blessed with a grandson back in Arizona. The proud and happy grandparents, eager to spend their time with the little boy, put up their adored yacht “Well Deserved” for sale. They decided to sell the yacht themselves rather than heftily commissioning a yacht broker to do so.  The Yacht advertisement in ‘Yachting World Magazine’ asked $435,000 in exchange for the fastidiously maintained “Well Deserved.”

On November 15, 2004, the couple boarded their precious ship to embark on the last trip to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, California, to commemorate the yacht’s sale. They had finally found a buyer for “Well Deserved,” and they had informed their family of the upcoming sale, which was to take place within a few days. After this, they disappeared. The yacht was found in its usual spot in Newport Beach by the family the next day. However, the couple’s car and the couple were nowhere to be found.

The family was sure that the person to have last seen the Hawks was the buyer. Jim Hawks, Tom’s brother, also a retired police officer, left his card with his number on the yacht, hoping they would contact him. Before leaving the card, he and the Hawkses’ friend Carter Ford surveyed the yacht to find any signs. They smelled trouble as soon as Ford observed the 11-foot dinghy that ferried Tom and Jackie between the Well Deserved and Balboa Peninsula was tied sloppily to the dock. On the yacht, they noticed similar imperfections that were not characteristic of the Hawkses, for example, a towel hanging out of a porthole. On the next day, a lady called Jennifer Deleon called Jim and told him, she and her husband had paid for the boat in cash.

When there was reportedly no activity on the Hawks’ bank accounts, the family knew that something wasn’t sitting right. It was eventually revealed that Skyler Deleon and her then-wife Jennifer Deleon had entrapped the Hawkses in a heinous plan that led the Hawkses to their death.

A witness to the crime who testified against Skylar Deleon detailed the events leading up to Jackie and Thomas Hawks’ death. The yacht’s buyer had reportedly expressed a willingness to test the yacht before buying it by taking it out to the sea. The Hawkses agreed after Skylar Deleon managed to create a good impression of herself on them by bringing in her former pregnant wife Jennifer Deleon and their daughter. On the day of their last trip onboard “Well Deserved,” the Hawkses received their buyer on the yacht along with two other men, one of whom Skylar had claimed to be her accountant. Once they set sail and were on waters, Jackie and Tom were ambushed by Skylar and her two companions, who became Alonso Machain (who later testified against Skylar) and a notorious gang member John Fitzgerald Kennedy respectively. Skylar managed to make the couple hand over the ownership of their yacht by making them sign attorney papers and promised them mercy if they cooperated, according to Machain’s testimony.

However, the couple was handcuffed with their mouths and eyes shut, covered by duct tape, and then kept under watch for several hours. Alonso Machain was given the responsibility to “baby-sit” them, following which the couple was then tied to an anchor and “yanked” over the yacht and into the Pacific Ocean. Their bodies have not been recovered to this day.

Who Killed Tom and Jackie Hawks?

The primary convicts in the conspiracy and murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks are Skylar Deleon, her wife Jennifer Deleon, Alonso Machain, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, an Insane Crips Gang member, and Myron Sandora Gardner, also a member of the Insane Crips Gang who had introduced Skylar to Kennedy.

The family filed a missing-persons report approximately two weeks after they went missing. An investigation into the missing couple was fueled by a sudden activity in the couple’s bank accounts, three weeks after their disappearance. The Deleons, who were living out of Jennifer’s parents’ garage in Long Beach at the time, were trying to gain access to the Hawks’ financial resources. The investigators found out more about Skylar, who turned out to be on probation for an armed robbery. Besides, documents suggested that Hawkses had handed him over their power of attorney, which seemed unrealistic.

When the police investigated the interiors of the “Well Deserved,” they came across a receipt from Target dated two days after friends say the couple had taken their prospective buyers on a trial trip. Newport Beach Detective Sgt, Dave Byington said , “If I was going to kill somebody, I’d have my clean kit. And it would be bags to get rid of the evidence, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe, if I had a conscience, some Tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people.” The police then found the SUV the Hawkes owned in Ensenada, Mexico, at a mobile home.

The Mexican authorities got in touch with the homeowner, who said they did not know the Hawkses and that the car was given to him by his friend, Skylar Deleon. In December 2004, Skylar Deleon was arrested on money laundering charges, mostly based on the fact that he had previously told the police that the payment for the yacht to the Hawkses, of about $400,000, had been made in cash. But the investigators kept looking into the Hawkses’ murder. They found the Hawkses’ laptop and their video camera at Deleon’s home. The videocamera which initially had films of the Hawkses’ travel, suddenly cut off to Deleons celebrating Thanksgiving with their family.

Machain had turned himself in, and the police arrested Kennedy later. In 2006, Jennifer Deleon, previously arrested in connection to the murder, was also convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and was later sentenced to two consecutive life imprisonments without the possibility of parole in 2007. Skylar and John Kennedy were sentenced to death in April 2009 and May 2009, respectively. Machain was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2009.

Read More: Where Are Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Deleon Now?

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Tom and Jackie Hawks Killed in Yacht Murder By "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" Actor and His Wife

Skylar Deleon, who appeared on  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,  tied Tom and Jackie Hawks to the anchor of their yacht and then threw them overboard with the help of his pregnant wife.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks christened their yacht “Well Deserved.” It was a fitting name for a happy and successful seafaring couple whose hard work enabled them to retire early and realize their dream lives in Newport Beach, California.

How to Watch

Watch The Real Murders of Orange County on Peacock and catch up on the Oxygen App.

But in 2004, the dream turned into a nightmare. They were murdered in what Caitlin Rother — the  author of Dead Reckoning and former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter —  described as the “most unbelievably horrible” way to Oxygen’ s The Real Murders of Orange County ,  streaming now   on Oxygen.com .

RELATED:  19-Year-Old Ashton Sachs Shoots And Kills Parents In "Brutal Crime" Before Sobbing At Their Funeral

After spending years traveling and living on their 65-foot-boat, Tom Hawks, a 57-year-old bodybuilder and former probation officer with two sons from a previous marriage, and his wife, Jackie, 47, were ready to leave the California coast and get their land legs back. 

Destination: Arizona, where they’d wed in a joyous Hawaiian-themed ceremony years before and now had their first grandchild. In mid-November 2004, they put Well Deserved up for sale and appeared to have found buyers.

But around that time, the Hawkses vanished. They didn’t return calls. Their bank account went untouched , the San Diego Union Tribune reported at the time.

Family and friends wondered if the Hawkses had possibly taken an impromptu voyage as a celebratory last hurrah, but it soon became clear something was amiss. Jim Hawks, a former police chief in nearby Carlsbad and Tom’s older brother, called authorities, according to the outlet . Officers from Carlsbad and Newport Beach police departments got busy on the missing persons case. 

The search began at the couple’s boat, and the discovery of what could have been a bloody partial fingerprint on the Hawks’ yacht gave authorities probable cause to enter the vessel and search for clues. 

No clear evidence emerged, however. Crime Scene Investigation analysis revealed that the suspected partial bloody fingerprint was actually rust. 

How did former  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers  actor Skylar Deleon become a suspect in the yacht murders?

Detectives then turned to Skylar Deleon, 25, and his wife, Jennifer Deleon, 23, who were listed as the buyers of the boat, Well Deserved. Skylar was a former child actor who appeared in the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers  and dabbled in real estate. Jennifer was pregnant with their second child.

Detectives interviewed the couple in Long Beach, where they lived with Jennifer’s parents. They told authorities that they had paid cash — a whopping three quarters of a million dollars — for the yacht. The money had been saved from Skylar’s acting days, they claimed.

Authorities expressed doubts to Skylar about his story, and they were shocked when Deleon admitted that he was actually flush with cash because he was involved in large-scale drug sales — a felony. 

RELATED: Retired Marine's O.C. Murder Traced To His Ex-Girlfriend and Her Two Accomplices

“He admitted to money laundering,” investigators told producers. However, they decided to table this revelation to focus on the missing persons case.

