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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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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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.

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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.

The Real Murders of Orange County

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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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What Happened to Tom and Jackie Hawks?

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It had been a week since anyone had heard from Tom and Jackie Hawks, and that wasn’t right for a pair as dependable as the tides.

The 55-foot yacht that the retired couple called home still was moored in Newport Harbor when Tom’s older brother, Jim, arrived to track them down.

Waiting for him that late November day was Carter Ford, port captain of the Lido Isle Yacht Club, who had befriended the Hawkses, finding the newcomers refreshingly unpretentious and endearing in a world where people often are intent on flashing their wealth.

Ford had already noticed that the 11-foot dinghy that ferried Tom and Jackie between the Well Deserved and Balboa Peninsula was tied sloppily to the dock, and its motor was still in the water, mistakes the couple would never make.

Something wasn’t right.

The men jumped into Ford’s 21-foot harbor cruiser and made the five-minute trip to the Well Deserved.

They circled the yacht a couple of times. The green canvas that covered the nautical equipment was half off. A towel hung out of a porthole. They could tell this wasn’t the way Tom and Jackie would care for the boat. They pulled up closer, and Jim, a former Carlsbad police chief, went on board and left his card.

The next day, a woman called. She said that she and her husband, Skylar Deleon, had bought the boat about 10 days before but hadn’t seen the Hawkses since then. If you hear from them, she said, tell Tom my husband needs to talk to him about changing the fuel tanks.

Nobody heard from the Hawkses again.

A few weeks later, Skylar Deleon, 25 -- who had said he was a former child actor -- was arrested by police. Authorities say he hatched the plan to kill the Hawkses, steal their boat and loot their bank account. He and four other people -- including his wife, Jennifer -- have been charged with murder.

Police say that somewhere between Newport Harbor and Santa Catalina, the Hawkses were handcuffed to the boat’s anchor and thrown overboard alive. Tom was 57; Jackie, was 47. Their bodies have not been found.

In the days after the disappearance, Deleon drove the Hawkses’ car to an Arizona bank, where, police say, he tried to empty the couple’s bank account using a document signed by the Hawkses giving him power of attorney. Unsuccessful, he tried again a couple of days later, calling the bank from Mexico, and abandoned the couple’s car in Ensenada, police say. On Nov. 26, the family filed a missing-persons report.

Deleon told police that on Nov. 15 he paid the Hawkses more than $400,000 in cash for the Well Deserved and watched as they got into their silver Honda CR-V and drove off from Newport Beach.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled for late May or early June.

The Hawkses were the kind of people personal finance magazines hold up as models.

They invested well in real estate and bought the Well Deserved in October 2000. Shortly before Tom retired as a Yavapai County, Ariz., deputy probation officer in August 2001, they sold their house and moved onto the boat, mooring it in Long Beach. It had two decks, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a galley. The interior was hand-carved teak.

Tom added wooden racks for a kayak and a windsurfer. He equipped the boat with the latest electronics, a generator and a 400-gallon-a-day desalination system so they could stay at sea for months.

Tom was so good with his hands that “he could turn a dump into a mansion,” said his son Ryan, 28, of San Diego.

After divorcing his first wife, Tom moved from Del Mar to Prescott, Ariz., where he bought a small cabin and nearly quadrupled its size, adding three bedrooms, a gym and a sewing room.

Tom and Jackie met in 1986 at a chili cookoff. They were fitness buffs, and Tom worked out an hour and a half a day. Jackie went to a gym religiously. Tom was an Arizona arm-wrestling champion, and he competed in amateur bodybuilding competitions into his early 50s, said Ryan Hawks and his brother, Matt, 26, of Buckeye, Ariz.

Tom wrote an article for the yachting magazine Latitudes & Attitudes’ February 2005 issue explaining how to exercise in the limited confines of a boat. The photos show a short-haired man with a mustache curling past the corners of his lips, his large biceps straining under the weight of a pair of dumbbells.

