The Yacht Slaying - The Murder of Jackie and Thomas Hawks

July 28, 2025

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the chilling story of Jackie and Tom Hawks, a devoted couple ready to trade in their life at sea to spend more time with family. But when they put their beloved yacht up for sale, their dream of a peaceful retirement takes a dark and deadly turn.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on spotify

No items found.

Case Sources

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

And I'm Garrett Moreland.

And he's the husband.

I'm the husband.

I wonder if anyone ever notices that sometimes I say the podcast and sometimes I say our podcast.

I don't know if I've ever—if I've ever noticed that.

Just different like that. Just switching things up like that. Hope everyone's doing great.

Um, important—if you are listening on Apple, we are currently running a promotion for subscribers, or to be a subscriber. There's a 14-day free trial. We usually do not do free trials, but there's a 14-day free trial. You can go and listen to the bonus episodes and ad-free content, and check it out to see if you want to stick around and continue to be a paid subscriber.

And for those on Spotify and Patreon, we are setting one up right now. So, by the time this is up, there will also be a free trial for Patreon/Spotify. So you can check out our content, see all the bonus episodes we've done. You can see the episode I recorded, which was—I don't know—like 15 minutes long. It's all ad-free.

We love all you guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for clicking on our ads. Thank you for using our discount codes. Thank you for supporting us. It means a lot to us, and it's—I mean, it's why we can do this. Because of you guys.

That's what I got as far as announcements... and yeah.

You got anything, babe?

No. Get that free trial. And we have quite a backlog on there at this point.

Yeah, bonus—we've been doing bonus content for four-plus years now. You get all of them, not just from when you sign up. So yeah, you get everything that we've ever done. So go and check it out.

I really appreciate everyone last week who supported my IBS problems. Thank you very much. It's good to know that I got a lot of support—a lot of people that understand stomach problems.

Um, I went golfing this morning and did okay. There was a bunch of coyotes out, which was really cool. It makes me want to—and I don't know, I would have to look into it more because I don't know enough about the ethics or the morals behind doing a safari trip.

I know there's ones that you can do that are, I guess, morally correct, but I think it's something that I would love to do someday. I don't know, I think it'd be so cool. I just want to see cheetahs. I want to see giraffes.

And I've been to like San Diego Zoo, but like I want to see them in the wild in Africa. I don't know. Maybe it's a bucket list thing. Maybe one day.

Would you ever do that?

No.

Would that scare you?

No, I would do it.

You would do it?

I just wouldn't do the like... uh...

Yeah. You just want to make sure it's morally or ethically...

Yeah. Because I know some are not.

Yeah.

And I don't know. They're animals. They're just trying to live their lives, you know? They're trying to hang out. I don't know. Maybe one day. I think that would be pretty fun.

If anyone's ever been on a safari trip, let me know. I'd love to hear more.

All right, buckle up.

We are hopping into this week's case.

First, if I look tired or I sound tired—I am tired, okay? I've got red eyes, sore body, hemorrhoids—I'm just kidding. I've got a sore body. I got red eyes. I am tired. So if that's why I sound a little different today... well, not—I’m sorry.

Our sources for this episode are: abcnews.go.com, go.com, latimes.com, medium.com, cbsnews.com, crimelibrary.com, oxygen.com, ocregister.com, International Business Times, and dailymail.com.

Did you say ocregister.com?

Yep. This case will be in Orange County, California.

Where at, do you think?

I'm going to guess we are in either Garden Grove or... okay, San Clemente or Newport Beach.

Where we at?

Newport.

Knew it. I knew it.

Why you laughing?

'Cause you would say Garden Grove.

Well, you know, you OC people. You don't know anything about those, so don't give me that. You don't know nothing.

That's funny. But also... I'm just going to wait. I'm going to start and see if you maybe catch it.

Okay, okay, okay.

A lot of people spend their entire lives working toward one special chapter—and that is retirement. It's the point where we've finally accomplished our goals, have hopefully saved enough money to stop working, kick back, spend time with family, maybe travel a bit more, and sleep in past 8:00 a.m.

Which—I don't know one elderly person that sleeps in past 8:00 a.m.—but that's what they say retirement is. It's the time where we can look back and go, "All that hard work has finally paid off." Where we can finally have a little peace and quiet after years of grinding away to provide a good life for ourselves and our loved ones.

But not everyone is willing to put in the years of hard work to get their retirement. Some people are willing to take shortcuts to get there—even if it means killing the people who have worked hard for it, and taking it as their own.

So let's head now to Newport Beach, California, where in 2004, 57-year-old Thomas Hawk is living with his wife, 47-year-old Jackie.

