All language subtitles for How It Really Happened s07e05 The Yacht Murder Mystery

This is Captain Tom Hawkson,
well-deserved.

Jackie, hello.

Hi, honey, I'm so glad to be home.

This is our last trip to the island
because we sold the boat.

And we're all having a really good time.

We're having too much fun.

I'm going to miss this, guys.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Tom and Jackie Hawks had a dream, to
retire, buy a boat, and sail the

Pacific. The couple worked hard, saved
their money, and in 2002, they made it

happen. For two years, they lived the
life most people only dream of.

Eventually, the Hawks decided to come
back ashore.

They put their beloved boat up for sale
and vanished.

No one could have predicted what came
next.

Here's how it really happened.

Orange County, California.

Beautiful. It's where all the beautiful
people live.

More money than you can imagine.

Newport Beach in particular, it's almost
like, you know, Beverly Hills meets the

sea. You've got palm trees, you have
beautiful beaches, you have gorgeous

multi-million dollar homes right on the
water with their own dock.

But on top of all of its beauty and all
of its charm, there's a lot of crime.

There's a lot of crime.

When you have that kind of money, that
glittering sort of gold, it tends to

draw people in who want to take it.

We had a missing person case.

It came across the fax machine.

It happened to be a weekend.

Detective Mario Montero immediately read
the report, saw that the reporting party

was the former chief of police in a San
Diego County city.

and saw that the two missing folks were
relatives of his, Tom and Jackie Hawks.

They were in their 50s, and it was out
of sorts for them to be missing at all.

Tom and Jackie Hawks, a couple from the
Los Angeles area who had spent months

traveling and living full-time on their
$400,000 yacht they named Well Deserved.

They were the happiest couple on earth.
They did more as a couple in one year

than most couples do in ten.

Pretty thin. Give us the basic
information.

This missing person report, Tom and
Jackie's missing persons report, was

very detailed.

Right before they disappeared, it was
known to Tom and Jackie's close friends

that they were getting ready to sell the
boat to a young family with kids.

In the missing person report, it listed
Skylar DeLeon and his wife Jennifer as

being potential buyers of the yacht.

Tom and Jackie's plan was to move back
to Arizona because they had a

grandchild. And they wanted to start
spending time with family.

Say hi, Grandma.

Say hi, Grandma.

Once they told family members, they took
a final celebratory trip to Catalina on

the yacht.

And we have video documenting this where
they say, hey, this is our final voyage.

We sold the well-deserved. And this is
our final trip to Catalina with friends

and family. Hi, everybody.

I'm so glad you could join us on our
last voyage and well-deserved.

They were enjoying themselves. It was a
nice little video of the final voyage.

So this is our last cruising fiesta.

And the Barbie's going to get smoking
over there.

Later on, Jackie made a phone call to a
friend of theirs who's going to help

them move.

And she says, you know, we're still out
at sea. It was about 4.30 p.m. And that

was it.

Voicemail. That was the last anybody
heard from them.

Whenever somebody goes missing, nine
times out of ten, they turn up just

fine. At this point, it still looked
like it may be just a voluntary missing

where they sold their vessel and they're
out celebrating the sale and they just

haven't reached out to family.

Initially, the family members were
thinking, well, maybe they were just so

excited. They went on a weekend away.
They don't know they're out of cell

reception. Maybe something innocent
happened.

But when they didn't show up for
Thanksgiving and they still hadn't

called anybody, they all knew that
something was very, very wrong.

It's very suspicious that the Hawks have
not contacted friends and family over

the last several weeks.

All family members saying it's out of
sorts for them not to contact us, at

least on a weekly basis.

They wouldn't have gone through without
saying goodbye. They wouldn't have gone

through without Thanksgiving.

They would never do something like this
out of the ordinary.

They were extremely concerned.

Tom Hawks' brother, Jim Hawks, was
actually the former chief of police of

Carlsbad, California.

Tom and Jackie had made arrangements to
have Jim and other friends help move

them to Arizona, and then nobody heard
from them again.

Jim Hawks is thinking like a police
officer because that's his job. He can't

help it.

Jim decides to start doing some snooping
around.