Three weeks after the Hawkses disappeared, there was suspicious activity on their bank accounts. The people trying to access the money were the Deleons. 

This break in the case became doubly alarming. Investigators learned that Skylar was on probation for armed robbery. Moreover, documents showed that the Hawkses had given durable power of attorney to Skylar, which defied logic. 

Skylar, meanwhile, claimed the Hawkses signed over an all-access pass to their money because he was helping them secure a vacation home in Mexico.  

Careful scrutiny, though, raised a red flag: Jackie’s surname appeared to have been signed as Hawk, not Hawks. Did someone else add the “s”? Was it a subtle signal that Jackie signed under duress? 

Despite their suspicions, the document seemed to be above reproach. It bore the name of a witness — Alonso Machain, a friend of the Deleons — and a notary, Kathleen Harris. When questioned separately, their stories confirmed the transaction was legitimate. 

By mid-December, authorities “were desperate to find” the Hawkses, retired Newport Beach Police Department Det. Sgt. David Byington told producers. 

RELATED: "His Throat Was Cut On Both Sides": 24-Year-Old O.C. Man Murdered "With Sincere Hate"

After fliers and bulletins were distributed with information about the missing couple’s car, the vehicle was found across the border. 

Detectives recovered the missing couple’s Honda CR-V in Ensenada, Mexico, the Union-Tribune reported in 2004. The person who had the car said it had been a gift from the Deleons. 

“My heart stopped right there,” Byington told producers.

Inspecting the car for evidence became an urgent priority. Skylar had insisted during police interviews that he’d never been in the Hawks’ car. DNA evidence could prove otherwise. 

While awaiting that proof, detectives learned from Skylar’s probation office that the former child actor requested permission to leave the country for work.

Investigators needed to arrest Deleon, and luckily, they had a reason to in their back pocket: his admission of money laundering. They arrested Skylar at his Long Beach residence. Searching the premises, police found personal papers, IDs, videotapes, and a laptop that all belonged to Tom and Jackie Hawks. 

“Any hope the Hawkses were alive died right there,” Byington told producers.

Meanwhile, Deleon’s DNA turned up on a dashboard knob of the Hawks’ car. 

It was potentially a game-changer, but there was still a high hurdle, according to Newport Beach retired Det. Sgt. Mario Montero. “It’s hard to have a murder case when you don’t have any bodies,” he told producers.

There was more digging to do. Detectives re-interviewed Harris, who initially swore she saw Thomas and Jackie Hawks sign a document giving their power of attorney to Skylar Deleon.  Harris eventually admitted that she never laid eyes on Tom and Jackie Hawks. Motivated by making some extra money, Harris had backdated the documents to Nov. 15, 2004, at the Deleons’ request. 

RELATED: “Evil to the Bone”: O.C. College Student Stabbed 41 Times in Campus Parking Lot

Investigators then set their sights on Machain, who, they discovered, was in Mexico to elude arrest. Investigators believed that he was the only avenue to find out what happened to the Hawkses, so they took the death penalty off the table and Machain returned to California. 

The Yacht Murders

In early 2005 he related the details of the murder: Machain said he was present when the Hawkses were lured out to sea, forced to sign legal documents, and then tossed overboard chained to an anchor.  

Skylar had sought help from a Long Beach gang member named John F. Kennedy to help physically subdue the burly Tom Hawks. He passed Kennedy off as part of his business team. The presence of Jennifer Deleon, a mom with a baby on the way, helped convince the victims there was nothing to fear.

“She’s as evil as anybody on that boat,” Byington told producers.

How did Tom and Jackie Hawks die?

Tom and Jackie Hawks “were pulled down 3,500 feet to the bottom of the ocean,” said former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Caitlin Rother. “They were drowned alive.”

Alonso Machain was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the heinous crime. Jennifer Deleon was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole . John Fitzgerald Kennedy was sentenced to death for his part in the murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. 

What happened to Skylar Deleon?

Convicted murderer Deleon was sentenced to die by lethal injection . However, because of California’s moratorium on the death penalty, the ringleader in the deaths of Tom and Jackie Hawks will live out his days on Death Row.

Where to Watch  The Real Murders of Orange County

You can watch The Real Murders of Orange County on the  Oxygen app . The first two seasons are also available on  Peacock .

Originally published Nov 15, 2020.

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The Charley Project

Thomas charles hawks.

Thomas, circa 2004; Jennifer Deleon; Skylar Deleon; John Fitzgerald Kennedy; Alonso Machain; Myron Gardner; The Hawkses' vehicle; The Hawkses' boat

• Missing Since 11/15/2004
• Missing From Newport Beach, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Date of Birth 01/01/1947 (77)
• Age 57 years old
• Height and Weight 5'8, 185 pounds
• Associated Vehicle(s) Silver 1998 Honda CRV with the Arizona license plate number 774CPE (accounted for), 55-foot fiberglass Lien Hwa houseboat, named the Well Deserved (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Thomas's nickname is Tom. He has a tattoo of a hawk's head on his left calf and scars on both wrists and on his right shoulder.

Details of Disappearance

Thomas was last seen together with his wife of seventeen years, Jackie , in Newport Beach, California on November 15, 2004. They were driving their silver 1998 Honda CRV with the Arizona license plate number 774CPE. Neither of them has ever been heard from again. A photograph of the CRV is posted with this case summary. Thomas had been employed as an adult probation officer for Yavapai County in Arizona until his retirement in 2001. He and Jackie had bought a 55-foot fiberglass Lien Hwa houseboat, named the Well Deserved , and lived for two years at a dock in the area of 15th Street and Balboa Boulevard in Newport Beach, but still claimed residency in Prescott, Arizona. They spent their time traveling in their boat and often made trips to San Diego, California and San Carlos, Mexico. Jackie and Thomas kept in close touch with their friends and family with frequent shore visits, cellular phone calls, and a satellite email system. Their children reported them missing after they had not heard from them for several days. Thomas's brother went to examine their boat and saw that it was deserted and that many of the couple's personal belongings were on board and several items were out of place. The eleven-foot dinghy the Hawkses used to get from shore to the boat was tied to the dock with its motor still in the water. This is uncharacteristic of Thomas and Jackie, who usually kept their boats very neat, clean and well maintained. The Hawkses reportedly sold the Well Deserved shortly before their disappearances. A photograph of the boat is posted with this case summary. It was too much work for them to maintain and they decided to buy a smaller vessel and a house near San Carlos, closer to their family and friends in Arizona. They were allegedly paid $400,000 in cash for the Well Deserved the day they vanished. Thomas and Jackie planned to remove all their possessions from the vessel before turning it over to its new owner. It was originally thought that Jackie and Thomas had simply gone off on an impromptu trip together, but their loved ones all said they would not have left without telling anyone. Their first grandchild was born shortly before they vanished and they frequently inquired about him. Their credit cards, email and bank accounts, and cellular phones have not been used since their disappearances. After the Hawkses' disappearances, authorities seized the boat as evidence. They said that the buyer cooperated with the investigation. On December 16, a month after Jackie and Thomas vanished, their car was found in Ensenada, Mexico, about seventy miles from the United States border. The next day, police arrested the houseboat's buyer, Skylar Julius Deleon (whose birth name was John Julius Jacobson Jr.), for money laundering. Investigators stated that the cash Skylar paid for the Well Deserved had been obtained through the sale of illegal drugs. In January 2005, prosecutors withdrew the money laundering charges against Skylar and charged him instead with grand theft in connection with an incident unrelated to the Hawkses' cases. Over the course of several days in March 2005, prosecutors charged Skylar, his wife Jennifer Henderson Deleon, and Myron Sandora Gardner, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Alonso A. Machain, with murdering Thomas and Jackie. Photographs of all of the suspects are posted with this case summary. Gardner and Kennedy are members of the Insane Crips street gang; Machain was a jailer who met Skylar while Skylar was in a work furlough program as the result of a burglary conviction. On November 14, the day before the couple disappeared, Skylar called a residence in Ensenada, Mexico. It was the same residence where the Hawkses' car was found in December A receipt for the purchase of heavy-duty garbage bags and bleach was found on the boat. Authorities believe one of Skylar's relatives bought the items, which can be used to dispose of bodies. Skylar also made at least two unsuccessful attempts to access the Hawkses' bank accounts using a power of attorney document. Authorities believe the couple were killed as part of a scheme to steal their boat and other assets. Court documents stated Thomas and Jackie were taken by surprise and overpowered on the Well Deserved , bound with duct tape, handcuffed to the boat's anchor, and tossed into the ocean while still alive. Prosecutors stated that the alleged sale of the boat never took place and the documents associated with the purchase had been forged. In August 2005, Skylar was charged with another, unrelated December 2003 murder. He allegedly stole $50,000 from a man named Jon Peter Jarvi, slit his throat, and left his body by a Mexican highway. In July 2006, he was additionally charged with soliciting others to kill two witnesses: his father, who was a witness against him in the Hawks case, and his cousin, who was charged as an accomplice in Jarvi's murder. Jennifer was the first of the five defendants to face trial. Prosecutors argued that, although she was not present at the scene of Thomas and Jackie's presumed murders, she was a key conspirator in the plot to have them killed and, while heavily pregnant, brought her older child to visit with the couple in order to gain their trust. She was convicted of first-degree murder in November 2006 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If she had cooperated with the investigation from the onset, she would have gotten immunity from prosecution. She has since gotten divorced from Skylar. The charges against Gardner were dismissed in March 2009; he pleaded guilty to being an accessory and was sentenced to time served. Investigators stated Skylar had asked him to take part in the crime, but Gardner declined and instead referred him to Kennedy. Skylar paid Kennedy a few hundred dollars in exchange for his participation in the murders. Machain accepted a plea bargain and testified against the other defendants in exchange for a term of twenty years in prison. Kennedy and Skylar were convicted in 2009; both were sentenced to death. Jackie and Thomas's bodies have not been located and are believed to be in the Pacific Ocean. Foul play is suspected in their cases due to the circumstances involved.