Now, Thomas has spent most of his years working really hard for his family and his country. He's a Vietnam War veteran who also worked as an Air Force security police officer, a firefighter, and a probation officer. He was also a bodybuilder on the side—so not exactly someone you would want to mess with.

But from everything I read, it sounds like Thomas was as sweet as could be. He was a family man at heart, someone who busted his butt working hard to save for his future and his two sons during his first marriage before Jackie. And those two sons were Ryan and Matt.

But it wasn't just his family that he was invested in. It's said that Thomas was the kind of guy who cared about the people he worked with, too. As a probation officer, he really took an interest in the people he was helping and wanted to see them succeed with this second chance at life.

He believed people were capable of change and improving their lives for the better. This was a philosophy he also applied to his own life.

After things didn't work out with his first wife, Thomas moved to Arizona, where he eventually met Jackie in 1986 at a friend's chili cookoff. At the time, Jackie was working as a supermarket checkout girl, and she was also temporarily in a wheelchair after a bad motorcycle accident.

Now, Thomas fell in love with her quickly, as did his two teenage sons at the time, who said Jackie just brought out the best in their dad after the divorce with their mom. She was the perfect match for Thomas. They both loved the outdoors and going on thrill-seeking adventures—taking life by the horns, embracing it fully.

A few years later, the two were married. Thomas continued to invest his money and create a little nest egg so he could retire early. And by October of 2002, that dream came true. Jackie and Thomas sold their house in Arizona and moved back to California, where they settled in Newport Beach.

I mean, dream retirement.

And they pursued another dream they had always had for themselves.

By the way, you’ve got to have a lot of money to get a nice house in Newport Beach and retire.

Retire. It's expensive.

So expensive.

So they move there and they buy a boat and begin sailing.

My gosh.

Now, this wasn't just any boat. It was a 55-foot yacht that cost them about $300,000 at the time.

They got money.

A yacht. My dream.

They named the yacht Well Deserved. They tricked this boat out with the latest technology and spent their time going from Mexico to Catalina Island off the coast of California.

As Thomas's son Ryan put it:

"Being on water for them was a solitude. It was seeing the curve of the earth and seeing the sunset fall right behind it every single night."

And that's how the couple spent the next two years of their life—venturing out on the open waters, enjoying all the fruits of their labor.

But come 2004, there was a big change—in the best possible way.

Kind of random, but I do wonder if—and I'm not judging, and I don't care—but I wonder if anyone listening believes that the earth is flat.

Should I have been more inclusive and just...

No, no, not at all. I mean, to each their own opinion. But it just kind of made me think of that.

So, at this point in 2004, Ryan, who is Thomas's 27-year-old son, and his wife Nicole welcomed their first baby. And this would be the first baby in the family. Thomas and Jackie were over the moon about becoming grandparents for the first time.

The only problem was Ryan and his family were back in Arizona, and Thomas and Jackie wanted to be closer to spend more time with them. It was something that meant more to them than cruising the coast of California.

So that fall, they actually put the boat up for sale so they could get back to Arizona.

Wow. Okay.

So Thomas put a small ad for the yacht in a boating magazine. And by November, they had a bite.

Around November 10th, Ryan—this is his son who's a father—spoke to his father on the phone and learned they had finally found a buyer. The sale was expected to go through over the next few days.

So five days later, on November 15th, Jackie and Thomas got on Well Deserved—the boat—for one final trip out of Newport Harbor before they sold it. They were actually just going to sail over to Catalina Island.

Now, Jackie called her friend around 4:06 p.m. that day, saying, "Hey, we're out to sea." But after that, the couple seemed to go radio silent.

A few days passed, and people began to wonder—why were both Jackie and Thomas's phones off? No one had heard from them since before that final trip they took out to Catalina on the 15th.

So that's when Thomas's friend Donnie called Ryan, Thomas's son. He told him, "Hey, I'm supposed to help your dad pack up some of his stuff and move back to Arizona. I've been trying to get in touch with Thomas for the last day or so. I'm not getting an answer. Have you heard from your dad?"

Now, Donnie and Ryan knew it was unlike Thomas to just stand someone up like this, which is when Ryan called in his uncle Jim, a retired police chief in Carlsbad, California—it’s not too far from Newport Beach.

Both Jim and Donnie, Thomas’s friends in California, meet up sometime around the 17th, and they go down to the dock in Newport to see if the boat is there and if they can find any sign of Thomas and Jackie.