Jackie grew up in Mentor, Ohio, a block from Lake Erie and moved to Arizona after high school. She was on the back of her first husband’s HarleyDavidson in 1985 when a car pulled out of a side street and crashed into them, said her mother, Gayle O’Neill. Jackie’s husband was killed, and she barely survived.

She and Tom married in 1989. His two boys lived with them most of the time, and they called her Mom.

“Tom would walk on water for her,” said Tricia Schutz, a Prescott friend. “I’ve never experienced a couple that much in love, that compatible working together.”

Boating had long been Tom’s passion. Growing up on a ranch in Chino, his family would take their trawler to Catalina. As an adult, Tom always had a powerboat, and every other weekend, Tom, Jackie and the boys would tow it to a local lake. Vacations meant more boat trips.

All the while Tom and Jackie were saving to buy something like the Well Deserved, going to boat shows and doing research. Their goal was to cruise around Mexico. “They had been planning this for years and years and years,” Schutz said.

After Tom retired, the Hawkses moved into the Well Deserved, took it on short trips to learn its quirks and spent about $50,000 on improvements.

The Hawkses pulled out of Long Beach in October 2002. They cruised down the coast of Baja California, around Cabo San Lucas and into the Sea of Cortez, stopping in Baja and the Mexican mainland.

“The sea was calling us, and we couldn’t wait any longer,” Tom told Latitudes & Attitudes in an article about the Well Deserved in the December 2003 issue. “Life is just too short to put things off, and one cannot discover new oceans unless they have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

For the next 1 1/2 years, they e-mailed friends and family about their adventures -- diving for clams and scallops, swimming with whale sharks and spending Christmas with a Mexican family.

“We are so happy that we are finally in the Sea of Cortez,” they wrote.”This is what we have been waiting for. The weather is wonderful, the sea is like a lake....We just had a whale surface beside us, wow!”

If Tom and Jackie Hawks had learned anything while cruising the Mexican coast, it was that maintaining their 55-foot yacht was backbreaking and expensive. They decided to sell the Well Deserved, buy a smaller boat and maybe some property in Mexico and return to Arizona so they could dote on their newly born first grandchild.

The Well Deserved arrived in Newport Harbor on June 23, 2004.

Skylar Deleon was also a man with big dreams; they just went nowhere. He was going to buy a boat so he could teach scuba diving or use it as a charter for fishing trips. Another time he was going to start a business cleaning boat hulls. There were plans to go to nursing school, but he never carried through.

He told people he had been a child actor, but those stories were more fantasy than fact. He convinced the Hawkses that he had starred in the “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” show on TV in the early 1990s. An ABC Cable Group spokeswoman said Jon Liberty, a name that one of Deleon’s relatives said Deleon used, was a nonspeaking extra on two shows in 1993.

And for all his talk of paying $400,000 for the Well Deserved, Deleon and his wife were living in her parents’ garage in a modest Long Beach neighborhood. His name growing up in Huntington Beach wasn’t even Skylar Deleon. It was John Julius Jacobson.

Deleon’s parents split up before he was 5. His father was sentenced to three years in federal prison for selling cocaine when Deleon was nine or 10. While his father was imprisoned, he lived with his stepmother. His mother, according to relatives, didn’t have much to do with his life.

“I’m the only mom he knows,” Lisa Wildin said.

Deleon squeaked through high school and enlisted in the Marines about 1 1/2 years later, in November 1999. He went AWOL and received a less-than-honorable discharge, according to his family. He served just 15 months, according to the Marine Corps, which would not say what discharge he received.

While in the service, he cut off contact with relatives but then suddenly showed up a couple of years later with a pregnant wife and a new name. He was living with his in-laws a few miles away.

While the Hawkses were having the time of their lives cruising Mexico, Deleon was having problems staying out of trouble. He got a job as an appraisal contact at mortgage lender Ditech. But on Dec. 9, 2002, he was arrested with two other Ditech employees burglarizing the Anaheim home of a co-worker. He was carrying a loaded gun and plastic handcuffs, authorities said.