Investigating Agency

• Newport Beach Police Department
• 800-550-6273
• 949-644-3717

Source Information

• California Attorney General's Office
• Prescott Newspapers Online
• The Marin Independent Journal
• The News-Herald
• The Mercury-News
• The Los Angeles Times
• Tom and Jackie Hawks Official Website
• The Monterey Herald
• The San Diego Union-Tribune
• The Arizona Daily Sun
• The Orange County Register
• The Costa Mesa Daily Pilot

Updated 7 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated June 3, 2012; details of disappearance updated.

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The Final Voyage: Retired California couple chained to anchor, thrown off their own yacht

04/30/2018 5:44 pm pdt.

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A headline-dominating murder mystery in California. A brutal crime filled with so much greed, deception and pure evil that it will continue to be talked about for years to come.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were living the life they always dreamed of: sailing the Pacific Ocean for nearly two years on a yacht appropriately named Well Deserved .

"The best example one could ever hope for of how couples should treat each other," said Carter Ford, a friend of the Hawks. "They were just totally devoted."

The loving couple had worked hard their entire lives, Tom as a probation officer and Jackie as a stepmom to Tom's two sons. And when they retired, they bought their dream boat, the Well Deserved , a 55-foot yacht. Life couldn't have been better on board.

"They personally were precious people to talk with," said friend Judy Weightman.

Weightman and Ford moored their boats near the Hawks in the same upscale harbor in ritzy Newport Beach, California.

"They lived on the boat better than most people can live in a house," said Ford.

The Hawks cruised the most exotic ports of call from California to the Mexican Riviera. Little did Tom and Jackie know they would soon be headed into troubled waters and a dangerous transition they never saw coming.

After two years of endless vacations, Tom and Jackie's dream is suddenly interrupted in the most wonderful way.

"They had a new grandbaby in Arizona," said author Caitlin Rother.

Crime writer Caitlin Rother says Tom and Jackie decided to embark on a new journey.

"They wanted to get back to Arizona and spend time with this little boy," said Rother.

Tom and Jackie put their beloved Well Deserved up for sale. Instead of paying a hefty commission to a boat broker, they were going to sell the yacht themselves.

"For Tom and Jackie the savings of that fee was going to be significant with what they were going to have left, so they advertised in boating magazines," said Carter Ford.

The Hawks place a small ad in Yachting World magazine, asking $435,000 for the meticulously maintained Well Deserved.

Now all they needed was a legitimate buyer. And it didn't take long.

"They got interest from a buyer for the Well Deserved ," said Caitlin Rother. "This buyer though was young, 25 years old."

The buyer tells Tom he has cash -- lots of it.

"This guy said he had made money as a child actor and made some money in real estate," said Rother.

Initially Tom, the former probation officer is skeptical. But then the buyer does something that eases both Tom and Jackie's fears.

"He brought his wife, and his wife was pregnant, and she brought their little baby daughter in a stroller and that made Jackie and Tom trust them," said Rother.

The Hawks accept an all-cash offer for their asking price of $435,000, and an additional $15,000 for some personal items. Tom and Jackie celebrate their financial windfall with one last trip on board the Well Deserved .

But before the deal is officially sealed, the buyer calls with one more request: a sea trial to inspect the hull and to test the motors.

"The idea is to take the boat out on a sea trial and then they're going to come back and finish the deal," said Rother.

Tom and Jackie expect the buyer and his wife to show up. But this time he has a different crew.

"The buyer comes with a young guy, skinny guy and a much bigger guy, who he says is his accountant," said Rother.

The Hawks are a little suspicious, but agree, and cautiously navigate their way out of Newport Harbor and into open waters for one final voyage on the Well Deserved .

Carter Ford says he made plans to meet up with the Hawks later that night. But as darkness descended over Newport Harbor, he got a troubling message from Jackie.

"'Hey Carter, we don't know why we're not back at shore yet, we're still out here on the sea trial.' We really don't know what's happening other than the fact that they're telling us that there still sea-trialing the boat," said Ford.

Jackie says they'll let him know when they get back to the harbor. But they never called.

When the sun rises, the Well Deserved is moored back in Newport Harbor, but Tom and Jackie are nowhere to be found.

"When they never turned up, it sends chills up your back, of course," said Ford.

The 55-foot yacht is moored back in Newport Harbor, but the Hawks seemed to have vanished into the ocean air.

"They're not calling their friends, they're not calling their family, they're not answering their cellphones, and you know something's wrong," said author Caitlin Rother.

Rother says Tom and Jackie's SUV was also missing, so initially friends assumed the Hawks took a road trip to celebrate their financial windfall.

But when the Hawks failed to contact anyone for more than a week, the family asks Carter Ford to cruise out to the Well Deserved and dig around a little. And when Ford steps onboard the normally meticulously kept yacht, his heart sinks.

What first alerted you that something was wrong with the boat?

"The way it was left, not only was the boat sloppy, there was a white towel hanging out the port hole on the side," said Ford. "This does not look good."

The family immediately files a missing-persons report.

"When I first got the call, I had one of the detectives, I said 'Head out to the yacht, see what you can see,'" said retired Newport Beach Police Detective David Byington.

Retired Detective Sgt. Byington says the detective smashed the lock on the cabin door and entered with caution.

"There wasn't any signs of violence," said Byington.

They find that white towel and a fresh inkpad wedged between the master bed and a wall. Then something else stops him dead in his tracks: a receipt.

"And on this receipt were bleach, cleaning supplies, heavy-duty trash bags and Tums," said Byington. "Just something in the back of my head said 'Well, if I was going to commit a murder, that would be my 'clean kit.' I'd get bags to destroy evidence, clean up and down with bleach wipes, and maybe my stomach would be upset so I would take some Tums."

Newport Police now want to know who was buying the Well Deserved.

"So the buyers were this young couple, Skylar Deleon, 25 years old, and his wife, Jennifer. Jennifer's pregnant and they have a little baby daughter," said Caitlin Rother.

Skylar Deleon may look familiar: he's a former child actor appearing on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" TV show. His wife Jennifer, the daughter of Christian evangelical parents, worked as a hairdresser.

