Skylar Deleon, the former Power Rangers child actor turned convicted killer, appeared as a featured extra on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at age fourteen and a decade later murdered three people for money, including a retired couple tied to an anchor and thrown off their own yacht near Catalina Island in 2004. He sits on California’s death row today under the name Skylar Sophia DeLeon.
The Power Rangers Appearance
Deleon, born John Julius Jacobson Jr., appeared in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode “Second Chance,” which aired on May 4, 1994.1Murderpedia. Skylar Deleon He was fourteen. The part was a featured extra role, not a credited or recurring one. He also picked up a few local and national commercials around the same period, but nothing more substantial followed.2ABC News. Skylar Deleon Background The single episode became the hook for national coverage a decade later, when Deleon was arrested for multiple murders and reporters discovered his short-lived screen credit.
From Child Extra to Convicted Felon
After acting failed to develop into a career, Deleon joined the Marine Corps. He lasted about fourteen months before going AWOL and receiving a less-than-honorable discharge.3Orange County Register. Defendant Skylar Deleon He later invented military credentials, claiming to have served as a Special Forces sniper in a unit called “Yankee White.” A Marine Corps staff sergeant testified at trial that no such unit exists outside a video game.4Los Angeles Times. Skylar Deleon Trial Testimony
By 2003 Deleon was unemployed, a stay-at-home father with a pregnant wife, Jennifer, and mounting debt. That year he was convicted of residential burglary — a strike offense under California law — and served time in a work furlough program at a private jail in Seal Beach.5Orange County District Attorney. Background on the Three Criminal Cases Involving Skylar Deleon He met two of his future victims and one of his future accomplices inside that facility.
The First Murder: Jon Jarvi
Jon Jarvi was a 45-year-old Anaheim man serving time at Seal Beach alongside Deleon in 2003. Deleon convinced Jarvi to invest in a supposed business deal, and Jarvi refinanced his condominium to raise $50,000. On December 26, 2003, Jarvi cashed two checks totaling $50,000 at a Laguna Beach bank. Within two hours, Deleon spent $18,000 in new hundred-dollar bills at a boatyard and deposited $21,000 into a joint account with his wife.5Orange County District Attorney. Background on the Three Criminal Cases Involving Skylar Deleon
The next day, Deleon and his cousin Michael William Lewis Jr. drove to Mexico. Jarvi’s body was found near Ensenada around 4 p.m. on December 27, his throat slashed. Cell records and border-crossing logs placed Deleon’s vehicle back at the U.S. border about two hours later.5Orange County District Attorney. Background on the Three Criminal Cases Involving Skylar Deleon At trial, Deleon’s own attorney did not contest that Deleon fatally stabbed Jarvi.6Orange Coast Magazine. Murder Just Because Deleon was not charged with the Jarvi killing until August 2005, after the yacht case had already exposed his pattern.
The Yacht Murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks
Thomas Hawks, 57, a former parole officer, and his wife Jackie, 47, had sold their Arizona home to live aboard their 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved, in Newport Beach.7CBS News. Murder at Sea In fall 2004 they put the boat up for sale. Skylar and Jennifer Deleon answered the ad posing as buyers. The Deleons owed roughly $50,000 at the time and were living in a garage at Jennifer’s parents’ house.4Los Angeles Times. Skylar Deleon Trial Testimony Deleon told accomplices the plan could yield $2 million once they had the yacht’s title, power-of-attorney forms, and access to the Hawks’ bank accounts.8Los Angeles Times. Deleon Murder Details
Jennifer met with the couple on November 9, 2004, and brought along the Deleons’ nine-month-old daughter. Prosecutors argued Skylar had told her to bring the baby to make the Hawks “feel more at ease” when he sensed doubt about his legitimacy.9CaseMine. People v. Henderson
For the killing itself, Deleon recruited two accomplices. Alonso Machain was a former corrections officer he had met at the Seal Beach work furlough facility; Deleon had asked him in October 2004 whether he wanted to “make a few million dollars.”9CaseMine. People v. Henderson John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a documented Long Beach gang member with a 1988 attempted murder conviction, was brought in as last-minute muscle.10NBC Los Angeles. Man Convicted in Yacht Murders