Jim went to the boat.

And immediately he knew something was
wrong.

Tom and Jackie were meticulous about the
way they kept their boat.

And to the untrained eye, it looked
pretty clean, but it was totally out of

place for how Jim knew that his brother
was.

It was messy.

There was a towel hanging out. The
dinghy motor was in the water.

Tom, when I came to that boat,
everything had a place. Everything was

in its place. It was always pristine.

But it was kind of disheveled, ropes
weren't tied properly, that type of

thing.

That's how Jim knew that something was
wrong.

And then he also canvassed the area
looking for their car and he couldn't

find it.

The more they looked, the worse it
appeared to them.

They're suspecting that something
terrible has happened.

Tom and Jackie Hawks took their boat out
on open water off Newport Beach,

California. Then they vanished into thin
air.

Tom and Jackie Hawks disappeared.

When you're trying to assess whether
somebody would irresponsibly just

disappear, none of that fit.

These folks were true blue and solid as
you could be.

Jackie, hello.

It was just this lovely couple.

They were smiling and tan and just loved
the outdoor life, and they loved each

other, and they had their future
planned.

It just makes it so sad because one
never knows.

Free-spirited, retiring early, life on
the sea, being the curve of the earth.

I just wish for fair winds and a happy
ending.

Tom and Jackie.

Kind of came to each other later in
life. It was the second marriage for

both of them.

Tom was a firefighter and a probation
officer.

He was a bodybuilder, kept in great
shape.

And I think I'm going to take a shower
after I work out and shave my beard.

So waiting to see her.

Jackie grew up in Ohio.

She worked in a supermarket where she
met her first husband, and then they

moved to Arizona.

They ended up getting into a motorcycle
collision with a drunk driver, and her

husband was instantly killed.

She received some major trauma, and as a
result of that was unable to bear

children.

Jackie always wanted kids.

Tom had two sons from a previous
marriage, Matt and Ryan Hawks, this

beautiful family.

Jackie always really wanted to have a
family, and when she met Tom, she really

fell in love with his boys, just as he
fell in love with him. And they used to

call her Mom.

They were all very close.

They're very loving, very social,
outgoing people.

You know when you're in their company
because they make you feel comfortable,

and I love them.

They both had this dream, I think, even
before they both...

met each other of living on a boat and
traveling around.

So when Tom Hawks retired from the
probation office where he worked in

Arizona, he saved and scrapped, and it
is a gorgeous boat, the 55-foot trawler,

which in the boating world is a really
nice boat.

Their boat was named well-deserved, and
it was kind of their reward for

retirement.

And they would go on these trips.

down to Mexico, down to Baja California,
around to Cabo, and around over to the

Sea of Cortez.

Tom and Jackie Hawks chronicled their
adventures with a Hi8 digital video

camera. And it's an incredible series of
vignettes into their lives.

Man, it's scary.

I'm going to go play some more.

Okay.

There's one where there's a whale shark
next to the boat and Tom Hawks jumps in

the water because he's like a big kid.

Almost gotcha.

They really just enjoyed life, but they
missed their families. And then they had

a brand new grandbaby from their oldest
son, Matt, and they wanted to be closer

to home.

I miss you, Grandpa.

There's a smile for Grandpa.

Yeah, there's a smile for Grandpa.

When Matt had that baby, that was a big
deal for Jackie.

Tom loved her so much, even though he
loved the boat, they made the decision

to sell the boat back up to Newport from
Mexico and sell it.

The Byers were a young couple by the
name of Skyler and Jennifer DeLeon.

They offered to pay cash for the
well-deserved, and the Hawks were

willing to accept.

And then Tom and Jackie Hawk just
disappeared.

Ronnie, when was the last time you spoke
to your parents?

probably about a week before they're
missing, and I constantly relive it in

my mind every single day.

These are legitimate, nice people, and
you begin to worry for them, and you're

hoping that their loved ones are okay,
but every hour that ticks by, every day

that ticks by, it's like you just, you
know it's bad.

Newport Beach police say the Hawks have
now been gone long enough, about three

weeks, to cause investigators serious
concern.

