48 Hours

Anchors Away

March 12, 2025 50m Episode 812
In November 2004, Tom and Jackie Hawks, an Arizona couple, were killed in a well-thought-out, diabolical plot. Former child actor Skylar Deleon feigned interest in buying the couple’s yacht. During the cruise, the Hawks were forced to sign over ownership of their yacht and power of attorney for their bank accounts. Accomplices Alonso Machain (a prison guard) and John Fitzgerald Kennedy (a Los Angeles gang member), helped Deleon kill the couple during a test cruise by tying them to an anchor and throwing them overboard from the yacht off Southern California. “48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 6/12/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen and Follow Along

Full Transcript

Business taxes. We're stressing about all the time and all the money you spent on your taxes.

This is my bill?

Now Business Taxes is a TurboTax small business expert who does your taxes for you

and offers year-round advice at no additional cost so you can keep more money in your business.

Now this is taxes. Intuit TurboTax.

Get an expert now on TurboTax.com slash business. Only available with TurboTax Live full service.
See what's screaming free all month long during Pluto TV's April Ghouls. Get your heart pounding with nightmare fueling classics like Insidious and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Or test your nerves with haunting hits like Urban Legend

and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

Pluto TV has hundreds of channels

and thousands of terrifying movies,

live and on demand.

Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices

and start streaming now.

The End All of our family memories are pretty much on the water. How's it going, Ryan? You having fun? Yeah, great time.
The happier times were definitely when a boat was involved. This is Captain Tom Hawks.
Tom Hawks was a good guy. He surfed.

He scuba dove.

He was kind of a guy's guy.

When my father would introduce my brother and I,

it would be, this isn't my son, this is my pride and joy.

He always had that great laugh.

He loved to joke around.

It took him like 45 minutes to cross.

He was 57 years old, but he was still like 12 at heart. I'm gonna go play some more.
Jackie, hello. Hi, honey.
I'm so glad to be home. I couldn't picture my father or anyone else or Jackie with anyone else.
Jackie's coming today. Got the boat all cleaned up.
They were good, loyal friends, and they loved each other. You could look up love in the dictionary and you'd see these two people there.
Tom Hawks, his dream was always to sail off into the sunset, and he bought this boat. It's the well-deserved.
It was well-deserved. They worked very hard for that.
This is the beach that we collect our puka shells on. Tom and Jackie had so much fun on the boat, I'm jealous of what they were able to do with that thing.
They got to swim with dolphins, whales. Almost gotcha.
Pull into Port-Sacall, go to little bars where mariachi bands are playing. They truly had the dream life.
Massive search is underway for an Arizona couple last seen here in Newport Beach. It started out as a missing persons case.
This needed to be solved. My father's friend called me and he's like, your dad's phone went to voicemail.
It's really strange. My dad's the kind of guy you can set a watch by.
I called my brother and I'm like, what do you think is going on, man? I was trying to think of what had happened and my mind bounced back to the Schuyler guy. Calling Schuyler DeLeon a sociopath is probably an insult to sociopaths.
We wanted that all-American little thing, you know, a house and all that kind of stuff.

Jennifer DeLeon is manipulative.

She's bossy.

The two of them meeting were like fire meeting gasoline.

It's almost hard to tell the truth sometimes.

After I look back at what he was able to do,

he scares the hell out of me.

I still wake up. I have nightmares.

You didn't think anything like this could ever happen to him.

You can't make a Hollywood movie this horrific.

Dark Voyage, tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. It sits cold as a tombstone, like bleached bones giving silent testimony to a crime that defies humanity.
This is probably the 30th time I've been on the vessel and I don't like it. Newport Beach detective Dave Byington doesn't rattle easily.
I get the heebie-jeebies on this boat. I just don't feel comfortable on it.

You start to think about, imagine,

only try to imagine what they experience,

and it's too horrific.

It is.

The boat's underway.

It's nighttime.

It's cold.

They don't know Hawk's love. It is a fairy tale romance that started hundreds of miles away from any ocean, in the mountains of Prescott, Arizona, where Tom was raising two sons alone.
He was a man's man. He was very masculine, very outdoors.
Tom's boys, Ryan and Matt.

Big on the chores. We did a lot of chores.

