Ryan Hawks, middle, emerges from court with deputy district attorney
Matthew Murphy, right, after jury decided the death penalty for
Skylar Deleon in the murder of his parents Tom and Jackie Hawks
in 2004, and John Jarvi in 2003. Jarvi's brother Jeff, stands
at left.
Jurors recommend capital punishment for man convicted of drowning
a Newport Beach couple in 2004 and another killing.
By Brianna Bailey
Updated: Thursday, November 6, 2008 11:11 PM PST
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Looking pale and wearing a wrinkled striped
shirt and black slacks, former child actor Skylar Deleon did not
flinch Thursday as a jury recommended death for his role in the
2004 slayings of Newport Beach yacht owners Tom and Jackie Hawks
and the 2003 murder of Anaheim resident Jon Jarvi.
“I think of this as a small piece of
justice,” said Tom Hawks’ son, Ryan Hawks, 32, after
the verdict. “My parents are still tied to an anchor 3,600
feet below the ocean. They’re still stuck down there waiting
for justice.”
Deleon briefly whispered in defense attorney
Gary Pohlson’s ear after the verdict was read, but expressed
no visible emotions.
“I look at him [Deleon] at every hearing
and not once has he looked over at the victims’ families,”
said Ryan Hawks.
The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated
for most of the day Wednesday and about four and a half hours
Thursday before recommending death over a life-without-parole
sentence for Deleon in the killings of Tom, 57, and Jackie Hawks,
47, and Jarvi, 45. Deleon is slated to return for formal sentencing
Jan. 16.
Deleon, 29, who once had a bit part on the
television show “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” stole
$50,000 from Jarvi in 2003 before slashing his throat in the desert
outside of Ensenada, Mexico, and leaving him to die. In a separate
scheme, Deleon also conned Tom and Jackie Hawks into thinking
he was interested in buying their 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved,
in November 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.
Perhaps the most heinous part of the yacht
slayings was the fact that Deleon gained the Hawkses’ trust
before he killed them, said Senior Deputy District Atty. Matt
Murphy.
“It boggles the mind, because he got
to know them before he killed them,” Murphy said. “When
Jackie Hawks begged for her life because she wanted to see her
grandson ... he knew who that grandson was. He had seen photographs.”
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 cruise to Catalina in November 2004, 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.
The trial reopened old wounds, for the Jarvi
family, said Jon Jarvi’s mother, Betty Jarvi.
Deleon reportedly lured Jarvi to Mexico in
2003 with promises of an easy-money business deal before robbing
him and slitting his throat.
“It opened it all up again,” Betty
Jarvi said.
Betty Jarvi had not seen the bloody crime scene
photographs exhibited in court before the trial, she said.
“I had been shielded from that,”
she said.
The jury deliberated for about two hours before
convicting Deleon of all three killings Oct. 20.
Pohlson acknowledged 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, John Jacobson Sr., and possibly
molested.
Deleon’s stepmother, Melissa Wildin,
testified in the trial that Jacobson would shove toothpicks underneath
Deleon’s fingernails as punishment for biting them.
Jacobson also would beat Deleon for not tucking
his shirt in properly, Wildin testified.
Pohlson did not regret focusing on the penalty
phase of the trial, he said Thursday after the verdict was read.
He prepared Deleon to expect a recommendation from the jury for
the death penalty, Pohlson said.
“It was the only thing that gave us a
chance,” Pohlson said. “Without that, they would have
given me the death penalty.”
Deleon’s ex-wife, Jennifer Henderson,
was convicted for her role in the Hawks killings last year and
was sentenced to life without parole.
Another alleged co-conspirator in the yacht
murders, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is scheduled to stand trial
in January, Murphy said.
Ryan Hawks called his brother, Matt Hawks,
in Phoenix after the jury handed down their verdict Thursday.
“Two down, one to go,” he
told his brother.
Deliberations in penalty
phase of yacht trial resume Thursday
November 5th, 2008, 5:36 pm posted by Larry Welborn
Jurors in the penalty phase of the so-called
yacht murder case deliberated for about five hours today without
reaching a verdict.
The seven women and five men will renew deliberations Thursday
morning.
They have been asked to decide if Skylar Deleon
should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility
of parole.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted last month by the same
jury of three counts of first-degree murder, including the November
2004 drownings of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were
tied to an anchor and thrown overboard in a botched plot to steal
their boat, and the December 2003 throat-slashing death of Jon
Peter Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, in a separate murder-for-money scheme.
Deleon’s fate in
jurors’ hands
Defense says Deleon is a product of his upbringing while prosecution
reminds jury of how killer’s victims died.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 11:44 PM PST
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hen considering whether to recommend a man
be put to death, which is more important: how a killer took his
victims’ lives, or what in that person’s childhood
made him a killer?
In its simplest form, that is what jurors in
the capital murder case of Skylar Deleon, 29, are being asked.
Should Deleon be sentenced to death for suckering a blind-folded
man into the desert in 2003 and slashing his throat after stealing
his $50,000 and nearly a year later sending a Newport couple to
the bottom of the Pacific, attached to an anchor alive, to steal
their boat? Or should he be sentenced to life without parole,
on account of the consistent physical, emotional and sexual abuse
his father subjected him to growing up, as the defense contends?
Twelve jurors will begin deliberating on that
question this morning after prosecutors and defense attorneys
gave their closing arguments Tuesday on why or why not Deleon
should face the ultimate punishment.
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy initially
focused his argument on undercutting the defense’s argument,
mainly, that Deleon’s late father, John Jacobson Sr., was
somehow responsible for creating the now frail, slumped-shouldered
man sitting at the defendant’s table during the trial. Several
of Deleons’ relatives testified during the penalty phase
that he was beaten and berated by his drug-dealing father for
the slightest imperfection, and possibly molested.
“Babies are not born murderers. They
have to be turned into them,” said defense attorney Gary
Pohlson. “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.”
“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.
“Does Skylar Deleon get to blame his dad for the decisions
he made in murdering a woman begging for her life?”
An accused accomplice of Deleon, Alonso Machain,
testified in the trial that Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie
Hawks were duped by Deleon’s story in 2004 that he was a
child actor who had money to burn and was looking for a boat for
him, his wife and two kids. Machain told jurors that up until
the end, Jackie Hawks was crying and begging the couple be spared
so they can be with their newborn grandson in Arizona.
After subduing the couple on their boat, the
Well Deserved, 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, he sailed farther out and
tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard.
“How do you cry and hold your breath
at the same time? How do you swim handcuffed behind your back?
Ladies and gentlemen, the great debate has been settled. This
is the worst possible way you can die,” Murphy said. “We
talk about well deserved. What’s well deserved here ...
is capital punishment.”
Pohlson hammered his argument that while Deleon
had a choice, in the end he is a product of a drug- and abuse-filled,
childhood where he moved from home to home with his mother, step-mother
and aunt.
“Skylar Deleon did not choose that life.
He was a captive in that life,” Pohlson said. “I want
him to sit in jail for 50 years or whatever, to never get out.
He was not born a murder. He did not choose when he was a little,
tiny kid to be born a murderer ... Go back, say your prayers,
do whatever makes you do the right thing. I know you will. Please,
don’t give him the death penalty.”
Murphy asked jurors to imagine what it would
be like to know you were going to die, and to think of the smallest
details in this crime when thinking of Deleons’ fate. For
example, when Jackie Hawks signed her documents before dying,
she deliberately kept the S off her last name, or that in his
helplessness, Tom Hawks stroked his wife’s hand to calm
her.
“Imagine the regret that he felt at that
moment when he realized the woman he loved so much was at the
mercy of a bunch of thugs and he couldn’t do a thing about
it. Imagine that. All he could do was stroke her hand,”
Murphy said. “When [Jackie Hawks] signs those documents,
she left that S off. She left that S off ... She sends out a flare
to the future. With that moment that woman was hoping that at
some moment, someone was going to make this right. Police can
investigate, I can prosecute, but ladies and gentlemen, she was
talking to you.”
Some mysteries remain
in Deleon case (11/4/08)
Frank Mickadeit
Columnist
The Orange County Register
fmickadeit@ocregister.com
The Skylar Deleon trial is winding down. The
testimony is over and on Tuesday morning the attorneys will give
their closing arguments as to whether Skylar should be put to
death.
I was talking to a couple of producers from
ABC's "20-20" on Monday afternoon (CBS's "48 Hours"
and "Dateline NBC" are here, too) and I was trying to
sum up what story is really left to tell. We know who committed
the murders, how they did it, when they did it and where they
did it. And we know why they did it – but only kind of.