Throughout this whole case, the boat was
still there in the harbor, so you could

see it.

The police were able to go to the boat
to try to see what's going on.

We were hoping to find anything that
could help us find out where the hawks

were. Each day that passed, this story
of them voluntarily not contacting

family or friends became less and less
credible.

Something's wrong.

There wasn't a whole lot of evidence
there that indicated anything.

criminal had taken place.

So we were starting with anything we
could find.

There was no forensic evidence on the
boat of any real value.

But sometimes some of those powerful
evidence is what you don't find.

There was no DNA.

We collect DNA from the handrails, from
inside the vessel, from the flying

bridge, from everywhere we could.

Not one of those samples came back.

to the hawks that right away we knew
that just wasn't possible because the

hawks lived on this vessel forever you
have this couple that had lived on that

boat and we found no dna from them which
means the boat had been meticulously

cleaned and then they found a receipt
from a target and it was for

cleaning supplies including bleach and
bleach destroys dna

That really raised a hair in the back of
our necks.

Another thing that was missing, which is
chilling, there was a missing anchor.

That's when I knew.

We knew that something was horribly
wrong.

Tom and Jackie Hawks are missing, and
Tom's son says it doesn't make any

sense.

I just know them all too well,
disappearing without telling the family.

We just knew it just wasn't right.

Tom and Jackie Cox were in the middle of
selling their yacht.

As far as family knew, they sold it a
couple weeks ago, and they haven't heard

from the couple.

There was no bank account activity or
credit card activity since the November

15th date that they were supposed to
sell the boat.

This was almost two weeks after they
went missing, so they were extremely

concerned. For me, the worst is just not
knowing.

It was unbearable.

Most of the time when people go missing,
there's an explanation that, you know,

they're fine.

But as a prosecutor, once they call me,
it means they suspect foul play.

Detective Montero went out to the yacht
and he found a sales receipt.

It was from a Target store, and it was
for cleaning supplies, including bleach,

trash bags, and...

which is sort of an interesting combo.

My mind immediately went to what a
criminal would do if you're going to

clean up a crime scene. I would probably
have some bleach wipes to remove any DNA

or blood evidence, heavy-duty trash bags
to throw away any other evidence I might

want to destroy.

And if the murderer had some type of
conscience, maybe his stomach got upset

and he had to get some Tums, it turns
out that that receipt...

was helpful. A lot of people don't know
this, but when you buy anything at a

Target, you're taped when you do that.
So there's a link to every transaction

based on the receipt. The numbers on
that receipt allow Target or the police

to go back and get an actual image of
who bought this stuff. So we were able

to pull the photographs up of that
particular transaction.

The person in the photos was a man by
the name of Stephen Henderson.

He turned out to be Jennifer DeLeon's
father.

The missing person report listed Skylar
DeLeon and his wife Jennifer as being

potential buyers of the yacht.

I wanted to go speak to Skylar and
Jennifer.

We knew that they were the best chance
to find out at least the most recent

information on where the Hawks may be.

They were both living in the garage of
her parents' home so they could save

money. So the policeman went up to talk
to them and found them.

volunteering, doing cleanup at one of
the local churches in Long Beach where

Jennifer grew up. When we walked in, I
see a pregnant Jennifer DeLeon,

scattered DeLeon, pushing a stroller,
looked like the doting, caring father of

a toddler.

They were saying, we were waiting for
you to contact us. We've been looking

for Tom and Jackie ourselves.

We just purchased a yacht from them and
we have some of their clothing. We need

to get back to them. And they have not
talked to us since we made the purchase.

So we're concerned too.

So they immediately came across as being
genuine and concerned about the Hawks'

whereabouts. They gave these interviews
that were very convincing.

Jennifer, I asked her what she did for a
living. She said that she cuts hair at a

local salon in Long Beach. And I asked
her what Skyler did for a living, and

she said that he was currently
unemployed and that his plan was to run

dive classes.

out of Catalina or out of Mexico on his
own boat, and that was the reason that

he was looking to even buy this vessel.
So I followed up with what kind of

income they had. She goes, well, we're
chasing paycheck to paycheck to pay

bills just like everybody else. That
just didn't make sense.