And he just wanted us to appreciate what we had in life.

Sons from a first marriage that ended in an amicable divorce.

He would take us to Catalina Island.

Do a lot of hiking.

Some of my better times with him were on the water. Was it a good life? Oh, it was an absolute great life.
It was a life where toughness was taught early on. You know, stay strong.
I remember if I wrecked or cried as a little kid, he'd be like, toughen up boy, toughen up, come on, come on. Above Above all else this man played by the rules.
I think Tom really enjoyed working with people. Tom worked with the probation office of Yavapai County helping those in trouble find a second chance.
Tom was a kind of probation officer to take a real interest in the problems that his probationers were having.

John Ryder, Brian Gray, and Bill Piano were Tom's co-workers and knew what kind of a man he was. Tom was a quality guy.
I believe Tom's family life, like most of us, was real important to him. But something major was missing.
the tough single father had his heart melted by one Jackie O'Neill. She met Tom at a chili cook-off, I believe it was in July of 86.
Patricia Schuetz and Jackie O'Neill were best friends. He would walk on water for her and she would do the same for him.
It was clear where things were heading. He got, like, down on his hands and knees, and he asked her to marry him.
She was very excited, and she was very happy. And soon, so were Ryan and Matt, because there was a downside to life alone with father.
When I remember, he calls it his famous goulash, and he would make a pot of it for like a week. And every time we'd come home for dinner, we'd be like, ugh, really this again? Thankfully, things changed once Tom and Jackie wed.
Oh, dinner's got a lot better. Both Matt and Ryan were still in elementary school.
Did you think of Jackie as your mom also? Oh absolutely we called her mom growing up. She was the best mother any boys could ever have.
Jackie she's a real trooper. Most the time when they do something it's's idea, and Jackie never complains, and she just goes with it.
So it came as no surprise when Tom sold their house, and Jackie said yes to a dream her husband had been nurturing for years. Tom's goals in life was to retire and live on the sea, and own a yacht.
He said, life's too short, and it's my life, and this is our time, and I feel if I hesitate, it'll just go by and I'll miss it. It was here in Newport Beach, California, 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 seemed almost like fate when the couple bought a 55-foot yacht that was already named the Well-Deserved.
This is Captain Tom Hawkson, Well-Deserved. For Tom and Jackie, a dream had come true.
Ah. Life was an endless cruise.
We're heading out for these islands over here. Hi.
Filled with good times and best friends. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Happy Thanksgiving. Did you have a chance to spend time with him on the boat? Yes.
It was the most awesome journey in my life. Wow.
There goes Tom trying to swim. From Catalina Island to Mexico's Sea of Cortez.
This is what cruising is all about. Oh, yeah.
I'd be sitting at work and I'd be getting emails like, the water's 80 degrees, the surf's pumping, and Mom's making me go catch dinner. And I'm like, pfft, life's tough.
And there's the sun going down.

It's hard to explain what the feeling is out here.

Being on water for them was a solitude.

It was seeing the curve of the earth and seeing the sunset fall right behind it every night.

While the Hawks were living life on the sea,

something wonderful was happening

in the mountains of Prescott, Arizona. Something that would alter their lives forever.
Say hi, Grandma. Matt and his wife, Nicole, welcomed baby Jace.
They were just very excited. Jackie was already buying baby clothes.
Oh, he is looking at you, Grandpa. He's never seen such a big nose.
After three years at sea, Tom and Jackie decided being grandparents was worth more than all the sunsets across the Pacific. They wanted to come back and be part of our lives because they believed very strongly in family.
They put a small ad in a boating magazine.

The well-deserved was on the market.

All they needed now was an honest buyer.

Tom and Jackie Hawks put their boat up for sale,

and I went to buy it. Skyler DeLeon, file under loser.
Growing up I've never really felt like loved. If the Hawks are all about family, Skyler, the man who answered the ad for the well-deserved,

is all about the lack of it. Was it a happy childhood? No, my childhood.
I hated it.

I guess the environment, my dad. Tell me a little bit about your dad.
I hated him.