Now, one of the first things they notice is that Well Deserved and its dinghy are back in the slip. But the dinghy is not tied to the dock properly, and its motor is still in the down position in the water.

Okay. So if they know something about their friend Thomas, it's that he is super careful about boating safety. He would have never left any of this stuff like this on his own.

Now, on board Well Deserved, they don't see any sign of Thomas or Jackie, but they find that all of the tarps on the deck have been removed. So nothing is covered—it's just sitting out in the open. Again, this is not something Thomas would have ever allowed.

And weirdly, there's a towel hanging out of one of the portholes.

And even more alarming—a lot of Thomas's things that he keeps on board, like his surfboard, an expensive radio, and a few other items, all seem to be missing.

So after seeing this, Jim—Thomas's brother, Uncle Jim—leaves a note for the prospective buyers of the boat because he figures they're going to come looking for it soon enough since they're supposed to buy it. And since he doesn't know who they are, he wants them to know:

Hey, the owners of the boat haven't been heard from. If you've seen or heard from Thomas or Jackie, let us know.

He also thinks maybe it's possible that the buyers were one of the last people to see Jackie and Thomas before they disappeared. Like maybe the buyers had already come.

But okay, so wait, real quick—I just want to make sure. So the yacht is there?

No. Yes. The dinghy is there.

Mhm.

But there's a bunch of stuff missing on board?

Yes.

Okay. Just wanted to clear that up.

Okay. Well, sure enough, a few days later, one of the buyers actually calls Uncle Jim. And she says she and her husband paid for the boat in all cash. They don't say anything about when they last saw Jackie and Thomas, but she kind of rushes Jim off the phone pretty quickly to tend to what sounds like a baby in the background.

I was also going to say—how do you prove that?

Yeah, you can't prove it. You can't be like, can you sh—

Well, Jim's like, maybe I can get into Thomas and Jackie's bank account, see if they received the cash for the boat, knowing they would have probably deposited it right away. But there's been zero activity on their banking accounts since the day they were last heard from. There were no big deposits at all.

So they start calling around to local hospitals. They're like, maybe they sold the boat, got the cash, and then from the time they got the cash—before they could get it to the bank—something bad happened.

They call hospitals. They get nothing.

So finally, the day after Thanksgiving—November 26th—Jim and Ryan hear that someone has accessed the couple's accounts, finally. But whoever it was tried to withdraw money, not deposit the boat money.

This is... this is crazy.

And even sketchier? This transaction originated in Mexico.

Oh my.

So at this point, the family's like, "Okay, we know they're a couple. They're full-grown adults. We think something bad happened here. It's time to get the police involved."

So that afternoon, 11 days after Jackie and Thomas were last heard from, they officially take this information to the Newport Beach Police and file a missing persons report.

And as they start interviewing those closest to the couple, they realize there was something a bit odd about the buyers of the Hawks' boat.

This is crazy. So you're telling me that these people bought the boat, killed them, and are trying to get away with it?

I mean, obviously, we haven't gotten there yet, but I just don't—I really don't understand how people continue to think that they're going to get away with this stuff, right?

'Cause it just doesn't—I don't know, it just doesn't—I don't think it happens very often. I do not think people get away with this large of a crime very often.

It's like trying to rob a bank now and trying to get away with it. It's like... good luck.

I mean, a couple puts out an ad saying they're trying to sell their boat, and then they go missing, and the boat's still there. It's like... okay. Not taken care of properly. Like, obviously something's going on.

So, as police are looking into it, they obviously are going to try to track the buyers down—because now, since the buyers have been on the phone with the family, they do believe these are the last people to have seen them.

So they track the couple down who supposedly bought the boat. And the couple’s names were Skylar and Jennifer Deleón.

Now, apparently, friends who spoke to Thomas before he disappeared said the Deleóns replied to the article he put up in the boating magazine, and they first met around November 6th, 2004. So this was eight days before the Hawks were last seen.

Now, keep in mind, Thomas Hawk was a former vet turned police officer turned probation officer. I think it's safe to say he maybe could sniff people out—maybe see their intentions easier than other people.

And when Thomas first laid eyes on the husband, 29-year-old Skylar, that day, he thought, "There's no way this person can afford this boat." They were asking $435,000 for the yacht. Plus, Skylar seemed to know absolutely nothing about boats.

Okay, so Thomas is thinking it kind of seems like a scam. Like, there’s no way I’m going to sell the boat to these people.

So this is when Skylar explains to Thomas that they’re a former actor who made some money working on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show.

Oh, wait. I’m sorry. I used to love the Power Rangers. Like, love.

Did you ever watch Power Rangers?

No.