So I asked her, well, how is it you
afford a yacht?

And she proceeded to tell me that
Skyler, prior to her marrying him or

meeting him, was a child actor.

Did very well. He was on a show called
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Find out next on The Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers.

It was a kid's show on Saturday morning,
which was very popular.

Scott was very forthcoming with anything
I asked him, he would answer.

And I said, okay, your wife says that
you're a child actor? He goes, yes, sir.

And he goes, I made quite a bit of money
doing that. And then I was involved in

real estate investments in Mexico.

He stated that he had paperwork that was
notarized that documented the sale of

the yacht, that they had in fact
purchased it from the Hawks. It was a

cash purchase.

It was at this point that Skyler got a
little bit nervous. I could tell that

outwardly his kind of color drained from
him a little bit.

He ends up admitting that this money
that he used was profits from illicit

gains from drug sales.

He basically said, you know, that he
bought this boat with, you know, drug

money from Mexico that had been
laundered. We were surprised that he

would so freely admit to that, but he's
now seen the error in his ways and wants

to be a good family guy.

When I walked away, I believed that
Skyler was sketchy enough that maybe he

was involved, but we weren't pointing
the finger at them being responsible.

They wanted to find the Hawks as bad as
we did.

In fact, their final words as we were
walking away was, please find them.

Welcome back to How It Really Happened.

It was early December 2004.

Tom and Jackie Hawks had been missing
for three weeks.

They vanished after agreeing to sell
their boat to a young couple, Skyler and

Jennifer DeLeon.

Investigators were searching for any
clue to the Hawks' whereabouts, but as

time passed without any word from the
couple, their family and authorities

feared the worst.

Tom and Jackie Hawks spent months
traveling and living full-time on their

$400,000 yacht they named Well Deserved.

Last year, the Hawks decided to sell
their prized possession to buy a house

so they could be closer to their
grandchild.

They were getting ready to sell their
boat, and then they took it out for a

sea voyage and never came back.

And we're determined to find out who's
responsible for this.

We interviewed Skyler and his wife,
Jennifer.

to find out where Tom and Jackie might
be.

Jennifer basically explains, we don't
know where the Hawks are, but we

purchased this boat, and here are all
the documents indicating we purchased

the boat. And they come up with these
documents, which have been notarized and

signed by Tom and Jackie Hawks and a
witness.

A man named Alonzo Machain signed the
documents as a witness.

I asked Skyler, who's Alonzo? Alonzo's a
friend of mine.

We interviewed him.

Everybody maintained the same story.

Alonzo says that this sale of this
vessel took place on 15th Street and

that the Hawks drove off with this cash,
and that's the last time he saw them.

One of the documents that Jennifer gave
to the police was cause for alarm.

We found a durable power of attorney,
which is something that never should

have happened. So a durable power of
attorney generally is an instrument

which allows other people to act on your
behalf.

They're usually used in the event that
you're going to be absent from a

jurisdiction, you're taking a trip. It's
a very effective legal instrument. It

can also be dubious because people can
use them for purposes that are not so

legal. Detective Evan Thaler was one of
our best fraud detectives, and he knew

this stunk on ice. Something's not right
here.

And he's asking, why do you have power
of attorney?

He goes, that's a powerful document.
This document basically gives you access

to the Hawks' funds.

Much to the credit of these police
officers, they weren't entirely buying

it. Schuyler immediately said, well,
they told us that they were going to

sell the vessel to move back to Arizona,
but that they didn't want to give up

yachting completely, so they were
looking to buy a smaller vessel

somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

Schuyler had volunteered that he could
get them the sweetheart deal, but he'd

need the power of attorney if they
wanted to do this.

Detective Saylor pulls me aside. He
goes, no, that would never happen. It

raises a red flag.

They just knew something was fishy, but
they didn't know exactly what was wrong.

So we get these documents. We send them
back to the FBI for analysis.

The hawks' fingerprints are, in fact,
all over them.

We got known samples of the hawks'
signatures, and they did a comparison.

And it really were their signatures with
one problem.

Their name was Hawks, H-A-W-K-S.