He was into manufacturing drugs and distributing and selling them. Big time drug dealer? I would say so.
Despite those odds, Skyler did try to make something of himself. As an actor.
He even made it onto a TV show, The Power Rangers. He would tell people he was a major member of the show's cast.
And that was a lie? Yes. In fact, you were just an extra on the show? It was a guest something.
How many times? Three times. Then, eager to get away from an abusive home, Skyler joined the Marines.
I ended up going to UA. Were you AWOL? Yes, I was.
Skyler was fast drifting nowhere. I don't think I had a life plan.
And then Skyler DeLeon met a small town girl with big ideas. How did you guys meet? From a random email.
Jennifer Henderson grew up in Long Beach, California in a devoutly religious home. She'd finished high school and ended up working in a hair salon.
After they chatted for a few weeks online, she and Skyler agreed to meet at the mall. She wasn't really doing a whole lot with her life until she met Schuyler.
Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy now knows everything about these two aimless young adults and their twisted relationship. He was basically a manipulator and somebody who's a complete con man and she was a spoiled brat basically.
So the two of them getting together was the perfect combination. I think she's definitely more dominant.
They'd marry and soon Haley was born. Pressure mounted for Skyler to support his new family and prove his worth to Jennifer.
I definitely loved her. I mean to the point there's I mean nothing I wouldn't do for her.
But Skyler couldn't hold a job. Couldn't find a way to move his young family out of his in-laws' garage apartment.
He grew desperate. Other than going AWOL with the military, had you ever committed a crime before all of this started to happen? Not until I met Jen.
Skyler's new ambition led him to a new line of

work, burglary. But he was arrested and ended up here, California's Seal Beach City Jail, leaving Jennifer to care for their baby.
There were $87,000 in debt. Skyler had no job.
She was pregnant again.

Was she happy?

No.

Tired of the bills?

Tired of the bills. Tired of the bills.
Tired of living with her parents. Tired of living with her parents.
She's like, you know, well, we got to do something. It was that pressure that led Skyler to Tom and Jackie Hawks, where he used the one deadly skill he really had.

How do you rate Skyler as a con artist?

As far as his effect on other people,

I've never seen anything like Skyler.

This is all that is left of Tom and Jackie's dream.

The well-deserved is now in dry dock in a Southern California lot.

Even those who chase horror for a living are haunted by the depravity of what happened here.

It drives me nuts. It gets me so angry.

And you start thinking about it, it's one of those things you need to get out of your mind,

because it's that terrible.

It all began with that simple ad in a boating magazine.

The ad that Tom had placed so he and Jackie could spend more time with their family. I called and I talked to him.
Were you planning on buying the boat? Well, we didn't really have the money. So then what was your thought? I guess our thought at that point was to, I guess, rip them off.
But Skyler knew he would need help. That's when he enlisted this man, Alonzo Machain, a young prison guard he had met when locked up on that burglary charge.
Alonzo is unsophisticated. He hasn't been a lot of places.
He hasn't done a lot of things. So he was ripe, I think, for Schuyler to enlist as a Confederate in this whole thing.
On November 6, 2004, Schuyler and Alonso went down to the waterfront to meet Tom and Jackie. Tom, smart and savvy, didn't like what he saw.
Thomas Hawks had been a probation officer for 20 years, and Thomas Hawks was kind of leery. Tom Hawks was asking $435,000 for the well-deserved.
Skyler just didn't look like the kind of guy with that kind of cash. When Jackie started proudly boasting about her new grandchild, Say hi, Grandma.
Skyler saw his opening. His grandpa.
Family. Holding his little grandboy.
The first thing Skyler did when they got off the boat is he picked up his phone and he called Jennifer

up in Long Beach and he said,

you've got to come down here and bring Haley

and put these people at ease.

So Jennifer came down.

That same day.

And used the kids.

Right.

I can't think of anything more horrific

than a mother using her child. It's, it's, I don't know.
But the Hawks fell for it, convinced they had a real buyer. They couldn't imagine the trap that was being set.
No one could. The disgraced Marine sized up the lifelong public servant.
Physically? Physically. Mentally? Yes.
To see if you could overtake them? Yes. And what did you think when you saw Tom? I thought he was pretty big.
The gang of two needed a tough guy. Skyler had recruited a gang member from Long Beach named John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

He's with a gang called Insane Crips.

It gives a sick new meaning to ironic.