Oh, like—good stuff. Good show. Good show.

So Skylar and the wife, Jennifer, had made some good money, and they thought the boat would be a good investment.

An investment?

Yes.

And so Skylar calls Jennifer at this point and asks her to come down to the dock to meet the Hawks and check out the boat—and she does. A short while later, the pregnant Jennifer comes down with their young daughter, Haley.

And Jennifer and Jackie—the wives—begin bonding over the new babies in their lives. And after a longer conversation, feelings start to change about the Deleóns. Jackie and Thomas see them as just a young and hungry couple like themselves, eager for investments and adventures.

In fact, they feel so good about them that they even waived the customary good faith deposit. So they agree to meet up again the following week to hand off the funds and sign the paperwork.

That’s just not—that’s not how it works. There’s no way. There’s no way. It would just be hard to meet, like, the scammer in person and talk about family and stuff, and then be like, “Well, they seem like good people,” you know?

I know. Well, I think it’s crazy because obviously they knew at some point they weren’t going to get the money, which is why they’re missing.

So like—that’s insane.

After hearing this story that Thomas had talked to friends about, police think they have to get the Deleóns in here and listen to their side of the story.

And Skylar, the husband, seems pretty cooperative. They say, yeah, they met back up with the Hawks around November 15th. So after that original meeting, Skylar gave them the cash for the sale of the boat.

And Skylar even showed the police the bill of sale for the boat—and it is fully equipped with Thomas’s signature, fingerprints, even a stamp from a notary.

Skylar said, "Yeah, the whole thing went off without a hitch. The Hawks gave us the keys and drove away, and that was the last time they ever saw the Hawks."

The confusing part to me would be—depending on if the notary stamp checks out—I’d go to the person who notarized it, and if they agree with it... that part would confuse me if I was a detective or a cop investigating this.

Well, Skylar even tells the cops, "We actually had a friend with us—someone who was there during the transaction, watched it all go down. Uh, you can call him. He’s a guy named Alonzo."

What is happening?

But first, the police speak with Jennifer, the wife, and she says, "We’re concerned as well. We’ve been trying to get in touch with the Hawks to tie up some loose ends with the sale, especially because they left a bunch of their belongings on the boat and now we don’t know where to send them."

So police think everything is going kind of normal with this couple—until Skylar admits something while they're talking to the police that kind of catches them off guard.

Skylar admits that the cash they used to buy the boat was drug money that they were trying to launder.

Now, I have no idea why Skylar would just, like, openly admit this.

Maybe he just assumed he was going to get caught—and so he assumed also, maybe, to throw them off.

Yeah. Like, if I admit to something—if I admit to this—then they'll just investigate this, and we can move on so they don’t think I murdered anyone. ’Cause then I don’t seem suspicious, ’cause I’m willing to admit something.

That's... that's crazy.

I'll give them a little.

Right. So, um... holy crap. If Skylar hadn’t done this, the police probably would have just sent the couple on their way and stopped looking into them—because they had a notary, they had the signature, they had a friend who said that they witnessed everything go down.

That’s crazy.

But that little comment to police was like, "Well, we just need to keep them on our radar, ’cause obviously they’re not too opposed to being involved in shady things."

Especially when police go searching Well Deserved for more clues.

So, the day after the Hawks are reported missing—on November 27th, 2004—police board their yacht. And one of the things they find on the yacht is a receipt from Target.

Now, what’s interesting is it’s dated two days after the Hawks were last seen, and it’s for things like trash bags, bleach, cleaning items.

Here we go.

So, the police go to the Target that was listed on the receipt, and they ask for surveillance footage from the date and time on it.

They don’t find Skylar or Jennifer at the Target, though. They find Jennifer’s father walking around shopping instead.

So, they question Jennifer’s dad. He says he was sent on an errand by the couple that day. They told him they needed cleaning supplies for a volunteer job at their local church.

But the timing of all of this—and the fact that they found the receipt on board one of the last places the Hawks were ever seen—that sets off alarm bells for the police.

I feel like it'd be a good idea—and I know it would probably be a hassle, and there’s a lot of people who buy this stuff without being shady—but anytime a weapon, like an axe or something that cuts anything, and trash bags and bleach and rope is bought together, like... the store should mark it.

Yeah.

And then if there's ever an investigation in the area, it's like alerted, and it’s like, “Oh, let’s check out the cameras. Who came through here? Who bought this stuff?”

Right. Because, I mean, how many people are really buying rope, trash bags, bleach, and like—I don’t know—a murder cleanup kit?

A murder cleanup kit.