On Jackie Hawks' signature, it looked
like it had been signed Jackie Hawk with

a K, and the S had been left off.

And it looked like somebody came in
later and wrote the S in, which was

different than the way she signed her
name. They said it was the same ink, but

it did not appear to flow with the
original signature. It might have been

something that was altered.

It was her signature all the way except
for the last letter.

which was Jackie Hawks sending like a
flare to the future, alerting people

that something is wrong.

It all unfolded so slowly.

The couple was missing.

Police were looking for their car.

It was a Honda CRV.

They had the license plate number, so
they were hoping that somebody spotted

the car somewhere.

We need that car.

Skyler and Jennifer.

Swore up and down numerous times. The
last time they saw Tom and Jackie Hawks

was driving away in their car.

They said, oh, you know, we saw them
driving away in their silver CRV, and we

haven't seen them since.

We figured if we find the cars, we could
find out where Tom and Jackie might be.

So we wanted to put the vehicle out
there. This is what we're looking for.

You know it's somewhere, and it's a 1998
Honda silver CRV vehicle with Arizona

license plates.

It was the best move we could have made.

A woman called the police department
said, I'm looking at the car right now.

She's looking at the Hawk's vehicle, and
she's in Mexico.

A little surf village down in Baja,
Mexico.

She goes out and snaps a picture with
her cell phone and sends it while we're

on the phone with her to his email. So
I'm now looking at the Hawk's vehicle.

Yes, this is the break we're looking
for.

When we find out that the car's in
Mexico, we drive all the way down there.

We get to the location. We knew that we
had no law enforcement powers down

there, so state Mexican police, they end
up knocking on the door. I can see an

elderly Hispanic gentleman after the
door start conversing in Spanish.

And then I hear him say that the
gentleman's son was given the Hawks'

vehicle as a gift by Skyler DeLeon, and
that Skyler DeLeon dropped it off here.

Now we have a witness telling us that
Skyler drove that car down to Mexico and

gave it away.

And our CSI team was able to get
Skyler's DNA off a heater knob of that

car. He'd already claimed before that
he'd never been in the Hawks' vehicle.

So from that moment forward, this is a
homicide investigation.

Tom and Jackie Hawks had been missing
for a month.

when detectives discovered their car in
Mexico with Skylar DeLeon's DNA inside.

We had some hope at one time that
there's some reasonable explanation, but

when their car was found, hope was gone.

The game changed that day immediately.

Skylar and Jennifer are no longer a
person of interest.

They are prime suspects.

We became concerned that he might be at
flight risk. So we arrested Skylar.

Because in his original interview with
the police, he admitted to money

laundering. So what we did is we
arrested him for the money laundering,

essentially as a holding charge.

We still have a lot to find out. If we
make an arrest for murder, we're not

going to have enough evidence to get a
conviction.

Were you looking to buy a boat?

I'm pretty much always looking.

He's got to have trouble telling the
truth.

He couldn't tell you if it was Tuesday
or Wednesday.

He was going to lie about it.

There's a difference between who Skyler
really was and who Skyler said he was.

Skyler was a con man.

He had the ability to spin a tale, but
there would be threads of truth in it.

So part of it would be truthful, which
you could verify.

Part of it would be so outlandish that
you just said that this can't be.

But he was very good at it.

John Julius Jacobson. That was Skyler's
name when he was born.

And he changed his name to Skylar DeLeon
because he's a chameleon who changes

everything constantly.

He was raised in Huntington Beach by his
father.

Skylar was raised to lie, eat, and steal
because that's what his father, who was

a drug trafficker with no criminal
history, taught him.

When he was a child, he began acting
because Skylar already knew how to be

someone he really was.

Skyler DeLeon, the former child actor,
landed a small but coveted role on the

popular children's hit, The Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers.

He said, I was one of the Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers, but it wasn't true. He

was a speaking extra for three shots.

After being an extra in the TV series as
a teen, Skyler actually enlisted in the

Marines when he was 20 years old.

Skyler said he was in the Marine Corps,
but he was Special Forces.

He was in counter-sniper school. He had
362 confirmed kills.