Deleon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation, and ordered to pay $200 restitution.

A judge allowed him to serve his time in the work-release program at Seal Beach City Jail, in which Deleon was allowed to hold a job during the day and return to jail at night. Deleon paid $70 a day for the program, around $2,000 a month, according to John Forren, chief executive of Correctional Systems Inc., which runs the jail.

It is not clear how Deleon managed to get the money to pay for the program.

Since his arrest, Deleon has become a suspect in an unrelated slaying that occurred while he was in the work-release program. Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy said in court in March that the unnamed victim’s throat was slashed Dec. 27, 2003, 10 months before the Hawkses were presumed killed. Sources say the killing took place in Mexico.

At the time it occurred, Deleon was serving his sentence in the Seal Beach City Jail for the Anaheim home burglary.

While in jail, according to a source, Deleon met Alonso Machain of Long Beach, one of those charged with murdering the Hawkses.

Machain wasn’t a fellow inmate. He was a jailer.

In February 2003, Deleon started work as an electrician’s helper at Total-Western Inc., an industrial maintenance company in Paramount. Machain, 21, and Myron Gardner, 41, of Long Beach also worked there, according to David Wimmer, a lawyer for the firm. Gardner and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 39, also of Long Beach are also accused in the Hawkses’ disappearance.

Like the Hawkses, Deleon enjoyed the sea. Jennifer Deleon said that when they met, her husband owned a 26-foot Sea Ray cabin cruiser. On Dec. 20, 2003, he brought the boat to Mo Beck Stern Drive Co. in Costa Mesa for repairs. He paid an $18,000 deposit for the work -- in cash, sources said.

According to a lawsuit, owner Mo Beck later filed to get the rest of his money, Deleon went to the shop when it was closed on a Sunday in April 2004, cut the lock and took his boat without paying the $7,500 he owed. He was charged with grand theft.

When the Hawkses decided to sell their boat, they were hoping to find someone who would care for the Well Deserved as well as they had, Schutz said.

Always frugal, they hoped to sell the boat without using a broker. “They’re the kind of people who did everything themselves, except when it came to taxes and accounting,” Ryan Hawks said.

On Nov. 12, Tom and Jackie took friends to Catalina and talked about the impending sale. Tom told Brian Gray, his old boss at the probation department, about the former child actor who was about to buy the boat. The Hawkses had wondered how someone so young could afford the price, but Deleon had convinced them that between his acting and real estate investments, money wasn’t a problem.

On Nov. 15, Tom talked to Carter Ford on the phone as he and Jackie waited for Deleon to come aboard for the final test drive. Tom said he wanted to make sure the new owner knew how to operate everything. “In Tom’s eyes, this nice kid was buying the boat,” Ford said.

That afternoon, Jackie called Ford and left a message: “We’re out at sea.” That was the last anyone heard from the Hawkses.

By the next day, the boat had returned to Newport Harbor.

A few days later, Deleon proudly told a relative he had bought a boat. He e-mailed him a photo and said he couldn’t wait to ride it in the annual Newport Harbor Christmas boat parade.

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A receipt from Target, a stolen car in Mexico and a third unsolved murder: Investigation into yacht murder of California couple

Hawks worked for decades toward their dream - then, strangers took it all away.

Tom Hawks, a Vietnam veteran and father of two boys, had a beautiful dream: to retire in his 50s and live on a boat with his wife Jackie. He eventually achieved it after prudently saving and investing his money for decades. But over the course of a week, another couple — complete strangers to the Hawks — took it all away.

After planning for years, Tom and Jackie Hawks eventually bought a 55-foot trawler yacht for about $300,000 and named it the “Well Deserved,” which their tight-knit circle of friends and family agreed was perfectly fitting.

The couple outfitted the vessel with the latest technology and for two years traveled from their Newport Beach mooring along the California coast and to Mexico. Then, when their younger son, Matt, told them he and his wife were going to have a baby, they decided to sell the boat and get a house back on land to be closer to their grandchild.