Yeah, maybe a decent amount. But I feel like it wouldn’t be too hard to note down.

So at this point, police are like, “We’re going to start digging into Skylar’s past.” And this is when they find out that Skylar is not the person the Hawks thought.

What a surprise.

So, Skylar had a pretty rough childhood. Skylar had been around drugs a lot of their life, since their father actually manufactured and sold them.

But Skylar was a kid who had big dreams—as you know, Go Power Rangers. Skylar wanted to be an actor. They were cast in the TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Mighty Morphin Power Rang—

But not as a regular cast member, like Skylar would tell people. Skylar was a background extra in the show a couple of times. So telling the Hawks that this is where the money for the boat came from—and not from drug money—wasn’t true.

Instead, when acting didn’t become a full-time thing for Skylar, they actually joined the Marines, where they ended up going AWOL, got a dishonorable discharge, and it was shortly after that that Skylar met Jennifer Henderson.

Wow.

Jennifer was a hairstylist and devoutly religious. Skylar was working as a mortgage lender at the time when the two fell in love, and together they moved into a unit on Jennifer’s family property.

Skylar got her pregnant almost right away, and they soon got married. But Skylar was not a great influence on Jennifer, as you can imagine. The two wasted away all their money. They racked up massive debt. They found ways to swindle people to try and repay loans that they had taken—all while chasing dreams they didn’t necessarily deserve.

Including a new one Skylar had come up with recently: get on a boat, sail to Mexico, and spend their days living out on the ocean as a family.

Now, obviously, that’s where the Hawks came in. But the police knew something Jackie and Thomas didn’t. Skylar—$87,000 in debt, with a child on the way—was also a convicted felon. And at the time of the sale, Skylar was on probation for armed robbery.

Oh my gosh.

Now, knowing all of this—and that Skylar admitted to using drug money to try and purchase the boat—police have a really bad feeling about what actually may have happened that day.

Did he think that they weren’t going to look into him and check this out? I mean, it’s so easy to be like, “Oh, he has a felony on his record.”

Also, Skylar had told the police something else that was kind of alarming. Alongside signing the boat over to them and watching them drive off into the sunset, Skylar says the Hawks gave him durable power of attorney because they were helping him secure a vacation home for them in Mexico.

Oh, this is ridiculous.

This is a massive red flag to police.

Why would a couple sign over their power of attorney to someone they had met twice who was buying their boat?

This is ridiculous.

Especially for a home in Mexico—when the whole reason they were even selling the boat and leaving the place they had chosen to retire to was to get back to Arizona to be with family. None of it made sense.

But here was Skylar, showing them paperwork with a witness, a notary, and signatures from the couple. Though, as they looked closer at this document, something stood out to investigators.

Jackie had signed her last name Hawk, not Hawks.

They started to wonder—was this intentional? Did Jackie sign her name like that hoping Skylar wouldn’t be able to access their funds because of the discrepancy? Or was she forced to sign it under duress?

With all of this incredibly sketchy information, the police feel a lot of pressure to find the Hawks—and quickly—or at the very least to gather more information and begin building a case against Skylar.

There’s... sadly, there’s no way they’re alive. Like, there’s no way.

And about a month after the Hawks disappear, the police get a lead that really gets the ball rolling.

In December, Ryan Hawks goes to the media—remember, this is the son—asking for help from the public on his parents’ whereabouts.

And that’s when a retired couple living in San Miguel, Mexico, hears about the case. The couple says, “Hey, there’s a car that’s been abandoned next to the mobile home by us, and we’re pretty sure it’s your missing parents’ car.”

So on December 16th, 2004, police knock on the door of that mobile home. And sure enough, the person says, “Oh yeah, someone just gave me this car back on November 26th.”

And when they show the person a lineup of suspects—this person in Mexico—they pick Skylar out immediately and say, “Yeah, that’s the person who gave me this car.”

Holy crap.

Okay, now Skylar has been insisting this entire time that they had nothing to do with the Hawks’ disappearance. Skylar says, “Oh, I’ve never been in the car either.”

But now that seems to be a lie.

So the police impound the car and scan it for DNA evidence.

Meanwhile, they speak with Skylar’s probation officer and find that Skylar had asked for permission to leave the country around the same time that November—

Bro.

For work.

So with that information, police have more than enough to get Skylar in custody. They arrest them the following day, on December 17th—but not for murder.

They arrest Skylar for the money laundering admission—because it’s hard to prove murder when you don’t have a body.

But the police don’t plan to stop there. They keep on digging, knowing it’s only a matter of time before the truth surfaces.