"He wanted to get the boat with his wife to live on and charter and so have a business on the boat and take families out fishing," said Rother.

With still no sign of the Hawks, Byington secretly puts a surveillance team on the Deleons.

Undercover officer David Moon tracks them down at a local church, but they aren't there to pray. They're actually cleaning the church.

"We show up at a church and he's volunteering his time there with his wife and baby," said Byington.

"We'd also followed Jennifer, she was a hairdresser, and to her job, and she was just walking in, cutting hair," said Newport Beach Police Officer David Moon. "They looked pretty normal. Just a young couple doing their thing.

"I'm expecting to see, you know, some bad guys that you'd get from Hollywood casting. This wasn't it. This was this husband and wife volunteering their time at a church, cleaning," said Byington.

Skylar Deleon and his wife are regulars at church, but they're not volunteering much to help police find the Hawks.

Detectives uncover that Skylar was on probation after being busted for burglary. And when they dig into their finances, they find the couple is $87,000 in debt, living in Jennifer's parents' garage.

Cops start to wonder where in the world did they get the money to buy the Well Deserved ? It certainly wasn't from Deleon's acting career.

"Skylar Deleon had told people that he had been on 'Mighty Morpin Power Rangers,' but in fact it turned out he had just had two minor non-speaking roles," said Caitlin Rother.

Detective Byington hauls Skylar in for questioning, and in the recorded interrogation, Skylar adamantly maintains they did in fact buy the Well Deserved .

"We spent like 485 on it."

"And that was cash, right? That you paid them that day?"

"I go 'How is it that you have this money that you could buy this yacht?' And he said, he almost dropped his shoulders, and said 'I have to be honest with you, the money I got was from drug sales,'" Byington tells Crime Watch Daily.

Skylar says he gave Tom Hawks a briefcase filled with mostly one hundred dollar bills he'd laundered out of Mexico; he handed over the dirty money, and Tom and Jackie signed over the Well Deserved .

"Did he seem nervous?"

"He was excited but nervous. He was just like 'Let's just close this up.'"

"Was it in the trunk so you're out of view, or was it just on the back of the trunk?"

"We were out of view."

Skylar tells Byington the Hawks then asked him if he would use his connections to help the couple open up a bank account in Mexico so they could buy a house.

"He was saying that him and his wife, they were looking at places in San Carlos."

"Did he say anything specific regarding that? 'Cause that's what we're trying to focus looking for them."

"He just said that they liked the Sea of Cortez."

Skylar takes his story one step further, telling Detective Byington that Tom and Jackie even signed a power of attorney giving him full access to move all of their money to Mexico.

"You're telling me you got these two power of attorneys specifically for that, you didn't embellish it any other way. Nothing like that."

As suspicious as it all sounds, the Deleons produce a power of attorney that looks legitimate.

"They hand them over to the police, they are signed, everything looks OK," said Rother.

"Skylar, you have nothing to do with disappearance, wife doesn't either, nobody in your family, your dad. Nobody, right?"

"Even though the story didn't ring true, my first instincts, when I talked to Skylar, was that I don't see him doing anything," said Byington.

Adding to Skylar Deleon's credibility, cellphone towers show the Hawks' phones were "pinging" near the Mexican border the morning after they sea-trialed the boat with Skylar.

Detectives are back at zero, and they turn to the Hawks family for help.

"The Hawks' son Ryan is a really good-looking individual, so we put him in front of the cameras on national news for a plea to find this car and his parents," said Byington.

Cops get the hit they've been waiting for, and it's across the border.

"We finally got a call from an American citizen down in Mexico who said 'Hey, I'm watching the news right now and you say you're looking for a car and I'm looking at it,'" said Byington. "And sure as hell, here's the Hawks' vehicle sitting there."

Thomas and Jackie Hawks did what thousands of people do: They took out an ad to sell their yacht. Little did they know they were setting themselves up for a trap.

Detectives are staring at Tom and Jackie Hawks' missing SUV. It's spotted outside a house near Ensenada, Mexico.

Is this the break Newport Beach Detective Sgt. David Byington has been waiting for? The Hawks mysteriously disappeared more than a month prior, last seen heading out to sea onboard their yacht.

A Mexican federale takes the lead and knocks on the door. Byington speaks very little Spanish, but even he understands what the man says.

"The gentleman inside the house said the name Skylar Deleon," said Byington.

The same Skylar Deleon who bought the Well Deserved , and he wasn't alone.

"And then I hear the same Mexican gentleman inside say Jennifer's name," said Byington.

The gentleman at the door is an old surfing buddy, and says Skylar gave him the car. After that, Deleon's very pregnant wife Jennifer picked him up and drove him back to the States.

"He swabbed the knobs within the car and end up hitting Skylar's DNA on the heater knob in there, so it turned out to be amazing," said Byington.

Detectives now believe something bad happened to Tom and Jackie on the Well Deserved -- but what?

Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy smells big trouble.

"This case was uniquely diabolical," Murphy tells Crime Watch Daily.

Murphy suspects Skylar and possibly his wife Jennifer are both involved in the Hawks' disappearance, but he needs proof.

So he circles back to that power of attorney. Skylar told detectives the Hawks willingly signed it, hoping Skylar Deleon could help them buy a home in Mexico.

"They had a durable power of attorney, OK. That makes no sense," said Murphy. "That would give this young 22, 23-year-old couple, strangers to them still, access to their bank accounts."

Here's the problem: the notary, a woman named Kathleen Harris, tells cops it's the real deal, claiming she witnessed the Hawks signing the papers and personally took the required fingerprints to make the documents legal.

"She said, 'I was down there, I saw the transaction. I didn't see how much money was in the suitcase,' but she tells the same story essentially that Skylar told. They also had fingerprints all over the documents," said Murphy.

But when cops ask the notary to physically describe Tom and Jackie Hawks, she stumbles.

"She describes Tom to a tee, but she described Jackie as having brown curly hair, which was odd because Jackie, when they moved onto the Well Deserved , she cut her long curly hair and she spiked it and dyed it blonde. So that was one of those things, it didn't quite make sense."

Could the notary just be confused? The fingerprints on the power of attorney are an exact match, and the signatures also appear to be legitimate.

"We send these things off to the FBI and the finest handwriting experts in the world look at it and go, 'That is Tom's signature,'" said Murphy.

The experts also confirm it's Jackie's signature -- but there is something strange.

"Their last name is Hawks with an 's,' OK, and she wrote 'Jackie Hawk,' and somebody else came in later and wrote in an 's' that's inconsistent with her signature," said Murphy.

Murphy believes Jackie may have been secretly trying to alert someone they were in deep trouble.

"She wanted to send a signal to somebody in the future that something here is not right," said Murphy.

And just as Murphy is about turn the spotlight on the Deleons, the D.A. gets tipped off that Skylar is about to scramble like a cockroach looking for cover.

"Suddenly Skylar contacts his probation officer and says 'Can I get permission to leave the country?'" said Caitlin Rother.

So the quick-thinking D.A. comes up with a plan, and it's all caught on audio tape. An arrest warrant is issued for Skylar Deleon for money-laundering. During Skylar's interrogation, he confessed to laundering money from a Mexican drug deal.

As the officer moves in to cuff Skylar, he is reportedly wearing an adult diaper at the time.

"So they arrest Skylar and Jennifer has the gall to start being angry at the police officers, like 'You have some nerve to take my husband away,' and it was just an unbelievable scene," said Rother.

Detectives also head to that converted garage apartment at Jennifer's parents' place, where the two have been living. Cops hit the jackpot.

"They find all of Tom and Jackie's stuff. They find their camera, they find driver's license and other kinds of very personal belongings," said Rother.

And detectives can't help but notice that in Jackie's driver's license, she looks remarkably similar to how the notary described her.

"So that raised suspicions about the notary, and did the notary actually witness these documents being signed or not," said Rother.

Cops are beginning to suspect there are more people involved with the Hawks' disappearance than just the Deleons.

Detectives also stumble across something else in the garage that raises a few eyebrows.

