Defense in SoCal yacht killings says client did it

Defending a man accused of killing three people, attorney Gary Pohlson took an odd angle in his opening statement.

He said his client is "guilty of all three murders."

Pohlson told a jury Tuesday that Skylar Deleon killed Arizona couple Tom and Jackie Hawkins, who were thrown off their yacht and bound to an anchor. He also killed another man he met in a work furlough program, Pohlson admitted. But the lawyer argued his client should not die for his crimes.

"My goal is simply to save Skylar Deleon's life," Pohlson said in a 15-minute opening statement.

The concession is not the same as a guilty plea. Pohlson said he will dispute some details of the prosecution's case. The attorney indicated his client should not face the death penalty because others involved will have different outcomes of their cases.

Deleon is accused of killing the couple in 2004 to steal their yacht, as well as a man he took thousands of dollars from the previous year. The 29-year-old former child actor has pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain.

The defense strategy stunned Ryan Hawks, the 32-year-old son of Tom Hawks, who came to hear testimony.

"I was blown away," Ryan Hawks said. "Thank God I was sitting down."

Pohlson said outside court that he told jurors Deleon was guilty to maintain his credibility when he argues they should preserve his client's life. Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said he wasn't surprised by the strategy.

Earlier, Murphy told jurors the couple took a cruise off Southern California thinking they were showing off their yacht, the Well Deserved, to an interested buyer and ended up pleading to be spared death.

"The evidence is going to show that is how Tom and Jackie Hawks died, begging for their lives," Murphy said.

Deleon has allegedly boasted that he was a star on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" but apparently only had a small part in one episode.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Deleon, who they say drafted a plan to kill the Hawkses after learning they were planning to sell their 55-foot yacht in November 2004.

They say Deleon feigned interest in buying the nearly half-million-dollar yacht, then enlisted the help of two men to overpower the Hawkses on the cruise before forcing them to sign over paperwork for the yacht and killing them.

Murphy took jurors on a step-by-step outline of how the case unfolded after the Hawkses disappeared and family and friends began to frantically search for them around Newport Harbor, where they docked their boat.

Murphy said Deleon and his former wife, Jennifer Henderson, were a young couple saddled in debt and living in a converted garage.

After the killings, Murphy said Henderson paid a notary $2,000 to backdate paperwork to transfer ownership of the yacht and Deleon had a friend show her color photocopies of the Hawkses' drivers' licenses so she could describe the couple to police as if she had seen them.

Murphy said Deleon initially tried to enlist his friend Adam Rohrig to drive the boat while "he made two bad people disappear." But Rohrig refused and didn't take Deleon very seriously, Murphy said.

After the killings, he said, Rohrig asked Deleon how he was going to get away with it.

Murphy said Deleon answered: "No bodies, no murder."

Henderson was convicted in 2006 of murder and murder for financial gain for her role in the deaths and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. Three other men have pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain and have yet to stand trial. One is expected to testify in Deleon's case.

The jury will also consider the separate murder charge against Deleon in the death of a man he met in a work furlough program in 2003 while serving jail time for burglary.