For me, I told the producers, that's really
the only mystery left. Oh, we know the motive was money –
the crushing debt Skylar and Jennifer were under. But why did
Skylar make the choices he did? I was hoping we'd get to that
with the testimonies of psychologist Mark Cunningham (for the
defense) and psychiatrist Park Dietz (for the prosecution). As
Dietz said in his testimony Monday, he had several money-raising
options, including criminal options, short of murder.
But while Cunningham and Dietz could offer
testimony about what the statistics say – 40 percent of
men who are abused as children are arrested for violent crimes
in their 20s – nobody who testified could say why Skylar,
specifically, did what he did. After all, 60 percent of men who
are abused as kids don'tturn to violent crime. So the last big
mystery is: What is going on in Skylar's head? What is his pathology?
Neither Cunningham nor Dietz interviewed Skylar.
His attorney, Gary Pohlson, turned down Dietz's request to do
so. Cunningham's job was merely to provide information on psychological
studies of large groups of individuals.
Why didn't you provide evidence of any examinations
you had done on Skylar? I asked Pohlson. His answer was simple:
"They didn't help us."
I followed Dietz into the hallway and asked him this: What if
you'd been able to interview Skylar? If Skylar had been truthful,
would you have been able to tell us the why ?
"If you ask someone their motivations,
they'll give you some guess, but it's not at all clear for human
behavior whether we can assess motive all the time," Dietz
said. "If you ask someone why he walks across the room to
get a drink of water, he'll say he was thirsty. But it could also
be because he wanted to stretch his legs, he was bored, he wanted
to look at a cute girl. But he may not be aware that's why."
The best chance of getting to the real why,
he said, is to interview the criminal, review every other story
he's ever told and look at all the objective evidence regarding
his behavior. With the first component missing, Dietz couldn't
say what was really going on in Skylar's head as he plotted and
committed the murders.
Another mystery I told the producers: Why didn't
any of the sevenother people who knew Tom and Jackie Hawks were
in danger tell somebody?
Their names deserve special mention: Jennifer
(the conniving or compliant wife, depending on whose version you
believe); John Jacobson (the louse of a father who turned down
his son's request to help him kill the Hawkses); Adam Rohrig (the
dive buddy Skylar asked to drive the boat); Alonso Machain (the
ex-Seal Beach jailer who helped Skylar plot and commit the murders);
Myron Gardner (the gangster who allegedly led Skylar to two muscle
guys); Orlando Clement(the muscle guy who backed out at the last
minute); and John F. Kennedy, the gang member who ultimately,
allegedly, provided Skylar the muscle.
Seven people besides Skylar who thought life
is cheap.
There's one other mystery, which Pohlson's
investigator, Nicole Fisher, reminded the court of Monday. She
related how after the murders Skylar went to Arizona in his futile
attempt to access the Hawkses' bank accounts and drove miles and
miles past two branches of the Stockmen's Bank in order to go
to a branch in Kingman. It wasn't as if the Hawkses' account was
in Kingman. It was in Prescott.
No, the only link to the Kingman branch Fisher
could find was that it was 1.3 miles from a fine establishment
owned by Skylar's father, a strip joint called The Big Rig Dollhouse.
Did Skylar's father help him afterthe murders? There's no solid
evidence he did. But the location does seem more than coincidental.
Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri. Contact him at 714-796-4994
or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
Prosecutor: “You
will never see murders more diabolical, heartless”
November 4th, 2008, 2:08 pm posted by Larry Welborn
“You will never see murders that are
more diabolical, more heartless than these,” a prosecutor
told a jury this morning in the penalty phase of the trial for
convicted killer Skylar Deleon. “You will never see worse.”|
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy
(right) argued that Deleon — who was convicted of three
murders last month – had “a tremendous amount of things
going for him in his life” when he went on his murderous
missions.
Deleon, Murphy insisted, knew right from wrong
when he chose to commit three “horrendous murders for money…and
now he’s trying to used a bad Dad as an excuse.”
Murphy was anticipating final arguments from
defense attorney Gary Pohlson, who will adress the jury later
today. Pohlson contends that Deleon was pre-disposed to violence
because of early childhood emotional and physical abuse inflicted
by his mean and controlling father.
The same jury that convicted Deleon last month
is now beng asked to decide if he gets the death penalty or life
in prison without the possibilty of parole.
The prosecutor, in the first 90 minutes of
his final arguments, suggested that Deleon’s childhood was
not all that bad, and that even if he did suffer abuse, “so
what?”
Just because someone has been abused, Murphy
insisted, doesn’t mean they can’t make their own decisions.
And, the prosecutor asked, does any alleged
abuse outweigh the cold and calculated way in which Deleon murdered
his victims? Does it outweigh, for example, murdering a woman
who was begging for her life?
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted of
murdering yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004
in a farfetched plot to steal their boat. Deleon and his co-conspirators
forced the Hawkses to sign sales documents to the yacht, and then
— while Jackie Hawks begged for her life — tied the
couple to an anchor and threw them overboard.
He was also convicted of the throat-slashing
death of Jon Peter (J.P.) Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, in another murder-for-money
scheme that went sour in December 2003. In that case, Deleon enticed
Jarvi to refinance his condominium and turn over more than $50,000
with the promise of a can’t-miss investment scheme. Instead
of investing the money, however, Deleon murdered Jarvi on a Mexican
highway and kept the cash.
Murphy called Deleon a manipulator who is “one
of the most prolific liars imaginable,” and a killer who
tried to solicit the murders of at least four poteneital witnesses
against him while he was awaiting trial in the Orange County jail.’
“This man is dangerous,” Murphy
told the jury.
Final argument continues this afternoon.
Attorneys argue death
versus life without parole in yacht case
November 4th, 2008, 10:47 am posted by Larry Welborn
It will be one of the best prosecutors in the
Orange County District Attorney’s Office against one of
the best defense attorneys in Orange County when final arguments
get under way in the penalty phase of the Skylar Deleon murder
case today.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy is one of about 10
prosecutors on the elite homicide unit of the Orange County District
Attorney’s Office. The 41-year-old bachelor lives in the
South Bay. He is a surfer, a golfer and a billiards player. He
worked his way up in the DA’s Office, making his mark in
the sex crimes unit before he was assigned to homicides. He is
boyish-looking with close-cropped sandy blond hair known for his
passionate closing arguments. Murphy was assigned to the Hawks’
case within a few days of their disappearance in November 2004,
and has filed charges against five co-defendants.
Murphy, who has been on the homicide panel
for about four years now, will argue that the circumstances of
the murders are so aggravating that Deleon deserves the death
penalty.
Witnesses testified during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial
last month that Deleon and his accomplices forced Thomas and Jackie
Hawks to sign sales documents for their yacht in November 2004,
tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard.
Deleon was also convicted of enticing Jon Peter (JP) Jarvi, of
Anaheim, into giving him $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick
scheme in December 2003. But instead of investing Jarvi’s
money, Deleon slit his throat on a Mexican highway so he could
keep the cash.
Defense attorney Gary Pohlson is one of a few
skilled private practice lawyers in Orange County who are appointed
to important death penalty cases when the public defender’s
office declares a conflict. He has been married for 35 years and
has three grown children. He loves golf. He once studied to become
a priest, but soon realized his calling was the law. The 58-year-old
lawyer started his career as a prosecutor, but soon switched to
defense work and is now considered one of the most-respected defense
criminal lawyers in Orange County. He is known for his quick sense
of humor, often making self-deprecating comments about his stout
build and receding hairline. He has tremendous jury appeal: people
just generally like him.
Pohlson, who has defended more than 70 murder cases, will argue
that Deleon had a horrific childhood at the hands of a brutal
father and a drug-abusing mother that led him to be pre-disposed
to violence. Pohlson is expected to contend that his client’s
childhood mitigates against the death penalty.
Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel is expected to charge the
jury late this afternoon or Wednesday. The jury will be asked
to weigh the aggravating factors in Deleon’s case versus
the mitigating factors.
Deleon’s penalty
phase enters final stage
Aunt testifies about nephew’s friendship with her son. Psychiatrist
says despite alleged abuse, the killer had a choice.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Monday, November 3, 2008 10:26 PM PST
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Long Beach man never showed signs of abuse
and got along with his father just as often as he fought with
him, an aunt testified during the penalty phase of his murder
trial Monday.
Skylar Deleon was included in family photos,
hung out with his cousin, Michael Lewis, and sometimes spent summers
in the loving home during his teenage years, Deleon’s aunt
Colleen Francisco told jurors Monday as they weighed whether he
deserves the death penalty.