All this extensive training, but in
reality, he went AWOL before he got done

with basic training.

Even God, just to give you an idea of
how convincing and how dedicated he was

to these lives, he actually got a
Special Forces tattoo.

After going AWOL from the Marines,
Skyler spends all this time in Mexico on

the water. He's scuba diving, he's
surfing, having the time of his life.

But he soon had a reason to return to
California because he met Jennifer

Henderson online.

He falls in love and they get married.

You would think that this would be the
perfect opportunity, now that he's a

family man, to walk the straight and
narrow. But he just couldn't do it.

Skyler didn't know how to make money
other than to steal it or to lie to get

it.

A few months after the wedding, two
years before the Hawks went missing,

Skyler ends up getting arrested and
charged with a felony.

Skyler had broken into a house armed
with a handgun. That burglary got

interrupted by the residents who was
pulling up in his driveway.

Skyler had zip ties, he had a set of
handcuffs, and he had a loaded firearm.

He was convicted for a felony, a home
invasion burglary, and sentenced to

jail.

but he hadn't been arrested before. He
came up with some cockamamie story of

why he was there, and they gave him a
year local time and let him serve it in

a private facility, and it's a work for
love program. So if you have a job, you

can leave during the day and work. And
what he would do is he would check out,

and he didn't have a job, but he would
check out and go and hang out at

Jennifer's parents' house, and he'd
spend the day there online.

He is the consummate con man.

Authorities were starting to see that
side of Schuyler as a fraud, a con man,

and a fake. And while they're doing
that, seeing that side, they're building

their case against him for murder.

Police discovered that Schuyler and
Jennifer, they drove to Kingman,

Arizona, and they're driving the Hawks'
car, the missing Honda CRV.

And they go to a bank.

We got video of Skylar and Jennifer
walking into the bank, presenting this

durable power of attorney, attempting to
access Tom and Jackie's accounts. And

there is Jennifer with a big smile on
her face.

Is that a woman who's about to solve all
of her financial problems?

Luckily, the bank didn't just hand over
the money. Tom and Jackie's bank manager

came out and said, I don't care what
this paper said. You explain to me why

Tom and Jackie are giving you some
random couple.

access to their bank account. They
didn't end up getting the money, but

they certainly tried.

You've got nothing to do with his
disappearance, right? No. And your wife

doesn't either? No.

We were able to serve the search
warrants on Skylar Dayland and Jennifer

Dayland's residence.

And during that search warrant, we found
items belonging to Tom and Jackie Hawks.

Treasure trove.

Driver's license of the Hawk. The
personal paperwork.

A video camera which had home videos of
the Hawks. There's one of those tapes.

It's one of the very last ones where
Jackie is filming. She said, this is

well-deserved.

This is our home. We sold the boat. I
don't know what's going to come next.

Hi, everybody.

Hi, Jackie.

I'm so glad you could join us on our
last voyage on well-deserved.

I'm going to miss it, guys.

Love you all.

And then the tapes end, and what you see
is you see about a 15-second clip of

Jennifer and Skylar using that exact
same camera to film their lives.

Scott had been too cheap to buy a new
tape. He'd used it to film his own

family at a Thanksgiving.

Jennifer's just smiling on this. Not a
cure in the world. It was evil.

Police discovered that Dillian's had
like $100,000 in debt, and they were

spending like they had money that they
didn't have.

They knew he was guilty.

But believing something and being able
to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt

are two very different things.

There was no forensic evidence on the
boat, and we had no bodies. I knew that

with the evidence we had at that point,
we had no chance.

So one of the moves that you can make as
a prosecutor is you try to pick somebody

that you think is the weak link in the
chain, and you offer them immunity.

They offered it to Jennifer.

And I said, look, tell us what happened,
and you will not be prosecuted for

anything you did.

Jennifer, she would say things like,
well, how do we even know Skyler's

guilty? There was an offer of immunity
if she were to testify against Skylar.

And the answer was no.

She stood by him.

And so they knew that they were in this
together, whatever it was.

When we couldn't get Jennifer to flip,
we interviewed the notary. And she said,

we went to this parking lot in Newport.
I watched a transaction go down with a

bunch of cash.