Watch the full story on "20/20" FRIDAY at 9 p.m. ET

On November 12, 2004, the couple took their last trip to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, California, to commemorate their passion project’s imminent sale. By this time, Tom and Jackie Hawks had told family and friends that they’d found a buyer and that the sale was going to take place in the next few days.

“Next thing you know is, no one could get a hold of them,” their son, Ryan Hawks, told “20/20.” “For them just to shut off their cell phones and drop off the face of the earth is...extremely out of character.”

The family found the Well Deserved moored in its usual berth at Newport Beach but the couple and their car — a silver Honda CR-V — were nowhere to be found.

“My uncle knew something was…wrong right away,” said Ryan Hawks, adding that his uncle had noticed the dinghy his parents used to get to their yacht hadn’t been tied properly to the dock and its motor hadn’t been lifted from the water. “My uncle was a hundred percent positive that my dad didn’t leave the boat that way.”

Tom Hawks’ friend Don Trefren also noticed things were out of place on the yacht.

“I noticed that the tarps up above on the deck, on the flying bridge, were all off. All the controls were just kind of peeled back and there was a towel hanging out one of the portholes,” Trefren told “20/20.” “I got a sick feeling in my stomach, you know, just like, just a sick feeling that something wasn't right.”

The receipt from Target

The couple’s tight-knit group of friends and family knew Tom and Jackie Hawks had gone with the prospective purchaser to take the boat out for a test ride. They also knew that the buyer of the boat was likely the last person to have seen them.

Jim Hawks, Tom Hawks’ brother and a retired police officer, left a note on the Well Deserved with his phone number in hopes that the buyer would contact him.

It was Jennifer Deleon who called him back, telling him she and her husband Skylar had paid for the boat with cash in full. Still suspicious, Jim Hawks reached out to Trisha Schutz, a friend of the family who managed the missing couple’s finances while they were traveling.

“Tom and Jackie, if they would have sold that boat, they would have deposited that money into their bank account,” Schutz told “20/20.” “There was no activity on their account. So we knew that something was really wrong. [Jim Hawks] told me that he was gonna contact the police department and file a missing persons report.”

Newport Beach police took on the case once a missing persons report was filed, nearly two weeks after the couple’s disappearance.

“This couple…were in the process of selling, or sold a vessel to this other couple, Skylar and Jennifer Deleon,” Newport Beach Det. Sgt. Dave Byington, now retired, told “20/20.” “Skylar happens to be a convicted felon. He's on probation. I go, ‘Geez… OK, well this doesn't sound good right now.’”

MORE: Yacht Murderer: I 'Never Really Felt Evil'

Skylar Deleon had a troubled childhood. He had been a child actor, with one of his most prominent roles as an extra in the 1990s TV show “Power Rangers.” Later, he met Jennifer online, got married, and had a little girl. He was expecting another child with her at the time that the Hawks went missing.

Jennifer, a hairstylist, was the breadwinner for the family while they lived in a converted garage behind her parents’ home in Long Beach. Given their living situation, the couple did not seem to police like buyers of such an extravagant yacht.

Police searched the Well Deserved, where they found a receipt from Target. The purchase, which was dated two days after the day friends said the Hawks were taking the prospective buyer for a test ride, listed trash bags, bleach and the antacid Tums.

“If I was going to kill somebody, I'd have my clean kit. And it would be bags to get rid of 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,” Byington said.

Target was able to provide surveillance photos of the purchaser to police. But investigators, who expected to see Skylar Deleon buying the supplies, were surprised to find Steve Henderson, Jennifer Deleon’s father, in the photos instead.

Police learned Jennifer Deleon sent her father to buy the bleach, Tums and trash bags so the couple could help clean their new boat. Henderson pointed investigators to a nearby church that he said the couple was helping to clean.

