Los Angeles News

LONG BEACH, Calif. (CBS) ― A young Long Beach mother was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for her role in a plot involving her husband and others to kill a retired couple and steal their 55-foot yacht.

Jennifer Deleon, 26, who now goes by Henderson, was convicted on Nov. 17 of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 15, 2004, slaying of Tom Hawks, 57, a retired probation officer, and his 47-year-old wife, Jackie. A jury also found true the special circumstances of murder for financial gain and multiple murder.

This afternoon, Orange County Superior Court Judge Frand Fasel sentenced her to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Deleon has two children, ages 3 and 5, and was pregnant with her youngest when the murders occurred.

She was twice offered immunity and an immediate release from jail if she would testify against her husband, Skylar Deleon, and the other defendants, and twice she refused, saying she could never face her children if she turned on their father, whom she is now divorcing.

Her children are now in the custody of her parents.

Deleon showed no emotion when she was sentenced, but became teary eyed earlier when the son of the victims, Ryan Hawks, said he thought her children should be put up for adoption because it would be "best for them not to know who their biological parents were."

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy later told reporters that by all accounts the children are in a "pretty stable household."

Deleon was tried separately from her husband and three other men.

Defense attorney Michael Molfetta told reporters after the verdicts that his client was "devastated" by the jury's decision.

Molfetta blamed the killings on Deleon's husband, Skylar Deleon, who, along with 40-year-old John F. Kennedy of Long Beach, are set for trial on Jan. 28.

Murphy said that exactly two years before Jennifer Deleon's conviction, she and her husband had possession of the Hawkses' "Well Deserved" and were cleaning it. The couple had the boat for three weeks until police impounded it during an investigation into the couple's disappearance.

The Deleons claimed they bought the boat -- which had been advertised for sale at $460,000 -- for $260,000, and that the Hawkses got into their vehicle with the cash and drove away.

Murphy told jurors that the couple was $87,000 in debt, but Skylar Deleon told police he bought the boat with money from royalties from his childhood role in the television program, "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and from real estate investments.

Murphy said Jennifer Deleon brought her 9-month-old baby aboard the boat when they first met the Hawkses to put them at ease, then helped clean up the boat with bleach after the slaying of the two victims.

The Hawkses' bodies were never found. But Alonso Machain, 22, of Pico Rivera -- who is being tried separately -- testified that he was on the boat for a supposed test run with Skylar Deleon and Kennedy when the Hawkses were killed.

Machain testified that Tom Hawks, although a large man and a body-builder, was overpowered by Skylar Deleon and Kennedy while Machain held a stun gun on Jackie Hawks.

The couple were forced to sign paperwork, including a power of attorney, so that their accounts could be drained.

The couple, who were handcuffed and tied together to an anchor, were thrown into the sea alive, Machain testified.

Before being tossed into the ocean, Thomas Hawks kicked Skylar in a last act of defiance, he said.

Murphy told jurors the murders occurred some 55 miles out in the ocean, where the water is 4,000 feet deep.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Skylar Deleon and Kennedy.

The Hawkses, formerly of Prescott, Ariz., had been living on the boat, where they spent a lot of time in Mexico, but Jackie Hawks wanted to sell it so that she could spend more time with a first grandchild of one of Thomas Hawks' two sons.

The couple decided to sell the boat without the help of a broker to save on fees. They had advertised their vessel in a magazine when Skylar Deleon approached them about buying it.

Also facing a separate trial is Myron Gardner Sr., 33, who allegedly recruited Kennedy, an alleged gang member, to help kill the couple.

Skylar Deleon is also charged with the Dec. 27, 2003, slaying of John Jarvi, an Anaheim man from whom he allegedly stole $55,000. The victim's throat was slit, and he was left for dead in Mexico. Jennifer Deleon is charged as an accessory in that crime.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)