Skylar Deleon: Power Rangers Actor, Yacht Murderer and Death Row Bio

Skylar Preciosa Deleon, born John Julius Jacobson Jr. on August 12, 1979, in Sun Valley, California, is an American convicted triple murderer and former child actor who appeared as an uncredited extra in the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Deleon was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims, and was sentenced to death on April 10, 2009, by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel. The convictions relate to the November 15, 2004 murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks off Newport Beach, California, and the December 2003 murder of Jon Peter Jarvi near Ensenada, Mexico. Deleon is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, California, where execution is subject to a state moratorium. In 2019 Deleon legally changed gender from male to female and now uses the name Skylar Preciosa Deleon, and in April 2023 received gender confirmation surgery funded by California taxpayers.

Quick Bio

Attribute	Details
Legal Name	Skylar Preciosa Deleon (legal name as of 2019)
Birth Name	John Julius Jacobson Jr.
Date of Birth	August 12, 1979
Age	46 years old (as of 2026)
Birthplace	Sun Valley, California, USA
Nationality	American
Gender	Transgender woman (legally changed 2019)
Religion	Not publicly disclosed
Education	Not publicly confirmed
Former Occupation	Child actor (uncredited extra, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers); US Navy (dishonourably discharged)
Criminal Status	Convicted; on death row
Sentence	Death (sentenced April 10, 2009; de jure; execution subject to California moratorium)
Current Location	San Quentin State Prison, California
Victims	Thomas Hawks, Jackie Hawks, Jon Peter Jarvi
Former Spouse	Jennifer Lynn Henderson (convicted; serving life without parole)

Who is Skylar Deleon?

Skylar Preciosa Deleon is an American convicted triple murderer serving a death sentence at San Quentin State Prison in California, known internationally for the 2004 yacht murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks off Newport Beach and for a brief childhood acting career that included an uncredited appearance in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Born John Julius Jacobson Jr. in 1979, Deleon adopted the name Skylar Julius Deleon in early adulthood, reportedly to sever ties with an abusive father. Deleon appeared in a handful of children’s television programmes and commercials as a child, with the Power Rangers appearance being the most cited. After an unsuccessful attempt to join the US Navy that ended in discharge for unauthorised absence, Deleon became involved in increasingly serious criminal activity, including armed burglary and murder.

The Hawks murders became one of California’s most notorious criminal cases of the 2000s: Deleon posed as a yacht buyer, recruited accomplices, and orchestrated the handcuffing of Thomas and Jackie Hawks to a 66-pound anchor before they were thrown into the ocean alive off Santa Catalina Island. Neither body was ever recovered. Deleon was also convicted of murdering Jon Peter Jarvi in Mexico in December 2003, slashing his throat after taking $50,000 from him. Prosecution lawyers argued Deleon needed money to fund gender reassignment surgery.

Early Life and Background

Childhood and Family

Skylar Deleon was born John Julius Jacobson Jr. on August 12, 1979, in Sun Valley, California, and grew up in circumstances marked by alleged abuse at the hands of a father who was reportedly involved in drug dealing.

Deleon’s defence attorneys cited childhood abuse by the father as a mitigating factor during the penalty phase of the trial in 2008, arguing it had predisposed Deleon to violence. Deleon has stated in interviews that the name change from John Jacobson to Skylar Deleon was undertaken specifically to cut all ties with the father. While awaiting trial in jail, Deleon was separately charged with soliciting another inmate to murder the father and a cousin, both of whom were considered important prosecution witnesses. Those charges were part of the broader criminal profile presented at sentencing. No details of Deleon’s mother have been publicly confirmed in named sources.

Education and Early Career

Skylar Deleon appeared as an uncredited extra in a child role in the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, reportedly playing a character named Roger at approximately age 14, and appeared in several other children’s television programmes and commercials before the acting career faded.

No formal educational records have been made public. At approximately age 20, Deleon enlisted in the US Navy but was discharged after going absent without leave for 15 days. The Navy period represents the limit of any confirmed structured career path. Deleon subsequently drifted into criminal activity, beginning with armed burglary. A 2003 residential burglary conviction became a prior strike in the subsequent murder proceedings.

Criminal Record and Legal History

Murder of Jon Peter Jarvi, December 2003

In December 2003, Skylar Deleon murdered Jon Peter Jarvi, a 45-year-old resident of Anaheim, California, who had met Deleon during a work furlough programme at a private jail in Seal Beach.