So after the arrest, detectives search the Deleóns’ home—and they find a bunch of items belonging to Jackie and Thomas in that home.

They find Jackie’s laptop, the video camera, the batteries to both of their cell phones, personal documents, their IDs.

Oh my gosh.

They also get results from the DNA analysis on the Hawks' car and confirm that Skylar’s DNA was all over the inside of the vehicle—proving that Skylar had lied about being in the vehicle.

So, they tracked down the notary Skylar used to verify the power of attorney and boat ownership documents.

That's what my next question was. Is this real? Is this notary... like, is this real?

They call her in for questioning. Her name is Kathleen Harris.

Now, this wasn’t Kathleen’s first time sitting in front of the police for this case. She had already been called in a few times and insisted each time that she saw Jackie and Thomas sign that paperwork in front of her.

But after Skylar’s arrest, her tune starts to change. She admits to police she actually didn’t notarize them in person—but instead after the fact, in a hotel room.

In fact—so she was bribed or paid for it.

One hundred percent.

Yeah. Kathleen confesses to being paid $2,000 to backdate the documents.

Two thou? You're doing this for $2,000? I hope you're going to be in jail for the next 10 years.

So, the next person up is the supposed friend and witness to those document signings—Alonzo. Skylar told the police that Alonzo was with them when they went to pick up the keys for the boat.

So, police go searching for Alonzo, bring him back in for questioning, and they find that he’s actually fled down to Mexico.

So, they start making a deal with Alonzo. “Come back to the United States. We'll make sure, if you are found guilty of a crime, the death penalty won’t be on the table.”

And shockingly, he agrees.

In March of 2005, Alonzo comes back to California, where he finally tells the police what had actually happened that day between Skylar and the Hawks.

So, Alonzo and Skylar met years ago—back in prison—when Skylar was an inmate and Alonzo was working as a jailer in Seal Beach, California. Apparently, the two stayed close even after Skylar’s release.

So, when Alonzo received a call from Skylar asking for a favor in the fall of 2004, Alonzo listened.

According to Alonzo, Skylar told him, “I’m working as an international hitman now, and I need help getting rid of a dangerous couple named Thomas and Jackie Hawk.”

Now, of course we know this is a lie, but it seemed to be enough to get Alonzo involved.

The truth was, Skylar was just looking for a get-rich-quick scheme and didn’t care whose life it cost. So Skylar replied to the ad Thomas Hawk put in the paper, assuming this couple—who was selling their half-a-million-dollar yacht—likely had money in other places as well.

Skylar met with the couple around the 12th, and when Thomas seemed hesitant of Skylar, they called Jennifer to come down with their daughter—make it seem good, earn the trust.

But there was something Skylar also noticed that day—Thomas Hawk was a big guy. Remember, he was a former bodybuilder.

If Skylar was going to follow through with the plan—which was to take the Hawks out to sea, get them to sign their riches away, and then leave them for dead—they were going to need reinforcements other than Alonzo.

So, after that meeting, Skylar recruited a gang member named John Fitzgerald Kennedy to also help with this entire scheme.

With the Hawks agreeing to sell their boat to Skylar, they planned to meet back up on the 15th to give Skylar the keys.

And when that day came... this is exactly what happened.

Skylar didn’t grab the keys and watch the Hawks drive off in their Honda like Skylar had told police. Instead, Skylar introduced Alonzo and John F. Kennedy—yes, that is the gang member’s name—to the Hawks, saying they were business associates.

Bro, as soon as I heard his name was John F. Kennedy, I’d be like, I’m going home.

So all of them boarded the boat and set out into the sunset, just for like a little ride before the sale of the boat. And that’s when Jackie made that final phone call to her friend that day at 4:06, saying, “Hey, we’re out at sea.”

And it would be the last phone call she ever made.

It is so heartbreaking, because once everyone was out in open waters to sell this boat, things got ugly fast.

John pretended to be seasick and went down to the stateroom on the lower deck. Skylar followed, and minutes later, Thomas went down to check on them, leaving Jackie alone with Alonzo on the main deck.

While down there, John and Skylar ambushed Thomas. They began punching him, using a stun gun on the 57-year-old former bodybuilder. They handcuffed him and put duct tape over his mouth.

Jackie, who heard this commotion below, was then overpowered by Alonzo, who did the same exact thing. He then brought her down to the stateroom—heartbreaking and horrible—next to her husband.

The two were then held at gunpoint and told that if they signed a bill of sale for the yacht, a power of attorney document, and gave over their passports and access to their bank accounts, they would be dropped off on the border of Mexico—somewhere safe and sound.