"One of my detectives found a business card from LAPD and the detective was assigned to as a liaison with Interpol," said Byington.

Newport Police contact the Interpol agent, and when detectives reveal they're investigating Skylar's possible involvement in the disappearance of the Hawks, the agent hits them with a jaw-dropper.

"He says 'That's funny because I was talking to him a year ago because we were looking at him for murder of an American citizen in Mexico," said Byington. "I go, 'They killed the Hawks, because this is no way,' you know, this is too much of a coincidence."

But Mexican federales could never link Skylar Deleon to the murder.

"We have no proof he did anything illegal but its stinks on ice," said Byington.

The noose is quickly tightening around Skylar Deleon in the disappearance of Tom and Jackie Hawks. Cops just need to figure out motive and method.

On a hunch, Murphy calls an old boating buddy he met in Indonesia named "Salty Sam."

"I'm like, 'Hey, man. What should we be looking for on a boat if we're trying to figure out if there was a murder committed?' And without skipping a beat, he said 'Look for missing anchors,'" said Matt Murphy.

Investigators go back to the ad the Hawks had placed in that yachting magazine.

"And in every single photo there were two anchors on the bow," said Murphy.

They rush back out to the harbor to check the Well Deserved . And sure enough:

"On the bow of the boat there's only one anchor, and there should have been two," said Murphy.

"Our working theory was 'Hey, they had him sign the paperwork, they shot them, they threw them overboard,'" said retired Newport Beach detective David Byington.

Cops claim Skylar Deleon is actually a master manipulator. Detectives don't believe Deleon ever intended to buy Tom and Jackie Hawks' yacht. Instead, they say, he hatched a twisted plan to steal it by murdering the Hawks in cold blood, then dumping their bodies into the Pacific Ocean.

"Utterly diabolical," said Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy. "He used his kids to get two innocent people to trust him enough that he would go out to sea with them and they'd let their guard down. And that's what happened."

Murphy has Deleon arrested for money-laundering so he can build a case. But it becomes crystal clear Skylar Deleon didn't pull of the elaborate scheme by himself. Authorities believe his pregnant wife Jennifer was his partner in crime who helped him set the trap.

"The entire investigation at that point shifted to her," said Murphy.

Still, Murphy needs solid evidence to prove Jennifer was a willing accomplice. And he finally gets it.

"We actually have video surveillance pictures of them walking up to the teller, and Jennifer's got a grin ear to ear," said Byington. "They came up and said 'We want to get money out for the Hawks, and here's the power of attorney,' and the manager comes over and says 'I know the Hawks and I'm not giving you a dime until we verify this.'"

"Physically, she wasn't on that boat, she was absolutely on that boat in every other way. She's cheerleading the whole time," said Matt Murphy.

It was all the proof Murphy needed to charge Jennifer as an accomplice. But instead he makes Deleon's wife an offer he thinks she can't refuse: immunity. All Jennifer has to do is rat out her husband.

"She's probably about seven months' pregnant, at that point, so she told us to pound sand," said Murphy. "Young love prevailed and she said no."

Murphy then goes back to Kathleen Harris, the notary that he suspects lied about witnessing the Hawks sign the power of attorney documents. But Harris doesn't flinch either.

"Everybody stuck to the same story. So we had to see if there was somebody that would tell us the truth," said Murphy.

And there in black and white is the mistake that will sink the Deleon's story, a name staring prosecutors right the face: A signature on that power of attorney of a man who witnessed the deal going down, Alonso Machain.

"So Alonso was 19 years old at the time, living with his parents, and he's working at the Seal Beach city jail," said Murphy.

Machain worked as a jail guard, and he'd befriended Deleon when he was serving time for burglary.

"They develop this weird sort of friendship. And I mean he wraps Alonso around his finger and gets Alonso to go with him for all these meetings with Tom and Jackie Hawks," said Murphy.

But when cops try to haul Machain in for questioning, he flees to Mexico. Again, Murphy offers up a deal. He can't give Machain complete immunity, but if he returns and tells his side of the story, Murphy will take the death penalty off the table.

"He decided at that point to do the right thing," said Murphy.

Detectives turn on a tape recorder and Alsono Machain tells his story.

"Skylar approaches me with this plan he has. He was going to do something that was going to make some money. So he offers me to help him."

Machain tells detectives there was another man in Deleon's crew that day. Deleon introduced him to the Hawks as his accountant. But he was actually a notorious gang-banger and a convicted killer named John F. Kennedy.

"He'd been to prison before, he was an original founding member of a gang called the Long Beach Insane Crips," said Matt Murphy.

Machain says before he, Deleon and Kennedy board the Well Deserved , Deleon gives them strict orders.

"The plan is that we were supposed to kidnap them and take them out to sea and toss them overboard."

"And how was he planning to do that?"

"Tasers. He thought of Tasers."

Machain says once out to sea, they set their plan in motion. Kennedy pretends to be seasick and goes down below into the cabin.

"Mr. Hawks becomes concerned because John F. Kennedy is not returning, so he goes down, Skylar follows Mr. Hawks down to the lower area and that's when he gets ambushed," said David Byington.

Up on deck, Jackie Hawks hears the commotion.

"She says 'What's going on,' and that's when they were actually holding him down. Then that's when I realized that I had to, you know, hold her."

"Alonso at that point produces a Taser and tasers her," said Murphy.

"I was able to cuff Mrs. Hawks. At this time I walked her down to the bedroom area where Skylar told me to go get some tape from the engine room. He got the tape and he told me to tape their eyes, tape their mouth."

"Jackie Hawks is crying and screaming through the piece of cloth over her mouth, and Alonso says the only thing he can see is Mr. Hawks stroking her hand with his fingers, the handcuffed hands, trying to calm her down, and rightly so, because I know Tom Hawks knows what's going to happen," said Byington.

"They had them one by one go up to the kitchen area where she was first. They had her sign a power of attorney."

"Skylar told them 'I'm going to let you go if you cooperate. If you don't we're going to kill you here,'" said Byington.

Alonso Machain says Deleon then heads to the cockpit and punches coordinates into the GPS to steer straight toward the deepest part of the ocean near Catalina Island.

Jackie and Tom, still cuffed and blindfolded, are led to the deck of the boat.

"Got some rope, got up to the back, tied them together."

Then a sound pierces through the ocean waves, a sound Tom and Jackie have heard hundreds of times.

"At that point Skylar disconnects one of the anchors from the bow of the boat and he drags the chain, so they're inside a fiberglass boat and he's dragging the chain to the back," said Murphy.

"He knows that sound," said Byington. "You don't need vision to know that, 'cause they're blindfolded. That chain's coming down the side."

"And she's begging for her life and she's saying 'I have to see my grandchild one more time. I have to see my grandchild again. I'm too young to die,'" said Murphy. "And Tom was stroking her hand, saying 'It's OK, we're going to be together.' So at that point they know what's going to happen. They're going overboard."

"I didn't believe what I was looking at, just pushed them."

The brand new grandparents were still alive when the 50-pound anchor plummeted to the bottom of the sea, dragging the helpless couple 3,600 feet straight down.

Alonso Machain witnessed the inhumanity, and unbearable cruelty of Skylar Deleon, the twisted mastermind behind the murders.

"Skylar picked up this massive anchor and threw it over the side of the boat, and they have the most horrific death I can imagine, and their bodies were never recovered," said retired detective David Byington.

Machain, who helped Deleon kidnap the Hawks, is now a witness against him, telling investigators after Deleon threw the Hawks overboard, he started getting rid of any sign of the Hawks.

"He collected all of Tom and Jackie's personal photographs and tossed them overboard like they were Frisbees," said Matt Murphy. "Skylar had no remorse at all. Skylar Deleon is a complete psychopath."

Once Deleon got rid of the evidence, Machain tells investigators, Deleon and John Kennedy kicked back and started fishing on the way back to harbor in Newport Beach, California.

"How was Skylar acting maybe while this was happening?"

"He was calm, like it was the most normal thing."

Skylar Deleon, John Kennedy and Alonso Machain are all charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Days later, Jennifer Deleon is still standing by her man, telling a Los Angeles television station her husband is absolutely innocent.