“When I see a family volunteering in a church, I was put at ease a little bit with that, thinking, ‘OK, this is going to turn out OK. The Hawks are fine,’” Byington said. “I was talking to Jennifer and basically said, ‘We're looking for the Hawks. The family's very concerned.’ And she said, and she was very genuine, she goes, ‘We're really concerned, too.’”

“Then she goes, ‘We've been trying to reach out to them continually since we bought it.’ She said they have a lot of property, clothes and stuff. ‘We don't know what to do,’” Byington continued. “She was very specific and seemed very genuine in her concern for the Hawks and finding them. Skylar…proceeded to tell me the same thing that Jennifer did.”

Skylar Deleon produced paperwork for the boat’s purchase, complete with signatures, fingerprints and a notary public’s certification.

Much to their surprise, Skylar Deleon openly admitted to police that he used drug money to buy the vessel.

“At this point, I already knew that Skylar was on probation for armed burglary, so he's a felon,” Byington said.

“‘I'm telling you, Sergeant, I want to go straight with my family. I'm a father now. I have another child on the way and I want to do the right thing. So I'm trying to invest this money in a way that I can support them,’”Byington said Deleon told him.

MORE: A Moving Love Story, Drowned by Greed

Deleon told police that on Nov. 15, 2004, he paid the couple for the Well Deserved, presenting them with a briefcase full of cash in the parking lot near the moored yacht. Deleon said that his wife, child, a notary public and a friend from Mexico, Alonso Machain, were also there for the transaction.

“According to Skylar, Tom [Hawks] asked him, ‘Is it all here?’ Skylar kind of giggled at me and said, ‘Yep, it's all there.’ And so they basically said, ‘Here's the keys to the yacht,’” Byington said. “Tom and Jackie drove off in the Honda and Skylar and Jennifer said that was the last time that they saw them.”

The 1998 silver Honda CR-V

Nearly a month after his parents vanished, Ryan Hawks was urged by his uncle to go to the media to ask the public for help after investigators hit a dead end.

A retired couple in San Miguel, Mexico, heard his plea, telling police that they saw the missing couple’s 1998 silver Honda CR-V parked next to a mobile home.

The mobile home’s owner told Mexican authorities he didn’t know Tom or Jackie Hawks, but that the car was given to him from a friend: Skylar Deleon.

“And at that moment…any possibility that the Hawks were still alive died right there, unfortunately,” Byington said.

Caitlin Rother, a consultant for “20/20” on this story and author of “ Dead Reckoning ” about this case, said with the discovery of the car, police “realized that Skylar Deleon and Jennifer, who is also described [by others at the mobile home park], had been down there.”

“They had, now, witnesses who knew them and [the witnesses] said, ‘[The Deleons] gave us this car,’” Rother said.

“Skylar murdered these people,” Byington said he concluded after finding the Hawks’ car. But investigators still didn’t have enough to prove it.

On Dec. 17, 2004, police arrested Skylar Deleon on money laundering charges while they continued investigating him for the murder of the Hawks.

Investigators searched the Deleon’s home, finding the Hawks’ laptop and their video camera, which the Deleons used to document the Thanksgiving that the Hawks never got to spend with their family.

For months after Skylar's arrest, Jennifer Deleon continued to insist on her husband’s innocence in the Hawks’ disappearance, even declining an offer of immunity in exchange for information as to the whereabouts of the Hawks.

A third murder

Newport Police discovered another interesting clue in the Deleon’s home – a business card for Los Angeles Police Department Det. Joe Bahena, who worked as a liaison with Mexican police. They found that Bahena was helping Ensenada State Police investigate the case of Jon Jarvi. Jarvi had been found murdered with his throat cut in Mexico in 2003.

Jarvi met Deleon while the two were serving time at the City of Seal Beach jail, where some inmates were allowed to go out during the day on work release. After Jarvi was freed, he stayed in touch with Deleon, who promised him a big score.

MORE: Tearful Testimony in Yacht Murder Trial

In December 2003, a year before the Hawks’ disappearance, Deleon sold Jarvi on a business proposition to make a large sum of money – Jarvi gave Deleon $50,000 in cash, then accompanied Deleon to Mexico where he was supposed to complete the big score Deleon told him about. Jarvi never returned.