So they removed a handcuff to let each of them sign and to roll their fingerprints for the notarization.

But Thomas, being a former parole officer, didn’t believe for a second these people were just going to let him and his wife go. So when his handcuff was off, he fought back.

Except the Hawks were overpowered in the end.

The three assailants tied the Hawks to the 66-pound anchor and sent them over the side of their own ship.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Then Skylar and the accomplices sailed back to port, stole a few more things off the boat.

Skylar walked away with a signed fortune in their hands.

Oh, that is—I can’t, dude.

So after getting this confession from Alonzo, police have more than enough to charge him, Skylar, and John F. Kennedy with two counts of first-degree murder.

They charge Skylar’s wife, Jennifer, with murder as well, even though in the story she’s not actually on the boat that day.

Bull crap.

By the way, police learn after going through the Deleóns’ home that this wasn’t the first time Skylar had committed murder for some cash.

Inside Skylar’s house, investigators discover a business card. It was for a Los Angeles police officer who had been working with the Mexican police and was looking into Skylar over the last year.

Turns out, one of Skylar’s fellow former inmates—a man named Jon Jarvi—was murdered in Mexico a year earlier. His throat was slashed ear to ear.

What police didn’t know until after unraveling the Hawks’ case was how closely Skylar had been involved with that murder earlier.

Apparently, Skylar had sold Jon on a business proposition after they were released. Jon gave Skylar $50,000 in cash and then went with Skylar to Mexico, where the deal was supposed to take place.

Instead, Skylar pocketed the cash, and Jon never returned to America—going missing.

Now, hearing about the similarities and how this man and the Hawks had died, police feel confident they can also charge Skylar with the death of Jon Jarvi.

Dude, I can't stop thinking about this one. It’s just... that would—I don’t know if there’s anything worse than being with your significant other, and you guys are tied to an anchor together and thrown over when you’re just selling your boat to go meet your future grandbaby—your first grandbaby.

I think a lot of it is the feeling of being completely helpless.

Yes.

Like, that makes me sick to my stomach.

Yeah. That’s insane.

And there’s like three people on this ship.

Well, and they have families. Like, they have kids. Like, it’s just—this whole thing is absolutely... uh... there’s just lots I want to say that I can’t say on the podcast. That blows my mind.

It’s gross.

I don’t know. Like, gross isn’t even—there’s not a word. Like, I just... ugh. I know a lot of listeners disagree with this, and they’d probably change their minds if it was their family that was tied to an anchor and thrown overboard.

That’s the thing about these cases is—and everyone can have their own opinions, it really doesn’t bother me—but you gather up the killers, you tie them to an anchor, and you throw them overboard. Like, it’s just crazy.

It’s crazy that they did that to two innocent people, and we’re just like, “Yeah, let’s just throw them in jail for the rest of their lives.” No. No.

They just killed—it's—I can’t. I can’t. I could rant about this forever.

Yeah.

It’s just one of those things where, like, imagine being the son who was so excited for his dad and stepmom—who he loved—to move back to Arizona and be there for the birth of his first child, their first grandbaby.

They’re going to spend time together as a family. His dad had worked so hard. They’re finally retired. And then you’re just like, “No. There’s no possible way that my dad put an ad out to sell this boat to come be with me... and was killed.”

And was killed because of this. Like, someone took advantage of this and killed him.

Oh, it’s—it’s disgusting.

So when the trial begins, the state actually is like, “Hey Jennifer, we’ll give you full immunity if you testify against your husband.”

And she did?

She refuses.

She goes on trial in November of 2006 and is found guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to two life terms.

She refuses full immunity?

Refuses it.

I promise your husband doesn’t love you as much as you think he does.

My thing is, like—you were pregnant at the time of the murder, and also you have a daughter.

Yeah. That’s... maybe better for the kids that she goes to prison. But also sad, ’cause now the kid doesn’t have a mom.

Like, I’m—I don’t know. I mean, granted, do I want the kid’s parents to be murderers? No. But...

Yeah. It’s...

Yeah.

Meanwhile, Skylar has no problem throwing her under the bus.

There we go.

Skylar says it was Jennifer’s idea in the first place to kill this couple for the money.

Exactly what I’m talking about.

Doesn’t matter.

After the trial, in the fall of 2008, jurors found Skylar guilty of all three murders: Thomas, Jackie, and Jon Jarvi.

Skylar was given the death penalty—which, in California, was in 2008. John F. Kennedy was also found guilty—again, this is not that John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was also found guilty of the Hawks’ murders and sentenced to death.

