Jury begins deliberations in Deleon trial

Jury deliberations began about 10 a.m. this morning in the capital murder trial of former child actor Skylar Deleon.

The jury must decide whether to recommend death by lethal injection or life in prison for Deleon, who was convicted Oct. 20 for the 2004 murders of Newport Beach yacht owners Tom and Jackie Hawks and 2003 murder of Anaheim resident John Jarvi.

Deleon, 29, who once had a bit part on the television show “Mighty Morphine Power Rangers� stole $50,000 from Jarvi in 2003 before slashing his throat in the desert outside of Ensenada, Mexico. Deleon also conned Tom and Jackie Hawks into thinking he was interested in buying their 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved, in 2004 before he and two other men bound and gagged the couple, lashed them to the anchor and tossed them overboard somewhere between Newport Beach and Catalina. Their bodies were never found.

Alonso Machain, an accused accomplice of Deleon, testified during the trial that the Hawkses were duped by Deleon’s story that he was a child actor who had money to burn and was looking for a boat for him, his wife and two kids.

After subduing the couple on their boat, during a test run to Catalina, Deleon forced the couple to sign over legal power and access to their bank accounts under the guise they would be spared, Machain testified. Instead, Deleon sailed farther out and tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard.

Machain told jurors that Jackie Hawks cried and begged for mercy before she and her husband were cast overboard into the ocean.

Defense attorney Gary Pohlson admitted his client’s guilt during opening arguments in the trial, focusing instead on saving Deleon from the death penalty by parading Deleon’s unhappy childhood before the jurors. Deleon’s family members testified during the penalty phase of the trial that he was beaten and emotionally abused by his drug-dealing father and possibly molested.

“Babies are not born murderers. They have to be turned into them,� Pohlson said during closing arguments Tuesday. “We don’t know what we would’ve done, if we were raised the way Skylar was. We all hope we wouldn’t commit horrible crimes. But we don’t know. What kind of person is this John Jacobson Sr.? He’s the kind of person that could turn another into a killer.�

Senior Deputy District Atty. Matt Murphy tried to downplay the alleged abuse.

“I’m sure there are people in this courtroom who had it a lot worse than this guy, but they didn’t kill anybody. This guy had every opportunity, ladies and gentlemen, to be a productive member of society,� Murphy told jurors Tuesday. “Does Skylar Deleon get to blame his dad for the decisions he made in murdering a woman begging for her life?�

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].