According to the Orange County District Attorney, Jarvi withdrew $50,000 in cash from his bank in Laguna Beach on December 26, 2003, immediately after calling Deleon. Within two hours of that call, Deleon was documented spending $18,000 of the money at a boatyard and depositing $21,000 into a joint bank account. On December 27, Deleon and cousin Michael William Lewis Jr. drove to Mexico. Jarvi’s body was found near Ensenada with his throat slashed, beside the northbound lane of a road near Tecate. Deleon’s car crossed back into the United States approximately two hours after the body was discovered. Deleon was charged with this murder on August 19, 2005, alongside conspiracy charges against Henderson and Lewis. The motive was robbery.

Murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks, November 2004

On November 15, 2004, Skylar Deleon, together with accomplices John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Alonso Machain, murdered Thomas Hawks and Jackie Hawks aboard the Hawkses’ 55-foot trawler yacht named Well Deserved, off the shore of Santa Catalina Island, California.

Thomas Hawks, born December 24, 1946, was a retired Yavapai County probation officer, champion amateur wrestler and bodybuilder who had sailed the Pacific with his wife for two years. Jackie Hawks, born June 26, 1957, had helped raise Thomas’s children from his first marriage and was committed to moving closer to their expected grandchild. In 2004 the couple placed the Well Deserved, valued at approximately $435,000, for sale and moved to Newport Harbor. Deleon answered the advertisement in November, bringing pregnant wife Jennifer Henderson and a young child to the first meeting to gain the Hawkses’ trust.

On the morning of November 15, 2004, the Hawkses, Deleon, Kennedy, and Machain set sail on a supposed sea trial out of Newport Beach harbor. At sea, Deleon and Kennedy overpowered Thomas Hawks in the yacht’s kitchen, handcuffing him and forcing him into the bedroom. Jackie heard the commotion and was subsequently held at gunpoint by Machain, who handcuffed her after a physical struggle. Jackie was falsely told by Deleon that the couple would be released if they cooperated. Both were duct-taped and separately forced to sign and fingerprint yacht transfer documents. Deleon also coerced them into relinquishing their bank details, granting access to savings of over $1,000,000.

Deleon then set the ship controls for deep water off Santa Catalina Island. The couple were brought to the deck and tied together with rope. As Deleon was attaching the anchor chain to the rope, Thomas Hawks kicked Deleon into a deckchair. Kennedy struck Thomas in the temple, causing him to lose and regain consciousness. Kennedy then pushed both Thomas and Jackie overboard moments after Deleon threw the anchor into the water, dragging them approximately 3,500 feet to the ocean floor. Neither body has ever been recovered. On the return to shore, Kennedy went fishing off the back of the yacht. Deleon and Henderson subsequently scrubbed the vessel with bleach wipes.

Investigation and Arrests

The Hawks family reported Thomas and Jackie missing in late November 2004 after an attempt was made to access their bank account from Mexico, triggering an investigation by Newport Beach police.

On November 29, 2004, police interviewed Deleon, who produced what appeared to be legitimate sale documents, confirmed by Machain and a notary public at the time. Deleon claimed the Hawks had driven away with $485,000 in cash after the sale. In March 2005, after fleeing to Mexico and returning, Machain confessed to the crime and named all participants. Deleon was arrested on January 16, 2005, while attempting to leave for Mexico. Henderson was arrested April 8, 2005. Kennedy was arrested shortly after Machain. Jennifer Henderson’s 2006 trial resulted in a murder conviction and two consecutive life sentences without parole. Henderson was observed laughing during the 2005 preliminary examination while the Hawks family watched.

Trial, Conviction and Sentencing

Jury selection in Deleon’s trial began September 22, 2008. Deleon was convicted on October 20, 2008 of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims, and was sentenced to death by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel on April 10, 2009.

At trial, Deleon’s defence attorney conceded that Deleon had committed all three murders, arguing only against the death penalty on the grounds of childhood abuse. Prosecutors described the case as one of the most cold-blooded and calculated series of murders they could imagine. The jury rendered a death verdict on November 6, 2008. At sentencing, Ryan Hawks, son of Thomas Hawks, stated he hoped Deleon’s two children would never know they had been used as props to gain the Hawkses’ trust. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was also convicted on two counts of first-degree murder in February 2009 and sentenced to death in May 2009. Alonso Machain, who testified for the prosecution, pleaded guilty to two counts each of voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery, and was sentenced to 20 years and four months; he was paroled in 2021. Myron Gardner pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in March 2009, with murder charges dropped, and served one year in jail.