Cops say not only is Skylar guilty, but Jennifer is too. Prosecutors charge Jennifer with two counts of murder, claiming she helped carry out the murders from the shore. The motive clear and simple: the Deleons wanted money.

"She's a witch. She knew that they had no money, and yet she's going out to meet the people that are selling Skylar this yacht, and she's bringing her child," said Byington. "She might as well have tied the anchor to those people and thrown them over too."

Separate juries hear each case, but they all come back with the same verdict: guilty.

Jennifer Deleon is sentenced to life in prison.

Alonso Machain is given leniency and sentenced to 20 years.

John F. Kennedy is sentenced to death for the double murder.

Before Skylar Deleon's trial even begins, he's hit with a third murder rap.

"He not only murdered the Hawks, but he murdered, slit the throat of another American in Mexico a year earlier," said Byington.

Cops say Deleon slit the throat of a man named Jon Jarvi after luring him with a promise of turning an investment of $50,000 into more cash. Prosecutors say there was no deal; the motive for the murder was all for fun.

"They purchased a new car because they wanted something to tool their little brood around in," said Matt Murphy. "And then he made a bunch of internet purchases including a $658 piston-driven sex toy."

Nearly five years after the Hawks were murdered, Skylar Deleon faces trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

"There was another motive, and it was a primary motive, and that was that Skylar Deleon wanted to get gender-reassignment surgery," said crime author Caitlin Rother.

Rother, who wrote the book about the Hawks' grisly murders, titled Dead Reckoning , says Deleon desperately needed $17,000 to pay for surgery to transition.

"He had already put down a $500 deposit on this surgery and had one scheduled for two weeks after the Hawks were murdered, but they didn't have the money," said Rother.

Rother knows Skylar Deleon as well as anyone. She started visiting him in prison while researching her book.

"All Skylar wanted to talk was how he wanted to get rid of his penis," said Rother.

But with no money and thinking there was no chance of making the transition while sitting in a cell, Rother says Skylar made a desperate attempt.

"He tried to cut his penis off in jail with a razor," said Rother.

But now the state of California is paying for Skylar Deleon to transition to a woman. Deleon is currently sitting in the psych ward on death row at San Quentin.

"And Skylar is now living as a woman and wants to be called 'she,'" said Rother.

"It's ridiculous," said Byington. "There are legitimate people out there with transgender issues that work their tails off their whole life, if they are lucky enough to get a surgery. Skylar doesn't deserve that right. Skylar doesn't get to kill people and then get rewarded, and that's kind of the way it feels."

Skylar Deleon and his wife have since divorced while behind bars. Deleon continues to maintain he had nothing to do with the Hawks' deaths and has appealed his conviction.

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Watch CBS News

48 Hours Update: Murdered Couple's Beloved Yacht Now For Sale

By Ryan Smith

June 18, 2009 / 12:30 PM EDT / CBS News

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (CBS News 48 Hours Mystery / AP)

A couple's dream yacht that ultimately cost them their lives is up for sale.

It was in Newport Beach, Calif. that Tom and Jackie Hawks came to find paradise. Their dream was rooted in two simple things: being together and being on a boat. Few people had lived better lives, so it almost seemed like fate when the couple bought a 55-foot yacht that was already named Well Deserved. For Tom and Jackie, a dream had come true. Life was an endless cruise filled with good times and best friends, sailing from Catalina Island to Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

"He said, 'Life's too short, and it's my life, this is our time, and I feel if I hesitate, then it would just go by and I'll miss it,'" says Ryan Hawks, one of the couple's sons.

While Tom and Jackie were living the life they'd always dreamed of, something wonderful was happening in the mountains of Prescott, Ariz., that would alter their lives forever: Tom's son, Matt and his wife, Nicole, welcomed a baby. "They were just very excited," Matt says. "Jackie was already buying baby clothes."

After four years at sea, Tom and Jackie decided To return to Arizona when their first granchild was born to son Matt and his wife Nicole. They put their boat up for sale... And one of the potential buyers would alter the course of the family's life forever.

Skylar Deleon, a former child actor, whose latest line of work was burglary, hatched a twisted plot with his young wife to kill the Hawks, sell the boat, drain their accounts and be set financially for life. Deleon and two accomplices got the Hawks to take them on a test cruise of Catalina Island into the Pacific. The trio overpowered the unsuspecting Hawks, forcing them to sign over the boat and their bank account information. Deleon and the two others tied Tom and Jackie Hawks to the anchor then throwing them overboard of Newport Beach.

Their bodies have not been found.

Skylar Deleon, his former wife Jennifer Henderson and John Kenned have been convicted of charges relating to the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks. The fifth conspirator, Alonso Machain pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Investigators had kept the yacht Well Deserved in dry storage for the past four years as evidence after the 2002 murders.

The sons of Jackie and Tom Hawks say they're ready to sell the boat now that the criminal proceedings are over.

Watch The 48 Hours Broadcast On The Hawk Case

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HARDCORE GANG MEMBER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER-FOR-PROFIT KILLING OF COUPLE ON THEIR NEWPORT BEACH YACHT

• Author Lei Lani Fera
• Published May 1, 2009

SANTA ANA – A hardcore, documented gang member was sentenced today to the death penalty for providing muscle in the murder-for-profit killings of Thomas and Jackie Hawks on their yacht off Newport Beach in 2004. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, Long Beach, was convicted by a jury on Feb. 19, 2009, of felonies for two counts of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders for financial gain. The jury recommended the death penalty on Feb. 27, 2009.

Co-defendant Skylar Deleon, 29, Long Beach, was sentenced to the death penalty on April 10, 2009. He was found guilty by a jury on Oct. 20, 2008, of three felony counts of special circumstances murder for multiple murders and murder for financial gain. He has a prior strike for a 2003 residential burglary conviction. A jury recommended the death penalty for Skylar Deleon on Nov. 6, 2008.  

Skylar Deleon’s ex-wife, Jennifer Deleon, 27, Long Beach, was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 17, 2006, of two felony counts of murder with sentencing enhancement allegations for committing multiple murders for financial gain. She was sentenced Oct. 5, 2007, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Co-defendant Alonso Machain, 25, Pico Rivera, is charged with felonies for two counts of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders for financial gain. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Machain is scheduled for pre-trial May 27, 2009, in Department C-55, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana. Co-defendant Myron Gardner, 45, Long Beach, who had spent four years in jail awaiting trial on this case and provided truthful testimony during Kennedy’s trial as to what happened, pleaded guilty March 19, 2009, to one felony count of accessory after the fact and was sentenced to one year in jail. He received credit for time served.

In November 2004, Thomas and Jackie Hawks placed an advertisement for their 55-foot yacht named “Well Deserved” for $440,000.   The couple wanted to spend more time with their new grandchild in Arizona. Skylar Deleon, who changed his name from John Jacobson Jr., was the brain behind the plot to murder the Hawks’ and take their boat and life savings with Machain, Gardner, Kennedy, and his then-wife Jennifer Deleon.  

On Nov. 9, 2004, Skylar Deleon plotted with his then-pregnant wife, Jennifer Deleon, to gain the Hawks’ trust by taking Jennifer Deleon and their 9-month-old baby to meet the Hawks on their boat, which Skylar Deleon and Machain had staked out three days prior. Gardner is accused of recruiting Kennedy, a hard-core, documented Los Angeles gang member, to provide “muscle.”  

On Nov. 15, 2004, Kennedy went with Skylar Deleon and Machain to take the boat out of the harbor with the Hawks’ under the pretense of test driving it for a possible sale. Kennedy posed as Skylar Deleon’s “accountant.” Once out at sea, Kennedy overpowered the victims with the help of Skylar Deleon and Machain, forced the Hawks’ to sign the transfer of title documents, handcuffed and tied them to the anchor, and drowned them in the ocean.

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Former child actor admits killing couple for yacht

For nearly four years, Ryan and Matt Hawks have felt certain that a former small-time child actor masterminded the vicious murder of their parents, who were tied to the anchor of their yacht and thrown to their deaths in the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island.