Deleon was convicted last month of killing
Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004 and John Jarvi
in 2003. Attorneys are calling witnesses they hope can sway the
jurors in their favor.
Monday’s testimony focused almost solely
on Deleon’s childhood, and what, if any, abuse he suffered
growing up. For most of last week, defense attorney Gary Pohlson
called on Deleon’s sister, mother, stepmother and others
to testify about the alleged physical and emotional abuse he endured
from his earliest years at the hands of his father, John Jacobson
Sr., who died earlier this year.
Relatives testified that as a child, no older
than 5, Deleon, then known as John Jacobson Jr., or “Little
Johnny,” was beaten and berated for the smallest mistakes
— from a shirt not tucked in properly to crying too much.
Relatives testified that he grew up in a house of drugs and told
his mother his father and his father’s friend molested him.
Pohlson said he’s looking to tell Deleon’s story to
the jury, and hopefully conjure some sympathy so they’ll
spare his life.
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy worked
to punch holes in the abuse stories Monday.
“We tried to love [Deleon] and make him
a part of our family,” Francisco told jurors.
Though Deleon lived with his mother and father
until he was about 6 years old, Francisco testified she occasionally
saw her nephew back then. She testified she never saw any signs
of physical abuse, but said Jacobson was too hard on his son.
Other relatives testified that Deleon grew
up with few, if any, friends. Francisco testified that her son,
Michael Lewis, and Deleon hung out “like brothers”
when they lived less than two miles away from each other in Huntington
Beach as teenagers.
Deleon’s grandfather, Julius Jacobson,
testified that he had never heard of any molestations, though
in cross-examination from Pohlson he acknowledged Deleon and his
father were essentially estranged from him for most of his life.
The testimony of relatives on Deleon’s
childhood widely vary. Those closest to him growing up, his mother,
stepmother and sister, all testified to witnessing extremely painful
and consistent abuse from Deleon’s dad. All admit to not
wanting to see him sentenced to death. Other relatives, those
just outside that circle, such as Francisco, testified that Deleon
was a normal child with friends, and they never saw any indications
that Jaconson beat him.
Each side even had psychiatrists testify about
the effects a traumatic childhood could have had on Deleon as
an adult.
Monday, forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz testified
that even if all the tales of abuse growing up were true, in the
end, Deleon still had a choice when he killed Jarvi and the Hawkses.
Both attorneys get their last chance to sway
jurors today. Murphy and Pohlson will give their closing statements
before handing the case over to jurors, who will likely begin
deliberating Wednesday.
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
Expert in Deleon trial
also testified in Unabomber, Dahmer cases
November 3rd, 2008, 11:45 am posted by Larry Welborn
Jurors in the yacht murder trial will hear
from a courtroom legend this afternoon when the prosecution calls
Dr. Park Dietz to the witness stand.
He is one of the most prominent forensic psychiatrists
in the United States, and also one of the most controversial.
He has reportedly testified more than 1,000 times, including in
some of the most notorious murder cases in recent United States
history.
According to his profile in Wikipedia, Dietz
(pictured at right in a 1999 file photo from the Associated Press)
has worked on cases involving Jeffrey Dahmer, John Hinckley, Andrea
Yates, Deana Laney, Susan Smith, Cary Stayner, Polly Klaas, the
Menendez Brothers, John DuPont, The Unabomber, the New York Zodiac,
and the Prom Mom Case; the shootings at the Empire State Building
and the U.S. Capitol; the DC sniper cases, and the school shootings
at Columbine and elsewhere.
Dietz also testified in one of most serious
murder cases in Orange County history: the 2005 trial of Alejandro
Avila, who was convicted and is on Death Row for sexually assaulting
and murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy
(left) will call Dietz to the witness stand this afternoon in
the penalty phase of the trial for Skylar Deleon, a bit child
actor and an AWOL Marine who was convicted last month of three
counts of first-degree murder.
Deleon was convicted of murdering Thomas and
Jackie Hawks in November 2004 in a botched plot to steal their
yacht by tying them to an anchor and throwing them overboard,
and in the throat-slashing death of Jon Peter Jarvi in a separate
murder-for-money scheme in December 2003.
The same jury is now hearing additional evidence
to help it decide whether to give Deleon the death penalty or
life in prison without the possibility of parole
Murphy will call Dietz to rebut evidence offered
last week from Dr. Mark Cunnungham, a Texas psyhcologist who testified
for defense attorney Gary Pohlson that Deleon, 29, of Long Beach,
was emotionally scarred from childhood by his drug-abusing mother
and his manipulative and controlling father.
Dietz is expected to testify among other things
that Deleon’s childhood was not so bad that it would turn
him into a multiple killer; that Deleon could have made choices
in life other than killing people; and that most others who experience
lousy childhoods do not become violent killers.
Psychiatrist tells jury
that a lousy childhood does not inevitably lead to violence
November 3rd, 2008, 6:21 pm posted by Larry Welborn
A Newport Beach psychiatrist testified in the
yacht murder case today that it is not inevitable that being abused
as a child will lead to a person becoming violent as an adult.
Dr. Park Dietz, a nationally-known forensic
psychiatrist who has testified against some of the most notorious
killers in recent United States history, said he believes that
convicted triple murderer Skylar Deleon had the free will to make
proper choices despite his childhood.
“There are always choices,” Dietz
testified.
Dietz was called by Senior Deputy District
Attorney Matt Murphy to counter testimony last week from defense
psychologist Dr. Mark D. Cunningham that Deleon was predisposed
to violence because of a lousy childhood that included his mother’s
drug use and his father’s physical and emotional abuse.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, (right) was convicted
last month of three counts of first degree murder, and now is
before the same jury in a penalty phase to determine if he gets
the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of
parole.
He was found guilty of murdering yacht owners
Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004 in a far-fetched plot
to steal their boat. Witnesses testified that Deleon and his henchmen
forced the Hawkses to sign sales documents before tying the couple
to an anchor and throwing them overboard.
He was also convicted of the December 2003
throat-slashing death of Jon Peter (JP) Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim
in a separate murder-for-money scheme.
Final arguments in the penalty phase
are slated to start at 10 a.m. Tuesday before Superior Court Judge
Frank F. Fasel on the 9th floor of the Central Justice Center
in Santa Ana.
Defense: Killer’s
past led to crime
Psychologist says social factors in growing up help determine
whether a person will make leap into criminal activity.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 10:07 PM PDT
Like pillars removed from a building, every aspect of a normal
childhood not available to convicted killer Skylar Deleon growing
up narrowed his choices and made it harder for him to make good
decisions, a psychologist for Deleon’s defense testified
this morning.
“There’s always a choice, but people
don’t always get the same choices,” testified Mark
Cunningham, a 30-year veteran of clinical and forensic psychology,
during Deleon’s death penalty trial Wednesday.
Cunningham acknowledged that Deleon knowingly
chose to kill Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004
and John Jarvi in 2003, but explained that his experiences growing
up perhaps contributed to his criminal path as an adult.
The jury has found Deleon guilty of the murders
and is now in the penalty phase.
As if a wall stood between a person and criminal
activity, Cunningham said every positive aspect of growing up
— a stable, supporting family, friendships — were
bricks added to the wall.
The more bricks, the less likely it was for
someone to make that leap into criminality.
For Deleon, he testified, there were barely
any bricks, or positive aspects to his childhood, to deter him
from a criminal future.
Cunningham listed nearly a dozen factors from
childhood, all based on testimony and reports provided by the
defense, to rationalize Deleon’s thought process. Cunningham
did not personally interview Deleon.
He was “criminally indoctrinated”
by his father, John Jacobson Sr., from the outset, Cunningham
testified. Deleon’s relatives testified that from birth,
Deleon was exposed to physical and emotional abuse, use of and
dealing of illicit drugs, and graphic sexuality, including being
molested himself. All of these would cloud Deleon’s perception
of boundaries — legal, interpersonal and sexual —
Cunningham told jurors.
But, he asked rhetorically, “Why is it
that some people grow up in adverse circumstances and come out
OK and others come out with extraordinarily bad outcomes?”
He broke it down to how the brain develops
in the first five years, the “rebar and concrete”
of personality and judgment.
“Some people, by the grace of God, get
more rebar and concrete” for their foundation, he told jurors.
By the time Deleon was 6, when relatives testified
he finally was put in a stable family environment with his mother
and her new husband after his father went to prison, it was too
late, Cunningham testified. Four to five years of a decent upbringing
won’t deprogram his earliest years and won’t combat
the nearly nine years afterward he spent with his father until
Deleon joined the Marine Corps. Deleon’s value system was
destroyed at the beginning, Cunningham testified.