Life on Death Row

Skylar Deleon arrived on death row at San Quentin State Prison on April 16, 2009, and has remained there under California’s moratorium on executions, which was declared by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019.

From arrival at San Quentin, Deleon began receiving female hormone therapy. In 2019 Deleon legally changed gender to female and formally adopted the name Skylar Preciosa Deleon, having previously used Skylar Julius Deleon. On April 5, 2023, Deleon received gender confirmation surgery and breast augmentation, funded by California taxpayers, disclosing this in a letter to the Washington Free Beacon. This prompted significant public controversy, with critics citing the contradiction between the original stated motivation for the murders and the eventual state-funded completion of that same surgery while on death row. Deleon has reportedly also requested transfer to a female prison. Deleon said in a 2009 ABC News interview: “I’m not attracted to guys. But I wanted the surgery, and I knew I 100 percent wanted the surgery.” Earlier in prison, before the hormone therapy programme, Deleon had attempted self-mutilation in connection with the gender dysphoria. The case was referenced in 2024 political coverage of California prison gender policies, due to the intersection of the Kamala Harris tenure as state Attorney General and the policies enabling trans inmate healthcare.

Notable Works (Acting)

Skylar Deleon’s acting credits are limited to uncredited and minor child roles in the early 1990s, the most cited of which is an appearance as a background extra in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at approximately age 14.

Deleon also appeared in other children’s television productions and commercials during this brief period. None of the roles were significant speaking parts or recurring characters. The Power Rangers connection became the defining public frame for media coverage of the Hawks murder case, though Deleon’s actual involvement with the franchise was peripheral. The book Vanished at Sea: The True Story of a Child TV Actor and Double Murder (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2008, by T. Dirmann) covers the case in full from a true crime perspective.

Personal Life

Relationships and Children

Skylar Deleon was married to Jennifer Lynn Henderson at the time of the Hawks murders. Henderson was convicted of two counts of murder in 2006 and is serving two consecutive life sentences without parole at a California women’s prison.

Deleon and Henderson had two children together. Henderson brought the couple’s child and her own pregnancy to the initial meeting with the Hawks, a deliberate strategy to appear credible as a buyer family. Ryan Hawks specifically requested at sentencing that Deleon’s two children never be told their father had used them as decoys to facilitate murder. No confirmed subsequent relationship for Deleon in prison has been reported in named publications.

Achievements and Milestones

• Appeared as an uncredited child extra in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the role for which Deleon became publicly known.
• Convicted October 20, 2008 of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances: murders of Thomas Hawks, Jackie Hawks, and Jon Peter Jarvi.
• Sentenced to death April 10, 2009, by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel; arrived on death row at San Quentin State Prison April 16, 2009.
• Legally changed gender to female and adopted the name Skylar Preciosa Deleon in 2019.
• Received gender confirmation surgery and breast augmentation on April 5, 2023, at California taxpayer expense while on death row.

Interesting Facts About Skylar Deleon

• The victims Thomas and Jackie Hawks were never found: their bodies remain on the ocean floor off Santa Catalina Island, where they were dragged by a 66-pound anchor in November 2004.
• Deleon brought a pregnant wife and a baby to the first meeting with the Hawks couple as a deliberate trust-building device, a calculated move that prosecution later described as evidence of cold premeditation.
• While awaiting trial, Deleon was separately charged with soliciting a fellow inmate to murder the father and a cousin, both of whom were key prosecution witnesses.
• Deleon’s defence attorney did not contest guilt at trial, conceding all three murders. The trial was mounted solely to argue against the death penalty, on the grounds of an abusive childhood.
• Accomplice John Kennedy went fishing off the back of the yacht on the return journey to shore after the Hawks were drowned, a detail from Machain’s testimony that prosecutors highlighted as illustrative of the crime’s calculated nature.
• Jennifer Henderson was observed laughing during the 2005 preliminary examination while the Hawks family watched proceedings, a moment that became emblematic of how prosecutors characterised her role in the case.

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