Arrested more than 20 times, John Fitzgerald Kennedy joined the plot.

Skyler set a date to test drive the boat,

while Jennifer sat home, her child having served her purpose. She's up to her eyeballs on the whole thing.
It was November 15th. Alonzo came along, and JFK even wore a suit.
Skyler told Tom and Jackie Kennedy was his accountant.

The well-deserved

headed out to sea.

You were able to fool him?

I think so.

You're that good of a liar?

I hate to say

yeah, but I think so. Good and evil were about to intersect in the waters off Newport Beach.
Tom and Jackie Hawks guided the well-deserved from the shelter of the harbor. But as light danced across the waves, darkness was set to descend, brought on by the very passengers they had invited on board.
Alonso Machain, John Kennedy, and their hapless leader, Skyler DeLeon. I don't think anything was even 100% serious until it was too late.
And when was that? On the boat. That is one of Skyler's lies.
The truth is, everything was deadly serious and meticulously plotted weeks before, when Schuyler and Jennifer used their very own baby to con Tom Hawkes into believing they were honest buyers. He's capable of making decisions, planning things out over a period of time.
Detective Sergeant Dave Byington and Sergeant Evan Saylor would come to know everything about Skyler's plans, right down to the tasers and handcuffs he brought on board. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of premeditated, does it not? Beyond anything I could imagine.
That is because stealing the 55-foot yacht was only the start of the plan. They didn't want to get a job.
They wanted to take other people's money. Because of the work led by Byington and Saylor, the well-deserved would become evidence.
Incredible detective work by the two cops would eventually reveal every horrifying moment of that day at sea. This was really their home.
Yes, it was. They lived here.
This is pretty much as if they left for a short trip and then came back. Everything is intact the way it was when they lived on it.
This is the main stateroom where the bed is where Thomas and Jackie slept. The boat was now anchored well outside Newport Beach Harbor.
Skyler DeLeon went below. Moments later, John Kennedy, the hulking gangbanger who was pretending to be Skyler's accountant, also came down, feigning seasickness.
Eventually, Thomas Hawkes goes down to investigate because they're not returning. Jackie remained on deck with the jittery Alonzo Machain.
Jackie first hears a commotion down in the stateroom, and at this point she sees Thomas Hawkes being choked by John Fitzgerald Kennedy and being struck by Skyler de Leon. And then what does Alonzo do to her up here? Alonzo now knows that he has to do his part and he starts to overpower Jackie first by applying the taser.
He actually overpowers this poor woman, puts handcuffs on her. Schuyler and John Fitzgerald Kennedy end up overpowering Thomas Hawks, handcuff him, and eventually both Jackie Hawks is brought downstairs with Thomas Hawks and they are laid on their bedroom.
Bound, now Tom and Jackie Hawks would be gagged. Skyler tells Alonzo to go get some duct tape, and Skyler instructs him to duct tape over their mouth and their eyes, and he proceeds to do so.
Tom and Jackie huddle together on their bed. These are the details their sons Ryan and Matt would come to know, agonizing flashbacks that will never fade.
She couldn't stop crying. She was yelling at Skylar, saying, You this, you that.
You took your baby daughter and your wife on our boat. How could you? She was begging for her life, wanting to see her grandchild again.
I i mean she was only 47 years old and um i think the only thing my father could move was his hands and he just calmly stroked jackie's hands to give her some level of comfort that's the last moment that's the last gentle moment they had between the two of them and i never thought that you're absolutely right that everything else is just pure horror. Finally, the depth of the depravity of Skyler's plan was about to be revealed.
He produced this set of phony documents and handed the Hawks a pen. What was the paperwork that you wanted them to sign? It was the documentation of the vessel and the power of attorney for all of their bank accounts.
Yes. It's all laid out here.
Papers are laid out. They brought with them an ink pad.
Jackie's obviously still crying. She can't help herself and it's understandable.
They remove one handcuff and they remove a little bit of the tape so that she can see out, instruct her to sign her name, roll her fingerprints. Then Skyler starts asking her various questions about her accounts, account numbers, where the banks are.
Now it was Tom's turn to sign away the honest life he had worked so hard for to a man who had hardly worked an honest day in his life. If there was a chance of living, I think he was willing to just stay calm and follow their commands.
And he proceeds to sign all the paperwork, roll his fingerprints and gives him the account information that he's requesting. The phony papers signed, the well-deserved powered further out to sea.
Scott came up and punched in coordinates, which sent him out to Santa Catalina. And he knew exactly where he was going? Absolutely.
Out towards the deep waters off Catalina Island, where Tom and Jackie had so many good times. Hi Jackie! And were only days before they had enjoyed a final cruise with friends on the well-deserved and these people were living a dream and Skyler just took it handcuffed gagged and now tied to one another with nautical ropes Tom and Jackie were dragged up on deck that is when they heard the He hears that chain come, there's no doubt because when Skyler gets behind him and starts to, he actually hooks the anchor to the rope.
So now this anchor is now attached to these two poor people. This big heavy anchor.
It's massive. Was the anchor used? Yeah.
It was used. He heard that sound a hundred times and he's He's like, son of a bitch, they're not going to let us go.
He knew his destiny, and I believe that's why he fought back one last time. And he basically does a reverse mule kick with his leg and kicks Skyler.
He kicks him so severely that Skyler is lifted up off of his feet and lands on his backside. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is where you're at.
He sees this, and JFK is a big and he levels them, hits them. It knocks Thomas Hawkes out because the punch is so severe and so violent.
With the anchor chain tied around the couple, Skyler threw the anchor overboard. The chain fed out into the sea, yanking Tom and Jackie into the icy waters.

