Case takes dark turn

Police suspect that missing couple were killed at sea. No trial date has been set yet.* Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series marking a year since the disappearance of a Newport Beach couple.

When Tom and Jackie Hawks went missing, friends and family thought that the retired Newport Beach couple were cruising somewhere on their boat, Well Deserved.

But when they learned that the boat was still moored in Newport Harbor, those close to the Hawkses began to worry.

They knew something was very wrong. Then months later, police said Tom and Jackie Hawks were killed by people posing as prospective buyers of Well Deserved, which had been listed for sale.

Authorities believe the Hawkses were tied together, handcuffed to the boat’s 66-pound anchor and thrown overboard alive.

Tom and Jackie Hawks have not been found.

In the year since the Hawkses’ disappearance, five people have been arrested and accused of killing them.

Tom and Jackie Hawks had decided to sell their 55-foot cabin cruiser and were looking to purchase property in Mexico. They listed the boat for sale for more than $400,000 in several boating publications.

When a young Long Beach couple -- Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Henderson-Deleon -- expressed interest in purchasing Well Deserved, the Hawkses mentioned it casually to family and friends.

Carter Ford, a Newport Beach resident and a friend of the Hawkses, said Tom Hawks talked with him about the young couple interested in buying the boat. Tom Hawks got the impression that Skylar Deleon had another boat -- a high-end sport-fishing boat -- and that he was looking for a second, more comfortable boat to please his wife, Ford said.

Deleon, 26, made several visits to Newport Beach to meet the Hawkses on Well Deserved. On Nov. 15, Deleon and another man, Alonso Machain, 22, of Pico Rivera, went out on a sea trial with the Hawkses aboard Well Deserved. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a man Deleon introduced as his accountant, accompanied Deleon and Machain onto the boat, Newport Beach police said.

Machain later told police his version of what happened to Tom and Jackie Hawks the day of the sea trial: Deleon, Machain and Kennedy conspired to overpower the couple using stun guns and handcuffs. Machain took care of Jackie Hawks; Kennedy and Deleon teamed up to subdue Tom Hawks. Given a promise that they would live, the Hawkses signed a power of attorney document, police said.

The Hawkses’ mouths and eyes were covered with black duct tape. They were tied to one another and handcuffed to Well Deserved’s anchor. Skylar Deleon threw the anchor overboard, which pulled the Hawkses into the waters off Catalina Island, police said.

When the Hawkses didn’t return phone calls and hadn’t made contact with anyone, people started looking for them.

The weekend following Nov. 15, Ford received a phone call from Jackie Hawks’ close friend, who said she was looking for the Hawkses and couldn’t reach them. Ford drove past the 15th Street dock, close to where Well Deserved was moored, and saw the couple’s dinghy tied to the dock. The dinghy wasn’t tied up properly, and its motor was in the water, two things Tom and Jackie Hawks would never do, Ford said.

“You suspected right away that they didn’t leave the boat there,” Ford said.

Ford, along with Tom Hawks’ brother, Jim Hawks, went out to Well Deserved at its mooring to look for Tom and Jackie Hawks. What they found gave them a bad feeling, Ford said.

“We drove around the boat, just looking, looking, looking,” Ford said.

The cabin was locked, but Ford and Jim Hawks climbed aboard and peered through the windows. The boat’s covers were off and askew, Ford said.

“For all of us, the boat that had always been immaculate -- the entire boat was sloppy,” Ford said.

When police interviewed Skylar Deleon, who they believed to be the boat’s buyer, he told detectives that he had purchased the boat with cash and that he last saw the Hawkses driving away with the money. Jennifer Henderson-Deleon provided police with the proof of sale; the documents were later determined to have been falsified, police said.

In December 2004, Newport police arrested Skylar Deleon, and he was charged with money laundering that authorities said was related to the purchase of Well Deserved. In March, the Orange County district attorney’s office charged Deleon with murdering Tom and Jackie Hawks.

Deleon’s arrest was followed by a string of arrests in connection with the Hawkses’ disappearance. In March, Machain told police he had been involved in a plan to kill Tom and Jackie Hawks, according to court testimony. He was arrested and later charged with two counts of murder.

Myron Gardner, 42, of Long Beach was arrested and, in the same week, charged with two counts of murder. Attorneys have never commented on Gardner’s role in the alleged crime.

Days later, Kennedy, 40, also of Long Beach, was arrested. He too was charged with two counts of murder.

While visiting her husband in jail, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, 24, was arrested and later was charged with two counts of murder.

In a preliminary hearing held in August, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that Skylar Deleon, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon and Kennedy will be tried on charges that they murdered Tom and Jackie Hawks.

The judge also granted a motion to sever the cases of Machain and Gardner from the other three defendants.

A trial date for the Deleons and Kennedy has not yet been set; lawyers say it could be more than a year from now.