“The foundation of this house is fundamentally
fractured from the outset,” he told jurors.
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy punched
as many holes into Cunningham’s assertions as he could during
cross-examination.
Through sometimes heated exchanges, Cunningham
maintained that his testimony about how Deleon’s upbringing
could affect his choices was not an evaluation of the defendant,
and was based solely on what defense attorney Gary Pohlson provided.
Murphy capitalized on that, disputing nearly
every form of abuse and trauma Cunningham based his testimony
on.
Was there any proof presented in court that
Deleon was molested? No. Not even a police report, Murphy told
Cunningham. What about the assertion that Deleon was “socially
isolated” as his half-sister testified? Murphy asked Cunningham.
A factor, if true, that would bolster the notion that Deleon did
not value people outside of his relatives.
Murphy came back during cross-examination that
Cunningham should have considered that Deleon’s cousin,
Mike Lewis, testified that they grew up together as teenagers,
when Lewis would hang out at Deleon’s house nearly every
afternoon. Lewis painted a more stable environment during that
time in his testimony. Murphy said sports activities like martial-arts
classes, becoming a competitive surfer for Huntington Beach High
School, getting married and befriending people at work as an adult
did not point to the socially isolated person the defense was
alleging.
“If what Gary Pohlson described to me
was inaccurate, then my findings are...inaccurate,” Cunningham
said. He maintained he was only testifying as to risks associated
with certain incidents in a person’s childhood, regardless
of who the person may be.
The trial will continue Monday. Murphy is expected
to call in a family member of Deleon’s to rebut claims he
was molested as a child and psychologist Park Dietz, who has testified
in criminal cases for Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, Andrea
Yates, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and the so-called “D.C.
Snipers” Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad to rebut
Cunningham’s testimony.
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
Prosecution in yacht
case to call psychiatrist on Monday
October 29th, 2008, 5:54 pm posted by Larry Welborn
The defense psychologist in the penalty phase
of the yacht murder trial wrapped up five hours of testimony Wednesday
by continuing to insist that triple murderer Skylar Deleon had
a propensity for violence partly because of an ugly childhood.
Dr. Mark D. Cunningham testified that Deleon
was indoctrinated into criminal behavior by his drug-dealing father,
an ex-convict named John Julius Jacobson. Cunningham also said
that Deleon’s future was shaped by his mother, who was using
drugs when she became pregnant with Deleon, and later allowed
him to be raised by his abusive father.
Cunngham has testified in more than 200 criminal
trials, mainly as a defense expert. In Orange County, he testified
for the defense in the trials of Maurice Steskal, who received
a death sentence in 2004 for gunning down Benjamin Watta, an Orange
County sheriff’s deputy; a rape-murderer awaiting a death
sentence; and Victor Miranda-Guerrero, who was sentenced to death
in 2004 for another rape-murder.
Defense attorney Gary Pohlson (right) believes
that Cunningham provides an explanation as to why Deleon turned
out the way he did, and that therefore his jury should give him
a life sentence without the possibility of parole rather than
death.
The prosecution gets its chance to probe into
Deleon’s psyche on Monday when Senior Deputy District Attorney
Matt Murphy calls Dr. Park Dietz, a nationally-known criminal
psychiatrist, to the stand.
Dietz has testified in more than 1,000 trials,
mostly for the prosecution. He testified in the trials of John
Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan; serial
killer Jeffrey Dahmer; and Susan Smith; who murdered her sons
by drowning them in a lake. In Orange County, Dietz testified
in the headline-making trial of Alejandro Avila, who is on Death
Row for sexually assaulting and murdering 5-year-old Samantha
Runnion.
Murphy (left) expects Dietz to testify among
other things that Deleon’s childhood was not so bad that
it would turn him into a multiple killer; that Deleon still could
have made choices in life other than killing people; and that
most others who experience lousy childhoods do not become violent
killers.
Dietz will be called to the witness stand in
Judge Frank F. Fasel’s 9th floor courtroom in Santa Ana
sometime Monday afternoon. The trial will not be in session Thursday
and Friday.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted last
week of three counts of first-degree murder: the drownings at
sea of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004 in
a botched plot to steal their boat, and the throat-slashing death
of Jon Peter (JP) Jarvi, of Anaheim, in a separate murder-for-money
scheme in December 2003.
Fasel told the jury they can expect final arguments
in the penalty phase — to decide his punishment —
sometime on Tuesday.
Killer’s mother
tells of abuse
She says son was hit when he was a baby, but stepfather says he
never saw any of the incidents witnesses described.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:21 PM PDT
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It’s as if Skylar Deleon’s childhood
were separated into two very different worlds.
In one world, when he lived with his father,
John Jacobson Sr., relatives testified Deleon was constantly beaten
without provocation and was told he was worthless.
Held up to an impossible standard, Deleon consistently
fell short in the most trivial of ways, such as not properly tucking
in his shirt, and he would pay dearly for it.
In the other world, away from Jacobson, who
was in prison for a few years, family testified that Deleon was
loved. He was shown right from wrong, laughed and was polite.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys for the 29-year-old
Long Beach man continued to present their black-and-white images
of Deleon’s childhood Tuesday in Santa Ana’s Central
Justice Center, each side hoping their version of his childhood
will be at the forefront of jurors’ minds when they weigh
whether to sentence him to death.
Deleon was convicted Oct. 20 of killing Newport
Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004 by tying them to an
anchor aboard their boat, Well Deserved, and throwing them overboard
when they were still alive. Their bodies were never found.
He was also convicted of the 2003 slaying of
John Jarvi, whom he robbed of $50,000 before slashing his throat
in the Mexican desert. The nature of the killings has prosecutors
seeking the death penalty.
Deleon’s relatives testified Tuesday.
Many of them still know him under his birth name, John Jacobson
Jr., and still call him “Little Johnny.”
Lynette O’Daniel last saw her son, Skylar
Deleon, about five years ago. It was on his wedding day.
Tuesday, O’Daniel saw that her son was
skinnier, shoulders slumped over, and a convicted killer.
Defense attorney Gary Pohlson asked O’Daniel
to fill out much of the previous day’s testimony, when other
relatives first introduced the wide-range, violent abuse Deleon
suffered at the hands of his drug-dealing father, including alleged,
and unproven, molestation.
As a baby, the senior Jacobson would hit his
son with a wooden spoon on the legs, butt, back and arms, breaking
several of the spoons in the process, O’Daniel testified.
Many mornings, O’Daniel told jurors she
would snort cocaine while making Deleon breakfast, and at night,
participate in orgies and do drugs with friends in their home
after putting her son to bed.
He was no older than 2 at the time.
Earlier witnesses testified that they had seen
Jacobson shove toothpicks under his son’s nails if he was
caught biting them.
It was an indescribably hard childhood for
the first six years, jurors were told. But Deputy Dist. Atty.
Matt Murphy pointed out that while it was bad for a while, it
wasn’t always that way. From about 6 years old to 10 or
11, Deleon was surrounded by a caring, loving family.
Edward Fisher, Deleon’s stepdad for several
years, remembered when Deleon first moved in with him and O’Daniel,
who had left Jacobson some years earlier.
Jacobson was in prison at the time.
“He was on edge, a little jittery; he
didn’t want to listen at first,” Fisher testified.
“I explained things to him. How things were. He argued at
first, but he came around.”
Fisher testified he never heard of any of the
abuse other relatives have claimed through two days of testimony.
He told jurors he never saw any of it first-hand. As far as he
was concerned, as everyone else has testified thus far, Deleon
understood right from wrong, despite the violent, drug- and sex-filled
world he was exposed to through his father.
This was the second day of testimony, and it
focused almost solely on Deleon’s childhood with little
mention of his victims.
Murphy was able to slide in a quick shot however,
when O’Daniel told jurors about how her son nearly drowned.
O’Daniel recounted how her son had rode
his tricycle into the pool while she went inside for a brief moment,
then had to pull him out and save him. It was a traumatic moment,
she testified, but not one where she seriously thought her son
would die.
“He wasn’t tied to an anchor?”
Murphy asked. Pohlson quickly objected.
Skylar’s mom weeps
“I’m so sorry” to her son
October 28th, 2008, 1:21 pm posted by Larry Welborn
Skylar Deleon’s mother choked back tears
this morning when she testified during the penalty phase of his
triple-murder trial about his tumultuous childhood of physical
and emotional abuse dished out his father.