So that's where they are right now.

They're 3,600 feet below the cold Pacific Ocean,

tied to an anchor.

Have you cried?

Absolutely, by myself.

Just alone?

Yes, but I don't cry in front of people.

The deed now done, the well-deserved

headed back to Newport Beach.

Skylar DeLeon called his wife Jennifer on his cell phone.

You called her after they were dead?

Yes.

Do you remember what she said?

I remember her asking if I was sure.

And what did you tell her? I was like, I'm sure.

Skylar had a motto. Can you tell me what that was? No body, no crime.
No body, no crime. And he thought he was going to get away with it because there were no bodies.
Yes. Some people follow the rules, but where's the fun in that? I'm Soraya and this is Rule Breakers, the podcast where we celebrate the rebels, the misfits, and the ones who make their own way.
Every week, I sit down with the biggest rule breakers in sports, entertainment, and beyond to talk about the wildest moments, toughest lessons, and why breaking the rules might just be the key to success. Follow and listen to Rule Breakers with Soraya,

an Odyssey podcast available now for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, everybody. Hi, Jackie.
I'm so glad you could join us on our last voyage on Well Deserved. Friends and family believed Tom and Jackie had just sold the Well Deserved and were headed home to Prescott to see their new grandson.
Matt and Ryan couldn't wait. I called my dad's first, went straight to voicemail.
Then I called Jackie's, and it went straight to voicemail, and they never shut off their phone. What was going through your head at that point? I was thinking, I'm like, maybe they'd take a last-minute cruise, and I talked to my Uncle Jim, which is, he's a retired chief police for Carl's bed.
Jim Hawks is Tom's big brother. They had spoken just a few days earlier about Skylar and Jennifer buying the boat.
It was very brief, you know, just, hey, ugly. We called each other that.
And if you need help when you get ready to move, just let us know. But it had been about a week since that final conversation.
Jim decided to take a look at his brother's boat, which was tied up back in Newport Beach. We circled the boat on its mooring and noticed things out of place.
Then Jim and a friend boarded the well-deserved. I said, just be careful.
Don't touch any, you know, smooth surface. Let's treat this like it could be a crime scene.
And I called my brother and he finally said it out loud. And I'm like, well, what do you think is going on, Matt? And he's like, they're dead.
I think they're dead. Eleven days after Tom and Jackie last left port, Jim Hawks filed a missing persons report.
That's when Byington and Saylor drew the case of a lifetime. At what point then did you first hear the names Skyler and Jennifer DeLeon? Actually, the DeLeons were both listed in the initial missing person report.
Within days, Schuyler agreed to be interviewed. Were you looking to buy a boat? I'm pretty much always looking.
Uh-huh. Cool, calm, and collected, the con man spun his tale.
This is exactly what I want. This is perfect.
Sure, Schuyler told the cops, he'd just bought the well-deserved.