“There never was any deal in Mexico,” Jeff Jarvi, Jon’s brother, told “20/20.” “He took my brother down there with, specifically with the role of murdering him.”

Mexican police questioned the Deleons at the time, but Jarvi’s case remained unsolved until Newport Beach detectives started working the Hawks case.

The dominoes fall

Kathleen Harris, the notary who certified the paperwork for the sale of the Well Deserved, was interviewed by police several times. She repeatedly denied that anything was amiss, until the day she came clean.

“She came in and she said she'd never met Tom and Jackie Hawks. She had nothing to do with the murder,” former Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy, now an ABC News consultant, said. “She was given documents and paid in cash to backdate the documents. And so she backdated them to Nov. 15, which was the day that they went missing.”

“That was the first domino to fall,” Byington said. “Then we started pressuring everybody else because we knew everybody else had lied to us, too.”

Alonso Machain was the next to reveal his role in the murder. He told police that he first met Skylar Deleon when he was a jailer at the City of Seal Beach jail. Machain admitted he took part in the murders and revealed the full scope of the murder conspiracy to investigators.

Machain said Skylar Deleon convinced him that Deleon was an international hitman and that he needed to take out Tom and Jackie Hawks because they were evil.

Machain told police that on November 15, 2004, he, Skylar Deleon and another accomplice, John Kennedy, set out toward Santa Catalina Island on the Well Deserved with Tom and Jackie Hawks on a “sea trial,” or a test run of the boat.

Machain said Skylar Deleon and Kennedy overpowered Tom Hawks and handcuffed him, while Machain subdued and handcuffed Jackie Hawks. Machain said he, on Deleon’s orders, taped over the couple’s eyes and mouths and tied them together as Deleon navigated the boat toward the deepest point of the sea. Machain said they then tied the couple, handcuffed, to one of the yacht’s anchors – then Deleon threw the anchor overboard and it dragged the couple over the side.

Jennifer was not on the boat during the murders. So it came as a surprise to many when she, too, was arrested, just weeks after giving birth to her second child. Investigators discovered that Skylar and Jennifer spoke by phone numerous times on the day Jon Jarvi was murdered, and again when the Hawks were killed.

“That woman was physically not on the boat during the murders, but she was absolutely on the boat with guidance in spirit,” said Matt Murphy.

Machain testified in three separate trials against Jennifer and Skylar Deleon, as well as Kennedy. In a deal with the prosecution, he pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years and four months in prison.

In 2006, Jennifer Deleon was convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and later sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole. She was charged in connection to Jarvi’s murder, which she denied any involvement in. In a preliminary hearing before her trial for the Hawks’ murders, a judge dismissed that charge.

Nearly two years later, Skylar went to trial for the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks and Jon Jarvi. He was convicted of all three murders.

John Kennedy was also convicted of the Hawks’ murders, and like Skylar Deleon, sentenced to death. Both remain on death row today.

“At the end of the day, they all get what they deserve,” Byington said. “Only Alonso [Machain] will ever see the light of day again. He got sentenced to 20 years and he actually will be out soon.”

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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.”

“Muscle” in Yacht Killings Convicted of Murder

Published february 19, 2009 • updated on february 19, 2009 at 8:24 pm.

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A former gang intervention worker for the city of Long Beach was convicted Thursday of two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of a couple tied to an anchor and thrown off their yacht, which they had put up for sale.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, was the third person to go on trial for the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who took prospective buyers out for a test run on their 55-foot trawler on Nov. 15, 2004, and were never seen again.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated several hours before convicting Kennedy of the two murder counts, and found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murder and murder for financial gain.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Kennedy, who prosecutors said was recruited as "muscle" in the killings. he penalty phase of his trial will begin Monday morning.

