Woman’s murder trial nears close

Two days after Tom and Jackie Hawks were allegedly tied to an anchor and thrown from their boat into the ocean to drown, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon bundled up Jackie Hawks’ clothes, kept a bag for herself, sent some to Goodwill and trashed the rest, according to closing arguments in her murder trial.

Did that mean Henderson-Deleon is insensitive or good-natured?

Defense attorney Michael Molfetta told jurors in his closing argument that donating the clothes to Goodwill showed how generous she is, but prosecutor Matt Murphy said it displayed a callousness.

Murphy refuted arguments made by the defense that she was a naive, demure young mother who had no knowledge of her husband’s alleged plan to kill the Hawkses in 2004.

Henderson-Deleon, her husband Skylar Deleon, Alonso Machain and John Fitzgerald Kennedy have been charged with slaying the couple. The Hawkses were killed after being forced to sign power-of-attorney documents over to Skylar Deleon, according to prosecutors and Machain’s testimony.

Henderson-Deleon’s main role in the alleged slaying, according to prosecutors, was helping to gain the couple’s trust as they attempted to sell their boat, Well Deserved, and move to Arizona to be near a new grandchild. Days before the killing was said to have been committed, Henderson-Deleon visited the Hawkses with her husband on Well Deserved after Deleon instructed her to bring their 9-month-old daughter and “put them at ease,” Murphy said.

“From that point on, she might as well have pushed them off the boat herself,” Murphy argued.

Even if Henderson-Deleon did not know the exact plans the “co-conspirators” had for the Hawkses, Murphy said, she aided and abetted their killing by knowingly helping her husband commit the crime, whether she thought it was just burglary or murder. He described some of Deleon’s past offenses, which he said should have been major red flags for Henderson-Deleon.

“She’s married to a guy who’s willing to use deadly force to steal,” Murphy told the jury as a packed courtroom of observers watched.

She knew of his past and still chose to stay with him and have two children with Deleon, he continued. Even when he changed the story of how he was getting the money and boat, Henderson-Deleon “never called a timeout,” Murphy said.

Defense attorney Molfetta, who will continue his closing argument this morning, on Wednesday described Henderson-Deleon as a victim of her husband’s manipulation.

“This case boils down to one thing,” Molfetta argued. “Skylar has his name all over it.”

He referred to Deleon as “it” and “excrement,” while describing Henderson-Deleon as a churchgoer whose only wish was to raise a family.

Was it plausible that Henderson-Deleon went “from school marm to a double murderer; sweet to very, very not sweet; from child of God to sister of Satan — like this?” Molfetta asked as he snapped his fingers.

Molfetta called it a “quantum leap.”

A major point of Murphy’s argument was that the Deleons were more than $80,000 in debt when the two of them met with the Hawkses on their 55-foot yacht to discuss possibly purchasing it.

Murphy pointed out that about two weeks before the Hawkses were killed, Henderson-Deleon was already speaking with a real estate agent with her husband about purchasing a waterfront home with a boat slip.

Molfetta countered by pointing out the prosecution has no direct evidence Henderson-Deleon was involved.

He maintained that Deleon kept the plan secret, but acknowledged Henderson-Deleon turned a blind eye to where the money and boat were coming from, something he said husbands and wives do all the time.

Closing arguments continue today. Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel told the jury he expects they will begin deliberating today.