I notarized the transaction.

I saw Tom and Jackie Hawks there.

We went at her aggressively saying,
these people are missing.

We don't think you're telling us the
truth on this.

The notary finally confessed.

All she had ever seen was these people's
driver's licenses.

And she was given several thousand
dollars.

by Schuyler and Jennifer and that she
had backdated these false documents at

their hotel room in Long Beach.

She said, yes, I have no idea what
happened to these people, but I

notarized this days after they went
missing.

That was a huge breakthrough.

Because the notary finally confessed
that she didn't actually see the

transaction occur, then they knew that
St. Alonzo Machain, who was with

Schuyler and signed those documents as a
witness, was lying as well.

Authorities are digging into Alonzo's
background.

And in doing so, they find out that
Skylar met Alonzo when Skylar was

serving time in jail for burglary.

Alonzo Machain was a jailer at the Seal
Beach City Jail when Skylar was there,

and apparently they had developed a
friendship.

Skylar eventually, once he gets done
doing his jail times, reaches back to

Alonzo. Skylar approaches me with this
plan he has.

He was going to do something that, you
know, was going to make some money.

So he offers me to help.

Alonzo was weak-minded, and Skyler was
incredibly persuasive and manipulative.

Skyler was able to convince them that
these were bad people.

And he convinced Alonzo to go along with
this plan.

The plan was that we were supposed to
basically kidnap him and take him out to

speak.

We offered him an opportunity to use him
as a witness under the condition that he

wouldn't be subject to the death
penalty.

And he would give us full details of
what occurred.

Alonzo gave a detailed account of what
happened on that boat.

And to this day, it was the most
horrific thing I've ever heard.

After months of investigating the
disappearance of Tom and Jackie Hawks,

authorities finally have an eyewitness.
And the eyewitness's name?

Alonzo Machine.

The plan was that we were supposed to
basically kidnap them and take them out

to sea.

Now we had a witness, a guy on the
inside, who explained what everybody's

role was. And that was how the case
really came together.

Skylar DeLeon was charged with murder.

Then Delonta Machain, and then two
others were also arrested as being

accomplices in the case.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who he seemed
like he was maybe like the heavy or the

muscle in this operation.

The last person to be arrested was
Jennifer DeLeon, who was Skylar's wife,

who had had their second baby by then.

In the words

of a deputy district attorney,

the killing of 57-year-old Thomas Hawks
and his 47-year-old wife Jackie, quote,

is as cold-blooded as it gets.

The Alonzo Machines' testimony is
chilling.

Their plan was when they got out to the
vessel, they were going to overpower the

Hawks, have them sign the paperwork and
kill them.

Alonzo goes into painstaking detail as
to how Skyler planned these murders,

starting with the very first meeting
with the Hawks.

Skyler and Alonzo went down and met with
Tom and Jackie and saw the boat.

Skyler told him that Alonzo was familiar
with boats and that that's why he was

bringing them along for his expertise
and input.

And Tom was a little bit suspicious.

So what does Skyler do to overcome that?
And remember, Jackie always wanted kids.

They're selling the boat because she is
such a kind-hearted person and loves

children. So what does Skyler do? He
brings Jennifer, who is pregnant, eight

months at that point, with their little
baby.

And they go onto the boat, and he did
that specifically to lure the Hawks into

a false sense of security. And it
worked. But during those initial visits

on the boat, Skyler realized that he had
a potential problem.

Skyler met Tom Hawks for the first time.
Didn't realize what a large human being

he was. And that's when Skyler reaches
out to some of his contacts. He's able

to solicit a meeting with a...

former gang member named John Fitzgerald
Kennedy.

Had a prior murder conviction.

He was a big human being, so they
brought him in for the one purpose, and

that was muscle. A day or two later,
Skyler has a conversation with Thomas

Hawks on the phone, saying, hey, just
one last test drive.

Skyler, Alonzo, and JFK proceed to drive
to Newport.

Tom and Jackie think they're going out
for a sea trial.

He introduced John Kennedy as his
accountant and out to sea they went.