Lynette O’Daniel told Deleon’s
jury that John Julius Jacobson, Deleon’s father, was a mean,
crazy control freak who gave her drugs, forced her into threesome
sex parties and who threatened to kill her if she didn’t
do exactly as he wanted.
She testified that she was abusing drugs supplied
to her by Jacobson when she became pregnant at age 17 with Deleon.
“I’m so sorry,” she wept
at one point in her testimony while looking at her son. She was
quickly admonished by Judge Frank F. Fasel to refrain from making
any direct contact with Deleon, who sat at the counsel table a
few feet away wiping his eyes.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted last
week of murdering yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in a botched
plot to steal their boat in November 2004, and of the throat-slashing
murder on a Mexican highway of Jon Peter Jarvi, of Anaheim, in
another murder-for-money scheme in December 2003.
Now the same jury is hearing additional evidence
in the penalty phase to determine if Deleon gets the death penalty
or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
O’Daniel was the fourth witness called
by defense attorney Gary Pohlson as part of his effort to show
that Deleon was the product of a horrific childhood dominated
by Jacobson, an ex-convict who abused women, beat children and
demanded total control of all situations.
Jacobson, who died in September 2007 –
reportedly from AIDS – has been described by Pohlson’s
witnesses as “a jerk,” a “really creepy and
mean person,” and a “crazy man.”
The challenge for jurors will be to weigh that
testimony against the facts of the murder cases, including how
Deleon forced the Hawkses to sign sales documents for their yacht
before they were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard while
they were still alive.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy
(left) has also introduced evidence that Deleon was convicted
in 2002 of burglary with the use of a gun, and that he allegedly
solicited the murders of his father and three witnesses against
him after he was arrested in connection with the disappearance
of the Hawkses.
The penalty phase will wrap up with final arguments
next week.
Lawyer: Killer suffered
beatings
Stepmother, sister say Skylar Deleon’s father held him to
a high standard and abused him when he didn’t reach it.
By Joe Serna
Updated: Monday, October 27, 2008 9:48 PM PDT
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acing a potential death sentence for killing
three people including a Newport Beach couple in 2004, a Long
Beach man’s defense attorney said all he can do now is tell
his client’s story.
On Monday, that’s just what Gary Pohlson
began to do. Only two witnesses testified for him Monday: his
client’s stepmother, Melissa Wildin, and his half-sister,
Stephanie Jacobson. Together the two testified about 29-year-old
Skylar Deleon’s upbringing, with his formative years becoming
a mix of physical and mental abuse, tagging along with his dad
on drug deals and later visiting him in prison.
From an early age, the Jacobson children —
Deleon’s birth name is John Jacobson Jr. — grew up
in a divided household. Wildin and the elder Jacobson had a turbulent
relationship, she testified. He would beat her and the kids, and
encouraged her to use cocaine, leaving a few lines on the dresser
for her in the morning when she’d wake up. As she recalled
for the jury, Jacobson had a short fuse and impossible standards
for his children, especially Deleon.
From as early as 5 years old, Deleon was supposed
to be perfect. If he had tousled hair or a wrinkly, half-tucked-in
shirt, Jacobson would yell and beat him. A pimple meant he wasn’t
washing his face properly, and that meant a beating. If he was
biting his nails — a bad habit of his — Jacobson would
shove toothpicks underneath them. Even when he bandaged his sister’s
wounds after a bicycle accident, it was “Little Johnny’s”
fault, relatives testified.
“It was always something,” Stephanie
Jacobson told jurors.
But through it all, Deleon’s dad needed
him, she testified. Little Johnny, or John-John as his siblings
and stepmother also called him, went with John Jacobson Sr. on
drug deals, at times being in the same room when men would lay
out kilos of cocaine to buy and sell, or use. He was the target
of most beatings and held to a higher standard, Stephanie Jacobson
testified. Even when Deleon grew bigger and stronger, he never
retaliated against his father.
“Skylar always tried to keep the peace.
He always tried to keep the peace in our family,” Stephanie
Jacobson testified. John Jacobson Sr. died earlier this year.
The portrait relatives presented Monday was
starkly different from the man who in 2003 slashed a man’s
throat in the Mexican desert for $50,000 and then threw Newport
Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks overboard alive, tied to an
anchor, in 2004.
Yet it is the same person, and attorneys for
both sides are presenting their case to jurors on why Deleon should
or should not be sentenced to death for his crimes.
From his earliest days, Deleon was treated
as a possession by his father, relatives testified — one
he was allowed to berate, beat and discard at will, Wildin told
jurors.
Wildin remembered one time at a gas station
when Deleon, whom she still calls “Little Johnny,”
tried to cheer up his stepmother. Jacobson had just walked into
a gas station after yelling and screaming at her, and Deleon,
no older than 8 at the time, said there’d be a time she
wouldn’t have to deal with that.
“He said ‘Don’t worry Mommy,
one day I’ll be 18 and I’ll marry you, and Dad won’t
be able to be mean to you ever again,’” Wildin told
jurors, her voice cracking. “He was sweet. He wanted to
make everybody happy.”
Prosecutor Matt Murphy attacked claims that
Deleon was abused as a child. Why, he asked, did no one ever report
Jacobson Sr. to social services? When she spoke to the parole
board about her then-husband, why did Wildin scribble on paper
that he never intentionally abused his kids? Wildin didn’t
have an answer.
Family testimony will continue today with Deleon’s
grandmother and mother testifying, Pohlson said.
Monday, October 27, 2008 Will dead father help Skylar live?
Frank Mickadeit
Columnist
The Orange County Register
fmickadeit@ocregister.com
Monday was Day 7 of the People vs. Skylar Deleon
but for all intents and purposes, it was Day 1 for defense attorney
Gary Pohlson.
In his earlier chances before the jury, Pohlson
quickly conceded Skylar's guilt and did little cross-examination
relative to his opponent's hours and hours of direct examination.
His closing argument in the guilt phase was less than 10 minutes.
The less the jury heard about the horrific
things Skylar did to his three murder victims, the less time they
had to think about it. Now, in an attempt to save Skylar from
lethal injection, Pohlson is trying to get the jurors to focus
on another horror story altogether: Skylar's childhood. And the
monster in this tale isn't Skylar, but Skylar's late father, John
Jacobson.
I heard from Jacobson once, two years ago,
after I wrote about Skylar's need to wear a diaper due to a motorcycle
accident. Cheap shot, he said. At the time, I wrote about how
in his voice I heard the sorrow of a parent anguishing over the
path their child took. I felt sorry for him then – even
when he threatened to come after me.
If only I'd known what I do now. The guy was
a real prince.
We found out about him Monday from Skylar's
stepmom, Lisa Wildin, of Marion, Kan. She's in her mid-40s now,
and has the ridden-hard, gravely voiced persona of the abused
child-bride and coke junkie she once was. Skylar's dad, she said,
used to give her an "eight-ball" every morning. I asked
my assistant, Kathleen, what that was. She pretended not to know,
so I looked it up myself: an eighth-ounce of cocaine, apparently
a lot.
John beat Lisa a bit, but she claimed he was
hardest on Skylar, then known as John Jr. If "poor little
Johnny" didn't have his hair combed right or shirt tucked
in," John Sr. would smack him. "Not a normal spanking,"
she said. "He would beat the child. He would use his fist."
And when he got tired of that, he'd sometimes
jam toothpicks under young Skylar's fingernails, Skylar's half-sister,
Stephanie, later testified. This is the now 20-year-old half-sister
whose baby book has a photo of her playing with $100,000 in cash
– money her father made dealing drugs and had left on the
kitchen counter.
The drug-dealing life was good to Jacobson,
and when he went to federal prison (in Lompoc!), he was able to
leave his family in the care of Colombian drug-dealing associates.
These goons came in handy, Lisa said, when a child-molesting friend
of John Sr. decided he would move into the family home while John
Sr. did his time. The Colombians showed up, waved their guns around
and the molester fled.
When Jacobson got out of prison, Lisa was tired
of his bullying but she made him an offer as they prepared for
the four-hour drive to his mother's house in Westminster. Her
ultimatum: "For four hours, just don't call me a 'stupid
bitch' and I'll stay with you forever." (Where do you find
women like that?)
But Lisa had forgotten somebody's phone number,
which irritated Jacobson, and they didn't even make it through
the prison gate before he dropped the b-word on her. So that was
that and she split. … Until he stalked her to Nowhere, Kansas
(pop. 2,110), and tried to win her back. By that time he'd given
up drug sales and was a traveling bumper-sticker salesman.