The brothers sat in the TODAY studio in New York Friday with the show’s co-host, Meredith Vieira, and looked at photographs of their father, Tom Hawks, and stepmother, Jennifer Hawks, tanned and smiling aboard the “Well Deserved,” the 55-foot yacht they had saved a lifetime to buy.

Two days earlier, the attorney for Skylar Deleon, who once had a non-speaking bit part in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” admitted in an Orange County, Calif., courtroom that Deleon was the mastermind of the plot to murder the Hawks and steal their yacht. The admission was made during opening arguments in the trial, which is no longer about whether Deleon did it, but what his sentence should be: death, or life behind bars.

Back to land Tom Hawks had planned for most of his life to retire on a yacht with his second wife, Jackie. A body builder and probation officer, he realized his dream while still in his mid-50s.

After cruising the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez off Mexico for two years, the Hawks had decided to sell their boat to move back to Arizona, where they could be closer to their first grandson. Their sons, Matt and Ryan, looked forward to having them back home and sharing their lives with them.

“They realized there was more to life than this boat and seeing the curve of the earth, and that’s what really made them want to sell the boat and come back and be a part of our lives, and especially part of their grandson’s life,” Ryan Hawks told Vieira.

He last talked to his parents by phone on Nov. 14, 2004, the day they disappeared. “I was flying to Seattle for work,” Ryan Hawks said. “It was on the last voyage of ‘Well Deserved.’ I kind of pushed them off the phone; I was running late for a plane. I just felt bad. I had no idea that was the last time I’d talk to them.”

On that day, Tom, 57, and Jackie, 47, set sail for Catalina Island on a test cruise with Skylar Deleon and two other men, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Alonso Machain. Deleon was a smooth-talking 29-year-old career criminal who bragged about being a former child television star who wanted to buy the boat. In reality, Deleon had had just one non-speaking bit part in 1994 on “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” and had been in trouble almost ever since. He introduced Kennedy and Machain as his accountants.

Thieves fall out Machain admitted his role in 2005 and is awaiting sentencing. Kennedy is to be tried next year. The fourth member of the plot, Deleon’s former wife, Jennifer Henderson, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder last year and will spend the rest of her life in prison.

According to that confession, after overpowering the Hawks with a stun gun, the conspirators forced them to sign over title to the yacht. Then, duct-taped together and tied to an anchor, they were thrown into the ocean to drown. Their bodies were never recovered.

Now Ryan and Matt Hawks just want to see justice served on Deleon, who, according to his own lawyer, Gary Pohlson, also killed another man in 2003. Deleon committed that murder when he was on work furlough from a sentence he was serving for burglary.

Pohlson told the jury Tuesday that his purpose in admitting Deleon is guilty was to save his client from the death penalty.

Justice at last Matt Hawks said when he heard Pohlson’s statement, “I was kind of relieved in a way, just [at] the thought that they’re admitting guilt. It’s been four years; it’s been a long time. I’m looking forward to this trial, and I’m sure the jurors will make the correct decision.”

Ryan Hawks said it isn’t easy being at the trial and hearing again about the murders. But, he told Vieira, “It’s important to us as a family, because this is the last thing we’ll ever get to do for our parents. And as much as it hurts, we just need to be there and represent them. We’re a true testament to our parents’ parenting, and we feel it’s necessary.”

Matt Hawks said the hardest part for him is thinking about what he and his two children are missing. “It’s just been very difficult,” he said. “I’m raising two beautiful children now. And I don’t have the grandparents so that they can share their lives with them. It’s just very hard not having them around to share the best part of our life, and the best part of our family’s life with them.”

Both brothers said their parents had talked about their plans to sell the yacht and move back home. The parents mentioned that the man who wanted to buy it was a former child star, but neither of the two sons had ever watched “Power Rangers,” so they weren’t especially impressed.

“I was just happy they were selling the boat and coming back to spend a lot more time with [their grandchildren],” Matt Hawks recalled. “They’d be much more grounded with my family. We’d be able to travel out to see them, as I was able to back when I didn’t have children.

“I was looking forward to them coming home.”

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Tearful Testimony in Yacht Murder Trial

Family of victims testify as prosecutors seek death for Skylar Deleon.

Oct. 23, 2008 — -- Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday in the penalty phase of the murder trial of Skylar Deleon, a man convicted of tying a California couple to the anchor of their yacht and throwing them overboard.

Before concluding, prosecutors played home videos of the couple on their last voyage together. Police say the tapes were found in a video camera Deleon stole after the murders.

The jury must decide whether Deleon should get the death penalty or life in prison.

A 20-minute video showed Tom and Jackie Hawks traveling together on their beloved yacht, the Well Deserved. The final clip showed the couple, who planned to sell the boat in order to spend more time with their grandson, celebrating their last trip with family and friends.

The video then cut abruptly to images of Deleon's family at Thanksgiving.

Deleon, 29, was found guilty Monday of murdering the couple, with several accomplices, after he posed as a potential buyer for their yacht. He was also convicted in the 2003 murder of John Jarvi.

The home videos capped an emotional day of testimony from the victims' relatives, several of whom cried on the witness stand as they described the Hawkses as a loving couple and devoted parents.

"He was more like my best friend," said Ryan, Tom Hawks' son.

Jackie Hawks' mother, Gayle O'Neill, choked up on the witness stand as she called her daughter "a wonderful person, loving, caring."

"She would do anything for anybody," she said. "I think of them in the morning when I wake up and at night before I go to bed."

Witnesses, including one of Deleon's alleged accomplices, testified that Thomas and Jackie Hawks were blindfolded, beaten, shackled to the anchor of their beloved yacht, thrown overboard and drowned.

Deleon's lawyer admitted on the first day of trial that Deleon was guilty, but asked asking the jury to spare his life.

Click here to see a slideshow of Tom and Jackie Hawks' pictures.

As a teenager, when Ryan Hawks once complained about his sometimes strict father, he said Tom Hawks looked him in the eye and said, "You will thank me one day for the man you are yet to become."

"And I never got to thank him," Hawks said today.

Jarvi's mother, Betty Jarvi, described her son as "very clever, he sparkled."

Another witness testified that Deleon tried to have three critical witnesses against him killed before his trial.

Daniel Elias testified that Deleon offered him $3 million to kill the witnesses. Elias, a career criminal who met Deleon at the Orange County Jail, said Wednesday that Deleon told him, "if [the witnesses] were gone, he could beat this case."

All three witnesses testified against Deleon.

'Yanked' to Their Deaths

In gut-wrenching detail, alleged accomplice Alonso Machain, a cooperating witness for the prosecution, told jurors last week that he, Deleon and a third man overpowered the couple, handcuffed them to the anchor and sent them hurtling to their deaths.

"They were basically yanked -- yanked into the ocean,'' Machain told Orange County jurors, as tears welled up in the eyes of the Hawkses' friends and family in the courtroom gallery.

Deleon and the other men then turned the boat around and began an hourlong trip back to the shore, according to testimony. One cracked open a beer and grabbed a fishing pole and "started fishing,'' Machain said.

Jennifer Deleon, Skylar Deleon's former wife, was tried and convicted for murdering Tom and Jackie Hawks and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a separate 2006 trial.

Machain cooperated with the prosecution in a deal to avoid the death penalty; alleged co-conspirator John Fitzgerald Kennedy is awaiting trial. Adam Rohrig, a fourth man reportedly involved, was not on the boat when the murders took place and is not expected to face charges.

Elias testified that Deleon asked him to kill Rohrig; Kathleen Harris, a notary; and Deleon's cousin Mike Lewis. Elias claims Deleon promised him $1 million for himself and an additional $2 million for the men Elias would hire for the killings.

Harris testified that she was duped into doctoring documents for the Deleons and then threatened with violence if she didn't continue to cooperate with the plot.

Harris met the couple through Rohrig, a mutual friend. Harris claimed she met the couple at an extended-stay hotel, where they asked her to backdate and notarize documents that were related to the Hawkses' boat.