Unbeknownst to the Hawks, they were
armed with taser guns and duct tape and

everything they needed to physically
restrain Tom and Jackie Hawks. Their

plan is to separate Tom and Jackie.

JFK. Tells everybody he's not feeling
too well, kind of seasick. So JFK uses

himself, goes downstairs.

Mr. Hawks is concerned about JFK, so he
goes down below Dex. Skyler follows.

He described this horrific scene. He
said that Skyler and John Kennedy

overpowered Tom Hawks.

They're tasing him, punching him,
handcuffing behind his back.

Alonzo says that I'm sitting with
Jackie, and then we hear a loud struggle

taking place downstairs.

She kind of rushes towards me and kind
of leans over to see what was going on

at the bottom.

And she's trying to know what's going
on.

And Alonzo says that at this point he
overpowers Mrs. Hawks.

I was able to cut Mrs.

Hawks at this time.

I walked her down to the bedroom area
where Skylar told me to go get

some tape from the engine room.

He told me to take their eyes, take
their mouth.

They lay them both on the master bed,
back to back, so their hands could touch

each other. Tom is saying, just don't
hurt my wife.

We'll do anything you want. And Jackie
was saying, I'm too young to die. And

she's screaming and crying, and Tom,
Alonzo said, is trying to calm her down

as best he can.

He said that Tom Hawks was stroking her
hand and saying, it's okay, we're going

to be together.

At that point, he knew that they weren't
going to survive this.

They had them one by one go up to the
kitchen area where they

had them sign a power of attorney.

They signed the documents and said,
we're going to transfer you to another

boat, which, of course, they knew wasn't
true.

Meanwhile, Skyler has already set the
GPS to go out to the deepest point in

the ocean, 3,500 feet.

Skyler tells Alonzo to bring...

Both Jackie and Thomas Hawks up to the
rear portion of the vessel.

They're handcuffed behind their backs.
They have duct tape from their mouth and

their eyes.

Got some rope, brought it to the back,
tied them together.

They didn't know what was going on.

Skyler gets an anchor from the front of
the boat and brings it back.

There's a massive heavy chain tied to
these anchors.

Skyler wraps this chain along with a
rope around both of their bodies.

In a last-ditch effort, Thomas Hawk says
a reverse mule kick.

Mr. Hawk was able to lift his leg
somehow, and he tossed Skyler off his

feet and knocked him on his butt.

Like a kid?

Yeah.

And at that point, John Kennedy, in the
sucker punch of all sucker punches,

punches Tom Hawk.

He said that Tom appeared to possibly
lose consciousness, and I hope he did.

Jackie Hawk is now screaming.

Alonzo described Scholar as calmly
picking himself up off the ground,

picking this anchor off, and just
throwing it off over the side of the

vessel.

And the weight of the anchor pulled him
to the deepest point in the ocean.

Once they had thrown the Hawks to their
death, Skyler turned the yacht around,

heading back to Newport Harbor, promptly
called his wife.

And then John Kennedy gets out a fishing
pole and fishes.

As Skyler begins going through their
personal property, and he's frisbeeing

these things into the Pacific Ocean as
the boat is on the way back.

To find out that they'd been
overpowered.

and had been weighed down and thrown off
their own boat that they had worked so

hard their whole lives to have. It was
just devastating.

I can remember specifically at one point
during the trial saying to Jennifer, at

no time was there ever a moment when you
were going to get away with this.

Although we won, we really did lose, and
we lost the two greatest people we love

and respect the most.

There was nothing else to it. They
didn't do anything to bring it to

themselves other than place an ad in a
magazine. That's it.

Jackie, hello.

Hi, honey. Hi, everybody.

Love you all.

Friends and family members of the Hawks
continue to remember Tom and Jackie as

free spirits who loved life and lived it
to the fullest.

The couple that took that life away from
them, Skylar and Jennifer DeLeon,

divorced in 2007.

Skylar DeLeon currently sits on
California's death row, but after

transitioning while in prison, now
identifies as a transgender woman.

HLN reached out to Skylar for comment,
who informed us that, based on advice of

counsel, she will not speak at this
time.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.