Later, dying of AIDS, he lived with Stephanie,
the only family member who would take him in. She cared for him
full time and bought his medicine, which he then turned around
and dealt to neighborhood kids while she was trying to go to school
full time.
The miserable sack of crap finally died last
year.
OK, so the only thing John Jacobson had in
common with Ozzie Nelson is that neither had a real job.
But does that mean the jury should give Skylar
a pass on the death needle? I noted two questions prosecutor Matt
Murphy asked that will go to the heart of his argument.
To Skylar's stepmom: "Would you say Skylar
understood what rules were and how to follow rules?" Answer:
"Yes." To Skylar's sister, who grew up with the same
father and was abused, albeit in lesser doses: "You obviously
never murdered anybody?" Answer: "No."
Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri. Contact him at 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
Deleon’s sister testifies bluntly
that Dad was a jerk
October 27th, 2008, 5:37 pm · posted by Larry Welborn
Skylar Deleon’s Dad was a jerk.
That was the blunt testimony Monday from Stephanie
Wildin, Deleon’s younger half-sister.
“My Dad was an awful person,” she
said. “He had to control everything. If things didn’t
go his way, he would make things miserable for everyone.”
She told Deleon’s jury that their father,
John Julius Jacobson Sr., was a mean-spirited, controlling, manipulative
man who heaped mental and emotional abuse on all three of his
children.
Jacobson, she said, seemed to save most of
his abuse for Deleon, his oldest son. “Skylar got the wrath
of it all,” she testified.
Stephanie Wildin was the second witness called during the penalty
phase of Deleon’s trial by defense attorney Gary Pohlson
(right), in his bid to save his client from the death penalty.
Pohlson contends that Deleon’s sense
of right and wrong was corrupted during his childhood by unrelenting
physical and emotional abuse dished out by Jacobson.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted last
week of three counts of first-degree murder, including the drownings
of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004 in a
bizarre plot to steal their boat. He was also convicted in the
throat-slashing death of Jon Peter Jarvi in a separate murder-for-money
scheme in December 2004.
The jury also found that Deleon, a former bit
child actor and an AWOL Marine, committed multiple murders for
financial gain, which qualified him for the penalty phase to determine
if he gets the death penalty or life without parole.
The penalty phase continues on Tuesday. Skylar
Deleon’s mother is expected to testify.
Stepson talks to jury
for 1st time
Jurors hear testimony during penalty phase of trial against man
who drowned Newport Beach couple. He faces death.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 9:12 PM PDT
ewport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks appeared
sublime.
Through various clips, the couple’s sailing
adventures over two years are marked with trips to La Paz, Mexico,
and Santa Catalina Island. In one clip, Jackie is tracking a whale
shark just off their boat’s starboard side. In another,
the couple are sailing among a pod of dolphins.
In a final, ominous clip, the two are having
dinner with friends aboard their boat, the “Well Deserved,”
and saying how they’ll miss it because they’ve found
someone to buy it.
That someone was Skylar Deleon, 29. He now
faces the death penalty for killing the couple less than a week
after that last clip was shot by Jackie Hawks.
The only time Deleon looked at the video screen
was in the last 40 seconds, when the video cut from the Hawkses
to a Thanksgiving gathering of his family, which he had recorded
over the Hawkses clips after prosecutors say he stole their camera
following the murders.
That’s what the second half of Wednesday’s
testimony at Central Justice Center in Santa Ana amounted to —
a window into the lives of Deleon’s victims, John Jarvi,
who was killed in 2003, and the Hawkses, murdered at sea in November
2004.
“I think of them in the morning when
I wake up, I think of them at night when I go to bed. I think
of their family, the pain everyone’s going through,”
testified Gayle O’Neill, Jackie Hawks’ mother.
O’Neill was one of several relatives
of victims prosecutors called to testify Wednesday as part of
the penalty phase of Deleon’s trial. Deleon was convicted
last week of murdering Jarvi and the Hawkses. Now attorneys will
make their case before the same jury why or why not Deleon should
be sentenced to death.
Deleon’s ex-wife, Jennifer Henderson,
was convicted for her role in the Hawks murders last year and
was sentenced to life without parole.
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy wanted
to humanize the victims, he said.
“[John Jarvi] was very clever, he sparkled,
he had friends you could hardly believe. He was brilliant, he
was ornery,” said Jarvi’s mother, Betty. She recalled
traveling to Mexico to identify her son’s body, days after
his throat had been slashed in the desert. She said she missed
him. They would go out to dinner three or four times a week and
he was the son she’d turn to to fix things around the house
or just carry on a conversation.
Ryan Hawks, Tom’s son and Jackie’s
stepson, testified for the first time about his parents.
While Ryan Hawks told jurors that his dad was
his best friend, Murphy pressed for something more specific.
“I remember growing up as a teenager.
It’s kind of like, he was against me, I remember him grounding
me for being a teenager and some of the things I did,” he
said. “I remember him telling me, grounded on weekends,
‘You think I want to be here with you [complaining]? I’d
be failing my job as a parent if I let you go off.’ You’ll
thank me some day.”
“I never got to thank him,” he
added.
Jurors heard prosecutors for the first time
say that jail did not stop Deleon from trying to kill more. While
in jail as his two murder cases separately worked through the
courts, Deleon approached two inmates he thought could help “get
rid of” witnesses in his case, prosecutors said. Deleon
asked the men to kill his father, his cousin and at least two
others involved in the 2004 murders, witnesses testified.
The testimony goes to the heart of the prosecution’s
argument that Deleon is an unrepentant liar who does whatever
he has to to get out of a jam. All the witnesses’ stories
traced a similar path: Deleon lied to them, sometimes without
their knowing it, to benefit himself.
The penalty phase of the trial will continue
Monday with the defense’s case. Defense attorney Gary Pohlson
said Deleon’s family members will testify on his behalf
and psychologists could testify about what effects abuse as a
child had on him.
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
Inmate: Deleon offered $3 million to kill witnesses
October 22nd, 2008, 1:36 pm ·posted
by Larry Welborn
An Orange County jail inmate testified this
morning that in 2006, then-murder suspect Skylar Deleon promised
$3 million if the inmate could arrange the murders of three key
witnesses.
Dan Elias was escorted into the 9th floor courtroom
in a jail uniform with his hands chained to his waist to testify
in the penalty phase of Deleon’s trial. He said he never
got any money and ultimately decided to testify against Deleon.
Deleon was convicted on Monday of murdering
Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004 by tying them to an anchor
and throwing them overboard in a botched plot to steal their yacht.
He was also convicted in the throat-slashing murder of Jon Peter
Jarvi in another murder-for-money scheme in December 2003.
Now the same jury is hearing additional testimony
to help it decide whether Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, should get
the death penalty or life without parole.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy
called Elias as a witness this morning in an attempt to show that
Deleon would continue to be dangerous if sentenced to life without
parole.
Elias, who has been sentenced to more than
eight years in prison for drug and weapons convictions, said he
did not get a deal from prosecutors in exchange for his testimony
in the murder case. He said he decided on his own to do “the
right thing” for once in his life and cooperate with authorities.
He said he became acquainted with Deleon in
the medical unit of the Orange County Jail, and that Deleon started
to talk about the case against him.
Elias told the jury that Deleon soon asked
him directly if he could arrange for three witnesses “to
be taken out.”
Deleon figured, according to Elias, “if
they were gone, he could beat his case.”
But instead of going ahead with the plan, Elias
started cooperating with authorities. Deleon was charged in 2006
with solicitation for murder.
The three witnesses he allegedly wanted murdered,
by the way, all testified for the prosecution during the guilt-innocence
phase of Deleon’s trial.
And each one of the them told the jury that
they were very afraid of Deleon.
Those three witnesses were:
Michael W. Lewis Jr., Skylar Deleon’s
cousin.
He was arrested on Aug. 18, 2005, on suspicion
of being an accomplice in the Dec. 27, 2003, throat-slitting murder
of Jon P. Jarvi. Newport Beach detectives believe that he followed
Deleon and Jarvi in a separate pickup truck when they went on
a long drive to Mexico. Lewis later told authorities that he saw
his cousin lead a blind-folded Jarvi down a hill and into the
Mexican desert near Tecate. Deleon returned alone. Jarvi’s
body was discovered a short time later by passersby. His throat
had been slit.
Kathleen Harris, a Newport Beach notary
She was hired by Skylar Deleon to witness the
signature of Thomas and Jackie Hawks when they allegedly signed
sales documents for their yacht, the Well Deserved. Only Harris
lied. After several interviews with Newport Beach detectives –-
and after Tom and Jackie Hawks had been missing for weeks -–
Harris confessed that she had been paid $2,000 to falsify the
sales documents by insisting that she witnessed the Hawks sign
the documents in her presence. Newport Beach police detectives
believe the Hawkses were at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean tied
to an anchor when Harris claimed she witnessed their signatures.