"I really didn't know it was going to be fraudulent," Harris said of the documents she notarized. Though her normal fee was between $50 and $250, the prosecution said she received $2,000.

"I did not know how much he paid me until I got in the car," Harris said.

But she added that Jennifer Deleon promised her more money "when this is all over."

Harris said she didn't feel right about the transaction, so she called Rohrig to inquire further about the Deleons. She said Rohrig told her during a phone conversation several days later that she'd need to take care of more documents, or that Skylar Deleon, who he said had ties to the Mexican drug cartels, would come after her family.

"I was going to do whatever I needed for me and my family not to be killed," she said.

Rohrig, she said, then gave her physical descriptions of the Hawkses and, "He told me to tell the detectives that I met Tom and Jackie by the yacht to sign the documents."

Harris said she repeatedly lied to investigators in interviews, saying she wanted to tell the truth, "but I was scared for my life. I was told he [Deleon] had killed over 20 people."

"I was always watching my back, I always felt like someone was after me," she said.

Harris received immunity from the prosecution in exchange for her cooperation.

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The Gruesome Yacht Murder Case of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

• Justice Well Deserved

On Friday November 17, 2006, Jennifer Deleon was found guilty on two counts of first degree murder, after only four hours of jury deliberation. In October 2007, Jennifer Deleon, now calling herself Jennifer Henderson since her divorce from Skylar Deleon, was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole.

"She didn't have so much as a traffic ticket back then. If Jennifer had never met Skylar, none of this would've come into her life," said her attorney, Michael Molfetta, who blames Skylar for the couple's woes. "She had no idea what he was up to, no idea that he was into killing the Hawkses."

But if you ask the trial prosecutor, he'll say that Jennifer ran the show and was the driving force behind everything. "She was the dominant one in the relationship, she wore the pants," Murphy said.

Jennifer has since divorced Skylar and a friend of hers from jail said she wants nothing more to do with him. This is in marked contrast to her earlier frequent visits to him in jail, pledging her love, before she herself was charged. Then the visits stopped.

Deleons case went to trial in the Fall of 2008: Deleon admitted his guilt at the beginning of trial, but prosecutors persisted in an effort to convince jurors to recommend the death penalty for sentencing. A California jury found Skylar Deleon guilty of all three murders on October 20. The penalty phase began October 22; On November 7, the jury returned its recommendation: the death penalty for Deleon.

For Ryan Hawks and the rest of the victims' family, resolution for both cases will mean they can move on with their lives. Hawks and his brother Matt set up a website to help find their parents. Matt posted this note on Father's Day:

Happy fathers day DAD. They don't make words that can explain how great of dad you truly are. I am so thankful to have been raised by someone who taught me so much. I thank you for all the wonderful years we had, and the time spent with us. I promise dad that I will be the father to your grandson Jace that you were to me. I know that Jace will never get to meet you or mom again, but know that he will know all about you and the legacy you leave behind. I love you both so very much. Happy fathers day. Matt Hawks

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For sale: the ‘Well Deserved’ murder yacht with…

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For sale: the ‘Well Deserved’ murder yacht with a gruesome history

Kept in immaculate condition by its previous owner.

Has a cool name.

Little wear and tear the past four years.

Has some psychological baggage.

It’s also one of the most famous yachts in Orange County history .

It is the Well Deserved, a 55-foot Lien Hwa trawler, moored in Newport Beach.

This is the yacht that cost Thomas and Jackie Hawks their lives .

It was inside the hand-carved teak galley of the Well Deserved that former bit-part child actor Skylar Deleon forced Tom and Jackie to sign sales documents to the boat before they were tied to a 60-pound anchor and thrown overboard.

At first, in November 2004, it was a missing persons case investigated by Newport Beach police.

Then it was a high-profile murder investigation.

And it became a headline-making murder prosecution.

Deleon, 29, who prosecutors said was the mastermind of the botched plot to steal the yacht, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

So was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, a Long Beach gang member who signed on to the murderous mission at the last minute to provide the muscle needed to subdue Tom Hawks, a dedicated weightlifter.

Jennifer Henderson Deleon, 27, Skylar’s wife, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in putting the Hawkses at ease so they would go with her husband on their fatal last voyage. She visited the couple shortly before the murder voyage while pregnant and with her newborn daughter in her arms.

Myron Sandora Gardner, 45, a former gang member, accepted a deal with prosecutors and provided inside information about the plot to detectives. He was sentenced to a little more than four years in custody for accessory to murder.

And earlier this week, Alonso Machain, 25, of Pico Rivera – a conspirator who turned state’s evidence and became the prosecution’s star witness – got 20 years and four months in prison for two counts of voluntary manslaughter, robbery and kidnapping.

That closed the book on the defendants in one of Orange County’s most sensational murder cases.

But there are still a few loose ends.

For one thing, Tom and Jackie’s bodies have never been found.

For another, there is the Well Deserved, the Hawkses’ dream boat.

The couple pulled up stakes in Prescott, Ariz., in 2002 when Tom retired as a probation officer after 17 distinguished years to cruise on the open seas off California and Mexico.

They were living full lives, until they decided to sell the Well Deserved so they could return to Prescott to be near their newborn grandson.

That’s when Deleon entered the picture with his sinister scheme.

The inheritance that Tom left to his sons, Ryan and Matt, is the Well Deserved. Jackie Hawks was a loving stepmother.

Law enforcement authorities kept the trawler on stilts in dry storage and in plastic wrap for four years as evidence. But now that the criminal cases are over, the yacht has been returned to Ryan and Matt. It is in the Newport Beach’s Basin Marina now, being fixed up after years in storage. But by the end of this week, it will likely be returned to its original home in Newport Harbor.

And it will be placed on the market.

Both Ryan and Matt, who lost their father to murder in 2004 and their mother, Dixie, to cancer in 2007, are in their early 30s, and are not in a financial situation that would allow them to use and enjoy the Well Deserved.

In fact, the boat that was Tom and Jackie’s well-deserved dream is becoming a financial drain on the young men. They have been paying taxes on the yacht for nearly five years.

They also pay maintenance and taxes on the mooring, and they must maintain the buoy and the yacht, including monthly hull cleaning and topside deck washing, engine upkeep, etc. They are also paying out of pocket to fix up the boat, which was damaged by harbor sea lions and vandals before it was moved to dry storage in 2005.

Ryan and Matt have decided they must sell the Well Deserved, and they must sell it as soon as possible to avoid more monthly dings to their bank accounts.

The problem is that this may be the worst time in decades to sell a yacht. The economy is bad. People who have money are holding on to it. Gasoline prices are rising.

Ryan Hawks says Dixon Yachts International Inc., the yacht broker, believes that based on comparison sales, the Well Deserved will be listed for $229,000.

This for a yacht that Tom and Jackie Hawks paid about $300,000 for in 2002, and then did about $50,000 worth of improvements on.

And this is the boat for which Deleon fraudulently offered $435,000 in 2004.

Now it is worth a little more than half of that figure.

And it could be a tough sell, even at that reduced price, because of the notorious nature of what happened onboard on Nov. 15, 2004, according to Nancy Dixon, who has the yacht listing.

“Everyone knows what happened on the boat, and that might be a problem,” Dixon said. “But on the other hand, maybe someone out there is interested in doing a movie and would want to use the real boat. Who knows?”

It is a beauty.

The 55-foot Lien Hwa trawler has two decks, two staterooms, one bath and a galley. The interior is hand-carved teak.

Tom added wooden racks for a kayak and a windsurfer. And he equipped the yacht with the latest electronics, a generator, an enormous gas tank and a 400-gallon-a-day desalination system so they could stay at sea for months.

“It is the perfect boat for anyone wishing to complete Tom and Jackie Hawks’ dream,” Dixon said. “The object of the whole game is we have to sell this boat and we have to sell it quickly.”

To inquire about the Well Deserved, call Dixon Yachts, 949-355-4898, or e-mail [email protected] .

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/6936102001?isVid=1&publisherID=987209017

Contact the writer: [email protected] or 714-834-3784

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