We spent like $4.85 on it.

But he'd never taken it out of the harbor.

Skyler said he had paid Tom Hawks in cash.

And that Tom and Jackie had said something about heading down to Mexico.

As far as we know, he's in San Carlos right now.

When asked where he got over $400,000 in cash, Skyler came up with a doozy, saying the cash was profit from a drug deal. $60,000 here or $90,000 there.
Right. Talking about this money that he had to launder, he was very at ease telling us this stuff.
It threw detectives off, Skyler confessing to a crime. Plus, he had all the paperwork to prove the boat was legally his.
All those documents he had forced Tom and Jackie to sign. Skyler, you got nothing to do with his disappearance, right? No.
And your wife doesn't either? No. Police also spoke to Jennifer.
And for the most part, the cops bought the couple's story. Thanks very much.
Just like the Hawks had. I was convinced that they were telling the truth.
But their story began to fall apart when the De Leones went to Tom and Jackie's bank. With that phony power of attorney document, they tried to make a withdrawal.
We've got surveillance videos of her smiling ear to ear, you know, trying to basically steal these people's money. And then police got a tip from Schuyler's parole officer, learning he had asked permission to leave the country.
Our concern was that he is now a flight risk. That's when Schuyler DeLeon was arrested,on was arrested, but not for murder.
He just kept on asking me, what am I being charged with? Once I told him it was money laundering, I could see that kind of like that sigh of relief. That feeling wouldn't last long.
As police moved in, searching the cramped garage apartment, Skyler and Jennifer had so desperately wanted to leave behind. We found their video camera.
The Hawks' video camera. Yes.
We found Jackie's laptop computer and then the batteries to Thomas and Jackie's Sprint Nextel phones. On December 16th, we get a call from San Miguel Village, Mexico, saying that the Hawks' vehicle is there.
And then we come to find out the vehicle had been dropped off by Skyler about a week earlier. Following him in another car was his wife, Jennifer.
It was time to talk with the district attorney. We hit it out of the ballpark, getting Matt Murphy as our DA.
Matt Murphy, with his love of surfing, and his passion for justice,

quickly grasped the enormity of what had happened.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were not only really good people,

they were totally innocent.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy had a problem.

He had never dealt with a crime scene like this before,

and he knew very little about boats. But he knew someone who did.
I'm not a nine to five guy. Salty Sam, AKA Gary Burns, a friend of Murphy's, 6,000 miles away in Darwin, Australia.
He's a character. He's lived on boats for pretty much his whole life.
Matt called Gary and described the shadowy outlines of the case.

I called Matt back and said,

in a boat that size, we'll probably have, for sure, two anchors.

Get your guys to go on board the boat,

count the anchors that are on there.

Sure enough, just like Gary said,

there was an anchor that should have been on the boat that wasn't.

Now investigators had their theory. What they needed was an eyewitness, and Skyler provided one.
His name is Alonzo Machain. Alonzo Machain.
Skyler told police Alonzo had been with him when he bought the boat and could back up his story. But Skyler bet wrong on Alonso.
He is the only one in this investigation that actually had a conscience. And it was that guilty conscience eating at him.
After briefly fleeing to Mexico, Alonso returned to Newport Beach and made a full confession about his involvement. I was able to cuff Mrs.
Hawkins,

just didn't even know what's going on.

And every horrific detail of the murders.

The scholar was looking for anchor to push them over.

The scholar acted as well.

They were being bound and tossed overboard.

It was called, like, the most I wanted.

Machain also told police about the muscle for the murder.

Gang member John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

March 2005, Alonso, JFK, and mastermind Skylar DeLeon are all charged with the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks. Jennifer DeLeon told a local news crew Skyler was innocent.
Would your husband want to kill someone for their money? No. This is not him.
But Murphy and company weren't done yet. They had the alleged killers who had been on the boat.
Now it was time to focus on the one who dialed into the murder on a cell phone. They tie him up.
He called Jennifer. The time they were killed, he made a call to Jennifer.
When they were turning back after throwing these four people off a boat, he made a call to Jennifer. What if they try and point the finger at you and say you were involved?

