Couple tied to yacht anchor, thrown overboard, witness says

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A former jail guard testified Thursday about how a husband and wife were killed by being tied to an anchor aboard their yacht and dumped into the ocean.

Alonso Machain said he was on a boat belonging to Thomas and Jackie Hawks when they were killed in late 2004. He said he watched as they were overpowered by two men, bound by duct tape, tied to an anchor and thrown overboard off Southern California.

Machain, 23, testified Wednesday for more than two hours in the trial of Jennifer Deleon, who is charged with two counts of murder and special-circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders for financial gain.

Machain has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and acknowledged he hopes for leniency in exchange for his testimony.

Deleon, who was not on board when the couple were killed, has denied wrongdoing. If convicted, she faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Her husband, Skylar Deleon, and another man, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, have also been charged with murder but say they are innocent. Both could face the death penalty and are expected to stand trial in January.

Machain testified he stood watch over Jackie Hawks in the kitchen of the main cabin while Skylar Deleon and Kennedy subdued Thomas Hawks in a lower area of the boat.

The ruckus caused Jackie Hawks to try to move past Machain, he said, and she screamed, "What's going on?"

The Hawkses were eventually tied together, still handcuffed, before being fastened to an anchor and dumped overboard, Machain said.

He said the men took cash, jewelry and other valuables from the yacht before heading back to shore.

Moments before they were killed, Machain said, Jackie Hawks pleaded with her captors to release them.

"She said they just had a new grandchild and she just wanted to see him," Machain said.

The bodies of the Hawkses, of Prescott, Ariz., have not been found.

Prosecutors contend the Deleons were more than $87,500 in debt. They say Skylar Deleon posed as a potential buyer for the yacht and recruited Kennedy and Machain to help abduct and kill the Hawkses, who were forced to sign over the yacht's title and control of more than $1 million in assets to the Deleons.

Prosecutors believe Jennifer Deleon knew beforehand that her husband was going to kill the couple and later helped destroy evidence.