And Alonzo made a deal with the prosecution, testifying in Jennifer, Skylar, and John's trials. Alonzo pled guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

But there’s one final twist in this story—one that most people don’t see coming.

While waiting on death row, the now 45-year-old Skylar Deleón made a confession: they wanted to steal the Hawks' money to pay for gender-affirming surgery.

Skylar was actually still able to follow through on that desire due to a federally funded program that must provide gender-affirming care to inmates in California. So while sitting on death row, Skylar began taking hormones in 2009, received a breast augmentation in April of 2023, and is now waiting to be transferred to a female prison.

Now, the only reason I'm even including this is because—why do you get to live your dream life in prison?

Why do you get to go live your life?

Killing people... they didn’t get to live out their dreams of being with their grandbaby.

Nope.

That bothers me. And it has nothing to do with gender.

It bo—it bothers me that they get to go and live out a dream that they wanted.

I mean, I know—and Payton disagreed with me on this, ’cause I'm a lot more extreme in this case—but it’s exactly what I was saying when I was like, why do they get to kill people and then go to prison and live happily ever after, to an extent?

And according to Skylar—no, no, no—the only reason they killed the Hawks was for money for this surgery.

And then... they just get to go do the surgery anyway?

That’s wild.

It just feels like a stab—the last stab—to the victims’ family.

It has nothing to do with gender.

Everything to do with the fact that the motive for this murder was then fulfilled.

Yeah. No, that’s what I mean.

Oh, 100%. That’s mind-blowing.

That’s so frustrating.

Very, very frustrating.

Because of Skylar, Thomas and Jackie Hawks will not have the future that they worked hard for. They will not get to carry out their days quietly as grandparents. They will not get to watch their kids and their grandkids grow old.

Because Skylar took that away from them.

All to fulfill Skylar’s own hopes and desires.

And that is the murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawk.

Oh my gosh. I feel like these cases just frustrate me more and more each week.

And I don’t know—I guess if you’re trying to say like prison reform versus prison penalty...

Yeah, you keep me—I'm—you keep me out of this conversation, because I will stand on death. Because if you—I don’t know how else—how to say it.

Because that is...

I guess my question is, if you have been sentenced to the death penalty, prison isn’t about reform.

No. Right?

I just think it’s a penalty. So why do death row inmates get the ability to reform?

You know what I mean?

I think my thing in general, too, is if you are in prison for first- or second-degree murder, okay? Or—even if you just want to take this case by case and you don’t want to go a little more broad into first- and second-degree murder—even if you want to take it case by case, after listening to the case?

I’m sorry. These people are not being reformed. You cannot convince me otherwise. They brutally murdered people, stealing from them, and you’re telling me they can be reformed?

Bull crap. Bull crap.

Here’s my thing.

Yeah.

I understand that if you’re focusing on reform, I understand why there are certain things in prison that are there for mental health reasons—to provide the best avenue for reformation.

Is that the word?

Yeah. Reformation.

Reformation, yeah. But if you’ve been sentenced to the death penalty, you’re not there for that. You’re there for your penalty.

So that—that is where I’m, like, mind-blown. And obviously, like, I mean—I think we’ve talked about this before—but I am not pro–death penalty. So this doesn't actually even really affect me or, like, my beliefs in that, but...

I—I—this case just like... I think the fact that Skylar came out and was like, “I did this all so I could get this surgery,” and then got the surgery?

Like, to me, that is so freaking frustrating from the victim’s side.

I mean, and I know people...

Yeah, and maybe this example isn’t the best example—this is Garrett speaking, not Payton—it’s like someone being like, “I robbed the bank and killed a bunch of people because I wanted to be rich, and I got the money, and I’m in prison, and now I get all the money.”

Like, no. This is not how the world works. This is not how it works.

It doesn’t even have to be this. Exactly what Gar just said. It doesn’t have to be this exact example. It’s like, “Oh, well, I killed her so I could get the guy, and then in prison, I got the guy.”

It’s like, oh—it’s just that last...

We don’t get to have our cake and eat it too. That’s not how this works.

It’s so freaking annoying.

Bull crap. I’m pissed. I just don’t like that. It doesn’t feel like justice to me.

I’m pissed off.

I’m pissed.

Anyway. All right, we can end this. Sorry, everybody. I think we’re just ranting at this point.

All right, you guys. Let us know in the comments what you think. Obviously, like—I think keep it respectful, ’cause these are just opinions at this point and this case is a little different, but...

I just think that there has to be justice at some point, you know?

Yes.

All right, you guys. We will see you next time with another one.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye.

‍

Sorry, no sources available yet.