On November 15, 2004, Deleon, Machain, and Kennedy went out with the Hawkses for what was presented as a test cruise from Newport Harbor. Once the yacht was far enough offshore, Kennedy put Thomas Hawks in a chokehold, Machain used a stun gun on Jackie, and both victims were handcuffed and gagged with duct tape. Under threat of a Maglite flashlight, they were forced to sign and fingerprint title-transfer and power-of-attorney documents.8Los Angeles Times. Deleon Murder Details Then the attackers bound Thomas to Jackie’s back, lashed the couple to the yacht’s anchor, and threw them into the Pacific. Their bodies were never recovered.7CBS News. Murder at Sea
How the Case Fell Apart
James Hawks, Thomas’s brother and a former Carlsbad police chief, filed a missing-persons report on November 27, 2004. Detectives quickly identified the Deleons through the sale paperwork, and a background check flagged Skylar as a felon on probation.11ABC News. Receipt, Target, Stolen Car, Mexico The Hawks’ 1998 Honda CR-V turned up in Mexico. A search of the Deleons’ home produced the couple’s laptop and video camera. A notary, Kathleen Harris, later admitted she had backdated power-of-attorney forms to November 15 at the Deleons’ request, for a $2,000 payment, and said she was subsequently threatened.12Orange County Register. Notary Says She Falsified Documents Linked to Slayings
Deleon was arrested on money-laundering charges on December 16, 2004, and arrested again a month later while trying to flee to Mexico. In early 2005, Machain began cooperating and gave a detailed confession describing how the Hawks were subdued, forced to sign documents, and thrown overboard.5Orange County District Attorney. Background on the Three Criminal Cases Involving Skylar Deleon While awaiting trial, Deleon tried to arrange the killings of witnesses against him, including his cousin Lewis and the notary Harris.13ABC News. Kathleen Harris Testimony
Conviction and Death Sentence
On October 20, 2008, a jury in Orange County Superior Court convicted Deleon of three counts of first-degree murder — Thomas Hawks, Jackie Hawks, and Jon Jarvi — and found true the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murder and murder for financial gain.14Orange County Register. Deleon Guilty in Yacht Murder Trial The jury recommended death on November 6, 2008, and Judge Frank Fasel imposed the death sentence on April 10, 2009.15Orange County District Attorney. Skylar Deleon Sentencing
Deleon was not alone in facing charges. Jennifer Deleon was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without parole.16Los Angeles Times. Two Life Terms for Mom Who Helped Kill Couple Kennedy was convicted of both Hawks murders and also sentenced to death in May 2009.17Orange County District Attorney. Hardcore Gang Member Sentenced to Death Machain, who cooperated and testified in three trials, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery counts and received a sentence of twenty years and four months.18Orange County District Attorney. Fifth and Final Co-Defendant Sentenced
Life on Death Row
In a February 2009 ABC News interview, Deleon publicly said she wanted sexual reassignment surgery and a transfer to a women’s prison. Her defense attorney, Michael Molfetta, said at the time that the entire murder scheme had been driven by a desire for money to pay for the procedure.19ABC News. Skylar Deleon Gender Identity While in jail before trial, Deleon attempted to remove her own genitalia and was hospitalized.
Deleon now identifies as a transgender woman under the name Skylar Sophia DeLeon.20Death Penalty Information Center. Women on Death Row In April 2023 she received taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery and breast augmentation while incarcerated, under a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy adopted after a 2015 federal court ruling in the case of inmate Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy.21New York Post. Yacht Killer Inmate Got Taxpayer-Funded Sex Change
No execution is imminent. Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive moratorium on California’s death penalty in March 2019, granting a reprieve to every person under a death sentence in the state, closing the execution chamber at San Quentin, and withdrawing the lethal injection protocol.22State of California Governor’s Office. Governor Gavin Newsom Orders a Halt to the Death Penalty in California California has not carried out an execution since January 2006. The moratorium leaves Deleon’s conviction and death sentence intact but ensures no execution will occur while it stands.