The Hawkses were introduced to Skylar and
Jennifer Deleon by friend Adam Lemar Rohrig.
Adam Lemar Rohrig, a SCUBA instructor
Rohrig is a former Navy SEAL trainee and a highly skilled diving
master instructor who began giving diving lessons to Skylar Deleon
at Pacific Sporting Goods in Long Beach in March 2004. Rohrig
later told detectives that Deleon approached him in the fall of
that year with a business proposition: help him get rid of some
bodies at sea and he’d make a lot of money. Rohrig said
no. But it wasn’t his only connection to the case. Rohrig
was also responsible for introducing Harris to Deleon.
The penalty phase of the trial continues this afternoon when relatives
of the Hawkses and Jarvi will testify about the devastation in
their lives since their loved ones were murdered.
Tom Hawks’ son chokes back tears as he
testifies about his Dad
October 22nd, 2008, 5:18 pm ·posted
by Larry Welborn
Several jurors stifled tears this afternoon
as they listened to the son of murdered yacht owner Thomas Hawks
testify about how he never got a chance to thank his father.
Ryan Hawks told the jury in the penalty phase
of the trial for convicted triple murderer Skylar Deleon that
his dad was more like his best friend.
“I miss him every day,” Ryan Hawks
told the jury, his voice choking.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, sat motionless at
a counsel table a few feet away, never looking up, as Ryan Hawks
and five other relatives of murder victims testified about their
losses.
Deleon was convicted on Monday of three counts
of murder, including the Nov. 15, 2004, murders-at-sea of Thomas
and Jackie Hawks aboard their 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved.
Witnesses testified that Deleon and two accomplices forced the
Hawkses to sign sales documents for the trawler before tying them
to an anchor and throwing them overboard while alive.
He was also convicted of the throat-slashing
death of Jon Peter (J.P.) Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, on Dec. 27, 2003,
in a separate murder-for-money plot.
Jurors also found ”special circumstances”
that the murders were committed for financial gain and that there
were multiple murders, setting the stage for the penalty hearing.
The same jury will now decide whether he gets
the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of
parole. The penalty hearing could end late next week.
Ryan Hawks (right), who has attended almost
every hearing in the case for nearly four years, finally got his
opportunity today to talk about his dad and tell of the devastation
to his life and the lives of other family members.
He also saluted Jackie Hawks, his stepmom,
who helped raise him and his brother, Matt.
“She was such a trouper,” he said.
“It’s not easy being a stepmom (but) she never complained…she
always put our needs over hers.”
Gayle O’Neill, Jackie Hawks’ mother, testified through
teary eyes that her oldest daughter “was a wonderful, loving,
caring person. She would do anything for anybody. ”
O’Neill added that it took her a long
time to come to grips with the fact that her daughter and her
son-in-law were never coming home.
“It’s something you never get used to,” O”Neill
testified. “I think of them when I wake up and I think of
them when I go to bed. It’s not getting better over time.
I thought it would, but it hasn’t.”
Betty Jarvi, the mother of Jon Jarvi, also
fought back tears when she told the jury about the youngest of
two sons.
“He was very clever. He sparkled,” she said. “He
had friends who were friends for life.”
She said her life is lonely now, and her house
is a mess, because she relied on Jon Jarvi not just for companionship,
but also to fix things around the home.
“He was great to talk with,” she
said. “He was great to be with.”
(To read more about Betty Jarvi’s testimony,
go to ocregister.com/columns/frank)
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy
wrapped up his presentation of evidence with a 23-minute video
that showed the Hawkses at various locations in California and
Mexico with friends and family aboard the Well Deserved.
The video shows Thomas Hawks telling jokes,
barbecuing aboard the boat, mugging for the camera and telling
Jackie how much he loved her.
The home videos also showed Jackie Hawks talking
about how much she was going to miss the Well Deserved because
she thought they had found a buyer for the yacht.
That would-be buyer, according to testimony,
was Skylar Deleon, who claimed that he had a fortune because of
a successful career as a child actor. In reality, though, he was
deeply in debt.
Instead of buying the Well Deserved, Deleon
planned on murdering the Hawkses in order to steal the yacht,
Murphy contends.
Defense attorney Gary Pohlson gets his chance
to convince the seven-woman, five-man jury beginning Monday to
spare Deleon’s life. Pohlson conceded earlier this month
that Deleon was guilty of all three murders, saying his only goal
in the case is to save his client from a death sentence.
Pohlson says that Deleon was warped from his
childhood because of horrific physical and emotional abuse dished
out by his domineering father.
Man convicted in yacht
killing of Prescott pair
by Christine Hanley - Oct. 21, 2008 12:00 AM
Los Angeles Times
SANTA ANA, Calif. - With his conviction a foregone conclusion,
Skylar Deleon did not flinch Monday when he was found guilty of
killing a Prescott couple in a plot to steal their yacht and plunder
their bank accounts.
"He knew that was going to happen,"
his attorney, Gary Pohlson, told reporters moments after an Orange
County jury, which had deliberated two hours, found Deleon guilty
of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks and another man found dead in
Mexico after Deleon swindled him out of $50,000.
All sides agree that the real deliberations
for the same jury start Wednesday, when they return to court to
begin determining whether Deleon should die for the three murders.
The Hawkses were tied to an anchor and dumped
overboard from their yacht in 2004, during a cruise to show the
vessel to Deleon, whom they believed was a prospective buyer.
Their bodies were never found.
"I think the only thing he feels bad about
is that he got caught," said Ryan Hawks, one of the Hawkses'
sons. Ryan, of San Diego; his brother, Matt, of Prescott, and
other family members and friends of the couple support the death
penalty for Deleon and will be testifying during the next stage.
"The penalty phase is where it's at. That's where the jury
is going to make the big decision."
Pohlson had conceded during his opening statement
that Deleon was guilty. But the attorney maintained that Deleon
was not the manipulative genius prosecutors made him out to be
and has been seeking to spare Deleon a death sentence.
Deleon will not testify during the penalty
phase, Pohlson said. But several of his relatives and doctors
will take the stand to show that Deleon was emotionally and physically
abused by his father, who died earlier this year. Deleon is the
second defendant tried in the Hawkses' deaths.
Two years ago, lead prosecutor Matt Murphy
won the conviction of Deleon's wife, Jennifer. She is serving
two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole after
Murphy portrayed her as a coldhearted, money-hungry plotter, even
using their 9-month-old baby to gain the Hawkses' trust.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, described by prosecutors
as the "brawn" behind the murder plot, is awaiting trial.
Alonso Machain is awaiting sentencing. He admitted
being on board the yacht when the Hawkses were killed, and he
was instrumental in helping the government figure out what happened.
The couple were last seen in November 2004,
leaving Orange County' Newport Harbor aboard their 55-foot yacht,
the Well Deserved. Their disappearance drew international headlines.
Tom Hawks, 57, was a retired probation officer
and firefighter; his wife, 10 years younger, was a homemaker who
had helped raise his two boys from an earlier marriage. The couple
spent nearly two years plying the Gulf of California and Pacific
Ocean before deciding to sell the boat and move back to Arizona
to be closer to their first grandchild.
That's when they met Deleon.
Thinking he was a serious buyer, the couple
agreed to take him and two pals, Kennedy and Machain, out for
what they thought was a sea trial. They headed out of the harbor
the morning of Nov. 15, 2004. Though the boat returned, Tom and
Jackie Hawks did not.
At the time, Deleon was out of work and facing
mounting debt. He also had a second child on the way.
Deleon, his wife and the others insisted for
weeks that they had bought the boat outright and last saw the
Hawkses alive and well in Newport Beach.
But Machain eventually cracked, and he provided
the first eyewitness account of what happened to the couple.
Ryan Hawks said he attended every day of the
trial to make sure jurors understand the family's devastation.
"It's not a happy day," he said.
"If anything, it makes it sadder. I can't explain why,"
Ryan said. "This is the best we can hope for within the boundaries
of the law, and we respect that."
Republic reporter Dennis Wagner and the Associated
Press contributed to this article.
Deleon guilty of three
killings
Victims’ family members seek the death penalty for man whose
attorney said he was guilty, but asked for his life to be spared.
