SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A woman convicted for her role in a plot to kill a wealthy couple for their yacht was sentenced Friday to two life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jennifer Deleon, 26, the mother of two young children, was found guilty last year of two counts of first-degree murder and murder for financial gain. She is now divorced and uses the name Jennifer Henderson.
She was not on board the 55-foot yacht Well Deserved when Tom and Jackie Hawks were tied to an anchor and thrown over the side in 2004. But authorities said Deleon, who was pregnant at the time, helped her then-husband, Skylar Deleon, with the murders by using their infant daughter to gain the trust of the Hawkses.
She was also accused of helping cover up the crime by cleaning the yacht with bleach and lying to investigators.
During the brief sentencing hearing, Deleon was urged to give up her children by Ryan Hawks, the 31-year-old son of the victims. The children are living with Deleon's mother.
"I know the best possible future they could ever have is them growing up in an environment not knowing who their biological parents were, what they did and how the children themselves were used as decoys to murder my parents for financial gain," Hawks said, holding back tears.
A handcuffed Deleon appeared emotional and tried to wipe away tears after making eye contact with her relatives in the courtroom. Her children were not present.
Deleon did not speak before being sentenced.
Her ex-husband and another alleged accomplice, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, could face the death penalty if convicted of the murders at a trial expected to begin in January. They have pleaded not guilty.
Tom and Jackie Hawks vanished after taking Skylar Deleon and two of his friends on a test cruise off Newport Bay. The couple thought the men were interested in buying the yacht.
Another suspected accomplice, Alonso Machain, has testified that he, Kennedy and Skylar Deleon overpowered the Hawkses on the open sea and then blindfolded and handcuffed them.
The victims were then forced to sign and fingerprint documents transferring ownership of the Well Deserved to Deleon before being tied to an anchor and pushed overboard, Machain testified.
Machain testified that Tom Hawks tried to hold his crying wife's hand and comfort her in the moments before they died.
Ryan Hawks said after the hearing that he is haunted because the bodies have never been found.
"Right now, I can tell you they are 3,600 feet below the cold Pacific Ocean, bound to an anchor, handcuffed and blindfolded, and I think that anchor will hold them down until justice has prevailed," he said.