You have to be positive and hope that they wouldn't come to that and it wouldn't take you away from your kids.

23-year-old Jennifer DeLeon is now facing the same fate as her husband.

A month after her husband, Jennifer DeLeon, was also charged with first-degree murder.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were thrown overboard alive and begging for their lives.

Matt Murphy was determined to get justice for Tom and Jackie Hawks.

It is as ruthless and as dark and as cold-blooded as any murder capable of being committed by another human being. This very well thought out diabolical plot to do this.

They thought they were going to get away with it

because the bodies have never and will never be recovered.

The three defendants were charged with two counts of murder each.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy was working overtime

preparing to bring Skyler DeLeon and his crew to justice.

23-year-old Jennifer DeLeon is now potentially facing the same fate as her husband. With Skyler his prime target, Murphy approached his wife Jennifer with a deal.
We offered her immunity. You basically gave her a full ride out of any trouble.
We offered her a complete walk initially in the investigation. And she said no? And she said no.

Jennifer refused to testify against her husband,

but Skylar was willing to tell us about Jennifer.

Whose idea was it to kill them, yours or hers?

She threw it out there of what if they're not here.

And you agreed?

And I agreed.

A young mother could spend the rest of her life in prison.

First to stand trial, Jennifer DeLeon.

In less than four hours.

And on November 17, 2006,

Jennifer is found guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to two life terms in a California prison.

Skyler would be tried next. What are your thoughts on him testifying? Not a chance.
That from Skyler's own attorney, Gary Polson. And why is that? Because he's told so many lies.
And it turns out Tom and Jackie may not be Skyler's only victims. Who's J.P.
Jarvie? John Jarvie.

And who is he?

He was the person that I was at Seal Beach Jail with.

Did you kill him?

That's...

Gary Polson wouldn't let Skyler tell us about this man,

John Jarvie.

Skyler targeted Jarvie a year before he met Tom and Jackie.

He conned John Jarvie into taking out $50,000 on his condo.

Told some sort of story that John Jarvie bought into

and convinced John Jarvie to accompany him down into Mexico.

And he let him off down into a ravine, and there Skyler DeLeon cut his throat. Skyler is charged with John Jarvie's murder leaving no question that the con man is also a cold-blooded killer.
Did you kill Tom and Jackie Hawks? I guess according to law and stuff like that, yes.

The answer is yes? Did you kill Tom and Jackie Hawkes? Per, I guess, according to law and stuff like that, yes.

The answer is yes?

Yes.

The three killings are merged into one trial.

I expect a pretty quick verdict.

And it didn't take long.

And it's guilty, guilty, guilty.

Skyler is convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and John Jarvie. Now, Gary Polson was only fighting for one thing, keeping Skyler off death row.
That's all I'm going for. But those who treasure the memory of Tom and Jackie had very different ideas.
Death. I'm hoping for the death penalty.
If anybody deserves a death penalty, it's Skyler de Leon. Are you afraid to die? No.
Skyler's life hung in the balance, yet he was still blaming everyone but himself. The feeling I'm getting from you is that you're this weaselly little guy who's trying to make his wife happy, you concoct this big scheme, and then you lost control of it.
Yeah. Kind of.
That's the part that people will hold you responsible for. And the people did.

On April 10, 2009, Skyler DeLeon is sentenced to death.

It wasn't a good feeling or exciting.

It was sad because it was all over.

My parents are still missing.

And I'll never get a chance to bury them. I'll never get a chance to say goodbye.
And that bothers me. In death, as in life, Tom and Jackie Hawkes touched everyone they ever met.
Ever since this thing started, every day I look at the ocean and I say hi to Tom and Jackie. Every day, I make a point of saying hello to them both.
Do you think you always will? Probably, yeah. In 2009, gang member John Fitzgerald Kennedy was found guilty and sentenced to death.
California's governor imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019. Alonzo Machain was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years for crimes including manslaughter and kidnapping.
See what's screaming free all month long

during Pluto TV's April Ghouls.

Get your heart pounding with nightmare fueling classics

like Insidious and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Or test your nerves with haunting hits like Urban Legend

and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

Pluto TV has hundreds of channels

and thousands of terrifying movies, live and on demand.

Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices

and start streaming now.