By Joseph Serna
Updated: Monday, October 20, 2008 10:44 PM PDT
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here were no celebrations, no tears or gasps,
just a quiet acknowledgment that two families were one step closer
to justice Monday when 12 jurors convicted a Long Beach man of
killing their loved ones for money several years ago.
Skylar Deleon, 29, was convicted of killing
three people, including a Newport Beach couple in 2004, after
less than a work-week’s worth of evidence and testimony
from prosecutors sealed a conviction even defense attorneys said
was inevitable.
“He knew that was going to happen,”
said Deleon’s attorney Gary Pohlson, noting that the two
hours of juror deliberation “seemed a little long.”
From the get-go, Pohlson told jurors his client
was guilty. He was simply looking forward to the next phase of
Deleon’s case, the penalty phase, to start making his case.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against
Deleon, who stole $50,000 from John Jarvi in 2003 before slashing
his throat in the Mexican desert. Deleon also duped Newport Beach
couple Tom and Jackie Hawks into thinking he was interested in
buying their boat, Well Deserved, before he and two other men
bound and gagged them, tied them to the boat’s anchor and
threw them overboard into the Pacific.
Deleon’s victims’ families were
satisfied with the verdict, but all said they would find consolation
only if he were sentenced to death.
“It felt like a little, tiny piece of
the puzzle was placed into justice,” said one of Tom and
Jackie Hawks’ sons, Ryan. “This is going to mean a
little more when they read it at the end of the penalty phase.”
“This clears the way for the death penalty,”
said John Jarvi’s older brother, Jeff. “I’m
offended that there’s [an attorney] who has to plea for
his life.”
That man is Pohlson, who said he’s going
to point to Deleon’s childhood, particularly his relationship
with his father, to gain some sympathy from jurors in hopes he’s
sentenced to life without parole.
Deleons’ dad, John Jacobson Sr., was
a convicted felon who prosecutors said Deleon had originally turned
to for help in killing the Hawkses out at sea. Deleon was rebuffed
and later tried to pin the slayings on his father, police said.
Prosecutors said Deleon tried to hire someone to kill Jasobson
while he was in jail. Jacobson died earlier this year of AIDS,
Pohlson said.
Pohlson said Deleon wasn’t “a smart
guy” who could have planned these murders, and that he was
abused by Jacobson physically and emotionally when he was a child.
Jarvi doesn’t seem to buy it, describing
Deleon as a kind of wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“[Deleon] could be anybody — he
could be the kid that lives right next to you,” Jarvi said.
“He doesn’t have that look.”
The penalty phase of the case, fresh with new
testimony and witnesses, including family members of the Hawkses
who have never testified before, will begin Wednesday.
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619
or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
Monday, October 20, 2008 Deleon guilty in yacht-murder trial
By LARRY WELBORN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former bit part child actor Skylar Deleon sat
silently with his hands folded across his lap Monday when a Superior
Court jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder.
A seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for
less than two hours before finding Deleon guilty in the November
2004 murders-at-sea of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. The Hawkses were
tied to an anchor and thrown overboard in a botched plot to steal
their yacht, a 55-trawler they named the Well Deserved.
He was also found guilty in the separate murder-for-money
of Jon Peter Jarvi on Dec. 27, 2003. Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, was
slashed to death on a remote Mexican highway a day after he was
enticed to give Deleon $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick
scheme.
The same jury also determined that Deleon,
29, of Long Beach, committed the murders for financial gain and
that he was guilty of multiple murders – special circumstances
that qualify him for a penalty hearing.
That hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
The jury’s only choice will be to recommend whether Deleon
receive either the death penalty or life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
“He knew this was going to happen,”
said defense attorney Gary Pohlson after the quick verdicts.
Pohlson conceded during his opening statements
of the two-week trial that his client was guilty of all three
murders.
The veteran defense attorney said he did not
contest overwhelming prosecution evidence because he wanted to
save his credibility to argue that Deleon deserves a life sentence
because of a “horrific childhood.”
Deleon, Pohlson said, was tormented both physically
and emotionally growing up by his domineering father, an ex-convict
who died recently from complications from AIDS.
Ryan Hawks, the son of Thomas Hawks and stepson
of Jackie Hawks, held his chin in clasped hands in the courtroom
gallery when the verdicts were announced.
“My family has been waiting for four
years to hear those words,” he told reporters. “It’s
done. Now let’s get on to the penalty phase. This was just
a warm-up.”
Jeff Jarvi, the older brother of Jon Peter
Jarvi, also watched the verdicts from the courtroom gallery with
about two dozens friends and relatives of the three victims.
“We’re only half way there,”
he said. “We would be very disappointed if he doesn’t
get the death penalty.”
Before jurors begin deliberating in the penalty
phase – which could come as early as next week, Superior
Court Judge Frank F. Fasel will instruct them to weigh the “mitigating
circumstances” in the commission of the crimes and in Deleon’s
life against the “aggravating circumstances.”
It is this balancing of good-versus-bad circumstances
that Pohlson hopes will save Deleon from a death verdict.
The jury will hear evidence that Deleon was
convicted of burglary with the use of a gun, and that he served
a year in the pay-to-stay jail in Seal Beach. Deleon met Jarvi
in the Seal Beach jail, where Jarvi was serving a term for counterfeiting.
Jarvi was murdered in Mexico a few days after his release.
The jury will also be allowed to consider the
impact that the three murders had on the families of his three
victims.
Ryan Hawks, who has attended nearly every minute
of nearly four years of hearings in the case, will testify, as
will Betty Jarvi, the mother of Jon Peter Jarvi.
Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714 834-3784
Skylar Deleon found guilty
of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks
Orange County jury takes only two hours to convict the Long Beach
man of the 2004 murder aboard the Hawkses' yacht.
By Christine Hanley
October 21, 2008
With his conviction a foregone conclusion, Skylar Deleon did not
flinch Monday when he was found guilty of killing Tom and Jackie
Hawks in a plot to steal their yacht and plunder their bank accounts.
"He knew that was going to happen,"
his attorney, Gary Pohlson, told reporters moments after an Orange
County jury, which had deliberated just two hours, found Deleon
guilty of killing the Hawkses and Jon Peter Jarvi, an Anaheim
man found dead in Mexico after Deleon swindled him out of $50,000.
Yacht killings
Account of pair's fate at sea chills courtroom
All sides agree that the real deliberations for the same five-man,
seven-woman jury start Wednesday, when they return to court to
begin determining whether Deleon should die for the three murders.
"Let's get on with the penalty phase,"
Ryan Hawks, one of the Hawkses' sons, said outside the courtroom.
He and other family members and friends of the couple support
the death penalty for Deleon and will be testifying during the
next stage, as will Jarvi's family.
Pohlson had conceded during his opening statement
that Deleon was guilty. But he has maintained that Deleon was
not the evil, manipulative genius prosecutors have made him out
to be, and has been seeking all along to spare Deleon a death
sentence.
Deleon will not testify during the penalty
phase, Pohlson said.
But several of his relatives and doctors will
take the stand to show that Deleon was emotionally and physically
abused by his father, a bumper-sticker salesman who traveled the
country in a converted mail truck. He died earlier this year.
"We have quite a lineup," Pohlson
said of his witnesses. "He's had a horrible life."
Deleon is the second defendant tried in the
Hawkses' deaths and the first to face a potential death sentence.
Two years ago, lead prosecutor Matt Murphy
won the conviction of Deleon's wife, Jennifer. She is serving
two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole after
Murphy portrayed her as a coldhearted, money-hungry plotter in
league with her husband, even using their 9-month-old baby to
gain the Hawkses' trust.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, described by prosecutors
as the "brawn" behind the murder plot, is awaiting trial
and also faces the death penalty if convicted.
Alonso Machain is awaiting sentencing. He admitted
being on board the yacht when the Hawkses were killed, and he
was instrumental in helping the government figure out what happened
to them.
The couple were last seen in November 2004,
leaving Newport Harbor aboard their 55-foot yacht, Well Deserved.
Their disappearance drew international headlines and sent a wave
of fear through boating communities around the world.
Tom Hawks, 57, was a retired probation officer
and firefighter; his wife, 10 years younger, was a homemaker who
had helped raise his two boys from an earlier marriage. The couple
spent nearly two years plying the Sea of Cortez and Pacific Ocean
before deciding to sell the boat and move closer to their first
grandchild in Arizona.
That's when they met Deleon.
Thinking he was a serious buyer, the couple
agreed to take him and two pals, Kennedy and Machain, out for
what they thought was a sea trial. They headed out of the harbor
the morning of Nov. 15, 2004. Though the boat returned, Tom and
Jackie Hawks did