Jurors will have to decide between recommending capital punishment or life in prison without the possibility of parole for Kennedy, who has a prior strike for a 1988 attempted murder conviction.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said the mastermind of the plan to steal the yacht "Well Deserved," which was offered for sale for $465,000, was Skylar Deleon, who was convicted of the murders and faces the death penalty when he is sentenced on March 20.

Deleon's wife, Jennifer Henderson, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in October 2007 for her role in the plot.

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When Skylar Deleon and Alonso Machain, a former jailer at the Seal Beach Jail, met with the Hawkses early in November, they realized they needed help from a third person because Thomas Hawks, a retired probation officer, was a strapping, fit man who had been a wrestling champion in high school, the prosecutor said. 

Deleon turned first to another Long Beach resident, who turned down the job and suggested another man who "flaked," at which point Kennedy's name came up, the prosecutor said.

"They told him they'd pay him a lot of money if he helped commit those murders," Murphy told the jury last month. 

The plan was to introduce Kennedy as an accountant to get him aboard and to quell any suspicions, he said.

After getting Thomas Hawks below board on a pretext, Kennedy grabbed him by the throat and got him in a headlock, at which point Deleon pulled out a stun gun and kicked the 57-year-old boat owner in the face, Murphy said.

Machain subdued Jackie Hawks in another area of the boat, and for two hours as the boat headed out to sea, the 47-year-old woman begged for her life while her husband tried to calm her, according to the prosecutor, who said both victims had duct tape over their eyes and mouths.

He said the couple quickly agreed to cooperate with their attackers, and had signed over a boat ownership form as well as a power of attorney form that Deleon later told detectives he was going to use to help Tom Hawks set up a bank account in Mexico for buying property there.

While on deck, Tom Hawks fought back, kicking Deleon in the groin and almost knocking him off the boat. Kennedy punched the victim in the side of the head, and he went limp, the prosecutor said. The men then tied the couple to the anchor and threw it overboard, he said.

The three divided up $3,600 that was on the boat, and on the way back, Kennedy popped open a can of beer and fished, Murphy said.

Defense attorney Winston McKesson told jurors that his client, formerly known by the moniker "CJ" for Crazy John, had left street violence behind and was preparing to take over a ministry that helps former gang members get away from their past.

McKesson argued that Machain, the main witness against his client, did not know Kennedy's name and identified him only by picking out a photo from a police "six-pack."

The Gruesome Yacht Murder Case of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

• A Terrifying Afternoon

Once the yacht was well out to sea, it didn't take long for the idyllic cruise to turn ugly. While Jackie was on deck with Machain, Thomas was lured below to the master stateroom by Skylar and Kennedy. With the element of surprise on their side, Skylar and Kennedy began punching Thomas and using a stun gun on him. Incapacitating Thomas was no easy feat — Thomas may have been 57-years-old, but he was a former competitive bodybuilder and wrestler who prided himself on staying in great shape.

Jackie, 47, was overpowered by Machain and brought below deck to join her husband. She cried, "We trusted you! How could you do this? You brought your wife and baby on board!" She pleaded, "I don't want to die! I have a new grandchild in Arizona. I want to see him."

Sympathy was not forthcoming. The couple was handcuffed with their arms behind their backs, and duct tape was placed over their eyes and mouths. Thomas said nothing, Jackie sobbed through her tape.

Thomas was a former military police officer, firefighter and probation officer. He had no illusions that the gang would let them live: if they were let off the ship they could identify their captors. "He knew they were going to die and he did the best he could to comfort her," said Newport Beach police Sgt. Dave Byington. "He would reach over with a finger and stroke her hand."

It was an excruciating two hours that they sat there, as the vessel neared Catalina Island 30 miles offshore. Then they were brought on deck, and the tape was peeled back so each of them could see out of one eye. Thomas and Jackie were ordered to sign a bill of sale for the yacht, a power of attorney document, and to provide the passwords to their bank accounts. For cooperating they would be dropped off on a passing boat or a dock somewhere in Mexico, the thieves told them.

Thomas and Jackie complied, having no other option.

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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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