Accused Murderer Back in the News

There hasn’t been much in the way of news in the drawn-out pursuit of justice for the killers of cruisers Tom and Jackie Hawks. Prosecuters believe that the Hawkses were murdered in November, 2004, by Skylar Deleon, John Kennedy and Alonso Machain during a test cruise of their trawler Well Deserved. Machain has confessed to the crime, detailing how the couple were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard off the California coast after being forced to sign financial documents. It didn’t take long for authorities to zero in on Deleon, his cohorts and his wife, Jennifer — they appear to have left a swath of evidence a mile wide.

We last reported on the case last October, when Jennifer Deleon — who had been convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and other charges in November, 2006 — was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole for her role in the alleged plot. Her husband’s trial, initially set for January, has been postponed several times and is now slated to begin August 25. If it ever actually starts, we’ll keep you updated here in ‘Lectronic and in Latitude 38.

So if there’s no news about the case, why are we recapping the horror story now? In a bizarre twist, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported recently that Skylar Deleon, who since his imprisonment has made noises about wanting to become a woman, attempted to saw off his own penis with a razor blade. At the time of the incident — back in March — Deleon was in the mental health ward and had no roommate. Officials say that, for whatever reason, he didn’t finish the job, and was taken to the hospital where his manhood was restored.